In Popular Culture
- From 1940 to 1968 the company sponsored The Bell Telephone Hour on NBC radio and (later) television. The program was devoted to concert performances by various singers and musicians.
- Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial includes a scene where the title character watches a television commercial for the Bell System, prompting the famous line, "E.T. phone home!" Later that same year the E.T. character appeared in one of Bell's "Reach out and touch someone" ads.
- In the climax of the 1967 satirical film The President's Analyst, it is revealed that "The Phone Company" (TPC) - an obvious allusion to Bell Telephone - is planning a massive conspiracy to surgically implant communications devices into the brains of its customers. Also featured is a TPC-produced propaganda film that parodies The Bell Laboratory Science Series that Frank Capra produced for Bell Laboratories in the 1950s.
- The Beastie Boys alluded to Bell Telephone in their songs "Sure Shot" and "Get It Together" off of the 1994 Ill Communication album by finishing the song with the repetitive line, "Ma Bell, I got the Ill Communication."
Read more about this topic: Bell System
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“The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech. We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.”
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