Introduction by George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center Communications media started with simple forms — signal fires and mirror signaling. But with the invention of the telephone in the 1800s, communications started to move at supersonic speeds. The words of luminaries such as Orson Welles and inventor Walter Brattain mingle with those of everyday folks like the operators of a Mom-and-Pop telephone company in Maine, as they attempt to illuminate why and how we are driven to communicate in this artfully-presented film. A guide to the film's interviewees, in order of appearance: Aaron Lemonick Dean of the Faculty, Princeton University Henry M. Boettinger Director of Planning, AT&T Lilian Jones Granddaughter of Alexander Graham Bell G. Robert Vincent Phonograph Assistant to Thomas Alva Edison Gioia Marconi Braga Daughter of Guglielmo Marconi Jack Poppele Veteran Wireless Operators Association William S. Paley Chairman of the Board, CBS Orson Welles Terry Arsenault Operator, New England Telephone Company Elden and Barbara Hathaway Bryant Pond Telephone Company, Maine W. O. Baker President, Bell Laboratories Walter H. Brattain Co-Inventor of the Transistor Raymond H. Frost Vice President, New England Telephone Company Linda Pullum Service Advisor, South Central Bell Telephone Company Vladimir Zworykin Pioneer Inventor of Television The Tonight Show Staff, plus Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson Directed, Produced, and Written by Julian Krainin Krainin/Sage Productions, New York Winner of a CINE Golden Eagle, 1976 Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