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Eldergay Question: Telegrams

Full disclosure: I'm an eldergay (62) myself. But I know next-to-nothing about telegrams. So I was watching a '50s movie on TCM the other day and one of the characters called Western Union to send a telegram. So -- question: how did one pay for a telegram that was initiated over the phone? There were no credit cards back then, so how did one pay? And this guy was sending it so it would appear to be from another person, so he probably didn't even give his name.

So -- does anyone know how people paid for telegrams? (I know if you went to the Western Union office in person to send one, you just paid while you were there.)

by Anonymousreply 6November 17, 2020 10:27 PM

People sent telegrams by calling a telegraph office and dictating a message over the phone to an operator: the cost of the service was added to the customer’s phone bill.

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by Anonymousreply 1August 3, 2015 5:33 AM

R1 BTW, that's not a related datalounge thread. I don't know how it got attached.

by Anonymousreply 2August 3, 2015 5:35 AM

Thanks, R1-- but then I guess you couldn't send one anonymously, since you had to give your phone number?

by Anonymousreply 3August 3, 2015 5:42 AM

My aunt was a secretary at a company that had some kind of running account with a telegram company. I think she worked at a place that sold/distributed less commonplace canned goods, like seafood and Mandarin oranges. For the ten or so years she worked there, all her relatives received telegrams for every life event. I think I still have all those birthday salutations in a file folder somewhere. This would have been in the sixties and seventies.

What about singing telegrams? They seemed to be everywhere in the late eighties and early nineties. I worked in print advertising back then and designed many premium ads for a local purveyor. They made enough to cover the cost of some very expensive advertising.

by Anonymousreply 4August 3, 2015 6:20 AM

Never sent one, OP.

by Anonymousreply 5November 17, 2020 10:23 PM

It was charged to your phone bill.

You could send it to someone's phone number.

by Anonymousreply 6November 17, 2020 10:27 PM
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