Dial 9... for fun!

So here's another thing the stinkin' future promised us and never delivered, he thought bitterly: A computerized pub, ca. 1965. It doesn't look all that futuristic from the vantage point of today (or Today!!!, as BBC1 probably would have styled it) -- I mean, push-button phones weren't an unimaginable prospect even in 1965. To be fair, though, in 1965 Britain was still trying to recover from the Blitz. In fact, the whole prospect seems to inspire a gloomy air. Take a look at the poor customers in this clip, who look like they're assembled for a wake, not an evening down at the local. Now that I think about it, I'm actually a little relieved the scenario sketched here never came to pass. I was once served a 7Up by a robot at London's YO! Sushi. I still wake up screaming. (Via How To Be A Retronaut.)

Bill Barol is the author of Thanks For Killing Me, a novel. He blogs at Extra Bonus Super Happy Funtime.

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Anonymous

1965 Britain “was still trying to recover from the Blitz”??? 20 years after the Blitz? I don’t think we were. It was actually a fairly prosperous time!
Boba Fett Diop

I think I’d rather get a drink at my neighborhood Milk Bar. Horrorshow!
btb

I swear there once was (is?) a diner in Electric City or Grand Coulee, WA that had a similar push-button system.
mdh

is that a Motorola logo?
brooklyntwang

I like how the host tries to walk away with a mic cable coming out of his shirt at the end.
anechoic

‘I mean, push-button phones weren’t an unimaginable prospect even in 1965.’

not true

Wikipedia: ‘DTMF, as used in push-button telephone tone dialing, was known throughout the Bell System by the trademark Touch-Tone. This term was first used by AT&T in commerce on July 5, 1960 and then was introduced to the public on ***November 18, 1963***, when the first push-button telephone was made available to the public.’
- Anonymous
  
  Read the line you quoted from Bill again, slowly and carefully.
edgore

I find that I am unable to distinguish between this and an episode of “Look Around You”. Which is awesome.
- jonk
  
  +1!
hallpass

I’ll never get tired of the half assed production values of the BBC in the 1960s. The hosts’ heads weren’t in the opening shot? Oh well. Time is money, you know, old chap.

I first noticed it in early episodes of Monty Python as the sets visibly collapsed during sketches. And those shows didn’t go out live. Honestly, I think I had higher values for sketches I taped for class in elementary school.

Also, “If you want something unusual like two cherries or a cube of ice …”
- Anonymous
  
  The hosts’ heads weren’t in shot because whoever posted this video cropped it from an aspect ratio of 4:3 to 16:9 and then posted the cropped video as 4:3, so you can see the black bars at the top and bottom where the original content is now lost.
  
  When I watch it on YouTube, the resulting 4:3 video is then shown in a 16:9 frame, resulting in black bars all the way round the video, and so the madness continues…
lottakatz

Forget the pub, the intro to the program is the real gem. Look at the cultural icons, the architecture and the women’s fashion, just look at them!
Anonymous

If your waitress is Jenny, dial 867-5309…eight six seven five three-oh-nigh-ee-ine…
shadowfirebird

Push-button phones probably *were* unthinkable in 1965 in the UK.

The phone service was a monopoly, and customers were not even allowed to own the handsets; they were leased. There was no choice of handset until 1964, when (according to Wikipedia) the trimphone was introduced.
ablebody

“there’s a fly in your soup because this technology is all the buzz, you twat.”
pidg

Yes, strikingly similar to the ‘automated casserole restaurant’ in Look Around You :)
TheRogue

Where were the hosts supposed to be walking off to at the end of the show? He was tethered with a mic cord, there was no exit behind them, and as the stage lights went down you could see them awkwardly shuffling about. How odd.
The Thompson Five

In the future womens hair will resemble a coonskin cap.
Anonymous

Wow, there used to be a restaurant with that exact system at the mall in Lubbock, Texas. Used to go there all the time when I was growing up. I think they might have even used the rotary dials. I swear it was called the “Britannica” or something.
LightningRose

AT&T demonstrated touch tone (DTMF) phones at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5na44D0Dw
Anonymous

187 gets you a Bloody Mary? Many rappers will be surprised by that.
MrsBug

Nothing says the future like Computer font.
- btb
  
  Does anyone know the origins of this typeface anyhow? Why has it associated with the computer for so long? Something to do with XY displays?
  - Anonymous
    
    This font is used for MICR code. It’s the magnetic ink coded number at the bottom of your bank checks. It was built to be “machine readable”. The reason this font is so popular with computer subjects is because it is used by computers to read.
    
    Elgog Partynipple
  - Anonymous
    
    It’s supposed to resemble the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) font used on checks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition