Wow Picture Phones! Electronic Mail! AT&T Predicted Them In 1962. Fun To Watch.
This video was made by AT&T for the 1962 world's fair in Seattle. AT&T had a popular exhibit called "The World of Tomorrow" which provided a glimpse into what the future might hold in terms of phone technology and communication. The exhibit was a showcase of some of the most advanced technologies and concepts that AT&T was working on at the time in association with its Bell Labs division. It provided visitors with an immersive experience that was designed to make them feel like they were stepping into a world of science fiction.
One of the main attractions of the exhibit were demonstrations that showed how people might communicate in the future. These demonstrations included video phones which allowed people to see and talk to each other in real-time and electronic mail which allowed people to send messages instantly over long distances. AT&T also showcased a "picturephone" that allowed people to see live video feeds of events happening in other parts of the world.
In addition to these communication technologies, the exhibit also featured demonstrations of other futuristic concepts, such as a "robot secretary" that could take dictation and type out letters, and a "home of the future" that was fully automated and featured voice-activated appliances and other conveniences.
One of the most famous predictions was made by AT&T's president at the time, John D. Kraus, who said that "in a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face." This statement was based on the belief that advances in technology would allow people to use their phones to transmit images, video, & other forms of data.
I was in college at this time & thrilled by the idea of a picture phone. The idea was to allow people to see each other while they talked on the phone which was seen as a revolutionary new form of communication that would bring people closer together.
Despite the initial excitement around the concept, however, the picture phone failed to gain widespread adoption, and it ultimately never became the ubiquitous technology that AT&T had envisioned. There were several reasons why this was the case:
The cost of the technology. The early picture phones were expensive to produce, and the service was expensive to use, which made it inaccessible to many people. Additionally, the technology was complex and required a lot of bandwidth, which made it difficult to transmit over the existing telephone network.
The user experience. While the idea of seeing the person you were talking to was appealing in theory, in practice, the early picture phones produced low-quality video that was often blurry and difficult to make out. This made the experience less than ideal, and many people preferred to stick with traditional phone calls.
The issue of privacy. Many people were uncomfortable with the idea of being seen while they talked on the phone, and they preferred to maintain a sense of anonymity and distance in their conversations.
Another technology that AT&T spoke about back then was electronic mail. What an idea! It was initially proposed by a researcher Ray Tomlinson who was working at Bell Labs.
Tomlinson's original idea was to create a messaging system that would allow people to send short, text-based messages to each other using the existing computer networks that were being developed at the time. His idea was based on the concept of the "mailboxes" that were used by telephone operators to store messages for subscribers who were not available.
Over time Tomlinson began to refine the concept of electronic mail, developing new protocols and standards that would make it easier to send and receive messages over long distances. By the late 1960s, the first rudimentary forms of e-mail were beginning to emerge, and they were quickly embraced by researchers and scientists who were looking for new ways to collaborate and share information.
Other predictions made by AT&T in the 20th century about the 21st century included the idea that phones would become more compact and portable, with the company envisioning a "pocket-sized" phone that could be carried around easily. AT&T also predicted that phones would become more integrated with computers and that they would be able to access information from around the world through a "telephonic network" that would link together people and machines in a global information network.
If you search the word "phone" on my KZread channel you will find many other fascinating clips made at different times. And if you enjoy this please support my efforts by clicking the Super Thanks button below the video screen.
Thank you
David Hoffman filmmaker
Пікірлер: 98
It’s beautiful to see the way people used to speak and act. Poised, polite and respectable with dignity.
@karenh2890
Жыл бұрын
Well, people may have been slightly more polite back then, but remember, this is a commercial.
@photolabguy
Жыл бұрын
Agreed, but the 2 kids kept cutting in line. 🤣
@mth469
Жыл бұрын
In today's terms: "Get his ass on the line, yo!"
@rickyfitness252
Жыл бұрын
Women hadn't been voting that long
@Swampzoid
Жыл бұрын
This is how they portrayed life on TV then. It's not how life really was then.
