Automatic Electric was the manufacturing arm of General Telephone. While the Bell System served most places in the U.S., there were independent, non-Bell phone companies as well, and General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) was one of the biggest. They served parts of Orange and Los Angeles Counties, California. For many years their terrible equipment and service in California was a joke within the industry. It was easy for me to tell when I was in a GTE area just by looking at the phones around me. They seemed clunky. The dials made strange sounds when released to rotate back to rest. The receivers looked funny. The pay phones had odd rectangular slivers for buttons instead of large square ones.
In any case, I have collected quite a few of these instruments and other GTE paraphernalia. In addition to the Automatic Electric phones, I have placed some foreign and pre-dial phones on the top shelf of this display. Click on an item for a closer view.
Also, on a shelf all its own due to its size is an Automatic Electric PBX operator console.
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