Telephone trace
Would it be possible to complete a trace on a pay phone that quickly in the year the movie is set? Seems like current movies that used pay phones were rarely traceable.
shareAs you may know, there was no such thing as direct dial. Every call went through an operator, an "exchange".
There were no area codes. All phone numbers were exchanges (e.g., "Murray Hill" or "Klondike") plus four digits, later, five digits.
In theory, if the authority figure was in the telephone exchange room, the authority figure could simply trace the cable, from its source (plug) to its jack (the number being reached) on the switchboard.
(That is why a guitar cord metal end is called a "phone plug". The ring plus sleeve design of the brass plug was used in telephone exchanges for many years.)
So, yes, the trace could be instantaneous (less than two seconds), if you knew the calling number, and knew what to look for, while you are sitting or standing in the operator's booth. -- Just follow the cable to the hole in which the plug sits. That is the number!
See "Telephone number" in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number
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"The Shadow knows." -- Lamont Cranston
You had to go through the operator for calls outside your exchange, or outside local exchanges, but there most certainly was such a thing as direct dialing in 1930, especially in cities. Western Electric introduced the first modern rotary dial telephone in 1919. I have a Kellogg "candlestick" (upright) telephone manufactured in 1925, all-original, in working condition, and it has a rotary dial on it. Telephones with alpha-numeric rotary dials can be seen in countless movies and photographs from the 1930s and before.
This is from Fresno, California, in 1927. Fresno was just a town back then, not a big city like Rico lived in. Direct-dial technology was available in larger cities even earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFfTQHPqpME
They didn't have it in Los Angeles back then. My mother was a telephone operator in L.A in the '40s, and even then all calls still went through an operator. When I was a kid in the '70s our town STILL didn't have it. Every time we wanted to make a phone call we picked up the phone, waited for an operator who'd say "number please," and we'd tell her the number we wanted to call.
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