What was “the usual manner” before dial phones?
Signalling began in an appropriately primitive manner. The user alerted the other end, or the exchange operator, by whistling into the transmitter.
Rural and other telephones that were not on a common battery exchange had a magneto hand-cranked generator to produce a high voltage alternating signal to ring the bells of other telephones on the line and to alert the operator. Some local farming communities that were not connected to the main networks set up barbed wire telephone lines that exploited the existing system of field fences to transmit the signal.
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Makes sense, since water circles the drain in the opposite direction in your hemisphere. 
jk, welcome to BoingBoing.
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In rural Michigan, where I grew up, we didn’t get dial phone service until the mid-60’s, and I remember the operator always asking if I had permission to use the phone when I’d ask her to connect me to my best friend Ricky. Once we did get dial service, party lines were common in the area until well into the 1980’s. It also used to be that you were not allowed to own your own equipment, it had to be rented from Ma Bell. Sometime in the early 70’s I bought my parents a refurbished phone for Christmas, and within a few days the phone company called and demanded that we unplug it. As I recall, we left it in place but unplugged, and just plugged it in when someone wanted to use the phone in that room. And no RJ11 plugs, these were big four prong bricks.
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Sometimes for a long time:
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having considered it further in the two days since my previous comment, it was this version the radio station used for its promotion–
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Yep. When ATMs were relatively new they had a phone handset and hook switch but no dial or touchpad. You just picked it up and it automatically connected you to customer service if you were having difficulty. But if you futzed with the switch the right way you’d end up with just a dial tone with no automatic connection, and then you could tap the hook switch to dial any number.
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Even older guide:
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