Beepers, touch tone calling, speed-dial, call forwarding, call waiting, conference calls, video calls, a "proto-internet" and convenient features that all came to be. Whenever I read or watch something like this, it makes me smile. It's a testament to human ingenuity. We can say they "predicted" it but in reality these weren't lucky guesses ... they were conceptualizing and developing it. They were telling the public their ambitions and ideas and what it may be like when developed ... And they did it. They made it happen. In fact, it turned out to be much better than they originally believed. Without ambitious, creative and steadfast people like this, willing to look ever-forward ...we wouldn't have the amazing things we have today. And it really is amazing ... To think of our humble origins as scavengers and hunter-gatherers ... To becoming space-farers, Sea-goers, building massive buildings that touch the sky, molding the world around us and having super computers in the palm of everyone's hands. Communicating at the speed of light and more ... It's really amazing and awe inspiring what we take for granted every day! Who knows what future generations will think of, build upon and create? The possibilities are endless~
@pierrechareau9466
Жыл бұрын
All of these inventions and so called tools have been weaponized against humanity. Like a salt lick for a cow; the cow has no idea that he/ she will be turned into a hamburger and neither do the happy go lucky, naive, un-read, ill informed and downright stupid human beings. The elite corporatoCracy that rules all has had humanity on it’s collective knees since the beginning of time
@newmankidman5763
Жыл бұрын
Mr. E, rarely do I like reading long comments, but I liked reading yours, as it was positive, well written, and pleasant to read
@josephdykes1820
Жыл бұрын
You forgot one thing that they barely mentioned. Solar batteries (they neglected to say solar panels)
This is amazing educational footage from the 60s just to see how drastically technology has changed since the analog days
I saw this display at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. All I remember was the video display phones none of the other displays. The only other significant memory for me was seeing the actual Aston Martin Sean Connery drove in the James Bond movies.
I was 7 in 62. This gal was the perfect spokesperson. The young couples excitement so corny, so sixties! Just love it! Water those lawns! Thank you, always, David!
@decavalerie6484
Жыл бұрын
amazing!
@brianarbenz1329
Жыл бұрын
Bell meticulously chose its instructional film presenters to be authoritative yet obedient. With just a hint of charm, but not too alluring.
@MicahScottPnD
4 ай бұрын
I just watched this for the second time I think? A thing that stood out to me this time... Making a piece like this, you have approximately one bazillion editing choices. The choice of the dogs out on the lawn when the sprinklers go off, holy mackerel, it just puts a smile on my face! 😂😂😂❤
As I sit and watch this video on my. . . Phone! So hard to believe how far we've come in 60 years. I was a kid back in '62 and no one could imagine all the fantastic changes that have occurred.
@mmwaashumslowww7167
Жыл бұрын
Fantastic changes and so fast but behind it was a more sinister motive. Welcome to the smartphone age where your whole life will depend on it. The perfect digital trap which crept up on us, masquerading as innovation.
@knarf_on_a_bike
Жыл бұрын
@Old Uncle Time I agree. I have a smartphone because my employer requires that I have one - they pay for it. And now I'm tied to work 24/7. My wife doesn't own a smartphone; she doesn't want one. I envy her.
The evolution of phones has been interesting and I find that history of the portable phones even more so. The earliest portable phones were half the size of a briefcase then evolved into something so small it could be hidden in a closed hand. Now the phone is little more than a full entertainment center and only fits into the largest pocket of my winter coat. I also miss leaving the house without it and not having anxiety about missed calls. Damn you Alexander Bell!
STAY FOR THE SONG!!! It surely must be called Century Twenty-One, it will totally complete your 7 minute journey into the past. I was born in ‘61 in LA, so my earliest memories included Disneyland 1965 and on, at least once a year. Often more, with church and other kid’s birthday parties and visiting relatives. It was always a big thrill to go into the Bell telephone exhibit, where we were allowed to make free long-distance telephone calls, and were shown prototypes of television-screen telephoning, which we thought was magical. We also imagined it should happen right away. How hard could it be, now that we’d seen one? Thank you, David for these FANTASTIC gems. I don’t know how you keep doing it! Bravo, sir.
