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Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Josh, Chuck, cherit, Dave,

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Speaker 1: let's go nostalgic.

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Speaker 2: That's right. I mean, there's a slew of websites you

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Speaker 2: used to research this, but I mean, honestly, we could

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Speaker 2: just say from our own brains because there wasn't a

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Speaker 2: lot in here that like, we just didn't know as

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Speaker 2: growing up in the time that we grow up again

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Speaker 2: because it is about phone books, and if you're of

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Speaker 2: a certain age, you know exactly what we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: If you're not of a certain age yet, you might

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Speaker 2: be surprised to know that. At a certain point in time,

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Speaker 2: if you wanted to, I don't know, take your car

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Speaker 2: to the shop or find a florist or a dry cleaner,

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Speaker 2: you couldn't just go on the internet to do that

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Speaker 2: or whip out your phone. You would bring out a

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Speaker 2: seventeen pound book that was eight inches thick, drop it

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Speaker 2: on your kitchen table and wake up your entire family

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Speaker 2: on a Saturday morning, and you would start letting your oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to say it. You would start thumbing

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Speaker 2: through that thing, looking under the florists section or the

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Speaker 2: laundromat section to find a business to give your money

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Speaker 2: to Yeah, it's very cute.

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Speaker 1: That is how you found businesses. It's how you found

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Speaker 1: people too, because the business part was in the second

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Speaker 1: half of the phone book. It was all in yellow pages.

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Speaker 1: The first part was white pages, and those were residential listings.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, or they were two different books entirely.

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Speaker 1: It could be if you lived in a fancy pants area,

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Speaker 1: you know, like Atlanta, like Westchester or something like that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the white pages. This is another thing. The reason I

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Speaker 1: love doing this one, Chuck, is because this is to

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Speaker 1: me the first time we can be like you have

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Speaker 1: grown up in a world where you can't really understand

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Speaker 1: the world that this thing existed in in Shakesure. This

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Speaker 1: is a great example of it. And one of the

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Speaker 1: things that stuck out to me was explaining the white pages,

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Speaker 1: where you you could go and say, I'm looking for

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant. So I'm going to go to

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Speaker 1: the B's of the white pages and start looking through

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Speaker 1: the Bryan's until I find all the Charles. And I

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Speaker 1: know Chuck lives in Atlanta, so I'm going to find

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Speaker 1: Chuck's address in Atlanta, and then at the end of

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Speaker 1: that is Chuck's phone number and I'm going to pick

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Speaker 1: up my phone and dial the numbers that is in

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Speaker 1: this publicly available book. Maybe even I'll get tired of

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Speaker 1: waiting the for him to answer, I'll hang up and

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Speaker 1: just drive to his house, which I now know exactly

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Speaker 1: where it is, because his address is listed under his

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Speaker 1: full name with his phone number in the phone book,

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Speaker 1: along with everybody else in town.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you would just knock on my door if

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Speaker 2: you wanted to speak to me. And I know that

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Speaker 2: we were sending a large number of our listeners into

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Speaker 2: a complete and utter panic. Yeah, at the thought of

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Speaker 2: someone knocking on their door just to pop in and

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Speaker 2: say hello or whatever.

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Speaker 1: But just think about how much the world has changed

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Speaker 1: in that respect.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you don't even call someone anymore without texting

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Speaker 2: him to say, can I call right now? No, it's

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Speaker 2: very strange.

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Speaker 1: It is. This is a different world.

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Speaker 2: It was a totally different world. The uh well, you know,

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Speaker 2: another funny tangent to that is, I also remember a

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Speaker 2: day where if you were like, let's say, you knew

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Speaker 2: someone's name, but you didn't really know where they lived,

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Speaker 2: and you didn't know them that well, so you needed

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Speaker 2: their phone number, so you looked it up and they

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Speaker 2: were like six Josh Clark's and you would start calling

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Speaker 2: random Josh Clark's and say, are you the Josh Clark

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Speaker 2: that I met at camp summer camp this summer or

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Speaker 2: the parents of so like you would go like, you know,

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Speaker 2: that's the whole plot of the Initial Terminators. He's killing

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Speaker 2: random Sarah Connors. Oh yeah, because he looks up Sarah

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Speaker 2: Connor in the phone book.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you would totally do that. I did that too.

