The Call Director – new push-button office telephone… (Feb, 1959)
Source: Time ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1959
| Buy on Ebay
Here is the new push-button office telephone…
the CALL director
for the person who makes a lot of calls, or takes a lot of calls This is the most advanced and flexible telephone ever offered to business! More than a new product, the Call Director is a new concept in telephone design and service.
It provides fast, easy handling of outside and interoffice calls plus special features to fit your communications needs. By pushing a button you can—
• Connect with other office telephones
• Set up interoffice conference calls
• “Add-on” other office extensions to incoming calls.The modern, space-saving Call Director comes in two models. One has up to 30 buttons—the other up to 18— for any combination of features. Each comes in ivory, beige, green or gray.
The Call Director’s many advanced features make it the ideal telephone for busy executives, for secretaries or clerks who answer for a number of people — for anyone in business who makes or takes a lot of calls.
Find out how the Call Director can speed your business by improving your communications. Call your Bell Telephone Business Office. A representative will visit you at your convenience — no obligation, of course.
BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM
The Call Director was a Western Electric / Bell System brand name for a 1A1 (later 1A2) key telephone. These were at one time used in the White House. However, Call Directors were primarily useful to receptionists and departmental secretaries, particularly with the DSS/BLF feature that showed the busy/idle status of other phones in a company or department (e.g. one secretary, a number of executives).
These phones were faster in use than many “modern” systems, including (notoriously) Cisco VOIP phones, which require users to navigate through menus to find common features such as Hold and Call Transfer.
Answer a call, press the Hold button, press the one-touch DSS/BLF button for the desired person, tell them who is calling, and then either hang up or take a message. No navigating, no menus, no excessive nonsense, and a handset actually designed to fit the human ear and shoulder. Wonders never cease.
Comment by g663 — November 27, 2008 @ 12:54 am
does anybody know where i can pick up one of these old Call Director telephones? a reproduction would be fine also.
MC
Comment by Mike — January 12, 2009 @ 9:22 am