On this day in 1975, thieves stole a telephone that had been custom-made for Queen Elizabeth.
A short article in the Edmonton Journal describes the royal telephone as a brown phone with a golden dial and gold accents around the mouthpiece and earpiece. It also featured "a picture of a big horned sheep in the centre of the dial."
The phone was part of the collection at Vista 33, the observation deck and telephone museum that overlooked downtown Edmonton from what's now the TELUS tower. The thief apparently tore the phone (valued at $1,000 in 1975 dollars) and also took the receiver for another phone on display (no details on if that was made for anyone, or if there was a picture of a sheep on that one.)
The device had been a gift for Queen Elizabeth (not to be confused with Queen Elizabeth II) during the her 1939 Royal Tour, which saw her and King George VI travel across Canada by rail. It was the first time that the reigning monarch had visited Canada, and couple drew massive crowds at every stop.
The royal couple first travelled through southern Alberta, hitting Calgary and Banff, before continuing on to British Columbia. Once they reached Victoria, the train turned around and headed east. The purloined phone was made to honour their stop in Jasper on June 1, 1939.
The next day, the King and Queen made their way through Edmonton, where tens of thousands packed into grandstands to greet them. The royal procession made its way through the city on a major roadway called Portage Avenue, renamed Kingsway in honour of the visit.
There's no sign that the stolen phone was ever seen again. Other artifacts left over from other royal visits have fared a better. A few months ago, students at NAIT started restoring a Lincoln Cosmopolitan car that served as the royal ride for Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Edmonton in 1951.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse of @VintageEdmonton.
Correction: This story has been changed to reflect which Queen Elizabeth the phone was created for.