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Useless Information

Fascinating True Stories from the Flip Side of History

Tag Archives: telephone

Girls Stuck in Phone Booth

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It was reported on January 12, 1961 that two 15-year-old girls from McKeesport, Pennsylvania got stuck in a telephone booth. They were Christann Duran of 3842 Sarah Street and Peggy Woistman who lived at 941 Franklin Street.

They had squeezed themselves into a pay telephone booth located at the corner of Hartman Street and O’Neil Boulevard to make a call and couldn’t get the door open to get out when they were done.

They frantically hammered on the glass for assistance, but those who saw them just smiled or waved back before walking on by.

Ultimately, one of the girls was able to get her hand into her purse and pull out a dime to call the police. A patrolman arrived and had to remove the door from the phone booth. Which got me thinking: couldn’t they have simply dialed the operator for help?


Four women in telephone booths at the Hurricane Ballroom in 1943.
Phone booths are definitely a thing of the past. This photo shows four women in telephone booths at the Hurricane Ballroom in 1943. (Image from the Library of Congress.)

Brassiere Brigade

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Useless Information Podcast

Here’s the story of a number of women who worked for Southern Bell in Miami back in 1950. Poorly paid and dreaming of a much better life, they figured out a unique way to smuggle money out of the coin counting room at the company’s headquarters. It was such a profitable operation that they were able to pay their legal fees in quarters.

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Phone Picker Arrested

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Between the years of 1981 and 1988, someone was breaking into pay telephones across the United States, costing the Bell System an estimated half-million dollars.  It was believed by investigators to have been the work of just one man, since the phone locks were considered to be unpickable.  And, to show that he had a sense of humor, the crook always checked into cheap motels using the alias “James Bell.”  Continue Reading
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