The telephone booth became common in industrialized countries in the 1910s. Starting in the 1970s pay telephones were less and less commonly placed in booths. In many areas where they were once common, telephone booths have now been completely replaced by non-enclosed pay phones. In the United States, this replacement was caused, at least in part, by an attempt to make the pay telephones more accessible to the handicapped. Many locations that provide pay phones mount the phones on kiosks rather than in booths — this relative lack of privacy and comfort discourages lengthy calls in high-demand areas such as airports.

Special equipment installed in some telephone booths allows a caller to use a computer, a portable fax machine, or a telecommunications device for the deaf.

Paying for the call

Recent developments

A rise in vandalism in certain regions has prompted several companies to manufacture simpler booths with extremely strong pay phones. The simplification has often led to the disappearance of the built-in Telephone desk which had been provided to give a writing surface for customers.

Most telephone booths in Northern Ireland are able to accept two currencies. They are able to accept both the Pound Sterling and the Euro, due to the proximity to the Republic of Ireland. Other services provided by these booths are internet access, SMS texting and ordinary phone services.

The telephone booth in culture

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds, actress Tippi Hedren is trapped in a phone booth as birds try to attack her and cause havoc in the town around her. Here we see the director questioning man's place in nature because the birds are in control on the outside and the human being is trapped in a glass cage. Instead of facilitating communication, this telephone booth isolates the character from all human contact.

In the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, the title character's vehicle for traversing space and time was designed to take the shape of any desired object, but the circuitry for achieving this effect malfunctioned while the vehicle had the shape of what some non-British and younger views assume is a telephone booth, but is actually a classic British police call box; a special telephone intended only for the use of police officers before the introduction of police radios or for civilians in emergencies. See TARDIS.

In the 1960s TV series Get Smart, the CONTROL headquarters was located in the basement of a building, accessible via a telephone booth. This method of access was seen in the opening credits of most episodes.

Superman and his anthropomorphic parody Underdog have often been depicted as changing from their secret identities into their superhero counterparts in telephone booths. Phone booths are not the most practical of places for effecting a change of costume for those unendowed with superpowers. Even the superheroes can be confounded — in the 1978 film Superman, Christopher Reeve's Superman comically discovers during an emergency that the local pay phones are the open-kiosk style.

The 1972 short film La Cabina (IMDB link) directed by Antonio Mercero features a man trapped inside a telephone booth. The initially light-hearted Spanish made film (which features no dialogue) has a chilling conclusion.

The 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure featured the title characters traveling through time and space in a telephone booth, collecting historical figures. These historical figures travelled back to California with them in the telephone booth, despite their inability to all comfortably fit inside the booth--a reference to the late 1950's practice of "telephone booth stuffing". In the 2003 book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it is through a red telephone booth Harry and his fellow witches and wizards gain access to the wizarding Ministry of Magic

The 1985 Movie Jumpin Jack Flash features Whoopi Goldberg being dragged by a tow truck through uptown Manhattan while in a phone booth

The artist Sophie Calle -- at the urging of author Paul Auster who had asked her to create and maintain ‘’a public amenity in New York’’ -- took a standard phone booth and enhanced it with a note pad, a bottle of water, cigarettes, flowers, cash and other items; everyday she cleaned up the booth and restocked the items.

In comedy, the confinement of a person within a small space is used for a slapstick effect while the transparent walls allow the caller to see a variety of threats to his well-being: oncoming vehicles, villains prepared to harm the caller, angry spouses or clients, long lines of waiting callers, and so on. In drama, the caller's exposure outdoors and the potential anonymity of the remote party are used to communicate vulnerability and mystery — this is particularly emphasized in the 2003 movie Phone Booth. In love stories, a depiction of an anguished conversation from a telephone booth serves as a metaphor for separation.

See also

• red telephone box
• callbox
• Mojave phone booth

telephony | street furniture

Telefonzelle | Cabine téléphonique | תא טלפון | Telefooncel | Telefonkiosk | Telefonkiosk | Budka telefoniczna | Телефонска говорница | Telefonkiosk | 电话亭