In article ,
"Roger Shoaf" wrote:

As far as I know the phone companies universally abandoned all rental phones
years ago.

True.

A wall phone of your vintage probably has a modular connector. This makes
things easy if it does. Hold the bottom of the phone and slide it up.

IIRC, the OP said the house was built in 1972. If the phone is of that
vintage, it will probably NOT be "modular".

If the coiled handset cord is "modular" (can be disconnected with the little,
smaller-sized modular connectors), the phone is probably also modular. If the
handset cord is "hard-wired" (no modular connectors), the phone is also
hard-wired.

Given the phone has been mounted for so long, if it is modular, a good
"thump", in an upwards direction, against the bottom of the set may be
required to dislodge it. If it ISN'T modular, this modest effort shouldn't
hurt anything: The phone won't budge.

If the phone is hard-wired, there will be a little, recessed "tab" on the
bottom of the set. Using a flat-bladed screw driver, push this tap upwards
slightly while, at the same time, pulling the bottom of the OUTER SHELL away
from the wall.

hook the red and the green wire from your cable to the red and
green wire in the jack and the new phone should work.

Good advice.

If you have a dial tone but pushing the buttons on the phone does not
make tones, reverse the connections and that should fix the problem.

If that occurs (polarity is reversed) they are using yet another antique:
polarity-dependent Touchtoner phones haven't been made in decades.
--

JR

Climb poles and dig holes
Have staplegun, will travel