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Speaker 1: I mean like you would do something like that and

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Speaker 1: it was and.

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Speaker 2: People understood would be like, oh, that's a different guy.

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Speaker 1: Sorry, good luck, good luck.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, so quaint and this is not like three

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Speaker 2: hundred years ago. The other thing I did not know.

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Speaker 2: Actually when I said, I knew all this in my

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Speaker 2: brain and it totally makes sense now all this. You know,

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Speaker 2: the businesses themselves were advertised within the floral section or

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Speaker 2: the laundromat section. And that's why you would see like

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Speaker 2: a one plumber or a one florist is because they

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Speaker 2: would be listed first. I never knew that, and I

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Speaker 2: feel like a dummy because it's so obvious.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, I mean like that's but yeah, that's what

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Speaker 1: I would call my business we should have called this

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Speaker 1: a one stuff you Should Know.

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Speaker 2: Podcast, right, A one podcast?

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Speaker 1: Right? Yeah, no, it totally makes sense. It was called

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Speaker 1: gaming the system. I think that's right. So for about

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Speaker 1: one hundred years, like this is how you made contact

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Speaker 1: with the outside world. This is how you searched for

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Speaker 1: things in the outside world. It's really hard to wrap

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Speaker 1: your head around now, but you just pull a book

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Speaker 1: out and I say, we take a little break, come

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Speaker 1: back and talk a little more about the history of

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Speaker 1: the phone book after well this break, let's do it. Well,

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Speaker 1: now we're on the road, driving in your truck.

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Speaker 2: I want to learn a thing or two from Josh

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Speaker 2: pm Chuck.

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Speaker 1: It's stuff you should.

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Speaker 2: Know, all right, All right, we're back. We're talking phone books.

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Speaker 2: The first phone directory we talked a little bit about

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Speaker 2: in our Telephone episode. I think it was published in

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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy eight New Haven, Connecticut and had about fifty

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Speaker 2: subscribers that's what they were called at the time, on

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Speaker 2: a single piece of paper, listed as phones, you know,

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Speaker 2: spread around. Obviously, the phone book got bigger and bigger,

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Speaker 2: to the point where, like I mentioned, we had a

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Speaker 2: full white pages and a full yellow pages, and they

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Speaker 2: were very big books. I think the last editions of

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Speaker 2: the New York City. Well maybe not the last, because

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Speaker 2: there are still phone books if you have a landline,

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Speaker 2: believe it or not, But the New York City phone

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Speaker 2: books came in multiple volumes at the last quarter of

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Speaker 2: the twentieth century, and they were so thick that like,

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Speaker 2: if you were a kid in high school, you might

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Speaker 2: have a strong person team come around to do a

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Speaker 2: little show for you at an afternoon assembly, and inevitably

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Speaker 2: they would blow up a hot water bottle and burst

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Speaker 2: it and till it burst, and they would somebody would

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Speaker 2: rip a phone book in half, which was seemingly really

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Speaker 2: hard to do.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I do I have no recollection of seeing an

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Speaker 1: assembly like that, Like did you see that? It sounds like,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, that's a first hand to count.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we had a strong strong man team come

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Speaker 2: around and do like feats of strength for the high

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Speaker 2: school afternoon.

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Speaker 1: Did they like legitimize it by just saying like, also

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Speaker 1: don't do drugs at the end? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Probably?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Wow, that's really something. Yeah, I don't remember we

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Speaker 1: I don't remember anything like that.

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Speaker 2: Where'd you think they ripped up phone books? Just like

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Speaker 2: that's incredible or whatever?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: I got to see it live. Buddy.

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Speaker 1: Wow, go Redan hs. That's right, the Redan Redheads.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Raiders.

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Speaker 1: That was close. Yeah. So one of the things like

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Speaker 1: if you were if you had a phone, like you

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Speaker 1: just got a phone book, it was free, like they

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Speaker 1: were disposable, Like you just thought nothing of the phone book.

