93254 “THE FRIENDLY WAY” BEHIND THE SCENES AT BELL TELEPHONE CO. OPERATORS

This black & white educational film is about workers at the phone company. This is circa the mid 1950s.

Opening (no credits): A man talks with a woman at a desk.Two men talk near a car. A man installs a telephone. A policeman plugs in his phone, a woman uses an adding machine. Women work in an office. Men and women work in a telephone company. A man works on a telephone wire, people in an office, women work adding machines, a woman types, a phone operator (:10-1:22). A man on the phone in a hotel room. He wanders the room. He imagines the police talking with her and lights a cigarette. He throws a cigarette to the ground and runs to the phone, he talks on it. Phone operators at work in a row, some take calls. A man looks at plans, a hand moves the plugs in the operators office (1:23-4:03). A group of men sit around a table. A man installs a telephone, a woman and child enter the room. An older man talks on the phone while his wife cooks with an operator. The wife makes food, the phone company repair service calls the man back. The man is happy they will help him (4:04-7:26). The repair man is with the husband in a shed. The phone wire goes to a pole and then onward to another pole. A man works on phone wires under ground. A man enters the phone company, approaches a woman at a desk. The man then enters a room with multiple workers, sits at a woman’s desk and makes a complaint. Another worker takes a call. Back to the man filing a complaint (7:27-10:09). A woman sits at another woman’s desk. The man making the complaint is still talking with a worker. Workers type. Close on a time card. Workers do various tasks. Close on a page of phone book listings. Workers at desks. A man types at his desk. A phone book has its pages flipped. Early phone receivers. Men in the phone company. A man uses an older phone. A man talks at his desk. Telephone wires. A man climbs a telephone pole. A man unscrews and watch a phone spin. A phone brochure is pointed at by a worker (10:10-13:53). Two men talk on a moving train. A man in a phone booth makes a call, gets the wrong number. He dials the operator. Gets his coin back. The operator helps the man find the right number. Another operator helps. The man finally gets it right. Two men talk on a moving train (13:54-17:54). A couple at home, the woman brings food into the living room and the man picks up the phone but it’s dead. The man goes to the door and the telephone repair man is there, he enters and looks at the couple’s phone. The repair man calls the operator and the phone is fixed. A telephone linesman on the pole. A woman talks to another at her desk. Telephone operator on the line. A man in a hotel room on the phone, others on their phones. Workers on the job, happy customers. Women leave work at the phone company (17:55-21:40) End credits (21:41-21:50).

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