Telephone Exchange Names - Exchange Names in Popular Culture

Exchange Names in Popular Culture

George Clooney's character, Jack Taylor, in the movie One Fine Day explains that his mobile number is "PEnnsylvania 3317".

At least four popular songs use old telephone exchanges in their names: "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" (PE 6-5000), recorded by Glenn Miller, "BEechwood 4-5789", by The Marvelettes, "LOnesome 7-7203 by Hawkshaw Hawkins, and "ECho Valley 2-6809" by The Partridge Family. PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was later spoofed in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Transylvania 6-5000.

The title of BUtterfield 8, the 1935 John O'Hara novel whose film adaptation won Elizabeth Taylor an Academy Award for Best Actress, refers to the exchange of the characters' telephone numbers.

Comic singer Allan Sherman includes a song, "The Let's All Call Up AT&T and Protest to the President March" on his 1963 album My Son, the Celebrity. In this song he suggests that people take their protest against all-digit dialing straight to the top. After the failure of that proposal the matter evidently remained on Sherman's mind, for in "Down the Drain", on his 1967 album Togetherness, he wistfully asks,

Where are telephone prefixes?

Down the drain.

They've all gone where old Tom Mix is:

Down the drain.

Satirist Stan Freberg included a sketch on the conversion to all-number calling on his 1966 album "Freberg Underground Show #1" (Capitol Records T/ST-2551), with the song "They Took Away Our Murray Hills."

The number RIchmond 9-5171 was the box office number for the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles for most of the arena's existence.

In the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, several examples of "old style" exchange numbers can be seen, such as on the business card handed to the men's-only hotel clerk by a police officer.

In the movie American Graffiti, disc jockey Wolfman Jack mentions phone number "DIamond-3132".

The Simpsons often shows the title family's number as KL-5 xxxx (it has been quoted differently in various episodes), which follows the convention of using 555 numbers in fictitious TV and film portrayals. In at least one episode, the phone book is shown to have all numbers listed as KLondike 5-xxxx.

Similarly, in Seinfeld the characters often give telephone numbers beginning with KL-5.

The song "Promised Land", written by Chuck Berry and also performed by Elvis Presley, has the Los Angeles operator being asked to connect to Norfolk, Virginia number TIdewater 4-1009 (sung as Tidewater four ten oh nine).

In the film The Godfather, Michael Corleone asks an operator to connect him with Long Beach 4-5620, presumably the number for the main house on the Corleone compound.

The 2011 video game L.A. Noire uses many references to named exchange numbers in the Los Angeles area. Some numbers are of prime importance to the plot.

In the movie Sorry, Wrong Number, Leona Stevenson (played by Barbara Stanwyck) asked the operator to dial MUrray Hill 3-5097, which is the office phone number of her husband, played by Burt Lancaster.

In a 1970s era "Forgetful Jones" skit on the PBS children's series Sesame Street, Forgetful's wife Clementine uses a manual telephone and asks the operator to connect her to Texarkana 44, obviously not a standard number, but in real life would imply a very small, antiquated rural telephone exchange.