File this one in the annals of things that will never again exist: switchboard operator school.
This ad from the June 1, 1948 Los Angeles Times hit the zeitgeist of the times perfectly well, though. Picture: it’s 1948, the war has just ended, L.A. is booming, phones are still run through switchboards (though not for long).
The location of The Florence Utt Switchboard School was 742 South Hill Street, Los Angeles; translated, it’s downtown, near Pershing Square and The Biltmore Hotel. Not much found on Florence Utt, but she appears to have been born in 1885 and died in Carmel, California in 1986, a very ripe 101 years old.
Florence Utt ran with the times. In 1957, Florence Utt Switchboard Schools, Inc. was incorporated in New York State, then altered four years later to Florence Utt Business Schools, Inc., to teach students IBM keyboard punch systems.
Unbelievably, Florence Utt Business Schools, Inc. is still an active corporation and name (if not an actual operating business), as registered with the New York Department of State.
