TC02

“Two Letters” was the pilot episode of El’s Belles airing on the now-defunct DuMont Network following the Saturday installment of Captain Video and His Video Rangers. The episode, set during the Civil War, aired on September 3, 1949 at 7:30 PM in the Eastern and Pacific time zones and 6:30 PM in the other two time zones. El’s Belles was one of the earliest television programs shot on 35mm film rather than live in a studio. The show involved a great deal of location shooting and DuMont wanted to ensure outlying affiliates on the west coast and mountain states would have the same viewing experience as audiences in the east. Kinescope recordings of live television was obtained by essentially pointing a film camera at a television screen during the broadcast. They were consistently poor in quality.

The first of the two letters in question was titled “Special Orders, No. 191” written by General Robert Lee commanding the Army of Northern Virginia. It specified the route of Stonewall Jackson’s army to recross the Potomac and approach Martinsburg, West Virginia. He directed General Longstreet to march his command to Boonsboro, Maryland while General McClaws was ordered to take Harper’s Ferry from the Maryland side. General Walker was ordered to cross into Virgina to intercept the retreat of the enemy from Harper’s Ferry. In fine, General Lee was taking a great risk, splitting his army into seperate commands that, if discovered in such a state by the federal commander General McClellan, could be defeated in detail.

Miriam Haivri had a copy of that letter and proposed to let it fall into the hands of McClellan, but just leaving it on the ground wouldn’t do as the wind might carry it off. Her father, Michael, offered three cigars to wrap inside the letter. That solved the immediate problem, but Miriam worried that after the war someone would put this copy side-by-side with the copy given to Longstreet and note that they were identical, down to each jot and tittle. Michael assured her that after Longstreet read his own copy he wrapped it around around tobacco also, and applied flame, so it was quite gone. With her mind at ease Miriam left the letter-wrapped cigars at a ford of the Monocacy River where they were sure to be spotted.

The second letter was written by the same Miriam Haivri to an elder of the Root of Jesse Fellowship named Joshua Lange. In the letter she introduced herself as a member of Congregation Beth Hannebim, the House of the Heralds, and warned that both armies would soon clash at the very location of Lange’s meetinghouse. She offered lodging at her own place of prayer for such members of Lange’s church who would seek safe haven during the upcoming battle, and she extended this offer to their horses and mules and cattle. No doubt Lange’s fellow worshipers would not wish to see them fall into the hands of the men of either army. The letter warned that when the artillery of the army was heard on South Mountain the following Sunday it would be too late to move without risking the loss of all the animals.

But this letter seemed to divide the Brethren when it was read to the faithful during their Wednesday night prayer meeting. Some didn’t trust Miriam because she clearly was not a Christian. Others suspected her of a plot to steal their animals. When Joshua Lange told them the return address some of the Brethren wondered why they had been singled out when other Christian assemblies lay much closer to what she called her ‘temple’.

A corporal from Indiana found the three cigars and shared them with his fellow soldiers. He lit his own cigar and idly read the paper in which the stogies were wrapped. It seemed important. He gave it to a sergeant, who gave it to an captain, thence to a colonel who took it straight to McClellan. Li’l Mac seemed so excited he stood on his feet halfway through the document and finished reading while pacing through his headquarters camp.

The episode wrapped up with a montage of half the congregation of the Root of Jesse Fellowship evacuating their animals to the strains of the 1947 hit “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” by Louis Jordan. Rock’n’roll was already straining at the starting gate.