Century 21 Calling, 1962 - AT&T Archives - World's Fair tour
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2013
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A tour of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, focusing on Bell System innovations.
This film offers a tour of the newly opened 1962 Seattle World's Fair, starting with the famous monorail, which still runs from the city center to the site of the fairgrounds. A one-way ticket today costs $2.25, versus the $0.50 charge in 1962.
The Fair was all about the future, and while this film shows the variety of exhibits visitors could enjoy, it ultimately zeroes in on the Bell System Pavilion where it introduces the latest innovative products and services available to customers. The film also highlights some of the conveniences customers could anticipate in the next century, thanks to the research and development efforts of AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories. It's interesting to note that predicted conveniences-like networked appliances that can be turned on and off from afar-did show up in the 21st Century, though the mode of transmission is somewhat different than the film suggests, which is not surprising, since the Internet wasn't even a twinkle in a researcher's eye at the time.
One new Bell System service that actually made its commercial debut at the Fair was the 150-megacycle Bellboy signaling system. Though "Personal Signaling" (essentially paging) services had been available in smaller cities since the late '50s, these operated at 35 megacycles, a frequency range with fewer channels that could not accommodate traffic in heavily-populated areas. The Bellboy system made big-city service possible, and was faster and more reliable than the paging systems that came before it.
Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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I used to work in the Murray Hill central office right next to Bell Labs. We had one of the first prototypes of the videophone. You would not believe it now but, it originally started out the size of a refrigerator.
Now we hold a computer and a video phone all in one hand. Our motto back in the day was: One system, it works.
I'm proud to say I helped build that system.
Well, I'M glad you got to participate, and that you're proud of it. Here in Century XXI (in '21, oddly enough) we may not yet have reached the Jetson Stage of things, but your part in helping us along is most definitely appreciated. 😊
👄 ☎️📲 👂
I remember as a 12 year old going to the fair in 1962. We had relatives in Bellevue and it was so exciting. Even flew in the small helicopter that looked ultra modern. The elevators going up the Space Needle were so fast, it was scary. They even filmed a local TV show there live. This brought back some fun memories. Even the monorail was fun to ride in. I remember some of the exhibits now that this video reminded me of them. Great video!
I was there, too. Twice in the summer of '62. It was great fun. Too bad that they didn't show the Bubbleator
Walking Seattle Center now days. It is amazing to think it held this amazing event. Wish North America still had worlds fairs and expos.
And no rain?
That's Unpossible!
Can't anymore, they spend all the money on killing people and spying on you.
They do, they're just called "cons" now.
@49jubilee yes all the time
Oh, but we do, we do...and a permanent one, too. And it's called E.P.C.O.T. (surprise)! 😃 😁
Imagining what the future will be like is way better than actually living in it. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for the 21st century. Now that I'm here, um...yeah.
Kind of disappointing.
I remember all of these features when they were introduced. Boy do I feel old.
RadioChief I hear ya Chief. Alexander Graham Bell and I were in the same kindergarten class in Scotland. 📞
Kelly Coleman, I think RadioChief is talking about having been to the Century 21 Exposition (the World’s Fair shown here).
I join you being the 1957 model I am... LoL
I remember when I was a kid and we went to a push button phone from a rotary dial phone. I thought it was so cool and futuristic! :)
Clayton Coffman I remember when smoke signals were invented.
Touch tone dialing wasn't available in my town until 1980
Wow they have push button phones now
I thought that touch tone phones didn't get introduced until the 1964 New York World's Fair.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy to learn about DNA.
@NibiruLives Really! I bet they have Great Grandchildren now, and if they were blood related, their offspring joined the circus! LOL.
Digital Paradise Studios And a double helix made of playing cards too. I still haven’t figured that one out. 🤔
There was a novelty to it still, since the structure of DNA was discovered less than 10 years prior to this.
Not sure if they learned anything.
