Joybubbles

{{short description|American phone phreak}}{{Infobox person | name = Joybubbles | image = Joybubbles 2005.jpg | alt = | caption = Joybubbles in 2005 | other_names = Whistler, Highrise Joe | birth_name = Josef Carl Engressia Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1949|5|25|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Richmond, Virginia]], [[United States]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2007|8|8|1949|5|25|df=y}} | death_place = [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]], [[United States]] | education = [[University of South Florida]] (degree in [[Philosophy]]) | occupation = Former [[Phone phreaking|phreaker]], [[Amateur radio|amateur radio operator]], ordained minister | years_active = 1960s–2007 | organization = Church of Eternal Childhood, We Won't Grow Up | known_for = Pioneering [[Phone phreaking|phone phreaking]] with 2600 Hz whistle, founder of Church of Eternal Childhood | notable_works = "Stories and Stuff" telephone line, "Zzzzyzzerrific Funline" | spouse = | children = | parents = | relatives = | website = | callsign = WB0RPA }} '''Joybubbles''' ({{Birth date|1949|5|25}} – {{death date|2007|8|8}}), born '''Josef Carl Engressia Jr.''' in [[Richmond, Virginia]], was an early [[phreaking|phone phreak]]. Born blind, he became interested in telephones at age four.<ref name=NPR>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13764518| title=Joe Engressia, Expert 'Phone Phreak,' Dies | date=20 August 2007 | website=All Things Considered | publisher=[[National Public Radio]]}}</ref> He had [[absolute pitch]], and was able to whistle [[2600 hertz]] — an operator tone also used by [[blue box]] phreaking devices — into a telephone. Joybubbles said that he had an [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] of "172 or something".<ref>{{citation | last = | first = | date = June 25, 1998 | title = A Conversation with Joybubbles | newspaper = Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | url = http://static.icewhistle.com/joybubbles.html | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100218151704/http://www.icewhistle.com/static/joybubbles.html | archivedate = February 18, 2010 | accessdate = June 10, 2014 }}</ref> Joybubbles died at his [[Minneapolis]] home on {{death date and age|2007|8|8|1949|5|25}}. According to his death certificate,<ref>{{cite news | url = http://blog.historyofphonephreaking.org/2008/08/wikipedia-an-information-ouroboros.html | title = The History of Phone Phreaking Blog: August 27, 2008}}</ref> he died of natural causes with [[congestive heart failure]] as a contributing condition.

==Early Life== Joybubbles was born Josef Carl Engressia Jr. in Richmond, Virginia to Joe Sr. and Esther. He has a younger sister, Toni, who is also blind. The Engressia family moved a lot. Joybubbles grew up in all over the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]], including a apartment in Richmond where he developed his phreaking skills, briefly in [[Saugus, Massachusetts]] and all around [[Florida]], including [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida]], [[Pompano Beach, Florida]], and finally [[Miami, Florida]]. Joybubbles had good relationships with his mom and sister, but his father was abusive.<ref>https://archive.org/details/ExplodingThePhoneTheUntoldStoryOfTheTeenagersAndOutlawsWhoHacked/page/n61/mode/2up</ref>

As a kid, Joybubbles had a lot of unique interests due to textures and sounds, including [[Jell-O]], shower curtains, the telephone, and whistling, developing a talent for it.<ref>https://archive.org/details/ExplodingThePhoneTheUntoldStoryOfTheTeenagersAndOutlawsWhoHacked/page/n61/mode/2up</ref>

==Whistler==

{{external media|float=right|audio1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120303132327/http://www.radiolab.org/2012/feb/20/long-distance/ '''''"Long Distance"'''''] – A ''[[Radiolab]]'' program about Joybubbles, phreaking, and telephony; featuring historian and author Phil Lapsley. (Archived from the [https://www.radiolab.org/podcast/187724-long-distance original]) |audio2=[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08hlnjq '''''"A Call From Joybubbles"'''''] – [[BBC Radio 4]] program about Joybubbles and phreaking. Includes extensive telephonic soundscapes. Featuring documentarian Rachael Morrison, historian Phil Lapsely, [[John Draper]], various phone phreaks, and acquaintances of Joybubbles.}} As a five-year-old, Joybubbles discovered he could dial phone numbers by clicking the hang-up switch rapidly ("[[Pulse dialing#Switch-hook dialing|tapping]]"). At the age of seven, he was idly whistling along to clicks while on the phone, he accidentally discovered that at certain frequencies, he could activate [[phone switch]]es.<ref name="dial-tone">Elizabeth McCracken (30 December 2007). [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30joybubbles-t.html "Dial-Tone Phreak"]. ''The New York Times Magazine''. Retrieved 4 June 2023.</ref>{{cn|date=January 2022}}

