60-410: The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses , organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings. The traditional term "yellow pages" is now also applied to online directories of businesses. In many countries, including Canada,
120-538: A backpacking trip across Europe and Israel with him in 1978. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from UC Irvine in 1979, then studied acting with Tony Barr at the Film Actors Workshop. He became a member of the Groundlings comedy troupe, where he befriended his future SNL castmate Phil Hartman . Lovitz ' s first stint as a regular in a situation comedy was that of Mole, an investigator for
180-581: A copyright on telephone listings, because copyright protects creativity and not the mere labor of collecting existing information. In late July 1995 Kapitol launched the Infobel.be website. Infobel was then the first telephone directory website launched on the then-nascent Internet. In 1996, in the US the first telephone directories went online. Yellowpages.com and Whitepages.com both saw their start in April. In 1999,
240-515: A $ 500,000 film contract. He was nominated for an Emmy Award his first two years on Saturday Night Live . One of his most notable SNL characters was " Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar " who used an old Humphrey Bogart line "Yeah! That's the ticket!" as a catchphrase to punctuate painfully elaborated implausible lies. His other recurring characters and impersonations included Annoying Man , Master Thespian , Tonto , Mephistopheles , David Crosby , Harvey Fierstein , and Michael Dukakis . In
300-449: A 1986 SNL episode, he portrayed a virgin Trekkie , who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner if he had ever kissed a girl. Hanukkah Harry , one of Lovitz's most memorable roles, cast him in 1989 as a Jewish contemporary of Santa Claus who lives on Mount Sinai and travels the globe with a cart flown by three donkeys to give bland gifts to Jewish boys and girls. He
360-413: A Christmas party at Hartman's house in 1997. Brynn, a recovering addict, began using drugs again, culminating in her killing Hartman and herself on May 28, 1998. When Lovitz joined the cast of NewsRadio as Hartman's replacement, he and Dick got into a heated argument in which Lovitz reportedly shouted "I wouldn't be here if you hadn't given Brynn coke in the first place." Lovitz later apologized to Dick for
420-416: A New York City district attorney ' s office, in the short-lived 1985–86 series Foley Square , starring Margaret Colin . Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career. He went from having no money to being offered
480-504: A broader scale, they can be classified as vertical directories. There are consumer oriented and business oriented varieties. Providers of IYP offer online advertising. According to several reports, the search term "yellow pages" was among the five highest revenue-generating search terms in Google's AdWords program in 2010. Experian/Hitwise reported in January 2011 that the search term "yellow pages"
540-556: A daycare center in " A Streetcar Named Marge ", Andre in " Homer's Triple Bypass ", and numerous other appearances, including the character of Jay Sherman in the episode " A Star Is Burns ", a crossover with The Critic . He was also the voice of Radio in the Hyperion-produced, Disney-distributed animated film The Brave Little Toaster , and that of T.R. Chula the tarantula in Amblimation 's An American Tail: Fievel Goes West . In
600-859: A direct sales force or by approved agencies (CMR's). Available advertising space varies among publishers and ranges from bold names up to four color twin page ads ("double trucks"). In the United States, the predominant yellow pages are DEX One 's DEX, the AT&;T Real Yellow Pages , Yellowbook , and the Superpages. Business listings used for publication are obtained by several methods. Local phone companies that publish yellow pages directories rely on their own customer lists and include business listings that are provided by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). Advertising in yellow pages directories requires payment in full prior to printing or may be billed monthly over
660-593: A disembodied hand "walking" across an open copy of the Yellow Pages, with the slogan "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking." The Bell System later applied for a trademark on the logo but had its application denied on the grounds that it "had become a generic indicator of the yellow pages without regard to any particular source." For a time in the late 1990s, the Yellow Pages Publishing Association began using
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#1732851911842720-457: A lot about writing. You learn how to write a joke. I was influenced by them a lot, the way I say something, the timing or whatever. Or Jack Benny , sometimes I'll go, 'Well....'" Lovitz resides in Beverly Hills, California . He is friends with Adam Sandler . He was also friends with Penny Marshall and Phil Hartman . He has described Hartman as "the big brother I always wanted". Lovitz
780-553: A result, most yellow pages publishers have attempted to create online versions of their print directories. These online versions are referred to as IYP or Internet yellow pages. Independent ad agencies or Internet marketing consultants can assist business owners in determining sound opportunities for yellow pages advertising and provide objective information on usage, possession and preferences. Archived yellow pages and telephone directories are important tools in local historical research and trademark litigation. The "Walking Fingers" logo
