THE FIRST SINGING TELEGRAM

A singing telegram is a message of adoration delivered in a musical and sometimes humorous way. 

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Western Union, the American telegraph company began offering singing telegram services in 1933. That July 28, a fan sent Hollywood singing star Rudy Vallee a birthday greeting by telegram. George P. Oslin, the Western Union public relations director, decided this would be a good opportunity to make telegrams, which had been associated with deaths and other tragic news, into something more popular. He asked a Western Union operator, Lucille Lipps, to sing the message over the telephone, and this became the first singing telegram.

As relatively few telegram recipients had telephones, most telegrams, including singing telegrams, were first delivered in person. The popularization of the telephone in the 1960s reduced telegrams in general. By 1972, Western Union was receiving a small number of requests for singing telegrams and was seeking regulatory approval on a state-by-state basis to eliminate the offering. Western Union suspended its singing telegram service in 1974, but independent singing telegram companies, specializing in often costumed personal delivery of gift messages, have kept up the tradition.

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