Lol.. hey look at these spinny things.
Wow sure is a trip
My family drove across the country in 1962 to see the Seattle World's Fair. It was there that we saw push button telephones for the first time!!!
and now land lines are nearly extinct
That girl is just SO EXCITED about every little darned thing!!! LOL
In a way some of these predictions did happen, push buttons did end up replacing old rotary phones. The bellboy became the pager, cell phones have been able to hold numbers in the memory since the early 2000's, apps allow for some electronics to be turned on remotely and for people to check the weather. Wasn't a perfect prediction but it was fairly close.
@@NerdyNEET Yeah no one could have predicted Web MD but thats hardly the fault of the makers of this short
the internet was still top secret military research back then.
I never knew that you could do so many things with a rotary telephone. I need to get one of those! Thank you AT&T.
auto28521 Can’t do this with an iPhone: weapon, paperweight, doorstop, emergency rope.
auto28521 Many homes had kitchen wall phones with fifty foot long cords too.
In fact, ESS works better with DTMF, and needed a separate processor to efficiently handle dial pulsing.
If I had a time machine, this is where I'd get off. Maybe just a year or two earlier. Plenty of optimism, enduring mid-century architecture, Henry Mancini's music, doo wop music, jazz, Alfred Hitchcock movies, and cars with chrome and fins.
@fbw71u Both are true. But if I could stop by the World's Fair in 1962, I think it would be just before U.S. urban decay, so it should be fun. At least where I'm from (California), things have been turning around, but we have a lot of catching up.
@fbw71u It's slow, but there's downtown urban renewal in L.A., and more rail service. The same in San Francisco (if you can deal with the homeless issue). It's nothing like Europe, but compared to the 70's and 80's when there was nothing but a few belching city buses, things are improving.
Don't forget the racism 😐
@@roachtoasties I was born a year after this World's Fair. Growing up in Oakland, Saturdays were the best. Finish household chores and the sisters and I would go Downtown to shop, window or real purchases. We could go from 11th & Broadway all the way to the Sears store at 25th &Telegraph. Fabric store for Secondgirl to load up, music store to listen to new releases, dress boutiques to try on dresses to beg mom first later. Not just scrolling online for crap we didn't need, overspend and forget why we bought it when arrives later in the week...if it wasn't stolen by a porch pirate.
@MisterHot Do you know how tired and played out that stupid remark is?
Everyone has to visit the Space Needle at least once in their life. It's such an iconic structure and the views is gorgeous.
I can't get enough of the awesome production music!
You're very welcome.
Thanks for uploading this.
Can i break free from all of this now and go home.
Hey ur still uploading. Are you actually ATT?
Now send me back to those days
Love this channel so much retro technology
0:41 wearing her finest prom dress to ride the monorail! Monorail! Monorail! It will improve your future, it will be stupendous!
just drove by the monorail this morning and thought about how little it's actually used
albear972 With petticoats!
Monorails are futuristic because _____________?
The populace of Seattle has sure changed since 1962..... I didn't see any tents on the streets under the monorail.
Wes Johnston 🔥 🔥 🔥
Back in those days, you could just jail the homeless and nobody would notice.
Just to be a fussy creep, "populace" is the word you meant. Populous is an adjective about having a certain amount of people. "Populace" is the noun. Careful, grammatical errors can lead to living in a tent city!
@@MajorGeneralPanic Yeah, let's let murderers go to make room to put all the homeless in our jails.
@@brianarbenz7206 your write! lol.... You're correct and I edited the word in my post. I detest grammar errors and even I made one!
The talent and dedication of all those workers in the Bell Laboratories are exactly what made this world what it is today, those dedicated men and women were some of the most talented people in the world! It's amazing in new way back when what features were forthcoming with the phone network and Central offices and yet they did, some of the best people in the world made what we now know to be the Bell System!
