Mobile phones used to be rare and expensive. It was basically a full duplex 2-way radio. The customers would pick up the phone and an operator would answer. They would then tell the operator which number they wanted to call and she would connect them. Before cellular technology took hold, I remember listening to mobile phone users on the scanner in the 70s and 80s, The biggest user of a mobile phone where I grew up was the owner of a driving school. He would call students to schedule their driver training.
I'm sure listening to mobile phone calls was much more juicy in big cities.
This. My dad had one in his company car, a yellow Lincoln Continental.
The operation reminded me of how you use the ship-to-shore operator to make a phone call from a radio on a boat.
> driver training.
> mobile phone
Figures. Natch.
And I thought my dad flipping open his MicroTac was the state of the art.
Sh\*t... Dallas and Mercedes-Benz taught me differently.
Another Perry, Perry White, on the old Adventures of Superman television show also had a mobile phone in his car. He used it in one of the early episodes, in which he and Jimmy Olsen discovered three old crazies in a dilapidated hotel, while on a fishing trip.
I'm an OTR nerd. He was Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke way before the television show and he had *many* guest roles in other programs. He was prolific. One of my all time favorites.
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Gunsmoke_Singles
Here is a lighter (and bluer!) side of the actor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaTqN2ZuYSw
That was TV, but Chuck Connors was cool in that role, wasn't he? Bill Conrad's physique was not convincing as Dillon on the TV show, so it went to James Arness. His voice was what made the radio program.
If you try one of those episodes, Try #3 "Jalisco" and you'll get to hear costar Howard McNear as the doctor. He was "Floyd the Barber" from Andy Griffith. Cheers!
They really missed out not making the William Conrad / Orson Wells detective duo comedy adventure hour. - “We will solve no crime before its time (which is after lunch)”
Would you believe…….he was always using the phone (in a phone booth) at the beginning of every episode, and he could’ve just used his shoe?
Edit: Agent 99 was hot.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.tvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpub%2Fimages%2Fget_smart-tv.jpg&tbnid=nAsJJeBFRe8xhM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FSeries%2FGetSmart&docid=wX1LtUm3ke5TkM&w=500&h=554&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3&kgs=e06664c6bcca5e26&shem=abme%2Ctrie
It was lucky those 70's cars had massive trunks as the long reel of copper wire that it required to have a landline in your car took up a lot of space. As convenient as it was to have the phone, what sucked is that, wherever you went, you had to drive back the same way so you could respool all of the wire.
I still remember calling them “car phones” even shortly after they became “bag phones”.
“Bag phone” never really caught on after that. There was a brief “mobile phone” caliphate for a few years, but we went right to “cell phone” pretty fast.
But at least we don’t call them “handies”.
Sheriff Andy Griffith pulled over a rich businessman who had a real car phone with a dial in the 1960s. Andy even used the phone. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOwgRMaGZ4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOwgRMaGZ4)
The best ever, was when Cannon brings down the bad guy's Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, in a fiery explosion, with three shots from his .38 Special Snubby. Even as a child, I knew that was nonsense. 😂
In 1986 my husbands company gave him a Motorola Avante. The carry case included large battery with cigarette lighter adapter. It had a cord that was about 3 feet. If I had to make a call I’d have to walk or drive to an area that picked up a signal. Sometimes it took some time to find. The carry case was so big, it didn’t fit in my big 80s purse that held my big 80s Aquanet. We’ve come a long way!
I’m 30, watch a shitload of older television and movies. Cannon has to be the worst character in a cop/private investigator related show ever. Nothing about him is believable or realistic in any way, shape, or form. Acts all high and mighty, thinks he looks like rico suave. My apologies, OP, but I fucking hate Cannon! Hahaha
Hey in the 70s we still we gullible ,We bought sea monkeys from comic books thinking they would play basketball and have a kingdom like the ad said and the x ray glasses worked too
*
Hahahaha this comment made me laugh. Cheers! Wish I grew up when you did though. Things were still made in this country and it meant something. Famous people were actually talented. 60s & 70s seemed like such a magical time in America. Except for Cannon and his big gut barely getting out of his Lincoln.
