How much was a payphone in 1973? And...

[moocat]

I also need to find out what the average movie cost to attend in 1973. Can anyone answer directly or point to a source for this info? Thanks 🙂

 

[Linflas]

Pay phones were .10 per call. To the best of my memory movies cost $2.00.

 

[bozo1]

I'm pretty sure pay phones were a nickel in 73. I remember them going up to a dime in the late 70's.

 

[veryape]

Good year, no great year, mostly because I was born this year. I remember reading in a book on peoples birthdates that in 1973 payphones were a nickel.

 

[yakko]

<< Good year, no great year, mostly because I was born this year. >>

Damn you are old! 😉😛

 

[TuffGirl]

Miscellaneous consumer prices from 1973:

Average new house $32,500
Half gallon of milk $0.79
Pound of bacon $1.20
Average worker's annual wage $10,512
Loaf of bread $0.34
Ten pounds of potatoes $1.12

This is my where I got the info.

Ok so it's not such a valid source, but it's a cute program that lets you find out what was going on in the world the day you were born or any other day, including news articles and trivia appropriate to that day and consumer prices at the time. And then it prints the whole thing into a nifty newspaper frontpage format. Cool download.

And yakko, I'd rather be old than be an AT lifer! 😛

<-- born in '74 🙁

 

[Nitemare]

Hey 1973 was a good year indeed..was the year Nitemare was born as well.

You might find the answer at your nearest hallmark store..they have those birth year thingies on hom much everything costs back then.

 

[sciencetoy]

Payphones were usually a dime, but could be other amounts. I'm pretty sure that in NYC pay phones were still a nickel, but if you put in a dime (like you did most other places) you didn't get any change. A minor annoyance but I still remember it this many years later!!

 

[brewerbob]

For interest rates and other economic data tryFRED (Fed. Reserve of St. Louis) They don't list actual prices and the list of items may change (as they do with the CPI) but it may give you a ratio to work with.

I used this site quite a bit for an Economics class I took. Interest rates were cool to look at (something like 18% in 1982).

 

[guyver01]

I would also check THIS site .. 1970sflashback.com

 

[777joee]

Well in 1973 I was in the Navy on Guam. On that island that is BTW 37miles long and 8 miles wide at its widest point payphones were $.10 and first run movies were $2.50. Beer in the machines near Andy's hut after they closed for the night was $.50 a can.


Boy those were the days. 🙂

 

[Yeeny]

Of course 1973 was a good year, its when I was born too! Shaddap yakko. 😉