Telephone Party Lines

New history blog posts every Monday.

If you have seen the 1959 film Pillow Talk, you will remember how Jan, played by Doris Day, kept trying to use the phone only to find that Brad, played by Rock Hudson, was constantly on their party line.  A party line consists of multiple telephone subscribers connected to the same land line. 

An incoming call would ring in all the homes connected to the party line, but a different ring would indicate the call was for your household. To make an outgoing call, you had to pick up the receiver and listen to see if someone else was on the line.  If you heard someone talking, you could try again later.    

In 1930, 63% of residential Bell system customer had party lines, according to the AT& T Archives at techchannel.att.com.  Most of these customers lived in rural and suburban areas. That number increased to 75% by 1950, due partially to a need to catch up with the need for private lines following World War II.  By 1965, only 27% of customers were still using party lines. 

Richard Titus describes how a party line was the only option in his book Dunwoody Isn’t Bucolic Anymore: Vignettes, Anecdotes and Miscellaneous Ramblings of the 1950s and 1960s.  The Titus family moved to a home along Roberts Drive in Dunwoody in 1950.  The home still stands on Glenrich Drive and is identified as the Larkin Martin Home circa 1840.

When the Titus family moved into the home, they had a four-party line with a Roswell exchange.  Sometimes it was possible to have a private line for an additional fee, but this was the only phone service available to their home.  If the family made a call to anywhere other than Roswell it was considered long distance. 

Later, their service improved when it changed over to a two-party line and the second party happened to be one of their friendly neighbors.  Then the family telephone service switched from a Roswell exchange to a Chamblee exchange.  They paid extra to call Atlanta and they paid a mileage charge for calls to Chamblee.  

One of the issues of a party line was the possibility of the line being busy in the case of an emergency.  It was also a problem that people occasionally pretended they had an emergency just to get the other party to hang up the line.

In 1946, the Bell System produced a film titled Party Lines to demonstrate proper etiquette for party line customers.  Customers are encouraged to not monopolize the telephone line and not speak rudely when asking others to get off the line.  The film featured the marionettes of Bill Baird, the same puppeteer who did the marionette performance in the movie The Sound of Music. 

My grandparents had a party line in their farmhouse on Covington Highway in the 1960s. 

When this story first appeared in the Dunwoody Crier newspaper, I asked readers to contact me with their party line memories. Here are a few of those memories.

Phil Stovall remembers his family had a party line in their home near Roswell Road and Wieuca Road.  As a teenager with a sister, his sister’s frequent use of the phone was more of an issue than the party line.  As their neighbors were beginning to get private lines, Phil recalls, his father did not want the extra cost of a private line.  This is the reason why many families continued to have party lines after a private line was available.   

Susan and Tom Player moved to Dunwoody in 1968.  Party lines were typical in Dunwoody at the time.  Due to the rapid growth around Atlanta, technicians were brought in from around the country to increase private telephone lines.  Susan recalls that one of her friends met and married one of those hired for the work.

Growing up in the West End area of Atlanta, Joyce Mathis remembers her family started out with a four-party line.  Later, they switched to a two-party line.  She had fun as a child listening in on phone calls.

Mary Lou Brooks remembers when the assistance of an operator was needed to make a call.  The caller would crank the phone and wait for the operator to ask for the number they were trying to reach.  The operator then made the call for you.

When Mary Lou was a child, her mother would take the family to visit a friend with a party line in Vergennes, Vermont.  The friend’s phone number was 133 ring 3.  This meant that the phone would have to ring three times, then pause, then keep ringing until someone at the house picked up the phone.  This ring pattern is how you knew the call was for your household and not for another home. 

When Mary Lou’s family moved to Georgia and Nancy Creek Heights in 1955, they had no phone line at all.  There were not enough phone lines in this area off Ashford Dunwoody Road in Brookhaven, considered far away from Atlanta at the time. 

The family’s next home was in Warren, Ohio, where they stayed for fourteen years.  This home had a party line.  Mary Lou says you never knew who was on the line and you never had privacy.  

Another movie that incorporates the party line is Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962).  In this film, two women are on the party line gossiping and talking about their ailments every time Mr. Hobbs, played by Jimmy Stewart, needs to use the telephone in his vacation house.  

