Category:Party Line Telephone

A telephone "shared service line" on which multiple subscribers are hard-wired to the same physical telephone line in such a way that they can hear each other's calls, with half (or sometimes all) of the telephones ringing in some predefined pattern to signal one specific household to answer. The bane of rural telephony for most of the mid 20th century, these are largely obsolete today but still appear in a few Unintentional Period Pieces from the relevant eras. Notable in tropes mostly for the lack of privacy or for the ability of one party to endanger public safety if they refuse to relinquish the shared line to allow a distress call to be placed.

Thankfully, Technology Marches On and this is now a Dead Horse Trope.