Grillo telephone
{{Short description|1960s flip phone telephone from Italy}}
{{Infobox product
| title = Grillo telephone
| logo =
| logo_caption =
| logo_alt =
| image = Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 02.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Grillo telephone designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso
| type = Domestic flip-phone telephone
| inventor =
| manufacturer = Siemens Italtel{{efn|group=|A subsidiary of former state-owned telecommunications company SIP (now part of Telecom Italia).
|name=en1}}
| available =
| current supplier =
| last production = 1979
| models =
| slogan = "Il telefono in palma di mano"{{Cite web |date=2020-08-18 |title=Telefono Grillo: pubblicità vintage |url=https://cultura.biografieonline.it/telefono-grillo-pubblicita-vintage/ |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Cultura |language=it-IT}}
| website =
| notes = Winner of the 1967 Compasso d'Oro award and the Ljubljna Biennale of Design gold medal in 1968.
}}
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 07.jpg and Marco Zanuso telephone (open, showing button dial)]]
The Grillo telephone is a 1960s flip-phone telephone from Italy. It was designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, and manufactured by Siemens for Italtel. Introduced in 1967, the "Grillo" remained in production until 1979, and was a popular and iconic symbol of 1960s Italian design.{{Cite web |last=Nepori |first=Andrea |date=14 October 2022 |title=The telephones that made the history of design |url=https://www.domusweb.it/en/product-news/gallery/2020/04/28/21-telephone-that-made-the-history-of-design.html |access-date=8 February 2025 |website=Domus magazine |language=en-gb}}{{cite web |last= |first= |authorlink= |date= |title=Grillo Telephone designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper (1965) |url=http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/184014.html?mulR=6243# |accessdate=3 January 2015 |publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art |format= |doi=}}{{Cite web |title=Il telefono Grillo: "un modo simpatico di telefonare" |url=https://www.finestresullarte.info/opere-e-artisti/il-telefono-grillo-un-modo-simpatico-di-telefonare |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=www.finestresullarte.info |language=it}}{{Cite web |title=The Grillo phone: a nice way to make a phone call |url=https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/works-and-artists/the-grillo-phone-a-nice-way-to-make-a-phone-call |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=www.finestresullarte.info |language=en}}
Design
The modern styling, compact form factor, and automatically opening clamshell design set "Grillo" apart from other telephones that were available at the time. Innovative features that contributed to the phone's compact size include a dial that replaced the conventional rotary finger stop mechanism with a button in each of the number holes which, when actioned, pushed a pin through the back of the dial to stop the mechanism in its correct position.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} The incorporation of the ringer mechanism into the wall plug rather than the phone itself, and the use of a thin ABS plastic shell also helped reduce both its size and weight.{{Cite web |title=Grillo Telefono – Industria, manifattura, artigianato |url=https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/scienza-tecnologia/schede/ST140-00028/ |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=Regione Lombardia – Beni Culturali |language=it}}{{Cite web |last=Magliano |first=Daniele |date=15 November 2020 |title=Il Telefono "Grillo" compie 55 anni: il rivoluzionario cambiamento della telefonia. |trans-title=The "Grillo" Telephone turns 55: the revolutionary change in telephony |url=https://www.salernonews24.com/arte/il-telefono-grillo-compie-55-anni-il-rivoluzionario-cambiamento-della-telefonia/ |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=Salerno News 24 |language=it-IT}}{{Cite web |title=Iconic 1960s 'Grillo' phone study helps preserve the past and ring changes for the future |url=https://www.esrf.fr/home/news/general/content-news/general/iconic-1960s-grillo-phone-study-helps-preserve-the-past-and-ring-changes-for-the-future.html |access-date=12 January 2024 |website=www.esrf.fr |language=en}} The name "Grillo", which means cricket in Italian, "derives from its shape and its chirping ringtone: an insect-like metallic chirp has replaced the harassing ring."{{Cite web |title=Grillo |url=https://www.museoomero.it/en/opere/grillo/ |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=Museo Omero |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Grillo (Cricket) telephone |url=https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/397440-0 |access-date=12 January 2024 |website=Israel Museum}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Vintage Grillo Telephone designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso |url=https://www.design-mkt.com/161101-vintage-grillo-telephone-designed-by-marco-zanuso-1960s.html |access-date=2022-06-20 |website=Design Market |language=it}}
