On August 25, 1955, 66 years ago, in a Nevada newspaper, the Nevada State Journal, on page sixteen, had a piece of news that seemed to come from the future: “Television-Phone Unveiled But Caution Warned on Use”, translated more or less “The telephone-television has been revealed, but care must be taken on how to use it”.
The article referred to an event that happened the previous day in San Francisco, which was not yet the heart of Silicon Valley. The text said there had been a “to the world” presentation of this strange phone that was best not used while standing in a bathtub (“This is the one you don’t answer while in the bathtub”). the name was videophone or TV-telephone, and it had a 10-inch screen for you to see the person you were talking to (“You see her – and she sees you – until someone hangs up”). The demonstration for the reporters had taken place at the Fairmont hotel where a certain Noel Porter had made a phone call with a conventional telephone but with a couple of television screens and with a small camera that caught him.
A mile away, at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, Mayor Elmer Robinson answered with an identical telephone set and his image appeared to Porter who in turn appeared to the mayor who apparently said that it was proof of the motto “seeing is believing”. Noel Porter was an executive at a San Diego company, Kay Lab, which together with Bell Telephone Laboratories had developed the prototype that should soon hit the market but, as we know, it didn’t.
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