ENGLEWOOD, N.J. -- The nation's first long distance dialed telephone call was made from Englewood Saturday.
The mayor of Englewood rang up the mayor of Alameda, Calif., 3,000 miles away, without the help of a single operator.
They marked the historic occasion by discussing the same old subject -- the weather.
Mayor Leslie Denning picked up a telephone in the New Jersey Bell Telephone office, pushed the dial around 10 times, instead of the usual seven and in 18 seconds Alameda's May or Frank P. Asborn was on the wire.
'How's the Weather'
"Hello. How's the weather out there?" Denning asked.
"Fine. But how are the mosquitoes in New Jersey," Osborn replied.
Denning chuckled over this ribbing. He retorted that it has been so long since he has been bitten that he can't remember just when he had his last encounter with a mosquito.
"I can hear you fine, as though you were right here in the next room from me," said Osborn, changing the subject to another familiar telephone topic.
New System
The telephone call meant that it no longer is necessary for 10,000 Englewood exchange telephone customers to contact a long distance operator to make calls to more than 11,000,000 persons in 14 major metropolitan areas from coast-to-coast.
A subscriber has only to dial three code numbers and then the number he wants, and he has the party he wants on the wire.
A telephone company spokesman said the system has been installed here on a trial basis, and that the dialing will be strictly one way for the time being. Persons in other cities still will have to get a long distance operator to place their calls to Englewood, he said.
