men in black's ericofon

I caught Men in Black again on the box last night.

Twenty years old this year!

As with all iconic films there's always something I didn't notice before.

This time it was on the MiB office floor - all the staff have Swedish Ericsson upright phones on the desks, the ivory 'Ericofon'!

Now I love the Ericsson upright and had one for years. Its fabulous shape and hidden dial make for a real phone experience. Very UFO!

I can completely see why MiB had Ericcsons but it's odd that this, the ivory 'Ericofon' should be used as prop rather than say something from the 1990's. The Ericofon first appeared in 1954 after all!

So is it simply that no other landline since 1954 has been given such space-age looks that the MiB prop people went straight for the Ericsson? Is this retro-fitting? retro-proofing? product placement?

I had another question in mind about the availability of Ericofons in 1997. How did MiB have so many? But when I read websites like this http://www.britishtelephones.com/tsr1007.htm its obvious that they were around in quantity at least in 1980 in the UK.

Was this the case in the States and elsewhere?