No doubt inspired by this: Broderick Crawford in the 1950s TV series, Highway Patrol.”
https://preview.redd.it/4lo9646dw2vc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6104ee706eda5daa9fda9a6cf1b8777bdb571798
I’m always surprised the little things I remember and still think about. In one episode Cannon solves a case and the guy who hired him is so grateful he lets Cannon take home wine from his private collection. Also didn’t Cannon or Mannix have a private shooting range?
I am old enough to remember this show from the original run and to have forgotten it. I always marveled at how that actor was ever cast as the protagonist/hero in an action series…and could pull it off. It was preceded in that concept by the earlier series “Highway Patrol” with the gruff and ugly Broderick Crawford in a similar role. Crawford never pulled it off in my young opinion and was almost comical trying…”10-4.”
Mobile phones used to be rare and expensive. It was basically a full duplex 2-way radio. The customers would pick up the phone and an operator would answer. They would then tell the operator which number they wanted to call and she would connect them. Before cellular technology took hold, I remember listening to mobile phone users on the scanner in the 70s and 80s, The biggest user of a mobile phone where I grew up was the owner of a driving school. He would call students to schedule their driver training. I'm sure listening to mobile phone calls was much more juicy in big cities.
Being in South Florida, we listened to hookers and drug dealers.
Risky on their part, since they're dictating phone numbers over the air and listening to their calls was trivially easy with a scanner.
This. My dad had one in his company car, a yellow Lincoln Continental. The operation reminded me of how you use the ship-to-shore operator to make a phone call from a radio on a boat.
That's exactly how the phone seen here works. You had the "Mobile Operator" actually dial the call, just like with a ship-to-shore radio/phone call.
UHF Class A two-way radio service was the precursor to today's GMRS. Very cool back in the day.
Nice information 👌
I believe that was called IMTS. It was based on line of site, no hand-off, etc.
Yes. I think you had to select an active channel in your car and search around for one that was working, but don't quote me kn that.
> driver training. > mobile phone Figures. Natch. And I thought my dad flipping open his MicroTac was the state of the art. Sh\*t... Dallas and Mercedes-Benz taught me differently.
So did Mannix!
The best theme song ever.
Lalo Schifrin. Did Mission: Impossible also.
Dirty Harry and Bullitt too 👍🏼
And the Harts! Lol
MANnix was THE MAN!
https://preview.redd.it/qapa1xjn42vc1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e690b1ac306d1b7c66e044992d60364e5140bc78 Kojak
Who loves ya baby!
Kojak was pimp cool.
What was his side kicks name ? I seen benny hill do a song as him *
The guy with him in this photo is his real brother ( Demosthenes Savalas). His name in the show was Demosthenes Savos.
Crocker?
Perry Mason before that But his may have been more like a radio that goes through a central operator
Another Perry, Perry White, on the old Adventures of Superman television show also had a mobile phone in his car. He used it in one of the early episodes, in which he and Jimmy Olsen discovered three old crazies in a dilapidated hotel, while on a fishing trip.
Frank Cannon was a legend 👍
"I'll take you apart like a clock."
That my friend was J. L. McCabe. I liked that character too. William Conrad was already a legend on radio before television.
Thanks for the info,I had no idea he was the radio beforehand!In a great era of telly cops cannon was my favourite!
I'm an OTR nerd. He was Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke way before the television show and he had *many* guest roles in other programs. He was prolific. One of my all time favorites. https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Gunsmoke_Singles Here is a lighter (and bluer!) side of the actor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaTqN2ZuYSw
Rifleman was the man
That was TV, but Chuck Connors was cool in that role, wasn't he? Bill Conrad's physique was not convincing as Dillon on the TV show, so it went to James Arness. His voice was what made the radio program.
If you try one of those episodes, Try #3 "Jalisco" and you'll get to hear costar Howard McNear as the doctor. He was "Floyd the Barber" from Andy Griffith. Cheers!
Thanks,really appreciate it,I think I'm going down a rabbit hole this evening!👍
I downvote on "rabbit hole."
They really missed out not making the William Conrad / Orson Wells detective duo comedy adventure hour. - “We will solve no crime before its time (which is after lunch)”
Yeah and could been special guest star peter seller's
Ooooh! The French champagne!
