The Singing Telegrams Bay Area Residents Use

By Charles Sullivan


Humanity over the years has developed many different ways of communicating. Starting from simple messages that came from smoke signals, or delivered on horseback, communication has evolved to the point where anybody is now reachable through the touch of a button. However we still retain some of the older forms of communication as jokes or novelties. For instance the Singing telegrams bay area residents use are still popular.

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.

This method of communicating was most often used to deliver news that was of a serious nature. They were not used to talk about things in general, they had very specific uses, for example delivering the news of a death or a birth was one of the most popular uses. Telegrams that are sung take away the seriousness of a telegram and replace it instead with something comedic.

Telegrams that sing were invented way back in 1933. Popularized by a large telegram company, the first one was the brainchild of the public relations officer for the company at that time. That day they had received a message wishing a Hollywood celebrity a happy birthday, from one of their fans. The PR officer had the brilliant idea of having the operator sing the message over the phone. That was the first telegram that was sung.

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.

The invention of the telephone made telegrams obsolete, so very few telegrams were being sent from the 1960's and on wards. In fact the only incantation of a telegram that is really used to this day is that of the singing telegram. Evolving from that first sung happy birthday message it has since turned into a humorous way of delivering good news.

State funded companies such as the one that came up with the first sung telegram no longer participate in this practice. Instead there are many private companies that now offer this service. It is much more of a theatrical service now than it was before. The messenger is usually required to dress up as something that relates to the message that they are singing and they are delivered straight to the recipient wherever they may be. Although this is the usual method of delivery the message may be delivered other ways, such as on a DVD.

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.




About the Author: