Dick: I’ll be at 362-9296 for a while; then I’ll be at 648-0024 for about fifteen minutes; then I’ll be at 752-0420; and then I’ll be home, at 621-4598. Yeah, right George, bye-bye.

Linda: There’s a phone booth on the corner. You want me to run downstairs and get the number? You’ll be passing it.

— Play It Again, Sam (1972)

The gag of Dick’s reluctance to leave his work at work runs throughout this Woody Allen movie. It’s now an antiquated idea, with that little communication brick in your front pocket, but the social reliance on pay phones in the 70s and 80s continues to intrigue me. The film itself veers uncomfortably close to my own suavity while dating, as this trailer will attest.

Bonus: Did you know that the phrase “play it again, Sam” never appeared in Casablanca? Wikipedia sets us straight:

When Ilsa first enters the Café Americain, she spots Sam and asks him to “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.” When he feigns ignorance, she responds, “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.'”