The videophone is an ancient idea.
As far back as the 1930s, researchers at AT&T’s Bell Labs built a contraption that sent a television signal over standard phone lines. The only trouble was that the thing wasn’t nearly practical enough for use by the world at the large.
Then, four decades later, on June 30, 1970, AT&T finally uncloaked a commercial Picturephone service in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The North American telephone giant had previously launched public Picturephone booths in three other cities — Washington DC, New York, and Chicago — but the Pittsburgh debut marked the first time the service was available in private offices.
The service was christened by a call between Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty and John Harper, the Chairman of Alcoa, one of the companies that had already installed Picturephones. The two were only a few blocks away from each other, but it was a big deal that they could actually meet face-to-face. “Here’s looking at you,” Flaherty said to Harper.
The only trouble was that the thing wasn’t nearly practical enough for use by the world at the large.
Another four decades later, we’re still waiting for the videophone to go mainstream. Internet services like Skype and Facetime and Google+ have made things so much easier, but video chats are hardly the norm.
That’s why it’s so much fun to look back on the Picturephone’s 1970 debut. Well, that and the faux living-room AT&T setup on a stage inside Pittsburgh’s Bell Telephone HQ auditorium. At one point during the press conference, while sitting at a table in that living room, an AT&T bigwig said pretty much what you’d expect him to say. “I’m sure that my words are prophecy,” he proclaimed. “This is an historic occasion.”
You can see the moment in the video below, pulled from the AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, New Jersey. No, the call doesn’t work on the first try. And, yes, you get some serious Brylcreem and lots o’ horn-rimmed glasses.
Alcoa was one of eight Pittsburgh companies who had installed Picturephones, and they paid $160 a month for the service, plus 25 cents for each minute after an initial half hour of calling. That’s not exactly cheap. And that’s one reason why, by 1974, only eight picture phones were in use in Pittsburgh, and a few hundred were used across the country.
The rest is history.
