Explainer | Why the Western Electric Model 302 rotary phone is so iconic, ubiquitous in film noir and Hitchcock
- Released in 1937, the indestructible technology was a common sight in Hollywood thrillers such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, and remained in use for nearly 50 years
It doesn’t fold, you can’t doomscroll or take selfies with it, and there isn’t anything “smart” about it. But the iconic Western Electric Model 302, designed by Bell Labs engineer George Lum, was at the cutting edge of phone technology in 1937.
It is sleek and compact, rigorously modern and absent of the superfluous. Its stolid die-cast zinc body sweeps up from its rectangular, leather-footed base to cradle the ergonomic, subtly streamlined Bakelite handset.
The understated design was ubiquitous – if you’ve seen any American film made between 1937 and the advent of mobile phones (such as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 crime thriller Dial M for Murder, for example) there was probably one of them sitting in the background or clenched precariously between an actor’s shoulder and ear while he urgently scribbled clues to a murder case. Rare for any design, it had a run of almost 50 years and was finally retired only when Bell Telephone ceased to exist, in 1984.
Though it was portable – at least within the two-metre radius that its curly wall cord allowed – it was a substantial chunk of indestructible technology. I could imagine a wayward husband clocked with that hefty headset if he arrived home too late. (And while his skull might have been dented, I’m sure the handset would’ve remained unscathed.)
