Journalist started the first suicide hotline when phone numbers looked like this: PR1-0450
Suicide rates in San Francisco are down by more than half ever since Bernard Mayes created the first suicide hotline in the city. “Thinking of ending it all? Call Bruce, PR1-0450, San Francisco Suicide Prevention.” That’s what the advertisement read, displayed on city buses in 1961 (Bruce being his pseudonym). According to close friend Matthew A. […]