Episode Details

A sheet metal shop that started out making window frames in Oakland, California ended up building more than 600,000 of the phone booths that once lined nearly every American street corner. On September 30, 2005, Benner-Nawman, Inc. assembled its last telephone booth at its manufacturing plant in Wickenburg, Arizona, closing out a business that began in 1950 when Pacific Telephone and Telegraph first asked the company to design a sturdier aluminum-and-glass replacement for the old wooden booths. The industry's collapse came from two directions at once, the deregulation of the pay phone business under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the rapid rise of cell phones through the late 1990s. Benner-Nawman survived by pivoting into contractor tools and construction equipment, but the booth business itself, and the small daily ritual of stepping into one, ended quietly that September afternoon.

From bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.

Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.

For more daily business stories, visit www.bsnsDAILYpodcasts.com