Donn:
I am very familar with Bell Labs. A lot of the guys I work with have come to work at our college as a second career after working in Bell Labs/Murray Hill.
And as far as the transitor...here's a good one:
My office mate, Dom (in his late 70s now), was a lab technical for Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley when they built the first transistor. After they hand-built the first versions, they ordered a small production-run (about 200) of the first transisors (to test). For some reason Dom kept a bunch of those very first production transistors and he gave me one. I have one on my desk right now. It's a cool artifact if you're a geek like me.
Dom also confirmed what a lot of other folks have said about Shockley: he wasn't a very nice guy.