Phoning it In

For years and years and years, in the olden days when you picked up the phone to call someone an actual person said "Number please".  Is that a hoot?  But it all came to an end for Des Moines in July of 1929.  Northwest Bell made the big switch early on Sunday July 28th and it apparently involved a cast of thousands!  One and one-half years in the making!  The unheard-of budget reaching $4,000,000!  Thenceforth when one picked up the phone in Des Moines, one heard a dial tone.  Welcome to the world of automated services.  The future was then.

Source: Des Moines Tribune, 7/28/1929 p. 1-2
Available on microfilm at the Central Library, 1000 Grand Ave.
Graphic Source:  Old Picture of the Day