Behind the Voice with a Smile: Large Type

The Bell System telephone operator was touted in much of AT&T’s advertising as The Voice with a Smile—a 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 story—not by a long shot!