@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for the compliment. I work very hard each day and would appreciate your support if possible by clicking the Super Thanks button from time to time below the video screen. Thank you again David David Hoffman filmmaker
@DavidMcFarner
Жыл бұрын
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker Sure thing, and keep up the amazing work. You are a real highlight in my thread! ❤️👍
love these types of educational public short films that predict what future would hold. as a kid in the 1960's the future seems like a lifetime away, it never occurred to me that one day I would be leaving a comment on your KZread channel about an old AT&T film short. Thanks David Hoffman.
It's amazing that we can watch this video on our hand held telephones. Everything in the video can be done on our phones. We can video conference, work or study from home. I'm not tech savvy, but happy with everything I can do with my phone. It was fun watching this because I was about 15 years old in 1962, the pre Beatles era and Elvis was the King 🤴
@DisneyFan-eg3oz
Жыл бұрын
Hello 👋 David here from Sebring Florida we’re you surprised how different the Beatles were from Elvis? Please let me know your thoughts when you have time thanks! 😀
@annarodriguez9868
Жыл бұрын
@@DisneyFan-eg3oz I liked Elvis, but I was not a big fan of his. Funny thing is that my mother loved Elvis. My own favorite was Buddy Holly who died along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in 1959. In February 1964 when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show they were a total surprise in the way they performed and the music they wrote. We had heard their songs on the radio and it was different from the music that was popular in the US at that time. The beat was slightly different from the American rock beat. Hard to explain, but it could be felt. For most of us teens it was the first time we would see them other than a photo in a newspaper. Even the way they dressed, their boots and how combed their hair was different. Up until then boys were still wearing an Elvis style pompador with the greasy hair gel. Everything was different with the Beatles. You should watch the 1978 Robert Zemeckis comedy "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and get an idea of what it was like for us teens when the Beatles started the British Invasion and, of course, "Hard Day's Night." I'm almost 76 and just thinking of that time and that era and that music and I feel like I'm still 17.
@DisneyFan-eg3oz
Жыл бұрын
@@annarodriguez9868 Thanks for getting back to me! I really liked your thoughts about that time. I was born in 1955, so I got to see the Beatles on tv in 1964, I thought they were fantastic! My mother got me Meet the Beatles Lp for Christmas, I think I played it every day, I been a Beatles Fan for over fifty years. 😎
@annarodriguez9868
Жыл бұрын
@@DisneyFan-eg3oz You were about 9 years old, about the same agexas my kid brother. He also liked the Beatles, we both still do. Thank you for letting me take you on that little walk down memory lane. Beatles 4ever! 🐞 🐞 🐞 🐞
@MicahScottPnD
4 ай бұрын
@@annarodriguez9868I made a book about music with a friend who is now in his 80s. He was in San Francisco when the Beatles arrived there in 64. He was just out of the military, poor college student so he didn't see them himself, but he said the excitement was palpable just being in the same city! It's so very fun to hear first hand experience. Terrific fun to hear your thoughts about Elvis and the Beatles, too! I often wonder about American music and music in general from that era, so it's very enjoyable to hear your thoughts ❤
The Seattle World Fair of 1962 was really amazing! It's even cooler when you realize that many of those inventions became true like the Beeper and intelligent homes controlled with the phone.
I have to admit that I am very thankful for my smartphone, which is more like a miniature computer. My dad started working for Pac Bell in 1955 and retired 37 years later. We had only one phone in our house in the hallway, where everyone could hear your conversation.
@CatholicTraditional
Жыл бұрын
Party-line
How neat to see. I heard my Great Grandmother speak of "party lines". I never knew of some of these said phone services before. I thought that I was lucky to have a push button phone in my bedroom. Thank you David ❤
The Golden Age of Technological Innovation. Love it. 😁 It's when I see films like this that I fully understand the context for the world that science fiction and comic books - particularly the Lee/Kirby _Fantastic Four_ - were drawing influence from at the time.
