What is This?

No clue what a "wire" was. Are you serious? ALL the TV shows in that era were westerns and they sent a wire at least twice in every episode, or at least tried to, when the wires weren't cut down by the "bad guys".

The shows I watched sent telegraphs, not wires.

The telegraph was the message sent over the wires.

My Dad worked for Western Union prior to becoming career Army when WWII broke out.

We had this discussion when the whole family sat down to watch Paladin.

He said the correct vernacular at the time was that people wired other people via the telegraph which was owned by Western Union.

In fact somewhere around here I have a wireless Wire that was sent from Cleveland to our Navy transport ship in the Atlantic notifying the family that my mother's mother was deathly ill and to return asap. It actually showed an antenna with a round signal radiating from it and the word WIRE between the graphic and the addressee block.

By the way, that was in 1957, prior to the time that the military sent personnel to Europe by aircraft. I had two Atlantic transits as a kid, over and back.

FWIW, Hooker

So, it comes down to a wireless transmission of a telegram to a ship.

I don't claim to be anything but a hick from Arkansas whose parents did not have a telephone (phone) in the house until 1956.

I do not doubt that to wire something meant to send a message by telegraph.

The term was not one with which I was familiar, given my isolated upbringing.

Thus, my incorrect assumption that the "Wire" was a first name.

We've come a long way baby!

Well, I wouldn't doubt that there are areas and people in the country that used different terminology, especially back then when mass communications was much more limited and controlled.

All I was trying to convey was the apparent vernacular that people directly associated with Western Union used, and I supposed they influenced a lot of people that used the service.

I'm definitely not saying you were wrong or inaccurate, just maybe not "connected".

And, you're right. We have come a long, long way, not always for the better, imo.