History Main / WesternUnionMan

* ''Series/Copper'': Adam, the telegraph operator, is the Morehouses' SecretKeeper, as well as sort of their accountant too.

The telegraph operator in TheWestern, generally [[StockCostumeTraits wears a white shirt, suspenders, and a green eyeshade]]. The telegraph office is in the railroad station; while owned by two separate companies, they have a symbiotic relationship (in RealLife, the telegraph lines and railroad ran side-by-side between towns all over the country). May or may not employ one or more young boys to deliver incoming messages to in-town businesses and homes--if not, everyone else in town has to go to the office to pick up incoming telegrams. Since messages can arrive at any time, the Western Union man himself is seldom seen outside the office. Unlike his PonyExpress predecessor, tends to be a MeekTownsman. Sometimes gets to TakeALevelInBadass if the train station gets robbed.

The Western Union corporation provided most of the telegraph service in the United States from the 1850s to 2006. The long period of obsolescence--again, WU discontinued telegram service in ''2006'', a scant two years before the iPhone was launched--masks just how bleeding-edge the technology was when introduced. It was a major development for human communication, the first time ''ever'' information could travel faster than it could be physically carried on a written note (beyond the radius practical for line-of-sight means like semaphore or smoke signals). The Western Union Man is the [[JustForFun/OneOfUs forerunner of all geekdom]].

Note that this is a "Western Union" man, not a western "[[WeirdTradeUnion union man]]".

SubTrope of RailroadEmployeeRoundhouse, the general trope for characters related to the railroad.

* In ''Film/Posse1975'', Nightingale gives the telegrapher in Tesoto a bunch of telegrams to send announcing his capture of Jack Strawhorn. Later, when Strawhorn returns to Tesoto with Nightingale as his hostage, the telegrapher tries to send a message one to discover that Strawhorn has [[CutPhoneLines downed the telegraph wires]].

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SubTrope of RailroadEmployeeRoundhouse.

"Western Union" man, not western "[[WeirdTradeUnion union man]]".

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* ''AudioPlay/BlakesSeven'': In [[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E4DawnOfTheGods "Dawn of the Gods"]], as part of the episode's AnachronismStew, Groff dresses like a stereotypical western telegraph officer.
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* ''AudioPlay/BlakesSeven'': In [[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E4DawnOfTheGods "Dawn of the Gods"]], as part of the episode's AnachronismStew, Groff dresses like a stereotypical western telegraph officer.