Fulgencio Batista's Golden Phone

During an award ceremony with US Ambassador Arthur Gardner, a ceremonial golden telephone was presented to the Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, in 1957 (possibly by ITT to thank him for allowing a rate increase). The instrument is currently on display in Museum of the Revolution, formerly Batista's presidential palace, in Havana. This specific phone was so infamous that it was immortalized in the film The Godfather Part II, where a gold telephone is passed around a table of mob bosses and executives in Havana.

The 302 was the Bell System's mainstay phone for two decades, and the first Western Electric phone not to require a subset. The 302 was designed by famous industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972), who also designed John Deere tractors, Hoover vacuum cleaners, and streamlined trains. The shell of the 302 was intended to be cast out of metal. However, in 1941, the critical war-time need for metal caused Western Electric to retool to make the 302 out of molded thermoplastic. The 302 was the first WE telephone containing all of its circuitry within the base and not requiring a separately mounted subset box for the ringer.

A golden telephone is a rotary telephone made of or plated with gold. It is popularly associated with opulent decadence, representing power, wealth and elitism. Golden telephone sets were notably presented to Pope Pius XI in 1930 and to the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1957.