Short Stuff: Phone Books | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[music]. >> Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. Chuck, Chuck, Jerry, Dave, let's go. nostalgic. >> That's right. I mean, there's a slew of. websites you used to research this, but. I mean, honestly, we could just say from. our own brains. Because there wasn't a lot in here that. like we just didn't know as growing up. in the time that we grew up again cuz. this is about phone books. And uh if you're of a certain age, you. know exactly what we're talking about. If you're not of a certain age yet, you.

might be surprised to know that uh at a. certain point in time, if you wanted to, I don't know, take. your car to the shop or find a florist. or a dry cleaner, uh you couldn't just go on the internet. to do that or whip out your phone. You. would um bring out a 17-lb book that was. 8 in thick, drop it on your kitchen table and wake. up your entire family on a Saturday. morning, and you would start letting. your uh I'm not going to say it. You.

would start thumbing through that thing. uh looking under the florist section or. the laundromat section. >> [snorts]. >> to find a business to give your money. to. >> Yeah. >> It's very cute. >> That is how you found businesses. That's. how you found people, too, because. the business part was in the second half. of the phone book. It was all in yellow. pages. The first part was white pages, and those were residential listings. >> Yeah, or they were two different books. entirely. >> It could be if you lived in a fancy. pants area, you know, like.

>> Like Atlanta. >> Like uh. um. Westchester or something like that. >> Right. Yeah. Um but the white pages, this is. another thing. The reason I love doing. this one, Chuck, is because this is the. to me the first time we can be like, "You. have grown up in a world where you can't. really understand. the world that this thing existed in and. shaped.". >> Sure. >> This is a great example of it. And one. of the things that stuck out to me was. explaining the white pages where where. you could go and say, "I'm looking for.

Charles W. Chuck Bryant." So, I'm going. to go to the B's of the white pages and. start looking through the Bryant's until. I find all the Charles. And I know Chuck. lives in Atlanta, so I'm going to find. Chuck's address in Atlanta. And then at. the end of that is Chuck's phone number. And I'm going to pick up my phone and. dial the numbers that is in this. publicly available book. Maybe even I'll. get tired of waiting for the for him to. answer. I'll hang up and just drive to. his house, which I now know exactly. where it is because his address is.

listed under his full name with his. phone number in the phone book along. with everybody else in town. >> Yeah, and you would just knock on my. door if you wanted to speak to me. And I. know that we were sending a large number. of our listeners into a complete and. utter panic. >> Yeah. >> at the thought of someone knocking on. their door just to pop in and say hello. or whatever. >> think about how much the world has. changed in that respect. >> Oh yeah, you don't even call someone. anymore without texting them to say, "Can I call right now?" [laughter]. >> It's very strange.

>> This is a different world. >> It was a totally different world. Um. the uh. well, you know, another funny tangent to. that is I also remember a day where if. you were like let's say. knew someone's name but you didn't. really know where they lived and you. didn't know them that well, so you. needed their phone number, so you looked. it up and there were like six. Josh Clark's. And you would start. calling random Josh Clark's and say, "Are you the Josh Clark that I met at uh. camp summer camp this summer?".

>> Right. >> Uh or the parents of so like you would. go like you know, that's the whole plot. of the initial Terminator is he's. killing random Sarah Connors. >> Oh yeah. >> Because he looks up Sarah Connor in the. phone book. >> Yeah. But you would totally do that. I did. that, too. I mean, like you would do. something like that. And it was. >> And people understood. They'd be like, "Oh, that's that's a different guy. Sorry. Yeah, good luck. Good luck. >> [laughter]. >> Oh man, so quaint. And this was not like. 300 years ago. Um the other thing I did. not know, actually when I said I knew.

all this in my brain, and it totally. makes sense now, um all this, you know, the the businesses themselves were. advertised within. the floral section or the laundromat. section. And that's why you would see like A1. Plumber or A1 Florist is cuz they would. be listed first. I never knew that, and. I feel like a dummy cuz it's so obvious. >> Oh, no, I I mean like that's but yeah, that's what I would call my business. We. should have called this A1 Stuff You. Should Know Podcast. >> Right. >> [laughter]. >> A1 Podcast. >> Right. Yeah. No, that totally makes sense. It.

was called gaming the system, I think. >> That's right. >> So, um for about a hundred years, like. this is how you made contact with the. outside world. This is how you searched. for things in the outside world. It's. really hard to wrap your head around. now, but you just pull a book out. >> Um and I think we take a little break, come back and talk a little more about. the history of the phone book after, well, this break. >> Let's do it. >> Well, now when you're on the road, driving in your truck, why not learn a.

thing or two from Josh and [music]. Chuck? It's Stuff You Should Know. >> Stuff You Should Know. >> All right. >> [music]. >> All right, we're back. We're talking. phone books. Uh the first phone. directory we talked a little bit about. in our telephone episode, I think. Uh it. was published in 1878 in New Haven,

Connecticut, and had about 50. subscribers, as what they were called at. the time, on a single piece of paper. listed uh as phones, you know, spread. around, obviously, the phone book got. bigger and bigger uh to the point where, like I mentioned, we had a a full white. pages and a full yellow pages. And they. were very big books. Uh I think the the. last editions of the New York City Well, maybe not the last cuz there are still. phone books if you have a landline, believe it or not. >> Yeah. >> Um but the New York City phone books. came in multiple volumes at the like.

last quarter of the 20th century. And they were so thick that like if you. were a kid in high school, you might. have a strong person team come around to. do a little show for you at an afternoon. assembly, and inevitably they would uh. blow up a hot water bottle and burst it. until it burst, and they would somebody. would rip a phone book in half, which. was. seemingly really hard to do. >> Okay. I do I have no recollection of. seeing an assembly like that. Like did. you see that? It sounds like you were.

That's a first-hand account. >> Yeah, yeah. We had a strong. strongman team come around and do like. feats of strength for the high school. >> [laughter]. >> afternoon. >> Did they like legitimize it by just. saying like also don't do drugs at the. end? >> Oh, probably. >> Yeah. >> Wow. That's really something. >> Yeah. >> I don't remember we I don't remember. anything like that. Uh. >> Where did you think they ripped up phone. books? Just. >> Like uh on TV? >> On That's Incredible or whatever. Yeah. >> Yeah, exactly. >> No, I got to see it live, buddy. >> Wow. Go Redan HS.

>> That's right. >> Um the Redan Redheads. >> Well, the Raiders. That's all right. >> That was close. >> Yeah. >> Um so one of the things like if you were. if you had a phone, like you just got a. phone book. It was free. Like they were. disposable. Like you just thought. nothing of the phone book, but it turns. out they were like big big business. for AT&T and then later on for a bunch. of other companies. But AT&T, according. to a 1986 article, um the article said.

that AT&T made $7 billion. just off of the money it charged. businesses across the country to be. listed in the yellow pages, and that's. like $13 billion dollars. That's a lot. That's like lunch at um Apple. >> Yeah, I mean there's a ton of money and. I even looked up. I was like, I wonder. if there was a sort of a weird little. hidden surcharge. >> Mhm. >> Uh for like the customer. to be listed and apparently not. Apparently you were never ever charged.

to be listed in the phone book. You did. have to pay to get unlisted. >> Yeah. >> Which a lot of states eventually like um. introduced like house bills and stuff. They were like, this is a scam. You. can't just list somebody's name and. address and say you got to pay us to not. do that. >> Yeah, so I think a lot of those ended up. being successful, but um you know, AT&T. was was selling those uh not only just a. spot in the yellow pages, but you could. pay a lot more money to get like larger. ads and stuff in the yellow pages to get. more notice.

And they would market that stuff and you. know, almost said it earlier, but I. didn't want to let it slip, but a very. famous one that was in 1962. I could. have sworn it was the 70s cuz it clearly. went through the 70s. >> Definitely. >> Uh was let your fingers do the walking. uh ad campaign. The idea of hey, let. your fingers do the walking instead of. your body. Like don't walk around. downtown looking for your florist. Just. let your fingers do that and then give. them a call instead. >> Exactly. And I mean, that was kind of. revolutionary as far as things went at.

least in the mid-century. >> Um and I said that AT&T made a bunch of. money off of the yellow pages. The. reason why it was just them is cuz they. had a monopoly on the phone system in. the US, which I'm sure we covered as. well in that um phone exchange episode, but um they was finally broken up. The. the. government [snorts] granted monopoly. They're like, you guys are too big. We're going to break you up into. regional providers like Northwestern. Bell, Southern Bell, that kind of stuff. And so all those companies, these sub. companies now were printing yellow pages.

and they were making money. But because. Bell no longer had a a monopoly, that. also opened the door for private. companies to start making their own. Yellow Pages. There was just a lot of. money in walking around because this is. how people found businesses. It was. either driving past and seeing a. business that had their phone number on. the sign, or you went to the Yellow Pages. It was. as simple as that. So, you had a lot of. incentive to advertise in the in the. Yellow Pages, and so companies had a lot.

of incentive to publish Yellow Pages, and so the number of phone books. it that came to one person's house. started to boom. I think in the 1990s, in some parts of California, you might. get 10 different phone books delivered. to your house every year. Yeah. >> Yeah. And and you know, obviously, especially in a place like California, or you know, Washington state, Seattle, Washington, that people would be like, "Hey, wait a minute. This is like a. pretty awful thing to do. Like the. amount of waste that's happening here.

