"Exchange names refer to the first digits of a 7-digit phone number. They were introduced in the 1930's and used until around 1970. The first 2 or 3 numbers (not including the area code) were identified by location names, often the first two letters of the name of the Central Office that served the location.
Here are some famous examples:
BUtterfield 8 : This 1960 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor is named for a telephone exchange, and the “U” in BUtterfield is capitalized to call attention to this. All the characters in the film were in the same telephone exchange, meaning all of their phone numbers began with BU8. Today, we'd simply dial 288, the corresponding numbers." http://www.area-codes.com/area-code-faq.asp
But someone says on this board: "Just as what one correspondent says was true of Honolulu, Memphis didn't convert all its lines to exchange names until around 1960. Before that, during a transition period, many lines still had six- (and I think even five-) digit numbers; earlier yet, say until the early-to-mid-1950s, all of them had five- or six-digit numbers. I remember, as a small-town boy about 1957 visiting Memphis (which by then had several hundred thousand residents), how interesting it was to dial a number like 33-2687 (there actually was a 33 exchange there, I believe). The late-arriving Memphis exchange names lasted just a few years, until all-number dialing came into play. I wonder how many other fairly big U.S. cities followed the Memphis pattern of keeping old all-number systems (i.e., five- and six-digit numbers) almost until the advent of new all-number dialing." http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Historical.html
"Exchange names refer to the first digits of a 7-digit phone number. They were introduced in the 1930's and used until around 1970. The first 2 or 3 numbers (not including the area code) were identified by location names, often the first two letters of the name of the Central Office that served the location.
Here are some famous examples:
BUtterfield 8 : This 1960 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor is named for a telephone exchange, and the “U” in BUtterfield is capitalized to call attention to this. All the characters in the film were in the same telephone exchange, meaning all of their phone numbers began with BU8. Today, we'd simply dial 288, the corresponding numbers."
http://www.area-codes.com/area-code-faq.asp
But someone says on this board:
"Just as what one correspondent says was true of Honolulu, Memphis didn't convert all its lines to exchange names until around 1960. Before that, during a transition period, many lines still had six- (and I think even five-) digit numbers; earlier yet, say until the early-to-mid-1950s, all of them had five- or six-digit numbers. I remember, as a small-town boy about 1957 visiting Memphis (which by then had several hundred thousand residents), how interesting it was to dial a number like 33-2687 (there actually was a 33 exchange there, I believe). The late-arriving Memphis exchange names lasted just a few years, until all-number dialing came into play. I wonder how many other fairly big U.S. cities followed the Memphis pattern of keeping old all-number systems (i.e., five- and six-digit numbers) almost until the advent of new all-number dialing."
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Historical.html
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