What is the significance of this phone number in that tune of that name? 
Call the number and find out.
(212) 736-5000 was, and still is, the phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan (Seventh Avenue at 33rd St., very near Penn Station). The ballroom hosted a lot of concerts during the big-band era, including, of course, Glenn Miller.
More info here.
You used to have to call an operator to place a call. Often, the first two numbers would be replaced by the first two letters of the word used. In this case, 7-3 for P-E, making the whole phone number 736-5000.
Why Pennsylvannia instead of something else, I don’t know.
It is (or was) the phone number of a hotel in New York City. The hotel is called the Hotel Pennsylvania. I’ve stayed there.
It’s one of the oldest continuously used phone numbers in existence. No cite handy but I’m pretty sure that’s what it is.
Marc
It’s the phone number for Madison Square Gardens. Incidentally, if you’re actually trying to call the Gardens, and using that phone number to remember it, it helps to realize that it’s PE-6, not PA-6. As many members of my college band discovered one year at the NCAA tournament.
D’oh, I should have known I’d misremember that. The Hotel Pennsylvania was where we were staying that tournament; the Gardens is where we were playing. Either way, it was a worthwhile number to remember.
This would make for another thread of some interest, prhaps. My memory is fuzzy on the dates of such things, but I know that in central Alabama the letter prefixes came in in the 50’s and were gone by the 70’s. Some I can remember:
AMherst
ALpine
CHerry
LExington
Why those numbers and then why those letters, I haven’t a decent clue, but it would be great to get some Straight Dope on it. This is one of those things I would probably never have thought to go Googling for.
And if you call the hotel, the background music is naturally “Pennsylvania 6-5000”.
Yes, I knew about the Prefix or “exchange” bit. Hotel, eh? Interesting, thanks.
You wanna know how to get to the hotel?
Take the A train.
The vestiges of this are all over the place. SCarsdale, NY, for example, has several exchanges that begin with 72.
Telephone exchange project. Interesting browsing.
Huh. I thought it was just a crappy monster movie. I guess you learn something new every day.
That was Transylvania 6-5000, one of the worse movies ever made, and I almost succeeded in forgetting it, thanks a lot… :mad:
Now, IIRC the movie of Glenn Miller’s life (With James Stewart) pointed out that Miller gave that number to his future wife as a contact when the New York hotel was his residence, he then made a song about it.
That’s Transylvania 6-5000.
…Geena Davis…
Actually, that movie has one of my favorite lines. Jeff Goldblum, after surveying the Horrible Land of Transylvania, admits:
“Transylvania is…Nice!”
The same pun was used for the title of a memorable Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Abrakapocus! Hocuscadabra! Walla Walla, Washington! Newport News!
I remember Geena Davis’ outfit and it wasn’t a total bust. Uh, on the other hand I remember her outfit and an impressive bust was involved.
Marc
T-6500 was when Geena was at her perkiest bust, er, best.
Had no idea why she kept being cast with Jeff Goldblum. Wait… strike that. I have no idea why Jeff Goldblum keeps being cast, period.