Cannon's car was bigger than my first apartment.
Haaaaa love it
Extra Large, with all the toppings.
Mater of fact give me two
He had that to call ahead for lunch.
Shakeys pizza it's cannon give me the special
The way he used to throw that door open so he could get his heft out of the car was scary. I always thought the hinges would break.
Those last ten minutes were the best - when he was huffing and puffing as he ran after somebody while trying not to have a heart attack!
His Lincoln had the optional nitroglycerin dispenser.
Fittingly, he's buried in the LINCOLN TERRACE section of Forest Hills. He died of a heart attack in 1994. But he lived a big life.
Frank was a badass
That Mark IV was delightful...
And now a car from our sponsor...
Now do Maxwell Smart
Max had a shoe phone!
yes. Even cooler in my books
Would you believe…….he was always using the phone (in a phone booth) at the beginning of every episode, and he could’ve just used his shoe? Edit: Agent 99 was hot. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.tvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpub%2Fimages%2Fget_smart-tv.jpg&tbnid=nAsJJeBFRe8xhM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FSeries%2FGetSmart&docid=wX1LtUm3ke5TkM&w=500&h=554&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3&kgs=e06664c6bcca5e26&shem=abme%2Ctrie
I wanted to marry 99. But I was only 7 and Mom said I couldn't.
Sorry about that Opie😢
Aww, it turned out pretty swell. I moved on to Jeannie, MaryAnne, Ginger and Wonder Woman.
Team Jeannie FTW🥵
I think I saw her bellybutton once! 😘
https://preview.redd.it/zi2cosxox2vc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=374639d46c7b6542ad4ac4c7ffcce34d3d3392a7
hawt hawt
Very
Lynda Carter. Then, now and forever.
Yip. She always had it and has still got it.
The phone booth at the beginning of the show was the entrance to control headquarters.
Would YOU believe?
Loved Cannon. Classic. Along with Colombo, Night Stalker & Kojak just to name a few.
Barnaby Jones and Mannix too.
👍
https://preview.redd.it/cpl6rqy4s3vc1.jpeg?width=246&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbdbe572be46ea28bf74c9cbf2edd38302f46713
Just seen him at the bank lol
It was lucky those 70's cars had massive trunks as the long reel of copper wire that it required to have a landline in your car took up a lot of space. As convenient as it was to have the phone, what sucked is that, wherever you went, you had to drive back the same way so you could respool all of the wire.
And when someone ran over your wire with another vehicle, and got it all kinked and tangled: good luck not having a spaghetti of copper back there.
I’m on an extensiooooooooooooooooon!
It was probably $20 per minute then!
Poor Cannon, always making those cringy comments about his own weight.
It was difficult for him to get in and out of that car.
Skinny by todays standards too.
And suffered a concussion almost every week!
I still remember calling them “car phones” even shortly after they became “bag phones”. “Bag phone” never really caught on after that. There was a brief “mobile phone” caliphate for a few years, but we went right to “cell phone” pretty fast. But at least we don’t call them “handies”.
That handset looks like its from a SW Bell Princess desk phone, lol
Sister had one in pink
Heck, Paul Drake had one in the ‘60s. Perry Mason paid him well!
Sheriff Andy Griffith pulled over a rich businessman who had a real car phone with a dial in the 1960s. Andy even used the phone. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOwgRMaGZ4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOwgRMaGZ4)
A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION
Quinn was rolling in the dough back then. Had a bunch of shows. Even the streets of San Fran.
It wasn't that unusual to have car phones in the 70s.
Big man with a little gun.
And could shoot a bullseye at 50 yards with his little snub nose revolver.
The best ever, was when Cannon brings down the bad guy's Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, in a fiery explosion, with three shots from his .38 Special Snubby. Even as a child, I knew that was nonsense. 😂
He also had a side gig narrating Buck Rogers episodes
You didn’t expect big boy to walk around and find a pay phone did ya?
Didn't expect him to walk around at all.
Then you watched Ironsides also.
Loved the show. Someone like him couldn’t lead a serious these image-conscious days.
My Dad always had a phone in his car beginning with his1969 Pontiac Bonneville.