Yes, AT&T predicted it in 1962 and Mystery Science Theater 3000 made fun of this instructional film in the 1990s. When I was a very young kid, about 5, and lived in the Chicago area in the early 1970s, the Museum of Science and Industry had a picture phone exhibit where you could go into a room with a picture phone and communicate with another person in the next room and see their face on a small black and white screen. What’s interesting is that today, unless you’re making a call for business purposes, you don’t really need video when talking to someone on your phone or via the Internet, so most people don’t use this feature. By the end of the 1970s, but before the breakup of AT&T, it was possible to for you to have what was known as call waiting and call forwarding and be able to save a handful of frequently dialed phone numbers by assigning a number to them for an additional fee to your monthly phone bill. A lot of it seems like it wasn’t a big deal, but because this kind of technology was brand new, it was.
@katadam2186
Жыл бұрын
Used the same phone system until around 2010
This video is great!!! And it proves my point that the Marketing Department is the backbone to any company. Even that long ago they were convincing us that we actually need one of these, to their benefit, not ours.
Awesome video Mr Hoffman film maker. It great to look at how they thought of the future by what going to happen with the phones technically. Thanks for sharing. 🙂🎥🎞️☎️
I remember hearing that these things were going to happen. My son is always amused when I marvel at being able to FaceTime someone or watch a video on my phone. I remember the days of party lines!
Very interesting to see these early ideas. Makes me wonder what is next! Thanks for sharing.
"Bringing together all people in a new era of understanding!" 😆
That generation really thought that the future was one of resplendent delight. What I find almost comical is that Bell and AT&T seriously thought that the coming technological revolution would still center around landline voice telephone lines. And this little video isn't an exception; I've seen several other promotional videos from them from the 1960s all the way through the 1980s where they genuinely believed that everything would center around landline telephone. At least that futurist video titled "Year 1999 AD" got things right; that the future would center around in-home "personal" computers and digital data networks, and in doing so accurately predicted the internet, search engines, graphical user interfaces, computer graphics, digital voice transmission, video chatting, online banking, online shopping, digital health monitoring, and home automation.
The young couple in this film were cute and nicely dressed. clothe style sure have change over the years.
Reminds me of the _You Will_ commercials, also from AT&T, from the 90s that predicted things like email and other things we use now.
I love this stuff! I’ve seen parts of it before on YT, but never the presentation of Call Waiting/Forwarding (which evidently hadn’t been named yet at this early stage). I had mistakenly thought it was from the ‘64 World’s Fair in NY, and it’s even more impressive for 1962. I remember when the picture phone was going to be the Next Big Thing, and how cool it was when our Dad got touchtone phones in the early ‘70s. Nerdy delight for me. 🤓 Thanks for posting this, David!
I remember checking out a book at the library titled as a young kid" Cars of The Future." The technology back then is finally being thought out. There was also a machine that would create highway an such. Trucks were cool too.
I've seen this film before. It was part of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. Today people the space needle has been replaced by the discarded heroin needle in that part of town. That represents how the gee-whiz optimism of that interlude of the early 1960s was misplaced. We needed much, much more than tech to make life good. Nonetheless, this film is fun to experience.
@brianarbenz1329
Жыл бұрын
Particularly, I love the constant use of azure blue, to represent fresh thinking and sharpness. My fav color!
Amazing! And oddly I'm reminded of old science fiction stories...how some are so accurate that it's scary AF😮 And as I watch this ...that lady is soooooooooooo Twilight Zoneish!!
Same house phone as my father it’s been working since 1973
@CatholicTraditional
Жыл бұрын
Cool😊
Spark a thought that's never been thought before. Something new starts things off. Blazze your own path. Spark your own ideas and don't just believe and verse whatever has been said. Watch your own 6.
1966 The Green Hornet is a series with the "T.V. phone"
Very enjoyable!
I went to these exhibits in FutureLand! Little did they know the influence they were having on my soft malleable brain.
