THE RARELY ASKED BUT BURNING QUESTION
A refurbished British Ericcson wall phone, MW 235. From 1930 to 1945 the PMG rebuilt these from old stocks of candlestick phones.
The whole case, and I do mean the entire case regarding the connection between Jestyn and the Somerton Man rests on one thing and one thing only as far as we are aware. The telephone number written in 'really tiny lettering' (according to Detective Brown) on the back of the Rubaiyat, X 3239. How did the Police know that this was Jestyn's number?
You could say that we have proof of that number being used by Prosper in a number of newspaper ads:
But, the consensus at the time was that SM arrived in Adelaide on a train from Melbourne, so what about this ad in a Melbourne newspaper, The Argus 23rd February 1946:
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| You could argue that the number is either 3239 or 2239, a bit blurred. |
In this case, the person who placed this ad was looking to exchange their current, beachside, home for another in Kew.
For the record, the X prefix indicates that this was a location in or near St. Kilda/Brighton. Here's a link to an old Telephony text PDF, it provides information on exchange setups and prefix planning, for those interested look at page 30 in the pdf. It is a very useful reference for any researcher.
Is the number 2239 or 3239? Whichever it is for this ad, I think it reasonable to assume that there was more than likely a phone number X3239 in St Kilda/Brighton at that time.
It is a critical question as I feel sure most would agree but it's not that simple to resolve. The Melbourne telephone directory does exist, I think the year is 1947, but it is on microfiche in alphabetical order and the only way you are able to search it is if you have the name of the subscriber.
For the record, Clive has already made inquiries re the K J Widmer St Kilda ( Tibor Kaldor Referee) connection without success. That doesn't mean it wasn't a number KJW had access to though.
We are left with only one option in the absence of that name and that is to go to the Victorian Library and physically search the microfiche for that number.
Clive recalls a comment made on the Smithsonian blog some years ago where someone suggested that they had done that but they didn't leave the name but suggested that the number was to be found in the second half of the directory.
There are paid researchers available in Melbourne and I guess the staff at the library would be happy to provide a list. I would go if I could but that's not possible at this time and the cost of flights and accommodation would likely be more than hiring a good researcher for the task.
I would be happy to chip in if someone wants to get it organised, it should be understood that there is no guarantee that the St.Kilda/Brighton number will yield a positive lead but it certainly needs to be followed through and for the life of me I can't understand why it hasn't happened. Unless of course it has been done already?
What do you say Pete Bowes?