The Singing Telegrams Bay Area Residents Use

By Charles Sullivan


Over humanities recorded history there have been many different ways of communication used, both simple and complex. Simple in that humans once used horseback and smoke signals to communicate with one another. Nowadays there is a global communication network and much of the earths human population is a part of this network. There are still communicational relics that are left over from the past, usually used for the purpose of a joke one of these forms of communication is that of the singing telegrams bay area residents use in many cities.

The telegram is a method of communication that was popular throughout the 19th and 20th century. It was as popular as the telephone since before the traditional telephone was invented. Basically, what it was, was a simple, written message that was sent through various means, either a wire or a broadcast. In it's early days it was sent through Morse code.

Telegrams were for the most part seen as quite serious things, as they were often used to deliver some kind of serious news to the recipient. People usually did not use them just to chat about things, like we use our cell phones today. Singing telegrams are a more humorous way of delivering a message.

In 1933, a popular telegram company at the time received a telegram that wished a Hollywood movie star a happy birthday, from an adoring fan. The public relations director of the company at that time was struck by an inspiration when the birthday message to the celebrity was received. He decided to put a spin on the method of delivery for the telegram. He had one of the operators sing the message over the phone to the celebrity. This was how the very first singing telegram happened.

Because of the serious nature of telegrams the PR officer wanted to change that view and give the public another use of the telegram. He wanted to increase their amount of business by doing this, however the higher ups were not impressed with what he had done and thought that he had turned their company into something ridiculous.

This form of telegram is in fact the only part of the telegram legacy that is left today. With telephones replacing them in the 1960's they became obsolete fast, So the only telegrams that were being delivered from then on were way more humorous and done in person as opposed to how they were delivered before.

Nowadays there are many different private companies all over the world that offer this telegram service, as it is still very popular. Instead of a telephone delivery it is now delivered in person, making it much more theatrical. The messenger is required to dress up, usually along the theme of what the message is of and it is sung to the recipient personally. There are other options however, a popular way of doing it is to burn the whole performance onto a dvd and send it to the person, if they cannot be contacted through the traditional means or are in another country.

This form of communication, although it is one of the oldest is now unrecognizable from it's original form. With silly costumes and humorous messages taking place of the dots and dashes, or often serious news that was received over the wire.




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