Uh I remember early I mean, this is a. long time ago now, but uh not that long. ago, but uh. the internet was around and there were. still phone books being delivered and I. remember seeing a comedian joke about uh. I think the joke was something about. printing a small portion of the internet. and throwing it on my porch. >> [laughter]. >> once a year. I always thought that was pretty funny. Uh but everyone, you know, it's pretty. clear like what a wasteful thing. I. think uh half a billion phone books were. being delivered. Uh 650,000 tons of. paper every year by 1991.

Uh enough to fill up 2 million cubic. yards of landfill space. Uh even though. you could probably recycle that stuff. Um so, they initially started doing like. recycled paper and stuff like that. Um. Seattle, like I mentioned, I think it. was one of the first ones to say like, "You know, we're going to start charging. phone book makers uh 14 cents per phone. book delivered uh within the city. And. if people elect to not have a phone. book, but they still throw one on your. porch, like that's a $150 fine.". >> Yeah. Knowing me, Justice Police, I would have.

been I would have immediately gone to. the trouble of filling out like the. five-page form to complain to make sure. that that company got fined 100. >> Yeah. I opted out. >> You got a touch of the justice police in. Utopia, for sure. >> Yeah, yeah. Neither Yeah, we we don't. like bad guys getting away with stuff. >> Uh justice. >> Yeah. >> So, despite the environmental thing, I. think. basically converting to recycled paper. helped a lot of people in training. people like you said, like these things. can actually be easily recycled. That.

kind of. simmered people down about the. environmental part. So, that's not what. did away with phone books. There were. like three things in pretty quick. succession that really started to to. take the Yellow Pages down, at least. So, 411, that was information. All of a. sudden, you could dial that for free. starting in the '80s. And now you didn't. even have to look in the phone book. You. you could just call up and be like, "Just start reading some plumbers' names. off to me and their phone numbers.". >> Yeah, you would call someone to read you.

the phone book. >> Exactly, that's right. >> [laughter]. >> Uh and then of course, uh. you know, the internet coming along had. everything to do with it. Um and also in 2004, Congress passed a. law that said you can't put uh cell. phone numbers in phone books. So, they were they were on the way to. doing that. So, it basically was. whittled down to just landlines. And. then once the internet came around, as. far as businesses go, um the Yellow. Pages wasn't as necessary, but you know, they're all still around. Um because.

there are still landlines. And. you know who advertises in the Yellow. Pages still? >> Who? >> Rick Sinebogen, Emily's dad. And Sine-. and Sineco Glass has auto glass repair. shop in uh Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. If unless it's changed, uh we were. talking one day and he was like, "Yeah, I still advertise in the Yellow Pages. A. lot of people around here still use. landlines, still look stuff up in the. Yellow Pages.". >> Yeah, there was a poll that found, I. think in 2024, more than 50 million. homes in the US still have a landline.

So, that means that unless they go to. the trouble of opting out, they still. get a phone book delivered to them every. year. And that um 10% of all Americans. still use the Yellow Pages. If you just. zero in on 55 and older, almost three. quarters of them use the Yellow Pages to. find business. Like, old habits die. hard. So, if if like your your um. father-in-law is like, he has an. incentive to still. >> Sure. >> advertise in the Yellow Pages, which. means there's an incentive for Yellow. Pages to still exist, as long as people.

use them, you know? >> Yeah, I'm what I'm really mad about is. I'm now in the age group where they're. like, "But, this is what the olds are. doing.". >> Right. [laughter]. Oh, yeah. >> a. >> Yeah. >> freaking Yellow Pages. Come on. >> I get that. >> Nobody I know my age looks in the Yellow. Pages. So, I take issue with that. number. >> You're a 26-percenter. >> Yeah, I guess so. Uh. but, I have to say, if you're looking. for auto glass repair in the Cuyahoga. Falls, Ohio region, and you want to. avoid avoid big auto glass, go with the mom-and-popper, in this case.

the pop, and go uh check out Seneca. Glass. Tell tell Rick we sent you. >> Very nice, man. >> They do great work. >> I can't think of any better way for. Short Stuff to be out. >> That's right. We're out. >> Stuff You Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from. iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, [music]. or wherever you listen to your favorite. shows.