On Saturday, we were looking through some online auctions and came across this unique item that enabled us to add another Green Bay landmark for our informal tours of Packers history. You see, kids, each city used to have their own phone book listing the names and numbers of every citizen’s household as well as all local businesses. This was way back when phones were attached to the wall either physically, or by a cord. You had to either sit or stand by the phone to talk to anyone. And if you weren’t home to answer a call, you likely missed out on something, or you had to catch them calling back another time, provided they did call back (there were no answering machines). How quaint, huh?
Anyway, back to the unique aspect of this Green Bay directory from 1956. Seen in the “S” section of the phone book, at lower right (enlarged below), is the address and phone number for then-rookie QB Bart Starr. That’s right. If you had a play that you wanted to get to coach Lisle Blackbourn, you could call up Bart (who wasn’t playing much), or drop by his house with your diagramed football plans to give to the coach.
In those days, telephone numbers started with words. What?! The first two letters stood for a name — in this case, “Hemlock” — and the “H-E” represented the numbers “4” and “3” on a telephone dial (remember the early days of texting?). Telephone exchange names were phased out in favor of numeric systems in the 1960s, as the demand for telephone service outpaced the scalability of the alphanumeric system, and after introduction of area codes for direct-distance dialing, all-number calling became necessary.
When the phone company began replacing the charming prefixes with a fully numeric system, a group called the Anti-Digit Dialing League was founded. This San Francisco group mounted a light-hearted campaign against the “dehumanization” of the telephone system through the elimination of prefix names (“Luddites of America, unite!”).
Here’s the back of this 1956 directory, containing one number that someone in the household quickly wrote down when there was no scratch paper around.
So now we were able to add another historic site in Green Bay to our list — the house where QB Bart Starr lived until he moved to the later home on Chateau Drive.
And, although Mr. Starr did not have a football card until 1957, one online artist has mocked up this card to the 1956 series’ specs.