Oglethorpe University train station

This photograph of the Oglethorpe University train station includes a view of Hermance Stadium in the background. The station was located directly across from the Peachtree Road campus in Brookhaven. Photo from the Philip Weltner Library Oglethorpe University.

The September 20, 1916 Atlanta Constitution newspaper announced the opening of Oglethorpe University railroad station. The Cross Keys flag stop closed when Oglethorpe University Station opened.

Students rode the engine, Air-Line Belle, to attend the newly opened Oglethorpe University Station in Brookhaven. Oglethorpe University Station was also home to the new Oglethorpe post office, and the offices of Silver Lake Park Company.  (Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South, 1995, Paul Hudson)

In an interview with James Magbee, who grew up on Peachtree Dunwoody Road, he recalled the old granite Oglethorpe University station. He remembered that young men from Buford commuted to Oglethorpe University aboard the Air-Line Belle.

The Oglethorpe University post office application shows the location as Land Lot 273, six miles south of the Chattahoochee River and one a half miles south of Nancy Creek, recorded here as Nancy’s Creek. The Chamblee Post Office was two miles away, Atlanta post office ten miles and Dunwoody six and a half miles according to the application.

Albert Martin of the pioneer Goodwin family also recalled the granite depot across the street from the university. Martin remembered that the depot building was home to Pierce Antiques in the 1960s and 1970s. When the Brookhaven Marta station and track were built, the old depot was demolished.

An advertisement for Pierce Antiques which appeared in the 1960s Atlanta newspapers.

Another view of Oglethorpe Station. Photo from the Philip Weltner Library at Oglethorpe University.

The Moving Pictures in Atlanta

The first moving pictures in Atlanta were shown at the Cotton States and International Exposition of Georgia, held in 1895 at Piedmont Park.  A movie theater was constructed along an area called Midway Heights on 10th Street. The attraction was called “Living Pictures,” where the newly developed vitascope projector was demonstrated. It wasn’t very popular at the exposition so visitors were allowed to enter for free.  People made use of the opportunity to step inside the small theater and rest for a few minutes. It may have been destined to close due to lack of attendance, but never had to because a fire destroyed the theater space. (“Atlanta and Environs Volume II”, by Franklin Garrett)

The first movie house opened in Atlanta in 1904.  It was called The Star and was located at 36 Decatur Street.  It was successful enough for a second movie house called The Eldorado to open soon after at 146 Marietta Street.

By 1907, fourteen theaters were listed in the Atlanta directory.  They were known as “electric” theaters and were usually small store front buildings with chairs nailed together to form a row. The early films lasted about fifteen minutes. 

The Montgomery Theatre at 87 Peachtree Street opened in August of 1911, advertising a small balcony for vocal performers, an organ and an orchestra.  This was the beginning of longer films with an actual story line.  The theatre was later known as Georgian, Odeon and Tudor Theatre.

Talking movies came to Atlanta in 1928 with The Jazz Singer showing at the Metropolitan Theatre.  The Metropolitan first opened in 1911 and was located at the intersection of Luckie Street and Broad Street.  By 1929, several talking movies were shown around Atlanta, including The Virginian, starring Gary Cooper at the Paramount Theatre.  The Paramount, located at 169 Peachtree Street, originally opened as a live theatre in 1920 and was known as Howard Theatre. 

Gone with the Wind premiered at Loews Grand Theatre in 1939 with much fanfare and stars of the film attending.  The building was originally the home of DeGive’s Grand Opera House built in 1893.  In 1972, a fire burned the Loews Grand Theatre.

Other theatres included the Rialto on Forsyth Street, Buckhead Theatre on Roswell Road, Temple Theatre in Grant Park and Center Theatre (later Central) on Whitehall Street.  The old Rhodes Theatre was located on Peachtree Road next to Rhodes Hall. 

It wasn’t necessary to go downtown in the 1930’s and 1940’s to see a movie.  Theaters just outside of Atlanta included Brookhaven Theater opening in 1938, Avondale Theater in Avondale Estates opening in 1938 and Decatur Theater opening in 1940. 