Don’t forget about the viscous business practices of Bell Telephone that caused the government to break up their monopoly. A lot more innovation came after the breakup due to the competition among companies.
@@tennissir1986 and they made more money than before they broke up by all of the baby bells that were still one subsidiary but with different names, so Judge Green screwed up on that one
@@westwasbest Wrong. The job of a court presiding over a monopoly is not to hurt or help the monopolistic company - but to allow other companies to compete on a level playing ground. The other companies got much bigger and one of bell systems spin-off companies - Lucent was unable to compete at all.
@@tennissir1986 Lucent was at&t, AT&T long lines were responsible for all of these Bell system companies, so as I said the breakup was nothing but unnecessary and unwarranted, because all that happened was AT&T broke up into many different companies IE: Southern Bell, Mountain Bell, and all the others, with the exception of ITT which basically manufactured equipment nobody else really provided local phone service in any of these locales, so as I said, it backfired!
@@westwasbest Basic common sense says that when a company grow’s by how AT & T did by gobbling up smaller competitor companies - the consumer loses out. That after the breakup the remaining competitors made stupid business decisions is not a factor to the original decision.
I love how they RUN to every exhibit and CUT in line and push their way inside. I guess they didn't have manners back then
Yeah. Arrogant little bastards.
Sounds like 2022.
That's a big problem TODAY, with middle age women in China!!!
You can tell it's Seattle cuz she's jacked on caffeine
really, mr. historically accurate? think about your comment and then look at when starbucks was 1st opened in the public market. you'll quickly realize your comment was really stupid.
@@cornjobb I think it was just a joke. The acting is a tad over the top in this film.
@@cornjobb to be fair most of us are very caffenated
Luke Hauser 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Alatina Thucklemuggin good grief. It was a joke. You must be a blast at parties.
Kind of funny when you think of all the features we love on cellphones, or take for granted used to be features that Bell charged you extra to provide them. And they completely missed on the Picture Phone too.
Man, back in the 80's we paid $3.50 to have the newfangled touch-tone service. It was a miniature computer in your house Pacific Bell said.
Bell tried to develop picture phone to promote bradband, but it was too expendive for home use and lacked the resolution for businesd uses like document sharing.
As recently as a decade ago, some phone companies were still charging $0.50 per month for touchtone service.
If my phone company did, I just wouldn't pay the fee. I use rotary phones more than touchtone phones anyways.
@@brettknoss486 I much prefer Janetband on my phone.
#Grrrooowwrrrr
:-)
Did they? My cell phone does. Skype.
Very cool, well-produced, and highly enjoyable!
Ah, the days of Brylcreem and Aqua Net. “Hey! Let’s dash through the fair, knock down some old couples and crash the lines at every exhibit!” I remember seeing these same Bell displays when we visited their exhibit at Disneyland when I was a very young kid in ‘62. They either moved them from the Seattle World’s Fair or had an identical one at Disneyland.
By 1979 the Bellboy was only an inch wide and 4 inches tall and it could broadcast a voice message.
That monorail ride looks like a ride on the DC metro rail.
That ending was just too precious for words.
Yet you found some.
This channel never disappoints 👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽
The Seattle World's Fair's focal point was the iconic Space Needle, still standing today. The grounds would evolve into Seattle Center.
san antonio had a needle too at their world's fair
I am in love with this channel. Thanks ATTTech!!
Best color quality I've seen so far. I Have 2 copies of this film.
I've been binging on these vintage reels for I don't know how long. Someone please help...
That century 21 auto dialer is a modern miracle, because we've been trying to reach you concerning your vehicle's extended warranty...
Grew up in Queens (NY), near the 1964-65 Fair. Must have visited at least 20 times over the two years that it was open. Occasionally we would cut classes and spend a few hours during the week when it wasn't crowded. Remember the hours long wait for the GM exhibit? There was even an opening cut in a fence on Rodman St. (now College Pt. Blvd.) where someone could gain access for free, not me of course. Loved the chairs with the built-in speakers on the ride at the Bell System exhibit. Made a "Picturephone" call to a girl in California. Great memories. Ironically, went on to work for AT&T 6 years later - for 40 years.
