Telephone Operator

When Red and Shorty, a couple of crack telephone linemen, roll into Riverdale for their new jobs, they zero in on Helen and Dottie, two cute switchboard operators, hoping to score. Shorty and Dottie hit it off immediately, but Helen is cool to Red's advances. The romantic efforts are sidelined, however, when heavy rains overwhelm the local dam, sending a massive wall of floodwaters racing through the city. Helen ignores Red's pleas to abandon her post as the waters rise, knowing that she is the only hope to alert thousands of helpless flood victims.

Stunning footage captured during the recent San Fernando Valley Flood highlights this 1937 adventure starring Grant Withers and Judith Allen. Telephone Operator, the final film made by prolific silent-era actor/director Scott Pembroke, gives a fascinating glimpse into the early state of telecommunications in the mid-1930s, when telephones and wireless radios were the only reliable way to communicate during natural disasters.

• drama