Over the last 30 years the technology in our homes has changed significantly. We entered the digital age and many of our appliances became obsolete as new digital versions took hold. Clocks, televisions and computer took center state. So did a new version of the telephone. Very few things have changed more than the old style vintage retro rotary phone that many of us remember as children.
The newer phones are cool, and have some neat features, but don’t we all still wish we owned an original rotary dial phone?
Most of today’s mobile phones and home phones are bought with the understanding that they will be broken or obsolete in a few years. But many of the 1940′s and 1050′s rotary phones are still in service and working great! The vintage rotary phone was meant to last and last it has!
Classic Bakelite Rotary Phones
For the traditional vintage look choose the original Bakelite desk phone made by Western Electric. The phones are made of a hard plastic like material known as bakelite, and came in many more colors than the traditional black phone many of us remember as it adorned a hallway wall niche or a special phone table. These phones featured a rotary dial on the front and a handset that contained a mouthpiece and earpiece that was attached to the base of the phone by a curly cord!
The most popular rotary phone was made by Western Electric and is sometimes called the “Lucy Phone” because it was a feature on the “I Love Lucy” television show.
Other manufacturers made a similar phone. Ericsson and Stromberg Carlson also made a rotary dial phone that looked like the original Western Electric, but quite frankly those phones are not of the same quality as the Western Electric models.
Plastic Phones Became Popular
The development of thermo molded plastic set a new era of rotary phone manufacturing into place. The classic rotary design retained it’s popularity during this time period and tens of thousands of vintage phones were made in the 1960′s, 1970′s and 1980′s that were constructed of plastic as opposed to the original bakelite.
Most people today actually remember the thermo molded plastic version of the original vintage rotary dial phone. There was a dizzying array of colors available and these colors are what make the phone a collectible item today – fashionable for today’s retro home decor.
It is relatively easy to convert the old rotary dial phone to use with today’s phone systems. The phones were made to last and are still being used all over the globe as functional phones, but there is also a very serious group of people who collect rotary dial phones for their beauty and collectible value.
Rotary dial phones actually fit well with most interior designs. Consider purchasing a vintage rotary phone for your home or office!
Rotary Phone Search Queries
- retro rotary phone
- retro rotary phones
- convert a rotory pay phone to digital
- retro rotary telephone for sale
- teal vintage rotary telephone to buy
- rotary phone working earpiece
- Retro Vintage Western Electric Bakelite Rotary Phone; Teal Color
- are old ericsson rotary phones valuable
- convert rotary phone to digital
- how to convert lucy telephone
- were roataries of dial phones more popular in the 1970s?
- vintage ericsson telephone n1050
- vintage ericsson rotary models
- bakelite rotary phone original
- stromberg carlson telephone w/rotary dialer value
- stromberg carlson princess rotary
- collecting rotary phone vintage
- rotary dial phone last made
- Ericsson rotary phones
- ericsson rotary telephone
Leave a Reply