Ericofon  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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The Ericofon is a Swedish telephone handset created by Ericsson. It was designed in the late 1940s by a design team including Gösta Thames, Ralph Lysell and Hugo Blomberg. A specific feature of the telephone is that the two major components--the handset and the dial--are combined in a single unit. This one-piece design anticipated the evolution of the typical cordless phone and cell phone by several decades. The Ericofon is considered a landmark in plastic industrial design. The serial production began in 1954. The earlier models were only sold to institutions, but in 1956 production for the open market begun in Europe and Australia. In Sweden it is known as the cobra telephone, due to its similarity with the serpent.

Media appearances

The Ericofon has been seen in several feature films and TV shows, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s.

• An Ericofon appears prominently in The Twilight Zone episode "Third from the Sun", first broadcast on January 8, 1960; and is also in the episode "One More Pallbearer".
• A white Ericofon can be seen on the office desk of the supervillain in the movie Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 (1964).
• An Ericofon appears briefly in the headquarters of the enemy in the first episode "Eleven Days to Zero" (1964) of the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
• In the movie The World of Henry Orient (1964), Peter Sellers uses an Ericofon in his bedroom.
• Ericofons were used for several years in the detectives' office in the Australian TV series Homicide, with the phone listed by name in episode credits, and L.M Ericsson as the supplier.
• Red, white, and beige Ericofons appear throughout the underground research headquarters in "Crack in the World" (1965).
• I'll Take Sweden (1965) Starring Bob Hope and Frankie Avalon.
• June Lockhart, Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard each posed with an Ericofon in publicity shots while they were on the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968).
• An Ericofon is featured in the opening scene in In Like Flint (1967).
• In the movie Two for The Road (1967), architect Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) receives a long-distance call at a housewarming party on an Ericofon.
• In the 1967 film Casino Royale, Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) receives a phone call from SMERSH on an Ericofon.
• In the 1969–1972 television series The Courtship of Eddie's Father, the Corbett household has an Ericofon.
• In "Doomsday" (1969), the seventeenth episode of the third season of Mission: Impossible, Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) uses a white Ericofon. In the following episode, "Live Bait", an Ericofon is the desk phone of Helmut Kellermann (Anthony Zerbe), the episode's main antagonist.
• Sammy Davis Jr. speaks to Kim Lee on a blue Ericofon at Pepperworth Castle while three more (two ivory and one red) are on the shelf behind him in One More Time, the 1970 film sequel to Salt And Pepper (1968).
• A red Ericofon is used in a top-security U.S. tracking station in the episode "The Ninety-Second War: Part II" (1972) of the TV series Hawaii Five-O.
• An Ericofon is seen in the operation room of the secret service in the French movie Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972).
• An Ericofon can be seen on a table in a scene from the 1973 film Theatre of Blood.
• Many Ericofons are used in the French adult comedy Young Casanova (1974).
• Ericofons are used in the Norvegian adult comedy Kosmetikkrevolusjonen (1977).
• There is a red Ericofon on Higgins' desk, in the episode "China Doll" (1980) of the TV series Magnum, P.I.
• A yellow Ericofon is placed on a table in the living room in the 1980 movie Sunday Lovers.
• Dominique Lavanant uses a red Ericofon in La boum, a 1980 French movie starring Sophie Marceau.
• Doris Roberts is seen speaking into a white Ericofon in the opening credits of Remington Steele (1982-1987).
• An Ericofon is used by Stella in the 1986 Icelandic movie Stella í orlofi.
• The character Myra Gale Brown (played by Winona Ryder) uses an Ericofon in a few scenes of Great Balls Of Fire! (1989).
• The character played by Cyndi Lauper in Off and Running uses an Ericofon at the futuristic motel run by David Keith's character.
• The character Teddy Forzman in the TV show The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1993–1996) uses an Ericofon in the third-season episode "The Trouble with Teddy."
• The character Memphis Rocket in the TV show Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde (1995–1998) has an orange Ericofon on the desk in his office during series one and two.
• Ericofons were featured in the 1997 movie Men in Black. They were the desk phones at workstations at headquarters.
• A modified Ericofon appeared as a prop alien telephone in the first-season episode "I, E.T." of the TV series Farscape (1999–2003).
• A character in the 1999 film But I'm a Cheerleader uses a green Ericofon.
• In the French TV movie L'affaire Ben Barka (2007), a white Ericofon is used in an office of the Paris-Orly Airport. The action takes place in 1965.
• In Mad Men (2007–2012), Roger Sterling uses an Ericofon in his new office. The action is set in the 1960s.
• In the Argentinian movie El Secreto De Sus Ojos from 2009 an Ericofon is used. The scene is dated in the mid seventies.
• In the episode "There Is Another Sky" (2010) of the TV series Caprica, Joseph Adama receives a call on an Ericofon.
• In the Dutch movie "The kidnapping of Freddy Heineken" (2011), a red Ericofon was used. The story plays in 1983.
• In the 2015 film The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Victoria Vinciguerra is briefly seen speaking on an aqua mist colored Ericofon.