I confess that I’m old enough to know what a “long distance call” meant. That was when you picked up a telephone and called someone in another state, or perhaps in the same state, and had to pay “long distance” charges to make the call. You obviously didn’t want to stay on the phone too long because those long distance charges could add up.
Today, of course, we can make video calls using one of several services for free. Not just to another state, but to anywhere around the world.
This wasn’t the case 100 years ago, because on March 7 (or March 6; sources vary), the very first telephone call was made from London, England, to New York, New York.
Whatever day it took place, this was no ordinary call. Telephone calls depended upon carrying voltage through cables, and of course there was no cable connecting London and New York. But it worked well enough that regular transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated in 1927.
This mainly catered to rich businessmen like Floyd C. Odlum (who later married aviator Jackie Cochran). Odlum made a 95 minute call to New York and, um, rang up a £285 bill in the process. In 1920s dollars, mind you. He should have waited a few years and just had his future wife fly to New York instead of making the call.
Bredemarket 