Telephones?

The first telephone lines in the U.S. were put up in the 1870s.

In Clarence Day Jr.'s memoir "Life With Father", set in 1890s, he wrote about their family being the last in their NYC neighbourhood to get a phone in the house because his father was against them as a nuisance and an intrusion. I imagine St. Louis and New Orleans were big enough cities to warrant customers.





My friend, you are soured by too much contact with humanity.

After doing some searching online I've discovered that the first telephone exchange was installed in New Orleans in 1879 and in St. Louis in 1878. As for the handsets, the "candlestick" and "potbelly" style phones seen in the movie were introduced by various manufacturers in the late 1880's to early '90s. So, I would say no goof here. But, and I don't recall, if any of the phones had dials in the base of them, then that would be a goof because that feature wasn't introduced until the 1920's.

I think that the phones and the jazz music were of a later age. And probably some of costumes too.