A bevy of beautiful telephone operators regale you in song with the joy and simplicity of making a telephone call. An extract from a film made by the GPO Film Unit, called The Fairy of the Phone (1936). Producer: Basil Wright, Director: William Coldstream, 12" 45'. "A fanciful comedy with musical sequences. The script was based on Page 6 of the London Telephone Directory - instructions to subscribers on the use of the telephone.". This particular clip is popular with producers of documentaries about the telephone and has appeared on television a number of times. Most recently was in the programme Inventions that Changed the World introduced by Jeremy Clarkson.
The British Film Institute write: "Painter William Coldstream was, like W H Auden and Benjamin Britten, an employee of the GPO Film Unit from 1934-37. This film conveys the information given to telephone subscribers through the format of a musical review. The fairy of the phone gives useful hints as she tiptoes along the wires."
Listen to the song as an MP3 file [321 kB]
With trunks and toll and telegrams
and all exchanges too,
just telephone
and we will put you through.
Ring ABErcorn or ARChway.
Ring MAYfair, HOP or SLOane.
Ring anywhere:
we're waiting on your phone.
Do you want a little warning
to make you get up in the morning?
Is your house on fire?
Do you want to send a wire?
Just lift up the receiver.
That's all you've got to do
to telephone
and we will put you through.
The video clip used to play on a loop at the BT Museum in Blackfriars, which is where I remember it from. The Fairy of the Phone is included in the collection The Post Office In The Thirties, available from MovieMail and other sources.
[pictures, lyric and recording © The Post Office]
Thanks to John Chenery for additional information.