I would love to have a replica of the briefcase “laptop” that was built for “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I don’t know that I’ll have the time or the funds to actually see that happen myself, but I’d love to see *someone* pull it off. Maybe figuring out what the source of the various bits here would help me, or someone else, to actually see it happen. So… one thing at a time. First, this prop:
This prop was built by Honeywell circa 1965, and it’s reasonable to assume that most of the components were Honeywell components. That’s not a certainty, however. On the righthand side of the briefcase was a telephone using an unusual hybrid of a dial and push buttons; buttons such as became pretty much standard in the sixties and beyond, but laid out in a circle like a dial telephone. Below are cropped images of just the phone and the hand-held receiver. Note a few distinctive features beyond the buttons: the black circle in the “dial” that appears to have the numbers printed on it (rather than having the numbers on the buttons themselves); the raised frame the receiver would fit on; the crosshatching on the outer surface of the receiver, similar detailing in at least the lower/mouth “well” of the body of the phone. I don’t have the foggiest how to go about trying to find out what this was; Google image searches using what seemed relevant search terms didn’t turn up much, and searching eBay for vintage 1960’s push button phones resulted in tens of thousands of results, far to many to look through without going insane. Doubtless, though, there is someone somewhere who would look at this and know *exactly* what kind of phone it was. The red Honeywell “H” in the middle of the dial is very likely a decal added by the prop builder.
