Burt Reynolds' Telephone Credit Card Number(Caitlyn Jackson)

## Legend Summary

In 1981, a story somehow spread of Burt Reynolds, a well known and loved actor, sharing his telephone credit card number for public use after winning a million dollar judgment in a lawsuit. Using this number, people thought, would send the long-distance call bill to Mr. Reynolds and he would take care of it. This story had all it needed to be believable–a kind man who everyone believed would be generous enough to do something like this, and a number. That was all that was necessary for people to try it for themselves. The card number actually originated from a small telephone cooperative in Louisville. The small company got stuck with a debt of over $100,000 but didn’t have the resources to pay it. They ended up reversing the bill to the company the call was made from, so many of the nation’s biggest telephone companies had to swallow this debt and, as consequence, many raised their prices.

## History

The history of this legend is closely tied to the adaptations. The legend featuring Burt Reynolds may have been only relevant at one point in time, but the same legend featuring different famous people had popped up every ten years before that. In the 60’s and 70’s it was the same legend just with a different name attached.

## Adaptations

Mr. Reynolds was not the first celebrity to be used in this way. Popping up only every ten years or so, the story has gotten the reputation of being a “once-a-decade hoax with variations” (qtd “A false”). Every decade the legend presents a new celebrity philanthropist who decides to take the bills seemingly out of the good of their heart. The variations of this legend had “Steve McQueen [in the 70’s], and in the ‘60’s, it was Paul Newman” (qtd “A false”). After the incident with Mr. Reynolds, the number got circulated among the companies as a “bad number” and was no longer usable. Without a new number to use the legend died out slowly afterwards. Its slow march to complete obsoleteness was only helped by the sudden boom of technology in the nineties, but the technology chosen may not have been just a result of convenience. It could be argued that this silly seeming prank may have been an opportunity for us to “get back at” the one piece of technology that seems to control us more than we control it. With almost everything else we tell it when to start and when to stop, but “The telephone rings, and see who jumps” (Maddocks). The widespread availability of cellphones and social media made a rumor like this nothing more than a distant memory. For a rumor like this to work successfully in modern times the action would have to change. Instead of long-distance calls bills, the legend would have to take on a more modernized spin. Perhaps  Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift could pay for everyone’s Snapchat + for a month.

## Analysis of Adaptations

Each adaptation had the same requirement for believability: a kind wealthy person. Without this crucial piece, the story falls apart. With the attitude in the modern age, this inclusion of a name would likely make it less believable. The constant media of today exposes celebrities, for better or worse, as more than just the characters they play or the songs they sing. The newfound insight into the day to day life has shown just how disconnected and out-of-touch most celebrities are today. This small detail makes it hard to create a modern equivalent for the legend because without the name attached it no longer is the legend and just becomes a scam. The legend in the grand scheme has this feeling of being able to “get back” at the phone companies, despite the fact that in the end everyone had to pay for it. At the time, the phone was one of the only ways people had to connect with one another over a distance. The companies profiting off of this were in a way taking advantage of a basic human need of connection, which made them the perfect target for this legend. Not only was the company a target, but the phone itself could be considered a target. As briefly mentioned in the section prior, the phone at the time was one of the only technologies that had more control over man than man did over it. That may be a stretch, but for a modern adaptation to follow that same idea there would be too many options. Emails and notifications run people’s days now–from “transportation efficiency and safety to access to food and healthcare, socialization and productivity”(Turner). So much of our time is dictated by technology today that to just choose one piece of tech to deliver our own ironic legend with would be a difficult choice.

## Works Cited

“A false rumor that movie idol Burt Reynolds was…” UPI, 26 September 1981, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/09/26/A-false-rumor-that-movie-idol-Burt-Reynolds-was/3315370324800/

Maddocks, Melvin. “Mr. Reynolds, come here, I want you.” The Christian Science Monitor, 8 October 1981, https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/1008/100833.html

Turner, Jack. “The 8 Main Ways Technology Impacts Your Daily Life: Technology has had a huge impact on all our daily lives, from social media to work — we explain the areas most affected.” tech.co, 11 July 2023, https://tech.co/vpn/main-ways-technology-impacts-daily-life