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Everything you ever wanted to know about the lost art of telephone booth stuffing.

No official world record was set when this photograph – which wound up running in the March 30, 1959 issue of Life magazine – was taken on the campus of Saint Mary's College in California. The record had actually been set a few months before, with 23 people crammed into a hallway phone booth in St. Mary's Aquinas Hall.

The idea of stuffing 23 people into a phone booth was hatched by sophomores Ron and Don Dirito, who now own a chain of car dealerships around northern California.

Life stringer Joe Munroe was assigned to drive out to Saint Mary's College and recreate the record-breaking event for a photograph. But Munroe ran into problems when it turned out how that only legs and feet could be seen sticking out into the hallway. The next day, a shiny new booth – complete with glass sides – arrived outside the dormitory, where a mere 22 underclassmen piled in.

But even if there had been a world record-setting number of people inside that phone booth, the record would not have been official, according to Ted Tsukahara, who was a 17-year-old freshman the day he was tapped to play a part in college prank lore.

"The record wasn't official until you called out to civilization," Tsukahara said.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even phone booth stuffing had its protocol.

"St. Mary's wasn't the first place where [people] stuffed into a phone booth," said Tsukahara, now the director of the Integral Liberal Arts Program at Saint Mary's. "But in late 1958 a group of sophomores got the idea of trying to beat the record. They went around the cafeteria and recruited people like me, who were short but not necessarily slim. All this parallels the early days of Guinness world records, which was this commercial idea that led to people doing a lot of crazy things."

So which one is Ted?

"At one time I thought I could recognize my rear end," he said, laughing. "But I'm not going to swear to it at this point. My memories of that day are hazy."

This is number eight in our "Our Defining Moments" series, an ongoing ReZoom.com feature looking back on the moments that, through the power of photography, have been emblazoned into our collective consciousness. To see another "Our Defining Moments," click here.