David Lynch Phone Booth Archives
From late 2001 to mid-2010, paid members of DavidLynch.com could enter phone booths and dial special codes to view exclusive content. Most of the booth numbers and codes were found on official merchandise, though some were simply found in sections of the website. Because most of the information about the booths and their content has been lost to time, I decided to chronicle it here, and also take a stab at re‑imagining the booth interface.
Pre-Launch Animation
Before the DavidLynch.com website had fully opened its doors on December 10, 2001, the site was simply a photo of Jack Nance as Henry from Eraserhead wearing square sunglasses and a link to sign up for launch notifications. There weren't even any phone booths. But at one point before it opened, there was a telephone!
After visitors chose their connection speed (dial-up or cable modem), a video played of red curtains opening and revealing a number before fading to black. Next, a rotary phone with a speaker in the center appeared. Often people immediately took to dialing the first part of the previously revealed code, but they were greeted with the audio “hit dial tone.” Many users were confused. Seemly, no matter where one clicked that same audio would play. At the time, a small dot-like button to the bottom left of the rotary numbers was the key. That easily overlooked button had to be clicked first to get the dial tone!
After getting the dial tone and dialing the booth code, the audio “You have dialed a working number” is heard before a video plays. The video consisted of a gray curtain background with cut out parts of Lynch’s face floating around. After some time, the text “THE OFFICIAL DAVID LYNCH WEBSITE,” floats to the center, before the whole video fades to black. Finally, the text “more coming soon” is displayed.
Laura Palmer in Red Room - Booth 9
Date available: December 2001
The 1-minute video revealing this booth code is found by jumping to Title 30 on the fourth and final disc of the Twin Peaks: The First Season Special Edition DVD set. The reveal video shows a red curtain open, the booth number and code appearing and fading out, then a DavidLynch.com logo fades in followed by the curtain closing over the logo.
After going to DavidLynch.com and inputting the phone booth code, a strobing photo of Laura Palmer fades in as we hear Twin Peaks music. The photo of Laura is an outtake from the final red room scene of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.[1] The text “What does she see?” fades in and out over the top portion of the photo. Next, the text “What does she hear?” fades in and out over the bottom section of the photo. Finally, the video slowly zooms in on Laura's face before fading to black as the music fades out as well.
For many fans, it was nice to see David do something creative related to Twin Peaks again, however small it was.
February 8, 2002, DavidLynch.com chat room
Bluebird: David, what software did you use for booth 9 to make it look like it was moving?
DAVIDLYNCH: BLUEBIRD - I DID THAT IN AFTER EFFECTS - COMPRESSION REALLY TORE THE QUALITY APART BUT SOMEHOW IT STILL WORKS - SPEAKERS ARE VERY IMPORTANT.
Strange and Unproductive Thinking - Booth 1
Date available: Late February 2002
The code for booth 1 could be found on the original DVD for The Short Films of David Lynch. If you play all the shorts, after the last one, a TV calibration test patterns appears. Keep watching and eventually, you will be given the booth number and code. You may also be able to press select on the remote while looking at the calibration screen to jump right to the booth code reveal.
After dialing the code for this booth, a video of Lynch frantically scrunching up face is shown. Lynch can be heard reading from his book Images at a sped up pace, specifically the Meaningless Conversations section on pages 160 and 161. In the 1 minute and 53 seconds of this track, Lynch says 633 words. So the speed-up process causes Lynch to say over 5 and a half words a second! In 2011, David released a music CD titled Crazy Clown Time. The track Strange and Unproductive Thinking on that album also features this same dialog.[2]
Fun fact: I once questioned David about the title of one of his short film as it appeared on the initial DVD release. All future releases worldwide had the updated title.
March 20, 2002, DavidLynch.com chat room
Jared: I’m confused about something. I thought that the Lumiere short was called PREMONITIONS FOLLOWING AN EVIL DEED, but it was called only Lumiere on the Shorts DVD.
DAVIDLYNCH: JARED - MAYBE THAT IS THE CORRECT TITLE - I COULDN’T REMEMBER - THANK YOU FOR REMEMBERING !!!!! - IT WAS SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
Blue Bob “Thank You, Judge” Addendum - Booth 8
Date available: March 2002
Most reference websites list the release date for the Blue Bob CD as December 2001, but it really wasn’t. At that time, only the “Thank You, Judge” music video and song samples were available to members of DavidLynch.com via that Music section of the site. On March 1, 2002, members in the chat room start mentioning that they had received both the Short Films DVD and the Blue Bob CD. A few days later, booth 8 is discussed for the first time.
This first release of the Blue Bob CD came is an oversized, 8.5" square box, and this specific release was an enhanced CD. The already released Short Films DVD and the Eraserhead DVD that would come out in a year were released in the same style boxes. This enhanced Blue Bob CD could be played normally in any CD player, but putting it into a computer disc drive revealed the “Thank You, Judge” music video and the booth 8 code.
After going to DavidLynch.com and inputting the phone booth code in the members section, users were greeted with an 18-second short of the masked character from the “Thank You, Judge” music video getting handcuffed on the street by a Los Angeles cop. Per Lynch in the chart rooms, the character is known as Billy Groper. Lynch doesn't admit it, but the character is played by Lynch himself.
March 5, 2002, DavidLynch.com chat room
Charlene: David, I love Booth 8 - really made me laugh!