840-643: A six-episode This Is Your Life -style biographical interview about Lovitz's life and career. The Club periodically hosted other podcasts such as Rob Paulsen 's Talkin' Toons (which subsequently left in October 2013). The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theater closed on November 5, 2014. In 2020, Lovitz starred in commercials for Playology, a brand of toys for aging dogs. They featured him with disparaging puppies, asking for senior dogs to get their due. That same year he portrayed lawyer Alan Dershowitz on season 45 of Saturday Night Live with Adam Driver as
900-482: A trademarkable logo with a lightbulb instead of the walking fingers (with the slogan "Get an idea") as part of an ad campaign featuring Jon Lovitz , intended to portray the Yellow Pages as a consumer resource that would give customers ideas as opposed to simply being a telephone directory; the end of these ads showed the walking fingers reaching down and grabbing a lightbulb from within the pages beneath. The walking fingers logo returned two years later. In some countries,
960-463: A year to dispose of unwanted phone books and $ 9 million to recycle them. Phone books use low-grade glues and are therefore difficult to recycle, and they often clog recycling machinery. Conversely, publishers note that phone book directories are 100% recyclable and are made using soy-based and non-toxic inks, glues, and dyes. In 2011, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to restrict yellow page distribution to people who opt in, but
1020-580: Is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory. Its purpose is to allow the telephone number of a subscriber identified by name and address to be found. The advent of the Internet, search engines , and smartphones in the 21st century greatly reduced the need for a paper phone book. Some communities, such as Seattle and San Francisco , sought to ban their unsolicited distribution as wasteful, unwanted and harmful to
1080-637: Is a supporter of the Democratic Party . However, he was an outspoken critic of former President Barack Obama . He called Obama a "fucking asshole" and criticized him for claiming the rich did not pay their share of taxes. Lovitz said: "He had nothing … and the guy ends up being at Harvard . He's the president of the United States. And now he's like, 'Fuck me and everyone who made it like me'." In June 2021, Lovitz criticized cancel culture and compared it to McCarthyism . He opined that it makes comedians' jobs increasingly difficult, saying, "If you don't have
1140-506: Is asked to fill in when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve. On February 15, 2015, on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special , he was named by Steve Martin as one of the many SNL cast members who had died over the years, with the camera cutting to show Lovitz's reaction. Later, his image was seen in a montage of deceased SNL members, with the camera once again cutting to his now "outraged" reaction. From 1998 to 1999, he
1200-539: Is often printed on blue pages or green pages. Telephone directories can be published in hard copy or in electronic form. In the latter case, the directory can be on physical media such as CD-ROM, or using an online service through proprietary terminals or over the Internet. In many countries, directories are both published in book form and also available over the Internet. Printed directories were usually supplied free of charge. Selectphone (ProCD) Inc.) and PhoneDisc (Digital Directory Assistance Inc) were among
1260-795: Is sorted by phone number, so the name and address of a subscriber is looked up by phone number. Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz ( / ˈ l ʌ v ɪ t s / LUV -its ; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990 for which he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards . Outside of SNL , he starred as Jay Sherman in The Critic (1994–1995), has played various roles on The Simpsons (1991–), and has acted in numerous television shows such as Seinfeld , Friends , and NewsRadio . From 2012 to 2015 he starred in
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#17328519118421320-496: Is the ccTLD ) exist in 75 countries. They are edited by many different phone companies and directory publishers, mostly independently. A particular yellow pages is a print directory which provides an alphabetical listing of businesses within a specific geographical area (e.g. the Tampa Bay area), which are segregated under headings for similar types of businesses, such as plumbers. Traditionally, these directories have been published by
1380-663: Is then said to be " unlisted " ( US and Canada ), "ex-directory" ( British English ), or "private" (Australia and New Zealand). A telephone directory may also provide instructions: how to use the telephone service , how to dial a particular number, be it local or international, what numbers to access important and emergency services , utilities, hospitals, doctors, and organizations who can provide support in times of crisis. It may also have civil defense , emergency management , or first aid information. There may be transit maps, postal code/zip code guides, international dialing codes or stadium seating charts, as well as advertising. In
1440-512: The Golden Pages moved to an online-only model in 2017 after exiting examinership . The equivalent "Independent Directory" (similar to the UK's Thomson Local directories) produced by Independent News & Media ceased publication in 2009. Telephone directories A telephone directory , commonly called a telephone book , telephone address book , phonebook , or the white and yellow pages ,
