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From: juggler@hale.UUCP (The Juggler)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: What are 700 and 555 Numbers?
Message-ID: <15501@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 90 01:21:59 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 889, Message 7 of 10


> |I'm glad that they at least use 555- numbers now.  I remember about
> |ten years ago when a muscial group (the B-52s?) did a song about
> |someone's phone number.  All over the country, the poor owners of
> |xxx-xxxx were driven batty by fans just trying out the number to see
> |if anything would happen.  I'm not sure how the phone company (at
> |that time it was just Ma Bell) dealt with it.

> Actually, the B-52's song in question is "6060-842", which is from
> their first, self-titled album, which came out in 1979.  Back then, I
> don't believe there were any valid seven-digit numbers of the form
> N0N-XXXX.

I remember another "phone" song by an artist I have forgotten the name
of. I believe the title of the song was "Jenny", and they kept
repeating her supposed phone number, which was 867-5309. This was from
the early 80's ...


[Moderator's Note: One example which has stuck in my mind since this
thread began was the use of BOWery 9-1000. A 'crime on the waterfront'
type movie from the 1940's (title long forgotten -- anyone remember
it?) has a closing scene in which we see a dimly lit, very cluttered
office in the wee hours of the morning. The area is deserted, and a
phone on the desk is ringing incessantly. After it has rung perhaps a
dozen times, from a distance we see the back of a man as he shuffles
down the hall and goes up to the phone to answer it.  He mumbles into
the phone, "Bowery nine one thousand". An indignant woman is on the
other end and her shrill voice demands, "Is Mr. Johnson there?". The
man replies, "Yes, Mr. Johnson is here."  (woman) "Put him on the
phone this minute! That no-good husband of mine!"  (man) "I'm sorry
madame, he can't speak to you on the phone."  (woman) "What! Did you
hear me?" ... then suspicious, she demands, "Say! What tavern is this
I have reached? You send my no-good husband home right now! I don't
want to come there and get him myself!!!"  (man) "This is not a
tavern, madame."  (woman) "What? What number is this?"  (man) "Boweryp
nine one thousand. You're connected with the city morgue. Your husband
is dead, madame; you'll have to come and get him, I'm afraid."  PAT]