AT&T Archives: We Make Telephones
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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A 1980 profile of Western Electric's Indianapolis Works - a wordless film (once you get past the intro) about the people, the phones they make, and how they manufactured and tested them.
The filmmakers knuckled down to produce neat behind-the-scenes shots from the assembly line - detailed bits of the phone-making process, without exposition, right down to the packaging of the telephones. The film also ventures into the testing department - the impact rooms and hot and cold rooms (exposition would actually enhance this film in these sequences).
After the breakup of AT&T, this plant only survived 2 more years; it was shut down in 1986. The Indianapolis Works, surprisingly, was still making rotary phones (among others, including the Trimline series) up until 1985! These were the same heavy-duty, long-lasting phones that were originally only available to rent, not buy - at least until the 1980s.
For another film perspective on the Indianapolis Works, see Draw Me A Telephone, a film from the same era.
Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
Rare scenes from the America of today. They were so happy because they had a job during recession of 1980, they actually made something, and they worked for Western Electric a.k.a the Bell System. Those were the days that you could start and finish your career in one fell swoop.
WOW! I worked there from December 1976 to January 1982. It was a great place to work, though I was really too young to appreciate it then. I truly enjoyed this documentary, and agree with the comments about the quality of the products made then. The quality was high, the product was long-lasting!
I still use Western Electric Phones to this day. Best ever made.
SynthFox87 Indeed. I still use a few myself for a POTS landline. While their features are limited, they could probably survive a nuclear attack as some reports have claimed.
@@Zzznorch I don't know about individual telephones, but the network was _designed_ to handle a nuclear attack.
In our house we have my mom’s childhood phone, which is a western electric 550. My younger brother pulled the speaker out, and damaged that part. The mic no longer works, but i fixed the speaker. But they are nice quality.
Western Electric and Bell Labs we're absolutely ahead of their time with every product they ever made! Quality was always job one! Those telephones were indestructable, and it just shows that the American workforce can make top notch products, such a shame we don't have factories and good people and good product now like we used to back then, the excitement of getting a brand new phone from the phone company will never be relived again, but it was definitely a time I will never forget!
A lot of Western Electric Phones are still in-use today, outlasting their cheap Chinese knock-offs. Good jobs like those found in the Bell System of old, are few & far between today. Based on my experience, working in the Outside Plant, Customer Premise Equipment, and now the Central Office - both as an Installer & Maintenance Technician, phone company jobs were one of the best forms of regular, consistent, & reliable work.
Today, the young people have a tough time at finding a job, which even comes close to this, even with a 4-year college degree! My grandfather taught me two things, when it comes to work & careers. Find something that you enjoy doing, and something people will always need. The Telephone Industry was truly a good fit for me on both points. I wish this could be said for jobs today.
Rest in peace Western electric
Most of the Factory and Bell Labs personnel are getting old, died, or retired. I was there from 1977-1986. There were tons of $$$$ since the phone business was a monopoly. The coin business was huge - if you were driving and needed to make a phone call you found a pay phone - today these are rare. The Bell Labs staff were the top academic grads and home of Noble Prize winners (main lab in New Jersey). The WE factory was huge and the workers were good at heart; but the infrastructure and manufacturing process were like the Auto industry. The costs were too high and the effort for off shore manufacturing failed. Read about push vs pull manufacturing, JIT manufacturing, Quality control - zero defects, etc. and you will conclude and understand why WE like the Auto industry went bust in the 1980s. FYI I escaped to AT&Ts Sandia National Labs in 1987 and after 25 years at Sandia plus 10 at Bell Labs gave me a nice (35 year) Pension and 401K to retire. It was indeed a sad day when they announced the closing of WE, lots (1,000s) of people lost retirement and good jobs in INDY and another sad day when Bell Labs at INDY closed. Memories - good and bad experiences - will be with me forever.
Al Beradino
The bell system was the original equal opportunity employer. You will see women in these videos doing many of the assembly and forklift driving and central office wiring. They are great multitaskers.
My father for Western Electric from 1960 to 1985.......I have so pretty cool memories of the factory
The music used must've been the "royalty free" stuff of the 1970s. I've heard a lot of these tunes in other productions over the years, including my dad's film-to-video transfers by Fotomat in the 1980s.
They all looks so happy at work, that’s so great 😃 must have been a great work place.
@RetroVintageItems27 Telecommunications companies had always been one of the best places to work. Stable, good paying, union jobs.
I miss those days.
Everyone looks so happy in this film. That's lovely to see. I hope they all continued to have happy and healthy lives.
Didn't know that a lot of the phones I've grown up using as a kid (especially Western Electric/ AT&T; most were...), were made in my hometown (born & partially raised) !☎️ I remember the old reliable. You could drop the phone, & it still would work. Didn't have to worry about cracking screens, etc. 📲🙃 I could dial quickly enough, using the touchpad dial; and my own memory in my head. I still remember some of the old telephone numbers too..!🤔 wow!😯
Were these people having fun at work? Can't do that no more. What a great insight. Only wish I one day find a job where I am able to have fun and enjoy doing it.