Did you go to the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962?
@@emmarose4234 No, unfortunately. Lived in NYC, 3000 miles away, and a teenager - not a chance. The 1964 NY Fair looked almost identical to the Seattle Fair.
Thanks for sharing your amazing video! I like how the cinematography is timeless.
10:59 reminds me of the AT&T "You Will" ads from the '90s.
10:59
I Rode the Heck otta the Monorail!!!!
My first ride up the elevator to the Space Needle, the Doors opened 2/3rds up!!!!
My Mom Grabbed My Suit Jacket just as i leaned out to check out how high we were!!!!
gravelman5789 jeepers creepers! Did the doors malfunction?!?
@@cesaranthonyviralta5495 If the elevator kept moving, I would assume it was a mechanical failure in the door causing it become detached from the motor. The alternative is a major problem with the controller which resulted in the door opening and the safety circuit having no effect.
The boy in blue is my history teacher now. Mr Ralston
Did he tell you what happened to the girl with the bows?
He did get some poonani?
Are you serious?
@therazorsedge28 Returns, nice to see you! I didn’t know you were into the Century 21 Exposition! 🥰
@therazorsedge28 Returns, hehehehe. By the way, while we’re on the topic of world’s fairs, are you a fan of the 1964 New York World’s Fair as well? I sure am. (My late dad went there, because his dad worked on electrical stuff there.)
That opening shot with the monorail looks like Disneyland 😁👍
Look for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this. Its great.
Some of these displays made it down to Disneyland after the fair to the pre- and post- show areas of Circle-Vision 360 when The Bell System/AT&T was the sponsor. I remember using them as a kid. They lasted until the late1970s until PSA (airline) took over sponsorship.
All that innovative stuff that some ppl are saying Bell System didn't materialize, actually they did... By patenting. A portion of your Nest Thermostat purchase, FaceTime, the call waiting or text on your smartphone is going to AT&T.
"And along with being able to turn on your air conditioner by phone, hackers and criminal syndicates will be able to record you secretly by turning on your cell phone cam! What a great century it's gonna be!"
The touch tone version of that card dialer (WE 2660) helped me get lots of concert tickets from local radio stations in the San Francisco area when I was a kid. The best concerts I went to was Yes, Johnny Winter (both at Winterland) and Grateful Dead Wall of Sound special (Cow Palace) all in 1974!
Nothing says "you're cruising into the future" like a monorail 🤣
I remember the '62 World's Fair fondly. The Space Needle is still here, of course, as is the United States Science Exhibit -- now the Pacific Science Center -- but a lot has changed. Not just on the fairgrounds themselves (now called the Seattle Center) but even riding the monorail you're now in a canyon of high-rise office, retail, and residential buildings on the south end of the line, and the north end goes through the MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture) -- formerly the EXP (Experience Music Project) -- which wasn't even imagined by a young Paul Allen back then. In many ways it's sad, but then again the Century 21 Exhibition WAS about progress and change.
Actually it was '64-'65, when I was a Junior, Senior in High School.
@@nocusr No, it wasn't. The Seattle "Century 21" World's Fair was 1962. The 1964 World's Fair was in New York City.
rofl. The Bell Boy, an early pager. Little did people know that was the beginning of the end of being able to say "I didn't get your message" or not be able to get away lol.
I got my rotary phone in1963. One neighbor got a touch tone about 10 years later. The touch tone service was extra cost. Around 1990 touch tone service was included in the local service at no additional cost, but those that subscribed to it earlier, continued to be charged extra for the service. That was pretty funny that I could get free touch tone service and the neighbor had to pay for it. The phone company wanted to start charging for weather and time, but the courts said that customers expected that service included and the phone company was only able to charge extra on each service after they were used more than 5 times a month. I can still dial my rotary phone faster than a touch tone phone, because my hand and finger are used to rotary dialing and I haven't used a touch tone phone much. I know where the numbers are on a rotary phone, but I have to really look to dial a touch tone phone.
