I just heard this: Western Union has discontinued the telegram. Here's the terse announcement on their web site.
It's the right thing to do, of course -- telegrams have to be wildly obsolete thanks to e-mail alone. Still, it's always a little sad to see something fade into history. I received a telegram once, in 1982. Even then it seemed anachronistic.
Famous telegrams I have liked:
Robert Benchley to his newspaper editor upon arrival in Venice: "Streets flooded. Please advise."
Peter Sellers, working in his upstairs study, to his wife, just down the stairs in the kitchen: "Could you please bring me a cup of coffee?"
Pittsburgh Press editor to reporter Bob Drum, who traveled to the U.K. on his own dime to see the British Open after the paper refused to pay to send him to cover it -- and after Arnold Palmer made a third-round charge: "Need 1,000 words on Palmer charge." Drum back to the editor: "Hope to hell you get it."
Playwright George Bernard Shaw, inviting Winston Churchill to opening night of his new production: "Here are two tickets. Bring a friend, if you have one." Churchill back to Shaw: "Impossible to make it opening night. Will attend second night, if you have one."
Found an online service at http://www.telegramstop.com that blends the experience of a classic telegram of the old days with the benefits of the web, it looks really cool. Time poor people can type their message (yes it even inserts the word "STOP" where ever you use a period ".") and creates classic looking telegram, mails the original to your recipient from any country to any international or national destination, and emails the sender a cool version of it. It even gives you a preview sample in old typewriter fonts to proof before sending. Pretty good and not expensive - we've had a blast using it to for friends getting married overseas.
Posted by: jfarmer22 | March 17, 2009 at 07:44 PM