Monday, April 20, 1964: Picturephone

NEW YORK -- See-as-you-talk telephone service was demonstrated yesterday between the Bell Telphone System's world's fair building and Disneyland, Calif.
     The first transatlantic call on what American Telephone and Telegraph Co. has named the "picturephone" was made by William L. Laurence, science consultant for the fair, to Donald Shaffer, managing editor of the Anaheim, Calif., Bulletin.
     Later hostesses at the fair and Disneyland were introduced via picturephone and chatted with each other. Both video and sound came through clearly.
     The system will be demonstrated during the fair with calls going between eight sets at the fair and three at Disneyland.
-- Story from Associated Press, April 21 (story: @)
-- Photos from AT&T Archives and History Center

* "Video Telephony: An idea whose time may have finally come" (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2014): @

* "Bell Labs PicturePhone" (MuseumLeap, 2014): @

* "A Brief History of the Videophone That Almost Was" (Paleofuture, 2013): @

* "Picturephone Dials Up First Transcontinental Video Call" (Wired, 2012): @

* "These Videophone Concepts Are Cooler Than Your iPhone's Facetime" (io9, 2013): @

* "Western Electric Products -- Picturephone" (Porticus Centre, Beatrice Co.): @

* "Now ... see and be seen by PICTUREPHONE!" (1964 advertisement): @

* "seeing by telephone ... the PICTUREPHONE story" (Bell System brochure, June 1964): @

* "Lady Bird Johnson Using Picturephone Service" (National Archives photo; June 24, 1964): @

* "Amazing New Picturephone" (Popular Science, June 1968): @

* Record magazine, Bell Laboratories, May/June 1969: @

* "Talking of Tomorrow" (video, AT&T Tech Channel, 1962): @

* "A Ballad for the Fair" (video, AT&T Tech Channel, 1964): @

* "Debut of the Picturephone" (video, AT&T Tech Channel, 1970): @ 

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