Comments on: Vintage signs in the East Village

By: PizzaBagel

PizzaBagel — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:33:48 +0000

We have come full circle with telephone “numbers” — where they now routinely are advertised as all letters. (“1-800-MATTRESS. And leave off the last ‘S’ for ’savings.’”)

Back to the “OR” prefix: If the Orpheum Theater had been fortunate enough to have had such a number, what would have stopped it from advertising its number as “ORpheum …?” Would the phone company have exerted its power to put the kibosh on it?

One more tidbit: I remember a routine on “The Abbott and Costello Show” in which a flustered Lou watches a stream of phone users get through to their parties, but he is repeatedly told by an operator that she is unable to connect him. The number he was trying to dial? ALexander 4-4444.

By: PizzaBagel

PizzaBagel — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:42:30 +0000

It’s amazing to me how much significance was obviously paid to the naming of these old telephone exchanges. Call it “ORchard” or “ORegon” or “ORinoco.” It was just a mnemonic to get the first two digits of local phone numbers. BTW, for dialing purposes M = N = O, and P = R = S. So “OPera” and “OSteoporosis” would have worked just as well. BTW, I’m a Queensite, and my “78″ number used to be known as “STillwell.” Any ideas where that came from?

By: Bruce R. Gilson

Bruce R. Gilson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:12:28 +0000

OR was ORegon because ORchard (which was used earlier in the Lower East Side) became a sign of “slum” and they wanted something different. A lot of state names were used for exchange names: MIchigan, VIrginia, WIsconsin, and PEnnsylvania come to mind.

The original ORChard exchange (prior to 1930 they used three letters for exchanges) became ORchard 4 in 1930. ORchard 7 was started a few years later, but didn’t last for long. All new OR exchanges in the lower East Side were named ORegon, and eventually (some time in the late 1950s), even ORchard 4 was changed to ORegon 4. My home phone numberwas ORchard 4-7847 around 1951 when we moved from Allen St. (where I’d had WAlker 5-4114); ultimately we moved to Marble Hill and had LOrraine 2-6633.