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This tale, like several other adolescent horror legends, seemingly originated (or at least was first collected) in the early 1960s: Example: [Smith, 1983] Variations: Its obvious features deal with the insecurity felt by adolescents as they are required to accept increasing responsibilities while making the transition to adulthood. The teenage girl is not simply left alone to fend for herself, but she is also made responsible for the safety of other children (in what might be considered a dress rehearsal for motherhood). She fails at her task in the most catastrophic manner (with the implication that she is at least partly to blame for being too absorbed in watching television), and, in a delicious irony, she herself is threatened through the instrument that is a teenage girl's favorite means of social communication. Sightings: The plot of the 1979 movie When A Stranger Calls is based on this legend. The 1974 film Black Christmas features a murdering maniac hiding in a sorority's attic who telephones after every killing. In the 1998 film Urban Legend, the folklore professor regales his class with this legend.
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