The Mojave Phone Booth Phenomenon

[Ivan Seeking]

By chance I spotted and watched an Independent film called Mojave Phone Booth. I had mentioned it as being an interesting movie, and I was checking to see where it was filmed when I discovered that the movie was apparently based on a genuine and very strange social phenomenon. It struck me as being such an unusual story that it was worth a thread. There is an LA Times article that discusses it as well as a website claiming to be the site the started it all. How strange!

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE — With only the lazy Joshua trees and hovering buzzards out here to bear witness, this isolated expanse of high-desert plain could well be among the quietest places on the planet.

By day, the summer heat hammers hard and the dull whistle of the wind is the only discernible noise. Come nightfall, the eerie silence is often pierced by the woeful bleat of a wandering burro.

But wait. There's another sound.

Along a line of wooden power poles running to the horizon in both directions, 14 miles from the nearest paved road, a solitary pay phone beckons with the shrill sound of impatient civilization.

Then it rings again. And again. And yet again, often dozens of times a day.

The callers? A bored housewife from New Zealand. A German high school student. An on-the-job Seattle stockbroker. A long-distance trucker who dials in from the road. There's a proud skunk owner from Atlanta, a pizza deliveryman from San Bernardino and a bill collector from Denver given a bum steer while tracing a debt.

Receivers in hand, they're reaching out--at all hours of the day and night, from nearly every continent on the globe--to make contact with this forlorn desert outpost.

They're calling the Mojave Phone Booth...

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/18/news/mn-11495

The Mojave phone booth was a lone telephone booth placed circa 1960 in what is now the Mojave National Preserve in California which attracted online attention in 1997 due to its unusual location. The booth was 15 miles (24 km) from the nearest interstate highway, and miles from any buildings. Its phone number was originally 714-733-9969, before the area code changed to 619 and then to 760.

Fans called the booth attempting to get a reply, and a few took trips to the booth to answer, often camping out at the site. Several callers kept recordings of their conversations. Over time, the booth became covered in graffiti, as many travelers would leave a message on it.

One incident involving the phone booth was documented by Los Angeles Times writer John Glionna, who met 51-year-old Rick Karr there. Karr claims he was instructed by the Holy Spirit to answer the phone. He spent 32 days there, answering more than 500 phone calls including repeated calls from someone who identified himself as "Sergeant Zeno from the Pentagon."

The booth was removed on May 17, 2000 by Pacific Bell, at the request of the National Park Service. Also, per Pacific Bell policy, the phone number was permanently retired. Officially, the removal was done to halt the environmental impact of visitors, though a letter written by the then-superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve mentions confronting Pacific Bell with some long-forgotten easement fees.[1] A headstone-like plaque was later placed at the site. It, too, was removed by the National Park Service.

Fans of the booth also claim that the actual enclosure was destroyed by Pacific Bell after its removal.[2]

The story inspired the creation of a motion picture, Mojave Phone Booth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_phone_booth

This is allegedly the website that started it all.
http://www.deuceofclubs.com/moj/mojave.htm

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

I don't see the deeper meaning behind it. It only shows that humans have weird tendencies but nothing I already didn't know. Some humans will spend $40 on a pair of white shirts just to get another one free. That is the most irrational thing as you can get more white shirts from a store that sells them cheaper for a lesser price. I don't see the importance of creating a movie behind that as it is just silly to me. If they are creating movies about irrationality, then they should very well create a movie about the shirts I mentioned above.

On a side not I had a good laugh at the guy who sat there for 32 days based on the instructions he received from the Holy Spirit. Good article none the less. It is interesting to see how weird humans can be.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't see the importance of creating a movie behind that as it is just silly to me.

You are making the all-too-common error of judging a story based on a second-hand paraphrase of it (a phenomenon that the internet has caused to explode in frequency. Some day I will write a book).

You might find this story and possibly the movie is more interesting than a few terse paragraphs could convey. Not all interesting stories fit in a Digg tagline...



I mean, you won't see the movie, I'll grant that...

But there's always hope that you might concede that the best judgment you can make on the story is that you have no judgement on it at all...

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

I see your point. If the movie correlates to what I read then I will keep my line of thought as in my previous post. But, you are right though to some extent. I merely opted towards the notion of creating a movie about a Mojave phone-booth to be rather silly. Of course to keep the consumer interested they have to add some type of dramatization.

 

[DaveC426913]

Of course to keep the consumer interested they have to add some type of dramatization.

That's rather cynical.

Human interest movies are about people more than about events. Many consider regular people to have plenty enough drama to fill a movie - no need to add it artificially.

This story reminds me of an enjoyable film from many years ago called http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/" . In the same fashion, the events are secondary; the people are the interesting thing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The movie only uses the idea of the phone booth as a background. The real events have almost nothing to do with the story - it is not about the silliness described above.

The movie was not the point here, but it is a very good watch.

What I found to be interesting is to consider how such a social phenomenon emerged, and why. A number of suggestions are made ranging from people being bored and having nothing better to do, to people reaching out to connect with others in a world that is tending towards isolation. Of course, at that time the internet was just getting its legs. And that certainly made the phenomenon possible.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

The phenomenon of internet memes and the activities of various anonymous users are quite interesting. The most recent major acheivement of internet goers with nothing better to do was the "rickroll" and voting Rick Astley 'Best Act Ever' in the MTV music awards.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It seems that behind it all is a desire to connect with other people, or this case, another place - a phone booth sitting alone in the Mojave desert. It reminds me a bit of a baby that has just discovered its feet. He or she doesn't know quite what to do with them, but they seem useful, so the child is fascinated and wants to play with his or her new-found toys.

If people are bored they can play with their navels. But instead they choose to engage in strange activities that have no purpose other than connecting. I think this is more profound than simple boredom. I think people realize that we are becoming a truly global community, and they want to feel like they are a part of it.

 

[leroyjenkens]

The phenomena is why people call the number? I'd say boredom is high on the list of reasons why someone would initially call it. Kinda like when I was a kid and had nothing better to do than call numbers like 111-1111. No deep meaning behind it, just boredom and curiosity.

 

[DaveC426913]

The phenomena is why people call the number? I'd say boredom is high on the list of reasons why someone would initially call it. Kinda like when I was a kid and had nothing better to do than call numbers like 111-1111. No deep meaning behind it, just boredom and curiosity.

You would not or could not know to call this number unless you were at least partially aware of the phenomenon surrounding it. It's not like you're going to randomly pick those digits to dial.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The phenomena is why people call the number?

The question is why it became an internet phenomenon and why people would actually campout by the phone to take calls. Keep in mind that it is 15 miles from the nearest major road, in the middle of the Mojave Desert.