So, I basically missed that transitional phase when telephone booths were more commonplace. This has left me with a number of questions about the ol’ telephone booths, but this one strikes me as one of the funnier and more unnerving ones to ask.
Was it possible to get locked in a telephone booth? Did some models have locks to keep folks from messing with them? If so, who…Would manage the locks? Local authorities & the phone companies?
Were there any notable stories of a person somehow getting trapped in a telephone booth in otherwise ordinary circumstances (i.e. no disaster had struck)?
No lock, but a lot of the ones I remember had a bifold door with the hinge on the inside, so you could lean against it to effectively keep it shut. It was possible to wedge something in there to keep the door shut, and I think that was the subject of a scene in a slapstick movie, where the poor schmuck trying to use the phone left his briefcase perched on a shelf, and as he left it fell and wedged the door shut. I can’t remember the movie, though.