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Model 202 TelephoneThe Model 202 telephone was produced by Western Electric from 1930 through 1936. It is sometimes referred to informally as a "Depression phone" since the years of its manufacture coincide with the core period of the Great Depression. The 202 was a modified version of the earlier 102 phone; the latter, introduced in 1928, was the first telephone to include the transmitter and receiver in a single handset. The 102 had a round base, while the 202 was slightly larger and had an oval base. The vast majority of Model 202 phones were produced in a single color — black — but examples of the phone in many other colors (ivory being most common among them) can also be found. Barbara Stanwyck talked on an ivory Model 202 phone in the 1948 motion picture Sorry, Wrong Number. The first Model 202 phones featured a handset which included a recessed area, known colloquially as a "spit cup," on the transmitter; this was modified about halfway through the phone's production run. In 1951 Western Electric salvaged parts from used Model 202 phones, plated the housing in brass and painted the handset ivory, and released the set as the "Imperial" model — the company's first-ever marketing of a "retro" phone.
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