Their standards of quality were extremely high.
my dad used to work there in 1950 till 1966
My grandmother worked as a switchboard operator for Bell Telephone in Philadelphia perhaps just before this footage was shot. Life seemed so much simpler back then. I have my 500 model hooked up via bluetooth on my cell phone and it works great!
My aunt was an operator for 38 years. In 1983 they offered her a buyout package, she was 60 at the time. She wanted to continue working but the package they offered was too good to pass up. Even by then demand for operators was declining, and they told her in a year or two there might not be any work for her. A year after she retired they closed her office.
Pick up a western electric phone from a thrift store or eBay. They are great for emergencies and don’t need power to work. Get a 2500 set or a trim line phone or a princess phone. They are built like tanks and work indefinitely.
I love my western electric products
I like how they were obsessed with making them as shiny as possible. I also like those ancient data terminals.
When I lived in Indy in the late 1970's I took a tour there in the boy scouts "Explorers" it was fascinating.
My dad had a two-tone black and white Trimline phone when they were only available in solid colors - he worked for the phone company and had to salvage parts from two phones to do it.
Fast forward to today- The film pans to show the tired, overworked Chinese workers turning out junky phone after junky phone, then, you hear screams....a worker has leapt from an open window after going mad, somehow missing the suicide nets, a new worker is quickly shoved into their place, and the sad, depressing scene carries on, as if nothing happened..
I initially misread the description text as "a worthless film". I thought I had found the Jay Sherman of industrial films.
My grandmother worked at the Baltimore works from 58 till they closed in 85...
Check out the limited edition phones. Cool
when you were allowed to smoke everywhere !
Like how it still is in Europe
One of the few things I DON'T miss about those days.
I remember around 1983 or so , you could now buy your own phone. I remember we bought a couple from drug store for a few dollars each and they were junk! Terrible sound, buttons didn't press right, the ringer was off. I think they lasted a year. Went back to the AT&T phones no issues.
This film being from 1980. The sad fact about the joy made into this film is that the Indianapolis Plant was Shutdown by WE just three years after this film was produced. Drop in demand due to overseas markets coming in with new phones, the breakup of the Bell System, and other factors. They closed 3 plants in the US, and cut workers at one of their last plants in 1983-84. Over 14000 people lost their jobs at that time.
That's right kids...Phones used to have tails on them. ;P
Western Electric phones are the greatest! They last forever. Made in the USA. Western Electric is still in business making high end audio tubes and other things. Check them out.
They went defunct in '96, I believe Nokia is Western Electric today.
And one of the employees looked like they were yawning.
I ♥ phones
Muy bonito video siempre quise ver un video como se hacían los teléfonos clasicos
Because they have good jobs that haven't yet been shipped overseas.
The song starting at 7:51 almost sounds like it's from The Who's "Quadrophenia" album
1980 is still totally the 1970s
Before it all went to crap, and China.
It must have been a sad day when all of that ended.
7,500 people churning out telephones in 1980 in Indianapolis. Now, I doubt if you go into a store to buy a desk phone or cell phone, you'll find any that are made in the U.S. Were these people really happy or were they just smiling for the camera. Screwing a part onto telephones going by you on an assembly line had to be monotonous.
A lot of good Hoosiers, right thar.
And now we can all reminisce... To a simpler time, when America had jobs...
The sound track is like a 1970's porno.
And the workers ended up getting F'd...
I don't understand why there so happy. I was told the the wages weren't that great, the working conditions don't always look to good. Just my input.
Retro
Great. Manufacturing telephones is old technology I think you may shifted to mobile technology.
Nixie alert 11:05!
RECEPTION ROOM
No Smoking
Cuts to man smoking a pipe.
Don't make 'em like they used to
Sold out to the Chinese
Just everyday working folks making a good living. Ma Bell benefits and a pension to boot. Unfortunately just before AT&T discovered that vast untapped labor resource out far east who would work for next to nothing.
They didn't "discover" it. They were broken up in 1984, and forced to get rid of Western. Our own government did it. The evil ATT of today is not the ATT of back then.
And the government killed their reasons to keep it here. Hard to keep it here when you don't have the bell system to build for.
Alot of pretty young ladies working. I bet they didn't have those ugly tattoos like today.
Looks like Amazon today.
these people are all dead
My Original Apple IDENTY Was Stolen & I Believe AT&T NEW & WAS NOT BEING HONEST WITH ME.
And you think the ATT that supposedly wronged you is the same one from this film? In 1984 the US Government killed Ma Bell, and in so doing, started the decline of America. Losing Pan Am in '91 was another such moment. We lost something irreplaceable. But sure. Moan about your lost AppleID.