"When I was getting the phone set up, I didn't want my name registered in the White Pages," Panessa says. His real name, it turns out, is Shawn Panessa. For instance, he's listed in the Tampa, Fla., telephone directory.Īsked if he were Mr. He doesn't exist, that is - except in some phone books. But surely there's no way to do that Navin R. It would be nice to ask what Navin Johnson thinks of the looming change. This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people!" But it doesn't bode well for the Navin Johnsons of the world.Īfter all, as Steve Martin's character says: "Millions of people look at this book every day. It's a move environmentalists say is long overdue. But unless you specifically request a hard copy of the residential listings, you'll now have to call directory assistance or look up what you need on the Internet, if you weren't doing that already. To be clear, the Yellow Pages and the business listings in the White Pages aren't going anywhere. "By and large, for the majority of the population, if it's not used, then it's probably a prudent step not to produce them," he says, "and not to deliver them to those people who frankly either just throw them away, or, you know, they get stored in the back of a closet, and they get wasted there." "The bottom line is, there are many more sources for finding a telephone number other than the traditional paper directory," says Verizon spokesman John Bonomo. That's because phone companies like AT&T and Verizon have decided in several states to stop printing hard copies of residential phone directories for most of their customers. "I don't do this anymore," he says, "but when the new phone book used to be delivered, especially when I was new to a community, you wanted to check your own name - first to see if it was accurate, but also as a kind of a test of your membership in this new community."īut soon, the only community he'll be part of is the global community of millions of people listed in telephone directories on the Internet. Still, he says, there's something special about seeing himself in the White Pages. Roy Peter Clark is already a well-known "somebody" - he has spent years working as an author and journalist. "Nothing?! Are you kidding?" Martin yells as he flips through the pages of listings. "I wish I could get that excited about nothing," he says. His boss at the gas station, played by Jackie Mason, is dubious. In one famous scene, Martin's character interrupts his work at a gas station to yell with excitement, "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!"
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