There was a time, and it wasn’t so long go, that the size and density of your Rolodex determined whether you were judged to be a player … or just a novice.
Before computerised contacts, iPhones, Palm Pilots, Psion Organisers and (heaven forbid) the Sharp Wizard, there was the Rolodex in all its glory adorning work desks all over the world.
The Rolodex was invented in around 1953 by Hildaur Neilsen, the chief engineer at Arnold Neustadter's company Zephyr American, a stationery manufacturer in New York. The patent was issued to Neilsen in 1956 and assigned to Zephyr, who began selling Neilsen's invention as Rolodex in 1958.
So, what is it exactly?
The Rolodex is a rotary card-filing device with square hole punched cards that can be easily removed and reinserted to the wheel. There were people who wrote by hand directly on the cards; and others who stapled business cards onto Rolodex cards. Cards could be added, discarded or temporarily shared with ease. It was a genius, efficient and highly personal way of staying in touch.
In those days people talked about their Rolodexes a lot. "I think I have him in my Rolodex", they might say; or, "If he leaves, he's going to take his Rolodex with him".
Neustadter, who died in 1996, never saw the way in which digital storage would affect his iconic invention; but his daughter Jane Revasch insists he would've argued that his baby was as relevant as ever. In 2010 when Anna Jane Grossman, author of “OBSOLETE: An Encylcopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By” called to tell her that she was going to include the Rolodex in OBSOLETE, she got huffy. "They still work! You just can't carry them around! Places still sell them", she said. She continued. "They aren't obsolete! Give your book another title! You know, look at it this way: computers get viruses! But the Rolodex, it’s never taken a sick day in its life."
Atlanta, Georgia based Rubbermaid now owns Rolodex, and apparently they still sell plenty, although its a bit puzzling to imagine who to. Technology has really dented their claim to functional superiority, at least in relative terms.
When most people look at a Rolodex now, they’re more likely to think of Madmen’s Don Draper handing it over to his secretary. Even so, the Rolodex is iconic enough as a piece of ubiquitous business furniture that it has been displayed in the Smithsonian and featured as Design Classic #417 in Volume 2 of Phaidon Design Classics.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
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Rolodex exists in printed form as chapter 60 of RR#1 … available to order HERE
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolodex
Gizmodo: The life and death of the Rolodex by Anna Jane Grossman
OBSOLETE: An Encylcopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By
Images
1. Classic Rolodex
2. Rolodex: US Patent 2,371,966
3. Early Rolodex Press
4. Well worn Rolodex. Image via Gizmodo: The life and death of the Rolodex
5. OBSOLETE: An Encylcopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By
6. Don Draper's big fit Rolodex in Mad Men
7. Jack Lemmon with Rolodex in 1960 American romantic comedy-drama The Apartment
