jeudi 18 février 2016

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 very old method of communication. Being the most widely used communication method before the invention of the telephone it was basically a signal containing a written message sent through wire or broadcast. In its earliest incarnation it was received through dots and dashes, that is to say 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.

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.

The PR officer wanted to change the view that people had of telegrams. Instead of them dreading them because of the possibly bad news that they carried, instead he wanted people to be happy when they heard them. This idea was not received well by his superiors and the company was made a laughing stock because of this. However he had started something that endures on to this day.

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.

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.




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