"When you want the correct time, just call Capitol 7171!" This 1940s advertisement promotes Time Service, a telephone number Houstonians could call to hear an operator say the time. Funded by national and local advertising, the operator always begins the message with a product promotion. Ruth McClain quit her job as a secretary at a Houston advertising firm and formed Time Service with three telephone lines in 1931. Within ten years, the company had expanded to 36 lines, with a team of operators