Trimline Series Rotary Phone (TouchTone)

I never had one of these, but I could have sworn my grandfather had one in the bedroom. That said, it’s the start of a long line of ‘Trimline’ phones that were modified to keep with the time.

Still available on eBay: Search Here

From Wikipedia:

After the introduction of the popular Princess telephone line, in 1959 and the early 1960s, the design motivation for the Trimline series was to create an alternative design that was stylish and easier to use than a traditional telephone. This was accomplished by moving the dial from the telephone’s base to the underside of the handset, between the earpiece and mouthpiece. The same concept was later used for cellular telephone and cordless telephone models. To miniaturize the rotary dial sufficiently to fit in the Trimline handset, the designers invented an unusual moving fingerstop. Like in the Princess line, the dial was lit when the handset was removed from the base. The Trimline was also one of the first phones to use the predecessor of the now-ubiquitous RJ11 modular phone plug and jack.

Rotary dial Trimline production began in late 1965 and Touch Tone dials were added the following year in mid-1966. The Trimline base was available in desk-top and wall-mount versions. The handsets and bases were interchangeable. The Trimline was the first US telephone to achieve some design recognition in Europe, where it was referred to as the “Manhattan” model or the “Gondola”.[citation needed] Today, similarly designed telephones are sold by many companies. AT&T retained the Trimline name for the later “Trimline III”, a more compact successor featuring squared corners and straight lines.

In the 21st century, Advanced American Telephones produces the Trimline models 205, 210 (based upon original design), and the 265, under license from AT&T.