A student at the [[University of South Florida]] in the late 1960s, he was given the nickname "Whistler" due to his ability to place free [[Long-distance calling|long-distance phone calls]] by whistling the proper tones with his [[Human mouth|mouth]]. After a Canadian operator reported him for selling such calls for $1 at the university, he was suspended and fined $25<ref>Times Bureau (December 12, 1968). "USF 'Whistler' Stays In School". ''St. Petersburg Times''. p. B-1 (p. 16).</ref> but soon reinstated.{{cn|date=January 2022}} He later graduated with a degree in [[philosophy]] and moved to [[Tennessee]].

==Later life== {{Section citations needed|date=May 2022}} In 1982, he moved to [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]]. He lived on his [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] disability pension and a job as a test subject for scent-intensity research. He was an [[Minister (Christianity)|ordained minister]] of his own Church of Eternal Childhood, and ran a one-man [[Nonprofit organization|nonprofit support organization]] for people rediscovering and re-experiencing childhood, called "We Won't Grow Up".<ref name="Lapsley2013">{{cite book|last=Lapsley|first=Phil|author-link=Phil Lapsley|title=Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell|url=https://archive.org/details/explodingphoneun0000laps|url-access=registration|accessdate=10 July 2014|date=2013|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-9375-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/explodingphoneun0000laps/page/316 316]–317}}</ref> He tried to remain an active member of the children's community around his home, giving readings at the local [[library]] and setting up phone calls to [[terminal illness|terminally ill]] children around the world. He often contributed to the Bulletin Board section of the ''[[St. Paul Pioneer Press]]'' newspaper.

[[Child sexual abuse|Sexually abused as a child]] by one of his teachers, Joybubbles "reverted to his childhood" in May 1988 and remained there until his death, claiming that he was five years old. He legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991, stating that he wanted to put his past, specifically the abuse, behind him.<ref name="Lapsley2013"/> He was listed in the local phone directory as "Joybubbles, I Am".

An avid fan of [[Fred Rogers|Mister Rogers]], Joybubbles was mentioned in a November 1998 ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine article about children's television host [[Fred Rogers]]. In the summer of 1998, Joybubbles traveled to the [[University of Pittsburgh]]'s ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' Archives and watched several hundred episodes over a span of six weeks.<ref name="Lapsley2013"/><ref>{{cite journal | last = Junod | first = Tom |date=November 1998 | title = Can You Say...Hero? | journal = Esquire | url =http://www.esquire.com/features/can-you-say-hero-esq1198?click=main_sr}}</ref>

An active [[amateur radio]] operator with the [[call sign]] WB0RPA, he held an amateur extra class license, the highest grade issued.<ref>[http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/joybubbles.htm Joybubbles – S.K.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20150315233129/http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/joybubbles.htm |date=2015-03-15 }}</ref> As shown in the [[Federal Communications Commission]] database, he also earned both a [[General radiotelephone operator license]] and a commercial radiotelegraph operator's license, as well as a ship radar endorsement on these certificates. He was one of the few to qualify for the now-obsolete aircraft radiotelegraph endorsement on the latter license.<ref name="mason">K.C. Mason (8 August 1982). "'High-Rise Joe' Phones Moscow And Has Ma Bell Whistlin' Dixie". ''The Buffalo News''; p. G-10 (p.90). United Press International (UPI).</ref>

