So, I basically missed that transitional phase when telephone booths were more commonplace. This has left me with a number of questions about the ol’ telephone booths, but this one strikes me as one of the funnier and more unnerving ones to ask.

Was it possible to get locked in a telephone booth? Did some models have locks to keep folks from messing with them? If so, who…Would manage the locks? Local authorities & the phone companies?

Were there any notable stories of a person somehow getting trapped in a telephone booth in otherwise ordinary circumstances (i.e. no disaster had struck)?

  • @[email protected]
    28•10 months ago

    There were no locks of the booths, and phones were in fact occasionally stolen. But it was generally not worth the hassle, and so there were no locks. Plus they were meant to be accessible 24/7.

    Finally, many times the phones weren’t in the booth and we’re just mounted to a wall. The booth was to give you some theoretical privacy and reduce background noise, that’s about it.

    • @[email protected]OP
      6•10 months ago

      Thanks! Fwiw in this context I’m thinking of the outdoor, completely(?) enclosed type of booths, but your reply includes those as well I gather.

      • @[email protected]
        10•10 months ago

        In Australia, our telephone booths didn’t have doors at all. Just a box like the size of a portaloo with s phone in it

        • @[email protected]OP
          2•10 months ago

          Wait, Australia, the place notorious for dangerous critters, made small, public enclosed spaces…Without doors? 😂 I’m guessing these were mainly in cities, so maybe the critter problem wasn’t as much of a concern, but I love the image this produces of an Aussie going to make a call and some snake or spider is sitting there around the phone.

          • @[email protected]English
            9•10 months ago

            Wait, Australia, the place notorious for dangerous critters, made small, public enclosed spaces…Without doors?

            Would you rather be inside with the dangerous critter? Particularly if they thought they were cornered, and became aggressive.

            People tend to be quite tetchy about having a spider land on them while they’re driving. Having one fall on them after they’ve just shut themselves into the phone booth may result in both abject terror, and casualties.