0557 - The Fairy of the Phone

Object Type: Asset

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0557 - The Fairy of the Phone

Comedy with musical sequences based on instructions given in the 1936 London phone book on how to use a telephone. The fairy materializes out of thin air to instruct telephone users on how to operate it correctly. Featuring Charlotte Leigh and members of the London telephone service. Producer: Basil Wright Director: William Coldstream Cameras: James E Rogers Music: Walter Leigh Sound Recorder: C Sullivan The film includes Dorothy Hinchelwood as one of the operators on the switchboard, and her husband to be, a publicity officer for the telephone service, appeared as a city gent waiting outside a kiosk (Courier, November 1967). Details of scenes and times: 0.34 tops of several telegraph poles with wiring and connectors. 1.00-1.14 woman switchboard operator with single ear headset and breastplate transmitter holding a directory and the connecting plug. 1.16-1.23 various people using a telephone handset in different locations. 1.27-2.02 shows a row of exchange switchboard operators using the equipment. 2.23-2.50 man at desk looking through telephone directories. 3.01-3.20 series 200/300 telephone handset and two telephone directories. 3.26-3.38 woman dialling a series 200/300 telephone at a table. 3.39-3.45 close-up of series 200/300 telephone dial. 4.00-4.28 woman holding handset waiting for connection and getting impatient banging the switch hook. 4.56-5.42 a white series 200/300 telephone handset on a table being answered. 5.43-5.52 man in chair holding series 200/300 receiver waiting for connection then replacing it on the hook. 6.01-6.20 boy sitting at table with a series 200/300 telephone and holding the receiver. 6.39 series 200/300 white telephone with receiver off the hook. 7.25-7.31 man at desk with black series 200/300 telephone in foreground and taking a call. 7.32-8.02 woman in telephone box making calls and using a directory. 8.37-8.41 close up of a series 200/300 telephone dial showing its exchange number. 8.57-9.10 woman switchboard operator with headset and breastplate transmitter. 9.11-9.30 man using a series 200/300 telephone. 9.31-9.48 white series 200/300 telephone on night table being answered. 9.49-11.58 'musical' of telephonists with headsets and breastplate transmitters, telegraph pole, cross arms and insulators as decoration, all the telephone users and the Fairy of the Phone operator

Catalogue

Finding Number: BTA-MI1/0557

Date: 1936

Period: 1930s

Level: Item

Distribution: Theatrical distribution

Film function: Informational (public)

Film subject: Good telephone technique

Year: 1936

Repository: BT Archives (ARCHON 1814)

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