==Presence in the media== * In 1971, just after his [[arrest]], Joybubbles was featured in an ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' article by [[Ron Rosenbaum]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=Ron |title=The Article That Inspired Steve Jobs: “Secrets of the Little Blue Box” |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_spectator/2011/10/the_article_that_inspired_steve_jobs_secrets_of_the_little_blue_.html |website=Slate Magazine |access-date=9 April 2026 |date=7 October 2011}}</ref> which exposed the phone phreak scene to a general public and led to further media coverage of Joybubbles, who became a cultural icon.<ref>Mark McHarry (8 Dec 1971). "The First Phone Freak Genius". ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin''; pp. F-3, F-5 (pp. 67, 69). Retrieved 3 June 2023.</ref> * The 1992 movie ''[[Sneakers (1992 film)|Sneakers]]'' had a character called "Whistler", who seemed to combine traits of both Joybubbles and [[John Draper]]. The character is played by [[David Strathairn]].<ref name=IMDb>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv |title=''Sneakers'' Trivia |author= |date= |website=IMDb |publisher= |accessdate= 10 July 2014}}</ref> * The 2001 documentary film ''[[The Secret History of Hacking]]'' features archive footage of Joybubbles. * In [[Steve Wozniak]]'s book ''[[iWoz]]'', Steve Wozniak mentions Joybubbles as an early inspiration during his college years. * On February 21, 2012, WNYC's ''[[Radiolab]]'' aired a segment on Joybubbles in an episode titled "Escape!" * Chapter 9 of the book ''Exploding the Phone'' by [[Phil Lapsley]] details his successful plan to get a job by purposely getting arrested for phreaking.<ref name=Lapsley2013/> * Phone phreaking and specifically Joybubbles were the subject of "A Call from Joybubbles", broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]], on March 13, 2017<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hlnjq|title=A Call from Joybubbles – BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref> and March 17, 2018. * Joybubbles is the subject of the eponymous 2026 documentary [[Joybubbles (film)]].

==Phone services== Joybubbles ran a weekly telephone story line called "Stories and Stuff", which was usually updated at the weekend.

In the early and mid-1980s, he ran a phone line called the "Zzzzyzzerrific Funline", which had the distinction of being the very last entry in the phone book.<ref name="Lapsley2013"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Northwestern Bell Minneapolis White Pages |date=1987 |page=1812}}</ref><ref>Andy Sturdevant (7 December 2016). [https://web.archive.org/web/20181206221147/https://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2016/12/friend-phone-dial-atheist-princes-new-funk-zzzzyzzerrific-funline/ ''"A friend in the phone: From dial-an-atheist to Prince’s New-Funk to the Zzzzyzzerrific Funline"'']. Archived from the [https://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2016/12/friend-phone-dial-atheist-princes-new-funk-zzzzyzzerrific-funline/ original] 6 Dec. 2018.</ref> During the Zzzzyzzerrific Funline days, calling himself Highrise Joe,<ref name=mason/> he would go on various rants about how much he loved [[Valleyfair]] amusement park and would also regularly play and discuss [[Up with People]].

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/us/20engressia.html New York Times Obituary] *[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30joybubbles-t.html New York Times Magazine memorial profile] *[http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20030309gene0309fnp1.asp Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profile (2003)] *[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/875353732 Find "Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell" in a library] *[http://www.2600.com/offthehook/1991/1191.html 11-20-91 ''Off the Hook'' interview] / [http://www.lospadres.info/thorg/joy1.html Summary of the ''Off The Hook'' interview] *[http://audio.textfiles.com/shows/storiesandstuff/ An archive of Stories and Stuff] *[http://audio.textfiles.com/shows/haxorradio/haxor_radio_show_04.mp3 A Haxor Radio interview with Joybubbles (April 22, 2004) ] *[http://www.radiolab.org/2012/feb/20/long-distance/ Radiolab audio segment describing Joybubbles' background (Feb 2012)] *{{YouTube|vVZm7I1CTBs|A video of Joybubbles making a phone call by whistling}} *[http://static.icewhistle.com/joybubbles.html A conversation with Joybubbles from 1998] *[http://www.lospadres.info/thorg/lbb.html ''Secrets of the Little Blue Box'']

[[Category:1949 births]] [[Category:2007 deaths]] [[Category:Phreaking]] [[Category:People from Minneapolis]] [[Category:American blind people]] [[Category:University of South Florida alumni]] [[Category:American hackers]] [[Category:American whistlers]] [[Category:People from Richmond, Virginia]]