[A Chicago "phonebook," from Nightmare Alley (1947).]
Nightmare Alley (dir. Edmund Goulding) gives us Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Mike Mazurki (Moose Malloy from Murder, My Sweet), Tarot card readings, carnival geeks, and the rise and fall of a nightclub mentalist (who performs in a studio recreation of the Chicago Sherman House's Spode Room). There's some great dialogue:
"You've got a heart as big as —"As the Wikipedia article Telephone exchange names notes, Chicago first used a "3L-4N" system (three letters, four numbers). "2L-5D" (two letters, five digits) later became the standard in North America. ROGers Park and STAte were authentic Chicago exchange names, as the Telephone EXchange Name Project confirms. Checking a few of the other 21 exchange names at the TEXNP confirms that they too were Chicago exchanges.
"Sure, as big as an artichoke. A leaf for everyone."
*
"These great trees in moonlight: they give the whole place a — a cathedral-like atmosphere."
But this page itself is from no phonebook. Or if it, the names (and addresses?) have been altered. Note Mr. Rumstad's first name in the right-hand column.
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comments: 6
So, Chicago originally used a "3L-4N" system. That system must have also applied to the suburbs too. That explains why Mom said that her original home number as a child in Berwyn was GUNderson xxxx (not GUnderson x xxxx).
The things you learn on the Internet!
Wikipedia says that 2L-5D became the standard in the 1950s, so yes, that explains it.
I love driving in reverse on the Information Superhighway.
Great blog - love that Dagwood Rumstead.
Thanks, Mrs. R.
We're learning all about film noir right now in Intro to Film; the shadowing in the top right of the screenshot is called the "venetian blind effect."
-Ben
Ben, that's so great. I never knew that there was a name for that effect.
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