I still have a rotary princess phone, it a keepsake.
@jchow5966
Жыл бұрын
Thst is cool!! Wish i did!!!
Most excellent 👌
Interesting video.
Love it!
These aren't predictions, but plans
Well! That was in 1962 awesome! Now after 61 years in 2023 I'm waiting for the time machine to go back in time. Not much progress! 😢😢😢
@drewpall2598
Жыл бұрын
@balatas07... according to H.G. Wells you do have a time machine. and through David Hoffman archive of films, the trip is a safe one. “We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories... And those that carry us forward, are dreams.” H.G. Wells 21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946
@jchow5966
Жыл бұрын
techmp;pgy has def progressed - most humans have not.
Beautiful Seattle. There are many reminders of the 1962 World’s Fair still around.
They really did see the future ahead pretty well ❣️
You needed deep pockets to get that pager, but not because it was expensive.
This was from an era when the future was full of promise due to practical high tech gadgets that would make our lives easier. People under 40 never experienced this culture of futuristic optimism, which I believe ended in the 1980s. Ever since then, the future has appeared dystopian, with technology being used as a means of social control at the hands of a elite oligarchy. We need to beat these people back and make the future cool again.
*_Hi, this is AT&T, would you like AT&T?_* I already have AT&T, that's what I'm talking on right now with you! *_Well, ah... would you... do you want some more?_* - Louis C.K.
@MicahScottPnD
4 ай бұрын
😂🤣😂🤣
Uh oh! Something special.
From the thumbnail I didn't know Margaret Cho was so old..!
@porshprix4286
Жыл бұрын
Good one
Would you be able to host torrents for the archival footage you have, or distribute it by some other means? I'm concerned about the only source for these being dependent on YT's policies and infrastructure since they ruthlessly delete entire libraries of videos. I assume you want them archived as well. If it's too much trouble, maybe just sharing from an online drive to a few people that like archiving and distributing things. Anyone could save the videos from your channel wirh third party utilities but there would be a dip in quality since YT compresses them. You could also assign a trusted person to a "role" like editor/closed captioner in youtube studio and they might be able to save the files directly that way, but again that would be a compressed file. Anyway hope you have some given some consideration to sharing your video files in a way that'll last and bypass any potential limitations imposed by YT.
@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker
Жыл бұрын
So far California I have not considered that. I'm working every day to make a living at this and due to provides the best way to do that.. I can't imagine them just deleting my archive. But I understand your feeling unless I have the financial resources to protect my archive the way that it should be should be protected. David Hoffman filmmaker
Barely remember using one at Workds Fair
I remember saying no way we’ll have picture phones in my lifetime that would be so weird. And now I’m like meh, I miss rotary phones.
@katadam2186
Жыл бұрын
Get one with a house line they are great
@edgarwalk5637
9 ай бұрын
And now all people want it to type messages... Full circle...
these types of recordings always, it seems, make me want to show some people of 1962 the thing im using for this comment and ask them what they think and feel after seeing it. many orders of magnitude more powerful than System/360, combined with bellboy+telephone functionality, news, tv, video production types that havent yet emerged. but it doesnt make toast. bummer
Ah, those wonderful rotary dials. Funny, I just tried to call Diane, and instead, I got a swell gal named Linda! Say, what gives?
Its Ty Gibbs!
I think I was out of diapers by then. --
Fast forward to today; tattoos, webcams, and only fans Lol
Why does the narrator sound so familiar?
Solar power !
I love this video, except for those bratty kids pushing everyone out of the way.
Technically in 1908 Tesla basically had the technology for this.
@CatholicTraditional
Жыл бұрын
Nikola Tesla, not Elon Musk.
Turn off oven from a public pay phone OR turn off your home heating from the company
i dislike how modern takes on this sort of thing always have some cynical or subversive angle. It might be interesting to see a modern version of the world depicted in advertising from that time that doesn't culminate in some disaster or realization that actually everything sucks.
Hey Siri! Where is Elun Musk?