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Speaker 1: But it turns out they were like big, big business

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Speaker 1: for AT and T and then later on for a

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Speaker 1: bunch of other companies, but AT and T, according to

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Speaker 1: a nineteen eighty six article. The article said that eighteen

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Speaker 1: T made seven billion dollars just off of the money

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Speaker 1: it charged businesses across the country to be listed in

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Speaker 1: the Yellow Pages. And that's like thirteen billion dollars today.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot. That's like lunch at Apple.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a ton of money. And I

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Speaker 2: even looked up. I was like, I wonder if there

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Speaker 2: was a sort of a weird little hidden search charge

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Speaker 2: for like the customer to be listed. And apparently not.

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Speaker 2: Apparently you were never ever charged to be listed in

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Speaker 2: the phone book. You did have to pay to get unlisted,

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Speaker 2: which a lot of states eventually like introduced like house

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Speaker 2: bills and stuff. They're like this is a scam. You

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Speaker 2: can't just list somebody's name and address and say you

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Speaker 2: got to pay us to not do that extortion. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so I think a lot of those ended up being successful.

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Speaker 2: But you know, AT and T was selling those not

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Speaker 2: only just a spot in the Yellow Pages, but you

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Speaker 2: could pay a lot more money to get like larger

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Speaker 2: ads and stuff in the Yellow Pages to get more notice,

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Speaker 2: and they would market that stuff. And you know almost

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Speaker 2: said it earlier, but I didn't want to let it slip.

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Speaker 2: But a very famous one it was in nineteen sixty two.

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Speaker 2: I could have sworn it was the seventies, because it

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Speaker 2: clearly went through the seventies was let your Fingers do

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Speaker 2: the Walking ad campaign, the idea of, hey, let your

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Speaker 2: fingers do the walking instead of your body, Like, don't

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Speaker 2: walk around downtown looking for your florist, just let your

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Speaker 2: fingers do that and then give them a call instead, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And I mean that was kind of revolutionary as far

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Speaker 1: as things went, at least in the mid century. And

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Speaker 1: I said that AT and T made a bunch of

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Speaker 1: money off of the Yellow Pages. The reason why it

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Speaker 1: was just them is because they had a monopoly on

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Speaker 1: the phone system in the US, which I'm sure we

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Speaker 1: covered as well in that phone exchange up. So, but

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Speaker 1: it was finally broken up. The government granted monopoly. They're like,

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Speaker 1: you guys are too big. We're going to break you

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Speaker 1: up into regional providers like Northwestern Bell, Southern Bell, that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And so all of those companies, these

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Speaker 1: subcompanies now were printing Yellow Pages and they were making money.

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Speaker 1: But because Bell no longer had a monopoly, that also

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Speaker 1: opened the door for private companies to start making their

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Speaker 1: own Yellow Pages. There was just a lot of money

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Speaker 1: and walking around because this is how people found businesses.

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Speaker 1: It was either driving past and seeing a business that

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Speaker 1: had their phone number on the sign, or you went

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Speaker 1: to the Yellow Pages. It was as simple as that.

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Speaker 1: So you had a lot of incentive to advertise in

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Speaker 1: the yellow Pages, and so companies had a lot of

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Speaker 1: incentive to publish Yellow Pages. And so the number of

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Speaker 1: phone books that came to one person's house started to boom.

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Speaker 1: I think in the nineteen nineties in some parts of California,

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Speaker 1: you might get ten different phone books delivered to your

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Speaker 1: house every night. Year. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, obviously, especially in a place like California,

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Speaker 2: or you know, Washington State, Seattle, Washington. People would be like, hey,

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Speaker 2: wait a minute, this is like a pretty awful thing

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Speaker 2: to do, like the amount of waste that's happening here.

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Speaker 2: I remember early I mean this is a long time

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Speaker 2: ago now, but not that long ago. But the Internet

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Speaker 2: was around, and there were still phone books being delivered,

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Speaker 2: and I remember seeing a comedian joke about I think

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Speaker 2: the joke was something up printing a small portion of

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Speaker 2: the Internet and throwing it on my porch once a year.

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Speaker 2: I thought that was pretty funny. But everyone, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's pretty clear, like what a wasteful thing. I think

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Speaker 2: half a billion phone books were being delivered six hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty thousand tons of paper every year by nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety one, enough to fill up two million cubic yards

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Speaker 2: of landfill space, even though you could probably recycle that stuff.

