Invisible Diplomats

This industrial film from Jerry Fairbanks Production was made for American Telephone& Telegraph. It shows three switchboard operators talking about their role in being the front line of their offices, and, incidentally, showing off the sort of switchboard equipment that AT&T sold sixty years ago.

The switchboard has vanished from the scene. Nowadays, everything is cel phones and automatic telephone trees to get you to the wrong person. Back then, however, most sizable businesses had their own switchboard, and operators -- usually women -- to operate them and get the call to the right individual.

It's an expensive short, with a goodly amount of flair in its production, from the use of Technicolor instead of one of the cheaper color film alternatives, to the cast, which included well known players of the era.