March 10, 1876, the first discernible speech was transmitted
over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham
Bell summoned his assistant in another room by saying,
“Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” Bell had received a
comprehensive telephone patent just three days before.

SANDY KOZEL

Walter Matthau, left,  and Art Carney on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.

Neil Simon Broadway play The Odd Couple debuted in 1965
and starred Walter Matthau (who would go to play the same
role in the film) and Art Carney as Felix Ungar. Matthau won
a Tony award for his portrayal, one of a slew of accolades
the play received.

On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell received
a patent for his revolutionary new invention: the telephone.

On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell received a
patent for his revolutionary new invention: the telephone.

The Scottish-born Bell worked in London with his father, Melville
Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a written system used to
teach speaking to the deaf. In the 1870s, the Bells moved to
Boston, Massachusetts, where the younger Bell found work as
a teacher at the Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf. He later
married one of his students, Mabel Hubbard.

While in Boston, Bell became very interested in the possibility of transmitting speech over wires. Samuel F.B. Morse’s invention
of the telegraph in 1843 had made nearly instantaneous
communication possible between two distant points.

With the help of Thomas A. Watson, a Boston machine shop
employee, Bell developed a prototype.