1500-802: The U.S. Open . Lovitz began his stand-up career in 2003 at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. In 2006, he became the spokesman in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain. In 2009, The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club location on Universal CityWalk in Universal Studios Hollywood opened. A comic short film starring Ken Davitian and featuring Lovitz was filmed there, directed by Brent Roske and written by Aaron Davitian. The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club in Universal Studios Hollywood
1560-606: The sitcom Mr. Box Office . He played a baseball scout in the film A League of Their Own (1992) and acted in other films such as Three Amigos (1986), Big (1988), Happiness (1998), Small Time Crooks (2000), Rat Race (2001), and The Producers (2005). He also voiced roles in The Brave Little Toaster (1987), Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). He played Alan Dershowitz on Saturday Night Live and George Santos on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . Lovitz
1620-542: The 1990s, Lovitz voiced the Red M&;M in commercials for M&M's . Between 1999 and 2000 Lovitz appeared in a $ 33 million advertising campaign that featured a series of television commercials promoting the Yellow Pages . The comic premise was to present Lovitz as the Yellow Pages' author. One of them featured Lovitz saying, "The hardest thing to do is to come up with a simple idea that is also great. And I just thought, 'Oh,
1680-481: The 21st century, printed telephone directories are increasingly criticized as waste. In 2012, after some North American cities passed laws banning the distribution of telephone books, an industry group sued and obtained a court ruling permitting the distribution to continue. In 2010, manufacture and distribution of telephone directories produced over 1,400,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases and consumed over 600,000 tons of paper annually. A reverse telephone directory
1740-582: The Orphans" and beating Charlie ( Charlie Sheen ) out of the award for best jingle writer. He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon 's play The Dinner Party , taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler . He sang at Carnegie Hall three times (including Great Performances' Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall ) and sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium and
1800-548: The Pulp and Paper Products Council. The EPA's 2011 Municipal Waste report showed that approximately 73% of phone directory, newspaper, and mechanical papers were recycled. In September 2017, Yell , the publisher of Yellow Pages in the United Kingdom, announced that the business would be fully digitized from January 2019, ending the publication's 51-year run. The last UK copies were posted out on 18 January 2019. The Irish publisher of
1860-453: The US, under current rules and practices, mobile phone and voice over IP listings are not included in telephone directories. Efforts to create cellular directories have met stiff opposition from several fronts, including those who seek to avoid telemarketers . A telephone directory and its content may be known by the colour of the paper it is printed on. Other colors may have other meanings; for example, information on government agencies
Yellow pages - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-467: The United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere, "Yellow Pages" (or any applicable local translations), as well as the "Walking Fingers" logo introduced in the 1970s by the Bell System –era AT&T , are registered trademarks , though the owner varies from country to country, usually being held by the main national telephone company (or a subsidiary or spinoff thereof). However, in the United States, neither
1980-615: The Yellow Pages Distribution Pilot Program (Ordinance 130186). Also in 2011, the Yellow Pages Association and the Association of Directory Publishers started the yellowpagesoptout.com Web site allowing anyone in the United States to choose not to receive directories. The site remained active in 2018. The 2009 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Municipal Solid Waste report classified directories as
2040-579: The alphabet!'" Lovitz performed a duet with Robbie Williams on Williams' album Swing When You're Winning (2001), in the song "Well, Did You Evah". On October 10, 2001, Lovitz sang a duet (with Williams) of the song " Well, Did You Evah! " at the Royal Albert Hall . The recording can be found on the Swing When You're Winning album. He also performed on the TV series Two and a Half Men singing "Save
2100-507: The creation of a new typeface , known as Bell Gothic , the purpose of which was to be readable at very small font sizes when printed on newsprint where small imperfections were common. In 1981, France became the first country to have an electronic directory on a system called Minitel . The directory is called "11" after its telephone access number. In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Feist v. Rural ) that telephone companies do not have
2160-409: The creator and owner of the most famous three-fingered version of the "Walking Fingers" logo, never applied for a trademark on the logo. While they eventually received a trademark on a different version of the logo, the version with the three fingers was not considered by AT&T to be proprietary and they in fact allowed any telephone directory to use it. Throughout the 1970s, many television ads showed
