Comments on: Western Electric & Stromberg Carlson model 500 phones

By: Patriot1776

Patriot1776 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:41:55 +0000

The black one’s definitely not from the 70′s. By the early to mid 60′s, Western Electric was no longer putting metal fingerwheels on black model 500s.

Who’s your local telephone company? I can give you a couple numbers to try to see if you can do what I do and get the phones to call themselves back. Which Baby Bell provides your home phone service?

By: Patriot1776

Patriot1776 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:40:27 +0000

The black one definitely isn’t a 70′s model 500. By the early to mid 60′s Western Electric had stopped putting metal fingerwheels on all black model 500s. All of W.E.’s rotary phones by the late 60′s and 70′s had plastic fingerwheels. Only DesignLine antique reproduction phones were sporting metal fingerwheels by the 70′s.

By: jefferyb304

jefferyb304 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:18:07 +0000

Where the black one was used it was C&P Telephone. Not sure about the beige one but it did come from an eBay seller in California and appears to barely have any use. It uses more plastic parts than the black one does, but its still superior over todays phones.

By: retrochad

retrochad — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:36:11 +0000

When I was in school I did all the sound effects for the plays and I wired up a phone like this to ring…I used an audio oscillator at 20hz hooked up to a Panasonic stereo receiver which then fed a step-up transformer hooked to the bell.

By: vinylman86

vinylman86 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:11:55 +0000

my parent used to have a rotary phone like the stromberg carlson, but i think their’s was a bell atlantic.

By: wilkes85

wilkes85 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:48:06 +0000

My grandma had that same phone.. the beige one, but hers was more of a skin-tone looking colour. same ring too!!! I got goosebumps when yours started to ring LOL
I just love these old rotary phones.

By: A1TELEPHONE

A1TELEPHONE — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:16:17 +0000

Two Great Examples of desk type phones that will never be made agian! unless we give China the molds!
Dennis @ A1 Telephone

By: jefferyb304

jefferyb304 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:06:10 +0000

I have seen a cheap replica of these phones on ebay. lol

By: tell302man

tell302man — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:57:58 +0000

I would say the black one is 50s or 60s. The metal dial was replaced with the plastic dial in the 60s. Those are great 500 sets!!!!

By: ViktorDragmire

ViktorDragmire — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:36:48 +0000

I’ve got 2 of these in my house as our normal everyday use telephones. The one downstairs is a real classic, 4/53, with a bakelite handset and metal dial. The one upstairs is 5/70, newer, but in better condition. I love the ring!