"Grillo" was designed in 1965 by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, who, as a team, also collaborated with Italian companies such as Brionvega, Gavina, Kartell, and Alfa Romeo throughout the 1960s and 1970s.{{Cite web |title=Richard Sapper {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5162 |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Marco Zanuso {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/6544 |access-date=2022-10-02 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}} The design was awarded the 1967 Compasso d'oro in Milan and the Gold Medal at the 1968 Ljubljna Biennale of Design (BIO3).{{Cite web |title=Grillo telephone, Compasso d'Oro (1967) |url=https://www.adidesignmuseum.org/en/schede/grillo/ |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=ADI Design Museum}}{{Cite web |title=Ljubljana Biennale of Design (BIO) – About BIO |url=https://www.bio.si/en/about-us/ |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Ljubljana}} Examples are held in many museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the ADI Design Museum and Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia in Milan.{{Cite web |title=Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper: Selections from the Design Collection {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/402 |access-date=2022-10-01 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Grillo (Cricket) |url=https://www.si.edu/object/grillo-cricket%3Achndm_1987-91-3 |access-date=9 February 2025 |website=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum}}{{Cite web |title=Téléphone Grillo |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/ce7R4A |access-date=9 February 2025 |website=Centre Pompidou |language=fr-FR}}{{Cite web |title=Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper. Grillo Folding Telephone. 1966 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/4621 |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 11.jpg
The "Grillo" would subsequently influence the design of flip phone mobile telephones developed during the 1990s like the Motorola StarTAC and RAZR, as well other electronic devices such as portable computers and games.{{Cite web |date=2012-08-22 |title=Design Museum Collection: telephones |url=https://www.dezeen.com/2012/08/22/design-museum-collection-app-telephones/ |access-date=2022-09-21 |website=Dezeen |language=en}}
In popular culture
The "Grillo" telephone appears in multiple episodes of the original 1960s Mission Impossible television series.{{Cite web |title=Mission: Impossible IMF 'Grillo' Telephone replica TV series prop |url=https://www.yourprops.com/IMF-Grillo-Telephone-replica-movie-prop-Mission-Impossible-TV-1966-YP814223.html |access-date=2022-11-29 |website=www.yourprops.com}}
The car phone depicted in the early 1970s American television series The Magician is a "Grillo" telephone.{{CN|date=May 2024}}
Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga) uses a "Grillo" telephone in the 2021 film House of Gucci.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}
Gallery
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953.jpg|Complete unit with body and wall plug/ringer
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 12.jpg|Detail showing underside of base
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 08.jpg|Detail showing button dial mechanism
File:Telefono automatico a batteria centrale (BCA) - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano D0953 10.jpg|Detail showing wall plug/ringer casing
File:Modello in legno dell'apparecchio telefonico Grillo - san dl SAN IMG-00002605.jpg|Wooden model of the Grillo made by {{ill|Giovanni Sacchi|it}}
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Chiesa, Rosa. (2023).{{Cite web |title=Telephones in Italy, the Italtel Study-Case |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377013168 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241203111717/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377013168_Telephones_in_Italy_the_Italtel_Study-Case |archive-date=2024-12-03 |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}
- {{Cite book |title=Multidisciplinary Aspects of Design: Objects, Processes, Experiences and Narratives |date=2024 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-031-49810-7 |editor-last=Zanella |editor-first=Francesca |series=Springer Series in Design and Innovation |location=Cham |editor-last2=Bosoni |editor-first2=Giampiero |editor-last3=Di Stefano |editor-first3=Elisabetta |editor-last4=Iannilli |editor-first4=Gioia Laura |editor-last5=Matteucci |editor-first5=Giovanni |editor-last6=Messori |editor-first6=Rita |editor-last7=Trocchianesi |editor-first7=Raffaella}}
External links
{{Commons}}
- [https://www.adidesignmuseum.org/en/schede/grillo/ Grillo Telephone at the ADI Design Museum]
- [https://www.museoscienza.org/en/offer/permanent-exhibitions/telecommunications Telecommunications collection], Museum of Science and Technology, Milan
- [https://designstreet.it/telefono-grillo-marco-zanuso-richard-sapper/ Italian Design Files #15: the Grillo phone by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper] Design Street (history, archival images)
- [https://cultura.biografieonline.it/telefono-grillo-pubblicita-vintage/ Telefono Grillo: pubblicità vintage] (vintage Grillo publicity posters)
{{Authority control}}
Category:Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Category:Collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne
Category:Compasso d'Oro Award recipients