Western Electric "Princess" Phone

As telephones became mainstream instruments of teen communication, phone manufacturers began designing products for the teenage market. Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972) designed the Princess as a bedside phone for teenagers—specifically teenage girls. To facilitate bedside use, the phone took up only a third of the space of the standard desk phone, while containing a night light under the dial. These features were brought to the fore with the advertising slogan “It’s little, it’s lovely, it lights.”

A pink rotary-dial telephone with handset, six-foot long coiled cord, and twenty-four foot landline cord with modular connector. A miniature tungsten lamp for back-lighting the dial can be removed via a plug on the bottom of the base unit. Stamped on base: “Bell System Property / Not For Sale”, “Princess”, and “702-B / 9-69”. Molded on handset: “Bell System Property / Not For Sale / Western Electric”.

Western Electric was the manufacturing division of the Bell Telephone System prior to the breakup of the Bell monopoly in 1984. During the Bell monopoly, users did not own their telephones but rather leased their phones from the company, hence the “not for sale” markings. Western Electric introduced the Princess model 701 with an external ringer in 1959. This model 702B phone with the ringer inside the base was made in September 1969. The phones could be ordered in white, beige, pink, blue, and turquoise.