Yup me too, three shorts and a long. Kept a piece of leather on the top of the phone so we could wrap it around the gong on Sunday afternoon - then all the calls on the party line didn’t bother us as much.I had to crank the little wooden box.
MTS (mobile telephone service) was rolled out in 1946. Essentially there was only three channels and dialing was all handled by a mobile operator (note the lack of a dial in the phone in the movie). In the sixies the IMPROVED Mobile Telephone Service added. This allowed direct dialing both to and from the mobile set, but shared only a dozen or so channels across an entire metro area. I had a friend who had one of these. This was eventually replaced by the ADVANCED Mobile Telephone System which was the beginning of the modern cellular phone. I had a car mounted AMPS unit though I had friends with handheld cells (Motorola Dynatacs) that were the size of a brick.
Like Star Trek 4 when Scotty picks up the computer mouse and talks to itOne of my favorite scenes in the movie "In and Out" was the supermodel (I still have to shower and vomit) who can't figure out how to work the dial phone in the motel.