Number Please: Early Phone Operators In NH

This program begins with the installation of the first telephone system in NH in 1878 and ends when the last non-dial telephone exchange switched over to dial service in 1973. It tells the story of the changesthe telephone brought to large and small communities in New Hampshire , and what the job of telephone operator meant to women. Oral historian Judith Moyer is the humanist whose research and interviews guide us through this extraordinary time. She reexamines common myths surrounding the pre-dial telephone operators as either guardian angels or switchboard busybodies, and focuses on how the operator sat at the "confluence of forces swirling around telephone technology, business interests, community needs, government regulation, families and the social expectations of women."

Duration: 25 minutes and 56 seconds

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