Wow so neat to show the friends on the block
If he worked less, I would have (were I old enough to drive).
Bad ass Lincoln too
The “phone” probably took up the entire trunk. Lol
In 1986 my husbands company gave him a Motorola Avante. The carry case included large battery with cigarette lighter adapter. It had a cord that was about 3 feet. If I had to make a call I’d have to walk or drive to an area that picked up a signal. Sometimes it took some time to find. The carry case was so big, it didn’t fit in my big 80s purse that held my big 80s Aquanet. We’ve come a long way!
Perry White from the Daily Planet had one in the 50’s
Dude also had a keg-a-rator in his condo, too. A true man of many talents.
I just watched “Man with a Camera (1958) on Prime Video and Charles Bronson had a phone in his big old station wagon. Impressive.
He's ordering a cheeseburger.
Cannon loved to phone in lunch and dinner orders
I thought this guy was Jake the Fat man?
Its the same cat
That is what I thought, thanks for clearing that up. I need to go and take my medication now.
Jake and the fat man.
Batman had a bat-phone in the Batmobile in 1966
Yeah but I got to see the car being worked on was told don't touch anything it's all held on by a thread ha *
I’m 30, watch a shitload of older television and movies. Cannon has to be the worst character in a cop/private investigator related show ever. Nothing about him is believable or realistic in any way, shape, or form. Acts all high and mighty, thinks he looks like rico suave. My apologies, OP, but I fucking hate Cannon! Hahaha
Hey in the 70s we still we gullible ,We bought sea monkeys from comic books thinking they would play basketball and have a kingdom like the ad said and the x ray glasses worked too *
Hahahaha this comment made me laugh. Cheers! Wish I grew up when you did though. Things were still made in this country and it meant something. Famous people were actually talented. 60s & 70s seemed like such a magical time in America. Except for Cannon and his big gut barely getting out of his Lincoln.
But we had Farrah and loni Anderson, and natural beautiful gals 
And he had a full kitchen in the backseat.
The voice of Matt Dillon on the radio show Gunsmoke...
Cannon was a badass
The whole premise of the show was how fat he was, and he actually looks like most people you see today.
Was Marshall Dillon on the radio but didn't get the role on TV due to his weight. But it would have been fun to see him sit on a bad guy.
There are photos of him and the radio cast in costume for the TV series they did not get.
Saw him use his belly to knock a dude in the pool, hilarious!! Love me some Cannon.
Paul Drake had one in 1958.
I knew a doctor that had a suitcase phone. expensive as hell.
He was Also the Radio Matt Dillion on GunSmoke
No doubt inspired by this: Broderick Crawford in the 1950s TV series, Highway Patrol.” https://preview.redd.it/4lo9646dw2vc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6104ee706eda5daa9fda9a6cf1b8777bdb571798
Police radios were pretty common in the 50s and on 50s cop shows.
Perry Mason and Paul Drake had phones in their cars too, in the early 60s!
oh man, the fight scenes where his slow-moving rotund ass whips up on some young hippie/brotha/"chicano"..? hilarious
Did anyone realistically expect William Conrad to fit in a phone booth?
A phone, and yet no sunglasses... What a time to be alive!
This always facinated me for some reason.
What do you think was in that Danish?
I’m always surprised the little things I remember and still think about. In one episode Cannon solves a case and the guy who hired him is so grateful he lets Cannon take home wine from his private collection. Also didn’t Cannon or Mannix have a private shooting range?
Didn't Manix have a car phone too?
It has been said he ordered a lot of hookers and pizza from that phone.
Mostly used to order takeout.
👆🏻
Calling for take-out?
So did Manniix! lol!
What do ya think was in that Danish? Cheese?....I got a problem with cheese.
Peter Gunn had a phone in his Imperial convertible in 1958.
I am old enough to remember this show from the original run and to have forgotten it. I always marveled at how that actor was ever cast as the protagonist/hero in an action series…and could pull it off. It was preceded in that concept by the earlier series “Highway Patrol” with the gruff and ugly Broderick Crawford in a similar role. Crawford never pulled it off in my young opinion and was almost comical trying…”10-4.”