Western Electric Products- Design Line
Sewing Machine - Automatic Answering Service “Mirrophone” wire ribbon recorder/player Telephones - PicturePhone - Bell Chime
Click on the above “Phone Center Store” logo to view a scan of the Phone Center Store pamphlet.
We Offer Personalized One-On-One Service!
Call Us Today at (651) 787-DIAL (3425)
An article on the introduction of Phone Center Store concept was scanned from the September/October 1974 edition of the Bell Telephone Magazine." You can read the PDF document created from this article by clicking HERE.
The DESIGNLINE models were introduced to customers in 1974
(source: Focus - 1993 Innovation Annual Report by AT&T)
“The telephone housing is your property. To assure quality of service, all working parts, e.g., dial, cords, and electrical components remain the property and responsibility of the Bell Telephone Company.” - sticker found on most Design Line telephones indicating that the phone company still owns the “guts” of the telephone you bought during the Bell System era.
The following material was sent to by Robert F. Martina, a long time Western Electric employee who held several high positions including manager of engineering. From a Western Electric marketing notebook called " The Telephone Book":
“DESIGN LINE* telephones are the way in which Western Electric meets the needs of customers who want “a little something extra” in their telephones. These stylish telephones are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Whether it be antique or contemporary, any decor will be enhanced by the addition of a DESIGN LINE* telephone.”
Also in the Western Electric marketing notebook
mentioned above are some nice color photos along with product information on the
Design Line models. We have scanned those pages and provided links to them
(Side A and Side B) in the following list of the Design Line models in production around 1980.
Some of the files are about half of a megabyte so may be slow downloading if you are
using a dial-up modem connection.
- ANTIQUE GOLD# Cradlephone - Side A - Side B
- MEDITERRANEAN# Cradlephone - Side A - Side B
- EARLY AMERICAN# Cradlephone - Side A - Side B
- The Wood Grained CANDLESTICK## Phone Side A - Side B
- CANDLESTICK## Telephone - Side A - Side B
- CHESTPHONE# Telephone - Side A - Side B
- The Mickey Mouse Phone** - Side A - Side B
- The SNOOPY & WOODSTOCK Phone*** - Side A - Side B
- The WINNIE-THE-POOH Phone** - Side A - Side B
- EXETER® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- SCULPTURA® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- The Rolltop STOWAWAY® Phone - Side A - Side B
- STOWAWAY® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- TELSTAR® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- CELEBRITY® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- COQUETTE**** Telephone - Side A - Side B
- NOTEWORTHY® Telephone - Side A - Side B
- COUNTRY JUNCTION* Telephone - Side A - Side B
- The Americana Edition Wall Telephone - Side A - Side B
\* Trademark of AT&T Co
Trademark of American Telecommunications Corporation
Registered Trademark of American Telecommunications Corporation
** © Walt Disney Productions - Housing Produced by American Telecommunications Corporation *** Housing manufactured by American Telecommunications Corporation PEANUTS characters © 1958, 1965 United Feature Syndicate, Inc ® Registered Trademark of AT&T Co **** Trademark of Kinsho Mataichi International Corporation - Housing Produced by Fujikura Plastics Company, Ltd
NOTE: A big thanks to those of you that contributed images and documentation for this web page on the Design Line series of Western Electric telephones!
Arthur P. Bloom - ATCA #1783
My installers/repairmens handbook from the early 70s lists the Design Line phones. Accent, Antique Gold, Candlestick, Celebrity, Chestphone, Coquette, Early American, Elite, Elite Commemorative, Exeter, Mediterranean, and Stowaway.
“When a customer orders Design Line phone service, they (sic) own the housing. It comes with a six-month warranty and will be repaired or replaced at no extra charge during that period. The inside working components (such as dialing mechanism, electrical components and cords) remain the property of New York Telephone and are supplied and maintained as part of the standard monthly rate. If anything goes wrong with the phones operation, New York Telephone will fix it at no additional charge for as long as the customer has Design Line phone service.”
Webmaster’s note: Unlike the standard telephones made by Western Electric, these phones were not built as rugged or to the same quality levels as the earlier Western Electric phones. These were marketed from an appearance standpoint more than a durability standpoint.
The one-time charges ran from $49.95 for the Exeter, to $109.95 for the Antique Gold and Elite Commemorative models.
No mention is made of the situation where a customer wishes to retain the housing, but terminate service. Perhaps this was a situation that occurred so rarely, that it was not addressed in the handbook.
The Design Line telephone names are described later in my handbook as being Registered Trademarks of the American Telecommunications Corporation, with the exception of the Coquette, which was a Trademark of USTEL.
