I’ve been thinking a lot about the telephone and how it affects storytelling. There was a musical from the 1920s (I can’t recall the title), but the opening scene was of the maid answering the telephone and the dialogue went something like this:
The MAID answers the ringing telephone.
MAID
Carmichael residence... No, I’m afraid the master of the house isn’t in. He’s in Bogota negotiating a trade pact... well, he is a member of the President’s cabinet... No, the missus is not in either. She’s off at the museum curating an exhibit of French Decadent Painters... Yes, it is strange that the house should be empty this time of day... hello?
(hangs up)
Probably wasn’t important anyway.
At the time, this was probably thought of as a clever way to get across exposition.
In later films, the operator became a cliched source of conflict.
OPERATOR
Number please.
STALKER
I need to speak with the Red Headed Woman who lives in the Murray Hill district.
OPERATOR
I’m sorry, I can’t connect you unless you have the number.
STALKER
But you must have her number! How many Red Headed Women live in the Murray Hill district?
For me, Sorry Wrong Number became the gold standard on how to weave the telephone into the plot. Bedridden Leona calls her husband but the wires get crossed and she overhears a murder plot. While it was easy to get someone on the phone, it wasn’t easy getting their full attention. Multitasking was probably born at this moment. Ultimately, her murder hinges on the timing of a phone call.
The telephone serves a societal purpose in that it allows people to communicate over long distances in real time. Instant, on demand communication. It changed storytelling because characters didn’t have to travel to retrieve information.
Once upon a time, if you moved five hundred miles away from your family, the day you left was probably the last day you’d ever see or speak with them forever.
I was watching some 1970s TV rerun with my young nieces (channel surfing actually) and there was a scene showing a hiker stranded in the woods. He was injured with a sprained ankle and was trying valiantly to start a fire. My niece asked me why he didn’t just call someone on his cell phone. I remarked that cell phones didn’t exist back then and then I realized, my nieces have never known a world without cell phones.
But what I came to realize is that technology speaks about the society that created it.
Our modern cell phones are far more advanced than Captain Kirk’s communicator. What writers imagined for Kirk’s needs was far surpassed by our own needs. No one questions the existence of a cell phone in our society but it is probably worth a moment or two to consider what the existence of the cell phone says about us.
A cell phone today isn’t merely a cell phone. It’s a web browser, email reader, camera, video player, music player, GPS locator, calendar, to do list and video game player.
The fact that a device like the iPhone is a runaway bestseller clearly proves that it fulfills some deep societal need. All its functions once existed as separate devices: You took photos with a camera, you logged onto your computer to check email, you played games on your Nintendo, you bought maps at the gas station, or you had a Day Runner or Filofax.
Sure the device is cool but what drives us to ‘want,’ ‘need,’ and eventually, ‘can’t live without’ such an all in one device?
Let’s go down memory lane, shall we?
- Remember the first time you tried to dial a number while driving 60 mph?
- Remember the first time you checked your email while waiting in line at McDonalds?
- Remember the first time you called someone on their cell phone even though you knew they were somewhere in the same building but you didn’t feel like getting up and tracking them down?
- Remember the first time you texted at stop light?
- Remember your first custom ring tone?
- Remember the first time you set your phone to vibrate?
- Remember the first time you hung up on someone and later blamed the connection?
- Remember the first excuse you made for not answering your cell phone?
- Remember trying to decide between a cell phone and a pager?
- Remember your first voice mail password?
- Remember your first answering machine? How about the first time you called home and picked up your messages?
- Remember answering services?
- Remember digging through your ashtray looking for loose change to make a payphone call?
- Remember your first cordless phone?
- Remember your first cordless phone conversation in the bathroom?
- Remember the first time you had two phones on the same line?
- Remember the first time you were waiting for a call but your sister wouldn’t stop yapping?
- Remember the first time you used call waiting?
- Remember your first touch tone phone?
That’s as far back as I’m comfortable going. The reason for this trip down memory lane is to reexamine those things we now take for granted.
Remember this joke: Why was Harry upset about his new car phone? He could only go half a block before the cord broke.
Remember Billy Crystal’s entrance on horseback at the Oscars? We laughed as the horse was escorted away and Billy chirped his car lock remote. It was one of the first times we had the vocabulary to appreciate that joke.
The proliferation of the iPhone introduces a great many possibilities but also suggests the depiction of a new relationship with technology that we recognize from our experience. In this case, the iPhone satisfies our need for instant gratification. All information, all entertainment, all the time.
The creation of this relationship is essential. Without it, exposition about the device replaces your story.
My favorite writer opined through one of his characters, “Everything in this world comes to an end eventually.” In modern cinema, it has come to mean that no matter how dire your situation may be, something will give. Conversely, it also means that nothing good will last forever.