Love Letters

Handwritten letters of any sort seem like a thing of the past, but one of the most effective expressions of affection will always be a love letter. Writing a love letter is actually a relatively safe way to express one's feelings; if the object of your heart's desire does not return your enthusiasm, you need not be present when he or she reads your letter. This "safety feature" is partially canceled out by the fact that once your most private thoughts are written down and delivered, they can no longer be truly private. It is kind of like pressing "Send to All" in an email, it is difficult to take back.

Part of the reason that love letters have gone out of fashion is the rise of instant communication. However, receiving a text message will never equal the impact of a perfumed letter from your girl back home. Some of the most important love letters were sent during the War. They were often carried by the soldiers who received them in a pocket over their hearts, read over and over again until the creases of the paper began to fray. Going not battle, what greater reminder could there be of what they were fighting for, or a better reason to get the War over so they could get back to their girls.

It is easy enough to tell the object of your affection that you love them, but there is something incredibly special about putting those thoughts into writing. There may be no real difference in the sentiment, but the act of putting pen to paper to express your feelings can stir even greater affection from your beloved.

A big part of a love letter's appeal is the effort it takes to compose the thing. The recipient usually will not care if the letter is pages long or just a few lines. The fact that they can hold something in their hands which has been handled by their lover is often enough. This is also why mail from home was such an important issue for troop morale during WWII. 

A soldier could keep a letter from his girl safely tucked in a uniform pocket or even the lining of his helmet and then reread the thing whenever there might be a lull in the action. If the girl bothered to sprinkle a few drops of her perfume on the page, our hero could be transported from the foxhole to his girl's side any time he needed to be.

The very permanence of a love letter can be fuel for a future misunderstanding, however, which can drive a romantic comedy to heights of laughter. How often has the hero found a stash of sappy love letters in his girl's secret hiding place, only to have trouble ensue when he forgets that he was the purveyor of said sap? Love letters are so powerful that they can create no end of confusion if the identity of the sender or receiver is not completely clear.

The decline of actual hand-written letters, in general, has contributed to making the love letter a lost art. Love can be expressed in an email or a text message, of course, but they lack the tactile connection of hand-written words on pages that your love has personally handled. However, mashing the Delete button can save a world of trouble, but it probably will not.

• A Day in the Life of Dennis Day, October 23, 1948, NBC, sponsored by Palmolive. Dennis discovers a spicy love letter that his girlfriend, Mildred has written, and it is pretty obvious that Mildred is not writing to Dennis. As it turns out, Mildred is entering a romance magazine's spicy love letter contest, but Dennis does not know that. So, he tries to make her jealous, and we can imagine how that goes.
• The Hollywood Barn Dance, June 2, 1945. Spring is in the air, so Johnny Bond arrives to help Cottonseed Clark to learn how to make love.
• Fibber McGee and Molly, October 21, 1941, NBC. Molly decides that it is time to do some fall house cleaning. While Fibber is fetching and toting, Molly discovers some old love letters. Fibber is not too enthused about hearing the drippy stuff he wrote all those years ago.
• Fibber McGee and Molly, December 21, 1948. The Greeting Card Companies would have us believe that the season with the greatest love is Christmas Card Season. Things are peaceful at 79 Wistful Vista until Fibber opens a card signed "With Love, Elizabeth". Who's Elizbeth? No one is sure, but Fibber is paying a lot more attention to the mirror all of a sudden.  
• My Favorite Husband, September 30, 1950, CBS, sponsored by Jell-O. After an exasperating evening of Liz changing her mind, George insists that from now on she finish everything she starts. When she goes to clean out the hall desk, she finds a letter that she started years ago after they had their first quarrel, so she decides to finish the letter and send it to him now.  Liz has trouble making up her mind and never finishes what she starts. Things come to a head at dinner with the Atterburys, so the next day she resolves to complete a task, cleaning out the hall desk. There, she is distracted by some old love letters.
• The Adventures of Sam Spade, March 27, 1949, CBS, AFRS, "The Love Letter Caper". Sam gets a syrupy love letter from a pretty girl with three million bucks and a big problem. Her uncle, who controls all of her money until she marries, reads all of her mail, so the love letter to our favorite gumshoe is a trick so she can hire a detective. It all adds up to even more trouble for Sam Spade.  Sam gets a very intriguing, very inviting letter from Ella Comstock, but he doesn't know anyone named Ella Comstock. Realizing that the letter is actually a cry for help, Spade finds the Comstock estate and helps Ella to escape. Later, he finds out that she is carrying a suitcase full of jewels and that her uncle controls her money until she gets married, but her fiancé won't help her.
• The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, September 27, 1979, "Letter of Love, Letter of Death". The killer loudly proclaims his innocence and the cops have no evidence, but the investigator claims that he will arrest the killer, in fact, the killer is going to beg to be arrested. A theater producer is found stabbed in his office and there are many suspects but not many clues. There was also a tip that there is a mystery woman, but she turns out to be a nobody who sits behind a typewriter all her life.
• The Life of Riley, December 10, 1944, Blue Network. Riley is taking algebra at night school and receives a mysterious love letter. He doesn't know who wrote the letter, but she promises to come by the house on Saturday to take him for a picnic. What will Peg say when she meets Riley's mystery girl?