"White courtesy phone, please..."

[poltr1]

I've often used this phrase to call attention to something I'd see on Facebook or other social media, if I think it would be of interest. I like it better than just using their name.

Where did this phrase come from? I first saw it in the signature file in someone's Usenet post. I thought it might have been a lyric in a Laurie Anderson song, because the line I saw mentioned a Mr. Sharkey, which happened to be one of her songs.

Back in the days before nearly everyone had cell phones and the capability to send and receive text messages, places that had large quantities of people moving through them -- airports, train stations, hotels, convention centers -- would have a bank of telephones available for guest use. One or two of were designated "courtesy phones" -- they had no dial, and connected directly to an information desk. If someone was trying to reach a traveler, they'd leave a message with the info desk. A page would go out -- "John Smith, white courtesy phone please", and if John Smith heard it, he'd go to the nearest courtesy phone, pick up the receiver, and get the message read to them by a staff member at the info desk. More information (and pictures) here.

The fact that someone had to ask me about that phrase gives me pause. Has the courtesy phone gone the way of the pay phone? Is this person so young, or so untraveled, that they've never seen a courtesy phone?

Comments

[tigertoy]

The phrase is probably familiar to people mainly from the movie Airplane! which IMDb says is from 1980. I don't think I've ever heard anyone paged in a public place and told to pick up the courtesy phone. Since pagers became a thing (remember those?) nobody that would expect to need to be paged would be told to pick up a courtesy phone, and random members of the public would be told to go to the service desk.