Yeah - big false alarm. Nothing to see here but some good footage of another time.

Ah, a trip to a time long gone. Who goes to the phone company to pay their bill any more? I don't know where my local phone company's office is. Or if they have one. And if they did, would they accept cash? (Change counted out by a clerk. Now THERE's an obsolete idea).
The world was oh-so-polite then. Customers are greeted by a perma-smiling Stepford clerk, who engages in small-talk-as-PR. There's one grouchy old woman (grouchiness was, apparently, restricted to a certain age group then) but that's the worst of it, and she's quickly satisfied. The zombie clerk isn't taught how to deal with some obese Karen, stomping, f-bombing, throwing things and acting like a four-year-old. Adults didn't act like four-year-olds in public back then.
As a training film, it is effective. Instructions are explained simply and shown well. The production values are good.

Very well done.

And they very adeptly illustrate the twelve steps a girl follows to do this right. An excellently done movie. I think this film competes quality wise with the very best of Jam Handy's productions.

One question, though. Bell System was the only phone company around. There was no competition. Just Bell, or nobody. So really, what difference would it make?

This is a training film for tellers at the bill paying place for telephone bills and clearly shows how one conducts themselves behind that desk and why. It is an old timey version of what McDonalds does today. Excellently done, too, and uses an attractive girl to illustrate the virtue of doing this job the right way.

Some thoughts: Ever notice that the Fedora was the "baseball cap" of the early/mid twentieth century? Most people in those days didnt have checking accounts and had to pay bills on the hoof. People only used cash - for everything! I remember the women at the department store used to stamp those bills with a loudly..."like a carpenter," is accurate. Some nice looking men come to that desk...I think in my next life I'd like to be a teller - God willing, with a winning smile good teeth and a big pair.

10 stars if I could.

I’m sorry, but WHERE is the “sexism”? The sexist concept didn’t exist back then, so it’s really just of its time. I think the fact that people get up in arms about something this innocuous is telling of our generation, which is judgmental, hypersensitive, and litigious. The words I hear ascribed to these gals are things like “accurate, quick-minded, friendly, alert” etc., and anyone who’s that uptight about the word ‘girl’ is probably just looking for an excuse to be indignant.

This is clearly a film promoting the benefits and importance of good customer service, but it’s also about respecting and empathizing with people, and being good at what you do, whatever it is. At that time women were the company’s front end and only point of contact with the customer, not men. Without having researched it, I think that’s still largely the case. To that end, this is a targeted and effective film. I see nothing patronizing, belittling, or offensive here. Frankly, I think the gender stereotypes in evidence in today’s advertising are FAR more cynical and undermining than anything I see in this piece. Now we have (among other things) the preponderance of “dumb-guy, smug know-it-all woman” themed ads, which for some reason doesn’t seem to bother anyone.

Seriously, if you really find the sensibilities reflected in these films difficult to understand and/or offensive, I can’t understand why you’re even here.

The sexism is astounding... Please someone tell me what young girls think about?????? Still tho many of the customer service reps today could do well to take a lot of the advice given in this film

Polestra, I can see the sexist significance of using the word "girl" instead of "woman" completely escapes you. But then why wouldn't it, as people in 2009 STILL regularly use the word girl to refer to an adult female. It's very disappointing that in many ways, we women haven't advanced very far at all.

If "period sexism" means "a perfectly realistic understanding of the differences between men and women", then okay, this is "period sexism".

One nice point in this film is the constant use of the word Overtone as in "the overtones of good service."

This is a uniquely Bellish word, since old Alex Bell was an expert in phonetics and acoustics. He contributed hugely to the understanding of overtones (formants) in speech; and his invention of the telephone arose from hearing overtones in a specialized telegraph.

More details on the latter here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/peopleevents/mabell.html

I didn't really see much sexism. The only thing I can see as it is when he says to stamp in a lady like manner. Everything else seems pretty unisex to me, the same if a man was doing the job.

I do have to say, I don't think I could smile like that my whole work day.

The two tellers at the beginning of this film were the same gal.... the first on was filmed on her first day at work... the second on was filmed when she had been working there about 6 years sayng the same old thing every day and answering the same old questions and listening to complaints from customers and watching every man that gets hired in at the same level as you get promoted after he clears his probation period.

What a farce!

Smile, call your customer by name, be friendly and courteous, be organized, go "above and beyond", don't whine to the human resources department about how oppressive the corporate pigs are while you continue to suck at their tit. The perfect employee, er, associate, fantasy film.

Narrator has that great by-gone era voice which is very George Fenemanish.
The End.

This has a great deal in common with the "Raisins" episode of SOUTH PARK.