On this date in 1933, the singing telegram was introduced. 10 things you might not know about them:
A singing telegram is a message delivered by an artist in a musical form. They tend to be humorous with the artist in a costume of some kind.
Early singing telegrams were delivered by means of a phone call rather than in person.
George P. Oslin, a Western Union public relations director, promoted the idea to make telegrams more popular, since they were usually associated with bad news.
The first person to receive a singing telegram was singer Rudy Vallee, in honour of his 32nd birthday, from a fan.
The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company delivered the first singing telegram. Many sources say it was Western Union, probably because the two companies merged soon after.
The telephone operator who delivered the singing telegram to Vallee was called Lucille Lipps.
Rudy Vallee wasn’t very impressed, however. He dismissed it as “a phony stunt by the publicity people”.
Oslin’s bosses weren’t impressed either. They told him he was “making a laughingstock of the company.” Nevertheless, Western Union didn’t drop singing telegrams until 1974.
Other companies still offered the service, though, including one called Western Onion. However, there has been a decline in demand thanks to modern phones and the ability to send a song via a video.
Variations of the singing telegram are the kissogram and the stripogram, where the message is delivered with a kiss and/or a striptease.
The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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