Hung up for good: L.A.’s payphones fade into history

They used to be everywhere. At gas stations, in restaurants, sometimes just standing alone on a street corner.

Aside from their utility, for decades payphones played a role in popular American culture, from comics (think Clark Kent changing into Superman) to music (think Maroon 5’s brutal “Payphone” or, from an earlier time, the Jim Croce tearjerker “Operator”).

About a decade ago, there were 27,000 payphones in California, with 2,100 in L.A. County. Now, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, there are just 2,525 working public payphones left in the state. L.A. County has 484 of them. L.A. City has just 149.

Payphones can still be found all over — they’re just not working. But they are reminders of an earlier time, when it was important to keep coins — another relic of a bygone era — in your pocket.

Juan Jacinto uses his cellphone, while selling clothing on Pico Boulevard.

Marjorie Vasquez, 17, left, and Brianna Mejia, 13, walk past a broken payphone.

Craig Fisher, 69, waits for the bus at West Boulevard and Slauson Avenue.

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Two payphones haven’t been used for years.

A chicken probably gets more attention than the payphone near a market at 41st Street and Central Avenue.

At the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, only the shells of payphones remain.

Outside the Men’s Central Jail downtown, where some payphones still work, a man makes a call.

Scott Johnson, 55, walks by what are not real phones, but an art installation on Robertson Bloulevard inspired by payphones.

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Juan Sanchez ignores a payphone to make a call. Roberto Ubeda sweeps trash.

Old-style phone booths are part of the charm at Philippe’s, the eatery on Alameda Street founded in 1908.