The Western Electric Model 500 Telephone – 1949 – 1984
February 8, 2010
The Western Electric model 500 telephone series was the standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the Bell System in North America from late 1949 through the 1984 Bell System divestiture. The phone below is from 1959.
The Invisible Agent 
I still use a big ass CANDY APPLE RED EMERGENCY bell phone (am looking at it right now). Have a black backup one, too. At work is a Halloween orange one on a shelf in communications. I am eying it. I want it and need to come up with some way of making it journey to my side of the game board.
What did they make the 1949 phones out of. It is my recollection that they felt heavier than the later plastic models.
Bakelite was used in the original models. Also, in the photo above, I’m assuming that the RJ-11 modular plug was after-market. They didn’t have those in 1959. 😉