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Speaker 2: So they initially started doing like recycled paper and stuff

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Speaker 2: like that. Seattle, like I mentioned, I think was one

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Speaker 2: of the first ones to say, like, you know, we're

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Speaker 2: gonna start charging phone book makers fourteen since per phone

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Speaker 2: book delivered within the city. And if people elect to

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Speaker 2: not have a phone book, but they still throw one

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Speaker 2: on your porch, like that's a one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: dollars five Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Knowing me, justice police, I would have been I would

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Speaker 1: have immediately gone to the trouble of filling out like

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Speaker 1: the five page form to complain, to make sure that

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Speaker 1: that company got fined out.

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Speaker 2: I totally would. Yeah, I opted out.

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Speaker 1: You've got a touch of the justice police in Youtuo

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Speaker 1: for youah for sure?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah neither. Yeah. We don't like bad guys getting

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Speaker 2: away with stuff justice. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So despite the environmental thing, I think basically converting to

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Speaker 1: recycled paper helped a lot of people in training. People

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Speaker 1: like you said, like these things can actually be easily recycled.

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Speaker 1: That kind of simmered people down about the environmental part.

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Speaker 1: So that's not what did away with phone books. There

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Speaker 1: were like three things in pretty quick secession that really

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Speaker 1: started to take the Yellow Pages down at least so

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Speaker 1: four on one that was information all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you could dial that for free starting in the eighties,

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Speaker 1: and now you didn't even have to look in the

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Speaker 1: phone book. You could just call up and be like,

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Speaker 1: just start reading some plumbers' names off to me in

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Speaker 1: their phone numbers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you would call someone to read you the phone exactly,

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Speaker 2: that's right. And then, of course, you know, the Internet

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Speaker 2: coming along had everything to do with it. And also

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and four, Congress passed a law that

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Speaker 2: said you can't put cell phone numbers in phone books,

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Speaker 2: so they were on the way to doing that. So

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Speaker 2: it basically was whittled down to just landlines. And then

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Speaker 2: once the Internet came around, as far as businesses go,

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Speaker 2: the Yellow Pages wasn't as necessary. But you know they're

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Speaker 2: all still around because there are still landlines. And you

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Speaker 2: know who advertises in the Yellow Pages? Still who ricks

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Speaker 2: in a bogan? Emily's dad and Seneco Glass, his auto

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Speaker 2: glass repair shop in Cayuga Falls, Ohio. Unless it's changed.

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Speaker 2: We were talking one day and he was like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I still advertise in the Yellow Pages. A lot of

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Speaker 2: people around here still use landlines, still look stuff up

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Speaker 2: in the Yellow Pages.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. There was a poll that found, I think in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, more than fifty million homes in the

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Speaker 1: US still have a landline. So that means that unless

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Speaker 1: they go to the trouble of opting out, they still

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Speaker 1: get a phone book delivered to them every year, and

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Speaker 1: that ten percent of all Americans still use Yellow Pages

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Speaker 1: If you just zero in on fifty five and older,

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Speaker 1: almost three quarters of them use the Yellow Pages to

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Speaker 1: find business like old habits die hard. So like your

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Speaker 1: father in laws, like, he has an incentive to still

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Speaker 1: sure advertising the Yellow Pages, which means there's an incentive

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Speaker 1: for Yellow Pages to still exist as long as people

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Speaker 1: use them. You know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm What I'm really mad about is I'm now

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Speaker 2: in the age group where they're like, but this is

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Speaker 2: what the olds are doing, right, freaking yellow Pages. Come on, nobody.

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Speaker 2: I know my age looks in the Yellow Pages, So

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Speaker 2: I take issue with that number.

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Speaker 1: You're a twenty six percenter.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so. But I have to say, if

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Speaker 2: you're looking for autoglass repair in the Cayuga Falls, Ohio region,

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Speaker 2: and you want to avoid big Auto glass, go with

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Speaker 2: the mom and popper in this case, the pop and

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Speaker 2: go check out Seneco Glass. Tell Rick we sent you.

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Speaker 1: Very nice man.

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Speaker 2: They do great work.

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Speaker 1: I can't think of any better way for short stuff

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Speaker 1: to be out.

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Speaker 2: That's right, We're out. Stuff you Should Know is a

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Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts

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Speaker 1: Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,