I remember all those weird little charges on the phone bill. Then they broke up the Ma Bell monopoly, and phone things got even weirder for a while! It was a jungle out there.
One of my early memories was at age of six,going to the fair. What that stood out was getting on that elevator in the needle,being at the back and someone said "let the little guy get up front. Having never been higher than a second floor ,I freaked,and fainted! Still have a fear of heights!! Mmm, something new for the therapist!!!
We went in the late 60’s, so I was around 6 and I totally remember being scared in those elevators. As I recall they had glass on the front doors and I didn’t want to be anywhere near those and I remember pushing my way to the back.
Lmao I remember when my family and I were at a museum back in Chicago (we were kids) and my brother dialed 911 on one of those phones and was shook. “Taylor, I dialed 911, I’m scared. What if the police come? 😭”
Or when we dialed "0" when we were at grandma's house! She yelled & said "hang up" the Operator gonna call back & give her hell! Lol
I thought that John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury space capsule was on display at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair before it was moved to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, where it's remains to this day.
“Golly gee wiz Sally, this is keen!”
I really admire their admire their optimism for the future. Theyve been through hell and they really want a better future
I would have lived at the Bell System exhibition.
The future looks exciting.
At 0:51 we can see the Flight to Mars haunted house which was also at Adventurers Inn just a few years later!
Such a clean cut boy with a haircut the opposite of the beatles
Oh, that red headed Gidget needs to calm the heck down.
YESSS look at att advancing technology, making the standards !
Grandma is on speed dial !!!
call transfers were the absolute best
I remember watching an MST3K short about this when I was a kid, I miss those days.
First time I saw this short was on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
People back then took pride in their appearance when out in public.
Great history
In 1962 the Bell System was still serving major cities with 1920s switching technology that wouldn’t be replaced until the early 70s. Rotary dial for for that 1920s technology. Touch tone phones were for the first wave of digital technology...ESS.
The Bell Lab invented quite a few feature in the late 50's that we use today. Think about it the Bell Labs invented the ESS Touch Tone and with out it we would not have computers and iPhones that we use today.
Computers existed before.
Also, a li'l thang called a transistor...
Daryl kearney they also invented unix.
no one asked. you're a hoot at parties, though, i imagine.
@@cornjobb popularity is dead... go tell Fred.
Every where you go now,you see every one looking at there sell phone,even when walking!!!!!when I was little in the 1960s,we used to go out for country rides every Sunday,,and enjoy mother nature,and go hiking,and fishing,and so many family things,cell phones have ruined all that
That guy got his ass whipped when his rotary dial was up against the pushbutton phone. Bell System taught him a lesson! 😂
"oh gee golly Sally, whiz bang what a fine day!"
“This telecommunications industry trade show was a keen idea for a first date, Johnny!”
That's pine hell of an intro!
Dad: Who the hell called for the weather in Auckland 600 times?!
DTMF dialing, Call waiting & Call forwarding in 1962? It was early 80's before we had those features in New England.
I don't remember call waiting and forwarding in 1962! My big sister hogged the phone all the time. She probably knew and didn't tell me when I got a call!
How the world would change if these things were to happen! Amazing
WHAAAAT? You can turn your home air conditioning on and off by calling it? What a fun *app*lication! That should be interesting! ;-)
Home automation before smart phone's is amazing
That was b4 global warming, now u just leave it on when u leave! Lol
They're still charging me $9/ month on my landline for call waiting since 1989! Robbers!
even the *fashions* are *futuristic*
Very accurate!
I remember all of that (call waiting and call diversion) but not with rotary dial phones
wow.. the smart home concept is older than I had assumed.