The movies we associate with Christmas now did not necessarily premiere or show during the holiday season. Meet Me in St. Louis played at Rhodes Theatre in 1945, Christmas in Connecticut played at the Buckhead, Temple and Center Theatres in 1945, Miracle on 34th Street was showing at the Brookhaven Theatre in 1947, and White Christmas was featured at the Fox Theatre in 1954.   

Fred Donaldson, who was born at Donaldson-Bannister Farm in Dunwoody, grew up going to the movies in Brookhaven, Buckhead or downtown Atlanta.  He and his friends would either catch a ride or walk to Brookhaven and then if they decided to head to Buckhead or to the Paramount or Fox Theatre downtown, they would catch the trolley from Brookhaven. 

Joe Greear recalls that the first movie he saw was The Fly at Brookhaven Theatre. He describes the location. “Across Peachtree Street from the Building Supply and A & P was another cluster of businesses including a post office and a movie theater. The Brookhaven Theatre was where I saw my first scary movie-the original version of ‘The Fly’ starring Vincent Price. I was about six or seven and I remember being so scared that I couldn’t watch the end and left my seat to wait in the lobby for my brother to emerge. The Brookhaven Theatre was not an elaborate movie house like The Fox, and had only a few embellishments. Despite its simplicity it was a nice place to watch a movie and I always loved the smell of the popcorn in the lobby.” (From “Growing up on the Edges,” by Joe Greear, held in the archives of DeKalb History Center)

1965 Atlanta newspapers advertise the film The Sound of Music at Martin’s Cinerama at 583 Peachtree Street.  This theater was built in 1927 and was originally a live playhouse called Erlanger Theatre.  In the 1950’s it began showing movies and was called Tower Theatre, later becoming Martin’s Cinerama, Atlanta Theatre and then Columbia Theatre.  It was demolished to make way for a parking lot in 1995. 

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Tuggle Dairy of DeKalb County

New posts every Monday morning.

In an Atlanta Constitution article from November 11, 1940, “Tuggle Dairy is a Showplace on Briarcliff Road,” this DeKalb County dairy is described as one of the most modern in the county. The dairy was run by C. C. Tuggle and his two sons, A. C. Tuggle and R. W. Tuggle. DeKalb County had many dairies during this time period.

C. C. Tuggle began in the business when he was a boy, following in his father’s footsteps. The one-hundred-acre dairy farm had an address of 3200 Briarcliff Road.

The dairy had 150 cows in 1940, mostly Jerseys according to the article. A new and modern pasteurizing and bottling plant had recently been built. The volume of milk product each day was about 300 gallons. Milk was sent to restaurants, homes and hotels across Atlanta.

An advertisement on the same page as the article describes the product as “Grade A Natural Raw and Pasteurized MILK, rich in vitamins and food value, especially good for babies, delivered at your door. C. C. Tuggle Dairy, 3200 Briarcliff Road, N. E. Atlanta, phone number VD 1952.”

The dairy also manufactured its own ice in a recently built plant. Readers of the article are invited to visit. “If you are careful about the milk you use-and you ought to be-drop out along Briarcliff Road some day and inspect this new and unusually sanitary dairy. Mr. Tuggle or his courteous sons would be glad to welcome you and show you through an ideally clean and sanitary dairy.”

In 1953, another article about C. C. Tuggle Dairy Farm appears in the Atlanta Constitution. Just a few days before Christmas, a story titled “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year from C. C. Tuggle.” The dairy is run by A. C. Tuggle and R. W. Tuggle by 1953.

Once again, the modern methods and equipment of the dairy are lauded. “Hundreds of families, markets, institutions and hotels in Atlanta and vicinity are served by the C. C. Tuggle Dairy fleet of modern trucks.” Visitors are welcome to Tuggle Dairy to watch the handling of milk, pasteurizing, bottling, washing and sterilizing bottles.

The 1953 article refers to an address of 2370 Briarcliff Road, which today is near where Briarcliff Road meets Sheridan Road. The earlier article address is along Briarcliff just north of Clairmont Road. The distance between these two locations is almost two miles.

Were these two separate locations, were there two dairies named Tuggle or is this just a matter of addresses changing over the years? These are questions I don’t have the answer to yet. If you know more about Tuggle Dairy, please write me at pasttensega@gmail.com.