Retro corded phones for people with landlines, questionable taste

It's a little depressing: of Unplggd's list of yesteryear's "coolest" corded phones, almost all of them are simply hideous. For shame, industrial designers of the 1970s! What were you thinking? Pictured is the "modern decor red clock telephone," available from eBay seller aniwak. Starting bid: $4.99. History: 0 bids.

MODERN DECOR RED CLOCK TELEPHONE [eBay auction via unPlggd]

[#1 posted by zuzu , August 29, 2008 6:48 PM]

If this were cordless it's a good likeness for the phones from The Prisoner.

[#2 posted by Stefan Jones , August 29, 2008 9:19 PM]

If you grew up stodgy old Bell phones things like this looked like THE FUTURE!

[#3 posted by hohum , August 30, 2008 12:08 AM]

Hrmm... I love my stodgy old Bell phone...

[#4 posted by dculberson , August 30, 2008 4:06 AM]

That reminds me .. somewhere I have the crest figurine phone. I don't know his name; the blue gel guy that reminds you to brush your teeth. He's holding a finger up to say "ahh-ahh! Did you brush your teeth??" And, when the phone rings, his finger blinks. Unfortunately, (a) blue LED's didn't exist or were prohibitively expensive when he was made, and (b) I don't have a land line any more.

It/he does work, but is a pretty humiliating phone to talk on. Want a picture of it?

[#5 posted by David Carroll , August 30, 2008 4:22 AM]

The best corded phone I ever used was the Contempra designed and made by Northern Electric. It was rented or sold by Bell Canada (and AT&T I believe). Man that was a great example of good industrial design. According to MonkeySox in a comment in the Flickr! page I linked to, reconditioned/modernized models are still available and fetch up to $100.

[#6 posted by strider_mt2k , August 30, 2008 5:25 AM]

The classic Bell designs have always been my favorites.

My buddy still has an old rotary model in his computer room.

[#7 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , August 30, 2008 6:52 AM]

Our house came with a few of the original Western Electric corded phones. I retained one in case disaster knocks out the cordless ones & cell phones.

The worst looking home phone currently made is this B&O BeoCom 2 which costs over $1K US. Trying to sell these things to people was an exercise in humiliation.

[#8 posted by Lea Hernandez , August 30, 2008 10:19 AM]

First, banana phone.
Now, a dildo that you can talk on and about.

Clicking on link: TOTALLY worth it.

[#9 posted by Anonymous , August 30, 2008 12:59 PM]

The phone shown appears to be an update of the height of Eames era telephone design circa 1955, the Sweedish designed Ericophone .

[#10 posted by mightymouse1584 , August 30, 2008 2:18 PM]

let the banana phone meme begin. next up, the mini banana phone

[#11 posted by mdhatter , August 30, 2008 3:50 PM]

Rotary dial is retro - this gadget is just a short glance backwards.

[#12 posted by RJ , August 30, 2008 6:23 PM]

I'd like to get my hands on one of the first conventional handset rotary phones. Not the candlesticks, but a regular phone. Maybe a broken one, so I could re-work the insides and add a touch-tone box. That would look nice in my office. I very much adore the aesthetic of very modern devices in older styles. Art deco and such.

As was said above, this thing just looks like some old dork-o-phone you'd see in any teenager's bedroom in the late 80's/early '90s.

[#13 posted by Jack , August 30, 2008 8:52 PM]

Very few galleries of "weird" phones ever have examples of the cool phones I grew up with in the 1980s when we convinced my dad it was okay to not rent the black Bell phone from the phone company.

There were many cool/usable designs back then that were not novelties.