1945 Western Union Telegram Duplicate Dooley Melrose MA WWII Promoted Message 74 For Sale

This listing features a Western Union telegram dated June 11, 1945, accompanied by its original window envelope, documenting a personal communication from Walter N. Dooley to Mrs. Walter N. Dooley at 27 Greenwood Street in Melrose, Massachusetts. The telegram form bears the Western Union header with A. N. Williams identified as president, and the date line records a filing time of 1:13 PM. The message itself reads \"HAVE BEEN PROMOTED HAVE ACTED AS YOU REQUESTED FONDEST LOVE AND KISSES,\" a terse but emotionally weighted transmission characteristic of wartime correspondence, when telegrams served as the fastest available medium for personal news. The class of service box and accompanying symbol legend—enumerating Day Letter, Night Letter, Deferred Cable, Cable Night Letter, and Ship Radiogram classifications—illustrate the tiered rate structure and coded vocabulary of mid-century telegraphy.The artifact carries a prominent purple stamp reading \"DUPLICATE OF TELEPHONED TELEGRAM,\" indicating that the message was originally conveyed by telephone and this printed form serves as a record copy, a common practice in Western Union\'s dual delivery system. Additional markings include typed routing references reading \"CDU1122 INTL=CD SANSORIGINE VIA RCA (94 349 44),\" handwritten annotations in purple ink reading \"MEL 4659\" and \"ada,\" and a partially visible rectangular stamp showing \"R 135p mailed.\" The bottom of the form carries the company\'s patron response notice. The accompanying window envelope, with its die-cut address panel, represents standard business stationery of the period. The combination of typewritten message text, rubber-stamped administrative markings, and manuscript annotations offers a layered record of the document\'s passage through Western Union\'s communications infrastructure. The telegram\'s compact format, standardized typography, and routing symbology reflect the industrial logic of American telegraphic communication at the close of World War II, while the personal content anchors the artifact within the social history of military-era family correspondence.