DAVIDLYNCH: DOES BOOTH 8 HAVE POLICE?
Charlene: Yes, Booth 8 has the police.
introvert: Charlene, Booth 8, is the number in the BlueBob CD?
Charlene: Yes introvert.
Bananas and the Japanese Girl - Booth 7 and Booth 30
Date available: Early February 2002
The Darkened Room
Date available: Mid-April 2002
This video was not found via a booth on DavidLynch.com, but instead was discoverable after a long series of steps on the site. First, from the main DL.com switchboard, users went to a question mark, clicked on a chicken photo, then selected the bottom question mark. This presented them with a series of puzzles. For at least the first two puzzles, the user moved pieced of a photo around until they snapped into their appropriate place. After completing puzzle one (Frank Booth), clicking on Frank’s mask brought the user to puzzle two. After completely puzzle two (The Baron from Dune), clicking on the boil on his forehead progressed the user on to puzzle three. What the contents of puzzle three were have been lost to time, but after solving it a video would play. During the video, a container opens releasing steam and causing a chain to swing. After 15 seconds of the chain slowly returning to a standstill, a man appears from behind a wall on the left. At this time, you could click the end of the chain, and finally the user would be shown this excellent short film, which originally was misspelled as “Darkned” Room on the site.
This short was released on the Dynamic:01 – The Best of DavidLynch.com DVD that came out in 2007 and also on The David Lynch Box Set, a 6-film UK Blu-ray release in 2012. The Dynamic DVD attached the videos from booth 7 and booth 30 to the beginning of The Darkened Room short, though they weren’t appended on the UK set release.
Eraserhead Deleted Scene - Booth 6
Date available: February 2003
In early 2003, a newly restored edition of Eraserhead was available on DVD exclusively through DavidLynch.com and later Subversive Cinema. The square box packaging had the label “Eraserhead 2000.”[3] Jumping to Title 4 on that DVD revealed a 7‑second video showing a booth code.
After inputting the booth code on DavidLynch.com, David Lynch briefly introduces the Eraserhead deleted scene that follows. This video is by far the most sought after of all the booth content. In the deleted scene, Henry is never seen but in the intro Lynch has identified it as Henry’s point of view. The scene fades in from black, and we are show though a partially opened door that two women are tied to a bed. The door is opened more, and a man with electrical equipment is revealed. He touches two ends of the electrical wires together a few times and the room lights up bright when that happens. It appears the man is going to electrocute the women. The man notices Henry, yells “Hey!” at him, and begins to walk towards the door. The door closes and the scene ends.
Surprisingly, this deleted scene has never been seen again since the DavidLynch.com website changed around 2008. Even the 2014 Criterion Blu-ray of Eraserhead doesn’t have the deleted scene (or the footage of Henry playing with a dead cat that played behind the DVD menu). Apparently, Lynch tried to find deleted material when he was producing the Eraserhead 2000 DVD, but all but the two scenes mentioned above had been destroyed or lost. The feature-length interview “Eraserhead Stories” on the DVD and Criterion Blu-ray mentioned these two deleted scenes, as well as a few others that were filmed (the X family meets at Henry’s house to drop off the baby, drawer of pudding and peas), and some that weren’t even filmed (Catherine Coulson playing a nurse at the hospital when the baby is picked up).
More Twin Peaks Music - Booth 34
Date available: October 2007
When the CD for Twin Peaks: Season Two Music and More was released in 2007, it had been a whopping 15 years since Lynch had released any Twin Peaks music. The last music release was the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack in 1992. Fans were happily greeted with not just the 22 songs mentioned in the song listing though. After the first track started playing, you could rewind back before the start of the song and hear a hidden track!
The hidden track is about 4 minutes 20 seconds long. The first half is mostly just the sound of wind. Toward the end of the wind sounds, Lynch’s voice is heard over the wind revealing the booth number and code: “Hello. Booth 34...” The second half of this hidden track is from the second season premiere wherein Gersten Hayward (Alicia Witt) plays the piano as Harriet Hayward reads a poem about Laura. The vocals have mostly been removed from the track, but they can still just barely be heard.
Some later versions of this album, including the vinyl with the red album art, do not include the hidden track at all, but the digital download of the album on Amazon splits the hidden track in two: Untitled Track #1 and Untitled Track #2.
After inputting the booth code on DavidLynch.com, a page titled “Twin Peaks Extra” with a photo of the second season CD cover was displayed. A final bonus was then revealed: an additional, unreleased track played. The song, called “The Norwegians” in a later album release, appeared in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks during the scene when Audrey tells the visiting Norwegians about Laura’s recent murder.
The Norwegian track, and over 200 other songs, appeared on the gigantic Twin Peaks Archive album released over the course of 2011 and 2012.
Footnotes:
1. The photo that was used for this animation has had David Lynch and a light box retouched out. A dark horizontal section of the curtain has been removed as well.
2. The full lyrics for the Strange and Unproductive Thinking short are slightly shorter than the 2011 song of the same name. The short’s lyrics skip the first 3 paragraphs and start at “Others may find it easier to say ‘however,’…”
3. A poor film transfer and over-compression of the DVD format were responsible for the delays. This was the first-ever US release of Eraserhead and also the first anamorphic widescreen release in the world. It also featured the excellent feature-length “Stories” special feature that now appears on the Criterion Blu-ray.