Galesville Couple Reflects On Nearly 50 Years Of Collecting Antique Phones

When Ron and Mary Knappen started collecting old phones nearly 50 years ago, they had no idea it would turn into a full-time pursuit and a company that supplied high-profile movies and television shows with authentic props.

Ron got his start as a “quiet accumulator” of antiques when he was about 8 years old, which later blossomed into moonlighting as a picker for antique dealers while he was a teacher.

Along the way he connected with a friend who refinished old wooden wall phones.

“They’d sell them to me for 25 bucks apiece, and then I would sell them for $30,” he said.

The Knappens, who live in Galesville, eventually bought all of his friend’s collectible phones — with all of their savings.

“I was a little nervous about wanting to get my money back,” Ron said. “So I sent an ad off to the Antique Trader weekly … and I was dumbfounded. I was on the phone an hour every night for a week.”

After a year, it became too much to handle part time, so they decided to dive in full time and establish Phoneco Inc., which had 40 employees at one point, he said.

“I made a choice, either quit that or quit teaching and my natural instinct is wheeling and dealing and being an adventuresome person into the past,” Ron said. “And I enjoy it very much.”

But now, the Knappens are ready to pass the baton. The demand for old phones has declined and their stock is becoming cumbersome, he said. Though he does see some signs that young people are returning to antiques.

The Knappens have uncovered a variety of valuable antique phones and stories over the years and shared several highlights from their adventure into the past.

• The oldest phone they’ve had dates back to 1878-1880. It’s difficult to know the exact year because they weren’t dated, but there are peculiarities to each phone that give clues to the year, Ron said.
• The Knappens have had phones appear in “Dreamgirls,” “Catch Me If You Can,” and recently sent blue, gray and ivory 1960s-style Western Electric 500 set phones to the set of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
• Ron doesn’t know how many phones they have — but a lot is an understatement. There are 29 semitrailers full of phones parked in their backyard, along with several properties filled with phones
• Ron has written seven books, the first one featured President Lyndon Johnson talking on his ranch phone on the cover, which Ron said many people have mistaken him for.