The phone numbers on the missing poster
- Thread starter Gerald
- Start date
-
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
Ms. Mod, you once said Stephen used a real phonenumber in a book - I think it was a police number and of course they got bothered a lot by callers. If you can remember: which book (or story) was it and why did he use a real number?
I'll have to think about which book but the number was for the State police barracks in Orono, Maine.
Orono is where the University of Maine is. Was it Hearts in Atlantis?
And why did he use the real number? He knows how widely read he is and that it most likely will cause trouble for them.
No, it was quite a bit earlier. I keep thinking The Dark Half but not 100% sure of that.
Yes, that was the one: Chapter Sixteen (4) "Please call me collect at the Orono State Police Barracks — 207-
You didn't think I'd put it here, did you?
Wow, what an encyclopedic knowledge. So it probably only appears in the first print run of the book?
I will check if it appears in the Dutch translation.
Seems strange it happened so late on, you would assume it was someting inconsiderate that could have happened with an early book. Unless he did it for a specific reason, but can't think what that would be...
The exchange was changed to 555 in later printings. That's the convention for non-existent phone numbers used in fiction for the US.
It just never occurred to him that people would really try calling the number.
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
I called those poster numbers way back when the trailer was first released, I believe we talked about it here at the time. No one answered.
Don't you mean caller "I.T."? BWAHAHAHAHA!They had caller ID.
I think in general there aren't phonenumbers in his books, that I can remember. There are adresses though, which also are puzzling to me. I assume when he uses an adress in a existing street (like, say, New York), he just picks a housenumber that's higher than the count in the street goes - as not to cause trouble for actual residents? Or does he make the street up completely?
I looked it up in the Dutch edition and it is completely there. It starts as you say and is ten digits. I bought the first edition that came out here at the time. It has been reprinted here a number of times, most recently this year at the occasion of his 70th birthday (along with quite a large selection of the back catalogue). When I find a copy in the bookstore, I'll look if it has been removed.
Actually, WAS it ever removed from the American edition?
I wonder if they would change it in foreign countries, as not so many would make an expensive international call. I wonder if it could still be in use, after so many years?
I wonder if they would change it in foreign countries, as not so many would make an expensive international call. I wonder if it could still be in use, after so many years?