They are described as “Portable models”, which meant that they were equipped with 4-prong plugs, and required a 4-hole jack to be installed, with a Service Order Charge of $14.50 plus a one-time $18.10 installation charge for a jack (if the subscriber did not already have one installed).
The WE design line phone Telstar, was made completely by Western. Some of the design line phones, Mickey, Snoopy, plastic candlesticks etc were made by ATC (now COMDIAL) and contained WE guts or guts from independents, GTE etc. Many of the design line phones were completely made by WE, i.e., the Celebrity and Exeter for example. For more pictures of the Telstar model, click here, here, and here. The photos of the Telstar model are by John L. Lovell.
An excellent web page by Paul Fassbenderlists the various models of Design Line phones and has the Bell System Practices index for Design Line models. Paul also has a lot of other Western Electric phones on his website - click HERE for his home page.
The following images were sent to by Rick Gast. Thank you, Rick, for this contribution.**
**
Accent**BlueBlueWhiteYellowYellow**
American
Wall Phone**Image**
**1Image**
**2Image**
**3****
**
Copies of
advertisements**Image**
**
**1Image**
**
**2Image**
**
**3Image**
**
**4Image**
**
**5****
**
Big Button
Celebrity*Blue**
**
**Rotary1Blue**
**
**Rotary2Ivory**
**
**Rotary1Ivory**
**
**Rotary2Ivory**
**
**Tone
Chestphone
- Ship -
Woodgrain2Optique1Woodgrain3Leather3Leather4Woodgrain4Optique1Woodgrain5Leather5****
Country**Image**
**1Image**
**2
**
Country Junction**Rotary1TouchtoneNeed the technical info on this phone?
Click HERE to
download the BSP section - courtesy of Jim BurnhamRotary2
**
Coquette**Off-HookOn-HookPortrait****
**
Cradle Phone**Early**
**American1Antique1Mediterranean1Antique2Early**
**American2Mediterranean2Antique3Antique4Mediterranean3Early**
**American3Antique5****
**
CandleStick**BlackRedStars**
**
*and*
**
**StripesWhite1White2****
**
Elite
(green and**
**gold)Commemorative**
**
**MedallionImage1Image2
Exeter**Brown**
**
**Touchtone1Brown**
**
**Touchtone2White**
**
**Rotary****
**
Kermit
(Character Phone)Front**
**ViewBack**
**ViewOff-Hook
Mickey Mouse
(Character Phone)RotaryTone1Tone2
Noteworthy
(a.k.a., the “chalkboard” or “corkboard phone)Rust1Rust2Rust3Yellow1Yellow2
Pooh Bear
(Character Phone)Tone1Tone2****
Sculptura
(a.k.a. the
“doughnut” phone)Brown** ** **TouchtoneWhite** ** **Touchtone****Pink** **Rotary
Pink was not an official color for this model. This one was likely painted later by a collector.
Yellow**
**
**RotaryYellow**
**
**Touchtone
Snoopy
(Character Phone)RotaryTouchtone1Touchtone2Touchtone3****
Stowaway
**(Jewelry** **Box)**Oiled Walnut
**closed**Mediterranean
**closed**Roll Top
**angle closed**Mediterranean
**middle**Roll Top
**angle open**Oiled Walnut
**open**Roll Top
**closed**Mediterranean
**open**Roll Top
**open**Oiled Walnut
**twin view**Roll Top
**portrait**Mediterranean
twin view****
Telstar**view1view2view3****view4**Miscellaneous Design Line and non-standard Western Electric telephones:
-
Schmoo(Never mass-produced. It was the first idea for the Trimline)
Additional notes on the Celebrity model from Sam Corcione:
“It was available in Ivory with gold-tone trim or as yours in light blue with silver-tone trim. These were available for purchase from the local Bell telephone company usually at a Phone Center Store. They first came out around 1973 and were manufactured in the Indianapolis Works Plant on Shadeland Avenue, and were first offered to Indiana Bell customers in Evansville, IN along with about 4 other models. I have a price list from December of 1980 that shows the retail cost to be $139.00 to Illinois Bell customers. At first the deal was that you owned the shell and they owned the inner workings and would pay $1.50 a month for maintenance on the inner workings. That changed in later years that they would sell you the whole phone. I would venture to say that they stopped manufacturing these around January of 1984.”
John Carson, a member of the ATCA club, has quite a collection of Design Line telephones. Click on the thumbnail images below to enlarge:
Reliable, secure high-speed internet
With CenturyLink Simply Unlimited Internet, you can choose from a wide range of available speeds that fit your online needs. Plus, you can connect several devices with super-fast in-home WiFi.
Order Now