2220-451: The earliest such products. These were not a matter of a single click: PhoneDisc, depending on the mix of Residential, Business or both, involved up to eight CD-ROMs. SelectPhone is fewer CD-ROMs: five. Both provide a reverse lookup feature (by phone number or by address), albeit involving up to five CD-ROMs. The combination of phone number lookups, along with Internet access, was offered by some service providers; VoIP (Voice over IP)
2280-412: The environment. The slogan "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking" refers to use of phone books. Subscriber names are generally listed in alphabetical order, together with their postal or street address and telephone number . In principle every subscriber in the geographical coverage area is listed, but subscribers may request the exclusion of their number from the directory, often for a fee; their number
2340-436: The expression yellow pages is used globally in both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries. In the United States, it refers to the category, while in some other countries it is a registered name and therefore a proper noun. The term Yellow Pages is not a registered name within the United States and is freely used by many companies. Telephone directories using the Internet domain name "yellowpages. cc " (where cc
2400-570: The familiar "walking fingers" logo is not protected as a trademark and may be used by anyone. This logo is used in varying forms by almost every yellow pages publisher; however, there are companies that use it to imitate mainstream publishers. In Belgium, the Republic of Ireland, Israel and the Netherlands the directory, although using the yellow pages logo, is called "Golden Pages". Online business directories are branded as IYP or Internet yellow pages. On
2460-619: The first online telephone directories and people-finding sites such as LookupUK.com went online in the UK. In 2003, more advanced UK searching including Electoral Roll became available on LocateFirst.com. With online directories, and with many people giving up landlines for cell phones whose numbers are not listed in telephone directories, printed directories are no longer as necessary as they once were. Regulators no longer required that residential listings be printed, starting with New York in 2010. Yellow pages continued to be printed because some advertisers still reached consumers that way. In
Yellow pages - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-456: The host playing Jeffrey Epstein . In 2023 he portrayed U.S. Congressman George Santos on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon . In a 2011 interview, Lovitz described his comedic influences, "When I was 13, I saw Woody Allen 's movie Take The Money and Run , and I wanted to be a comedian. Then when I was 16, I saw the movie Lenny , about Lenny Bruce , starring Dustin Hoffman . I thought
2580-558: The life of the contract, which is usually 12 months. Typically, sales representatives help customers to design their ads and provide a proof copy for review and approval. Yellow pages' print usage is reported to be declining with both advertisers and shoppers increasingly turning to Internet search engines and online directories. According to a study by Knowledge Networks/SRI, in 2007, print yellow pages were referenced 13.4 billion times, while Internet yellow pages references increased to 3.8 billion, up from 2006's 3.3 billion online searches. As
2640-522: The local phone company, but there are numerous independent directory publishers. Some yellow pages publishers focus on a particular demographic (e.g. Christian yellow pages or business pages). Yellow pages directories are usually published annually and distributed for free to all residences and businesses within a given coverage area. The majority of listings are plain and in small black text. The yellow-pages publishers profit by selling advertising space or listings under each heading. Advertising may be sold by
2700-418: The movie was so great, and I'd never heard of Lenny, so I went to the record store because I wanted to hear the real guy. Then I saw that Woody Allen had a record. I didn't know he had been a standup. So, I bought Woody Allen: The Nightclub Years, '64-'68 . I learned their routines and performed them at my college dorm. That was at U.C. Irvine . I was a drama major there. In imitating their routines, I learned
2760-478: The name nor the logo was registered as trademarks by AT&T, and they are freely used by several publishers. The name and concept of "yellow pages" came about in 1883, when a printer in Cheyenne, Wyoming , working on a regular telephone directory, ran out of white paper so they used yellow paper instead. In 1886, Reuben H. Donnelley created the first official Yellow Pages directory for the city of Chicago . Today,
2820-473: The remark. In early 2007, Dick approached Lovitz at a restaurant and said "I put the Phil Hartman hex on you—you're the next to die." On July 10, 2007, Lovitz got into a physical altercation with Dick at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. Lovitz demanded an apology from Dick, who refused and accused Lovitz of blaming him for Hartman's death. Lovitz then smashed Dick's head into the bar. Politically, Lovitz
2880-542: The smallest contributor of paper and paperboard products to the solid waste stream, representing only 0.3% – significantly less than all other paper product categories such as newspapers, magazines and books. In 2010, the EPA stopped measuring directories separately from newspapers, indicating the minor impact of directories on municipal waste. Yellow Pages publishers' paper usage declined by nearly 60% between 2007–2012, and were projected to continue declining through 2013, according to
