Western Electric manufactured the pink “Princess” telephone beginning in 1959. The original Princess phone was model 701 that needed an external ringer; this phone is model 702B that was manufactured in September of 1969 with the ringer moved inside the base. Henry Dreyfuss, already popular for his design of the Western Electric 302 tabletop phone, designed the Princess telephone. As telephones became mainstream instruments of teen communication, phone manufacturers began designing specifically for the growing teenage market. Available in white, beige, pink, blue, and turquoise the Princess was designed to be a bedside phone for teenagers—specifically teenage girls. To facilitate bedside use, the phone took up only a third of the space of the standard desk phone, while containing a night light under the dial. These features were brought to the fore with the advertising slogan “It’s little, it’s lovely, it lights.”
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