It's strange to watch this without the MST3K commentary... lol
With everything that's going on in the world these days, I yearn to go back to a time this corny.
Monorail! Monorail!
Goldie Hawn is so young!
How I wish we had all those standards of dress nowadays :(
Now the midway, food circus, and gift shops are all gone. Luckily the space needle, art museum, science center, playhouse & opera house still remain.
Questions: We all know about custom calling features, so no need to ask about that. I do need to know what code the bird needed to poke at 3:55 to get fed. Now that's important. There's also the issue of the dogs at 11:23. If the family is "many miles away on vacation" why are they just concerned about watering the lawn? Their dogs are left wandering around the house. Who's taking care of them? Important stuff!
Maybe they are the neighbors dogs
If i remember the "second line" feature did not come so soon - during the 80' 😃
12:03 Best. Animatronics. Ever.
That’s funny! But I did notice she moved her eyes to the extreme right and left and hardly move her head. Maybe her wires were crossed.
the Telephony of Things! Yeah, they got it almost right
Ah yes, the days when a simple Captain Crunch whistle would work magic on phone lines.
Fun Fact: During the Century 21 opening day festivities on April 21st 1962, an Air Force F-102 suffered engine failure at ~1500 ft and crashed into a Mountlake Terrace neighborhood.
digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/5381/
I can only imagine their faces if someone from the future walked in with an iPhone.
Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Speed Calling and 3-Way Calling didn't become available until 20 years later in the early 1980s.
The year I arrived in this world damn the future looked bright back then what happened.
why am i watching this its almost 2am
That was a great production! wow! To dial a phone # and water the dogs! When are they going to come out with smart phones with rotary dialing?
Curt Chase Actually they had a pretty funny accessory for cell phones a while back - a wired black handset just like a desk phone. But sorry, no rotary dial.
@@chazdesimone7306 LOL. Yes, I've seen that handset in those gag catalogs a few years ago! You plug it into the earphone jack of your cellphone and looks like you're talking on an old corded phone! I took the gag one step further and purchased an X-Link bluetooth cellular gateway unit. By using the bluetooth function of your smartphone, the device bridges the cellphone to old standard "pots" corded house phones! Makes old phone fully operational with dial tone and ringer! I actually modified my X-Link to work in my car! I set an old pushbutton desk phone on the dash! Fullyfunctions. I hid my cellphone and stuff under the passenger seat. I totally amazed my friends and even a few strangers with the setup! It was funny.
This probably worked using a small rotary switch attached to the phone line, rather than running 10 phone lines to each subscriber.
Are the other Bell System shorts public domain?
Century 21 Calling, they want their gold blazer back.
good god
It's mine.
Hey, if this were The Jetsons, couldn't it be, oh...
Centauri 21? 🌕🛸✨😊👽
The teenagers seen in this film held hands so much that they were either very good actors or real-life boyfriend and girlfriend.
Both of them, if still alive, have to near or around 80 years of age (as of 2022).
I pointed it out that either the young couple's acting was very convincing or tgey were in fact a real-life couple offscreen.
@RetroVintageItems27 How much extra was that?
The Transistor was developed at Bell Laboratories? Bologna!
Everybody knows that it was back-engineered from a flying saucer that crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947. XD
If they found a crashed ship, we would have had a lot more "inventions" than rudimentary transistors. The transistor was discovered during a study on semiconductors.
@@user2C47
it was sarcasm. That "XD" at the end is an approximation of a sideways face, laughing so hard that their eyes are closed. I think "emoji" is the current term for that.
LOL! That "pager"! It should have come with wheels.
By 1975 the Bellboy was one inch wide and 4 inches long. It could broadcast a voice message instead of a beep.
It came with two convenient handles.
5:34 it is the dawn for pagers.
I think it comes with telephone service complimentary today..
"You are very nice. Pay us money."