2940-480: The true search term, IYP returns results based on a geographic area. IYP is classified as a local search directory which provides content with the added ability to refine the search to find the needed service. The search engine prioritizes local businesses in its results rather than the results being dominated by regional or national companies. All services offer paid advertising options which typically offer preferred placement on search results pages. In later years,
3000-543: The yellow pages industry faced scrutiny from environmentalist groups who claim printed yellow pages are a wasteful resource, citing statistics that by 2011 nearly 70% of all Americans rarely or never used printed phone directories. In other results, approximately 58% of working U.S. adults said they used phone books at home, work, or both, according to a 2013 survey by RingCentral that appeared in USA Today. The Product Stewardship Institute claims local governments spend $ 54 million
3060-464: Was a contestant on The New Celebrity Apprentice (also known as Celebrity Apprentice 8 ), playing for the charity St. Jude Children's Research Hospital . He was the sixth contestant fired, finishing in 11th place and raising $ 50,000 for his charity. Lovitz was involved in an intense feud with former NewsRadio costar Andy Dick concerning the death of their mutual friend Phil Hartman . According to Lovitz, Dick gave Hartman's wife Brynn cocaine at
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#17328519118423120-503: Was an additional feature. Telephone directories are a type of city directory . Books listing the inhabitants of an entire city were widely published starting in the 18th century, before the invention of the telephone. The first telephone directory, consisting of a single piece of cardboard, was issued on 21 February 1878; it listed 50 individuals, businesses, and other offices in New Haven, Connecticut , that had telephones. The directory
3180-698: Was being sued in federal court by the Local Search Association on freedom of speech grounds. According to the Sierra Club, 1.6 million phone books were distributed annually in San Francisco, producing 3,600 tons of waste, $ 1 million in disposal costs, and 6,180 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In 2013, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed, and the Mayor signed, an ordinance that repealed
3240-475: Was born on July 21, 1957, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles , to Harold and Barbara Lovitz. His family is Jewish and emigrated from Romania , Hungary , and Russia . His paternal grandfather Feivel Ianculovici left Romania around 1914 and Anglicized his name to Phillip Lovitz after arriving in the United States. In college, Lovitz was friends with David Kudrow, brother of Lisa Kudrow , and went on
3300-462: Was cast to replace Phil Hartman on NewsRadio upon the late actor's untimely death. Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In The Critic , he played the title character Jay Sherman (using his regular speaking voice). He has made several appearances on The Simpsons — as Marge 's prom date Artie Ziff in " The Way We Was ", the art teacher in " Brush with Greatness ", theater director Llewellyn Sinclair and his sister who owned
3360-621: Was created by Henry Alexander, a New England artist. After graduating from the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Alexander began a freelance career as an illustrator and commercial designer. He formed a long association with the New England Telephone Company lasting thirty-one years. In 1962, he designed the "walking fingers" logo and within a year it became the national trademark for their yellow pages. AT&T,
3420-584: Was home to the first MMA Roasted standup comedy show in 2009. On May 29, 2011, the name was changed to the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theatre. A premiere event called Podammit was held, in which Kevin Smith hosted a variety of six podcasts, including Plus One 3D with his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach ; Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman ; and Jay & Silent Bob Get Old with Jason Mewes ; as well as The ABCs of SNL with Lovitz himself,
3480-486: Was not alphabetized and no numbers were included with the people listed in it. In 1879, Dr. Moses Greeley Parker suggested the format of the telephone directory be changed so that subscribers appeared in alphabetical order and each telephone be identified with a number. Parker came to this idea out of fear that Lowell, Massachusetts 's four operators would contract measles and be unable to connect telephone subscribers to one another. The first British telephone directory
3540-560: Was one of the top 50 search terms across all search engines and all search terms (millions of search terms). This made "yellow pages" one of the most searched-for things on the Internet in 2011. The Yellow Pages Association said in February 2011 that 75 percent of adults in the United States still used print yellow pages and that for every $ 1 in investment, businesses returned $ 15. IYP offers listings differently from standard search engines. Where search engines return results based on relevance to
3600-603: Was published on 15 January 1880 by The Telephone Company. It contained 248 names and addresses of individuals and businesses in London; telephone numbers were not used at the time as subscribers were asked for by name at the exchange. The directory is preserved as part of the British phone book collection by BT Archives . The Reuben H. Donnelly company asserts that it published the first classified directory, or yellow pages, for Chicago, Illinois, in 1886. In 1938, AT&T commissioned
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