Behind the Voice with a Smile

The Bell System telephone operator was touted in much of AT&Ts advertising as The Voice with a Smilea young, demure girl wearing a metal headset with a black transmission horn hanging around her neck. The Voice with a Smile equated to courteous, dependable around-the-clock service, and year after year she was voted by many Americans to be the symbol of courtesy, but that was certainly not the whole storynot by a long shot!