Fran Beallor

Upper West Side, Manhattan

A Phone Booth

Today most of us have cell phones, but in days past, the only way to make a call was to find a phone booth, and there were so many around. How perfectly representative of our great city, which is among other things a communication hub for much of the world!

The phone booth speaks to a bygone, more trusting age. A generous time, when we could be sheltered in the safety of the booth, unlike the things that pass for phone booths now, little mini-half-shelters with their broken phones dangling. It was a time when we didn't have to worry about what might happen inside the booth, when children could look at a phone booth and dream of seeing superman emerge, cape flying!

They appear regularly in movies like Rain Man, Phone Booth, Anchorman, Superman andThe Matrix.

I am including a photo of one of the last four remaining outdoor, free-standing phone booths in Manhattan, which happens to sit on my corner, the South West corner of West 101st Street and West End Avenue. A little bit of history right outside my door.