London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
This film is part of Free
Field End Telephone Exchange Goes Automatic
This amateur informational piece fervently laments the necessary shift from old-fashioned telephone operation to the automatic system.
From the collection of:
Overview
A sharp swell of music coupled with a title card introduce this short film like a news story, complete with a formal and well-spoken narration. The narration announces the shift from the old telephone operators towards the new and efficient automatic service. A sequence of the busy manual exchange yields to a now empty room, and the narrator bemoans the bygone age. The piece ends with a brief tour of the new but impersonal technology but time marches on.
This film is from the collection of Headstone Manor Museum, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network.
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