| Grillo telephone | |
| Inception: | 1967 |
| Manufacturer: | Italtel |
| Last Production: | 1979 |
The Grillo telephone is a 1960s flip phone telephone from Italy. It was designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, and introduced in 1967.[1] The "Grillo" was manufactured by Italtel, a subsidiary former state-owned telecommunications company SIP (now part of Telecom Italia), and remained in production until 1979.[2] It was a popular and iconic symbol of 1960s Italian design.[3] [4]
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. 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.[5] [6] [7] 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."[8] [9] [10]
"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.[11] [12] The design was awarded the 1967 Compasso d'oro in Milan and the Gold Medal at the 1968 Ljubljna Biennale of Design (BIO3).[13] [14] Examples of the telephone are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) 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.[15] [16] [17]
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.[18]
The "Grillo" telephone appears in multiple episodes of the original 1960s Mission Impossible television series.[19]
The car phone depicted in the early 1970s American television series The Magician is a "Grillo" telephone.
Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga) uses a "Grillo" telephone in the 2021 film House of Gucci.