- Inside this box is a stranger's love story.
I shouldn't be doing this.
(lively, dramatic music)
One thing you can buy off of Ebay are people's
personal, hand-written letters.
These are actual letters that somebody wrote
to a loved one, or whoever.
Letters that people never assumed anyone would read.
So I saw this set of love letters on Ebay.
They're from the 1930s, between two people.
It was fifty bucks.
(cash register clings)
So I bought it.
I got it in the mail.
And now I have very personal messages
from two people in the 1930s in love.
(swing music)
I have no idea who these people were.
These people might be dead at this point.
We're gonna pry into their personal business.
These letters are all in their original, stamped envelopes.
Some of these letters are postmarked only a day apart.
These people are firing off letters.
I'm going to change the names of the people
to protect their privacies.
We're going to say that the man is Daniel
and the woman is Lucy.
It's not their real names,
but everything else will be real from the letters.
Opening up someone's mail feels very wrong.
I'm just like, this is wrong,
I shouldn't be doing this.
If you don't want someone
to read your love letters after you die,
you should burn them,
or tell your family to burn them.
Otherwise, someone like me could read them. (laughs)
I am one sentence in,
and it's already completely melted my heart.
It says.
- (Lucy) July 14th, 1930.
I'm home again, and this is the best thing I've done today,
write to you.
I had the blues for a little while, a few minutes ago,
but not for long.
I read your last letter and said,
"Lucy, you certainly ought to be ashamed of yourself,
"when Dan has such wonderful faith,
"and he is the one that's sick."
- The first thing I've learned is that Dan is sick.
I was looking at the postmarks on Dan's letters,
and I realized that they came from a hospital.
So I looked up the hospital, and it's a hospital
that was opened in the 1920s for tuberculosis patients.
So, it's possible that Dan has tuberculosis.
All we know for sure is that he's sick and in the hospital.
The opening to Dan's letter
is the best thing I've ever read.
- (Dan) July 30th 1930.
Honey, honey, honey girl,
I'm the happiest kid on Earth this morning,
and I don't mean maybe.
- Dan feels like a very excited, vibrant guy.
You can definitely tell Dan has some time on this hands.
This is long!
Three pages, front and back.
I have to say, Dan has some very fancy stationary.
This is metallic.
- (Dan) I love you, my darling.
And from now on there will be no more talk of us quitting.
I know it couldn't be done, and it isn't necessary.
Goodbye, sweetheart.
All of my love for you.
Your own, Dan.
- This letter talks about how people have been telling Dan
he should break up with Lucy because he's sick,
and he shouldn't be in a relationship
while he's sick, basically.
Dan is very excited because
one of the staff members at the hospital
said he should not break up with Lucy.
That Lucy is a really good girlfriend
who's helping him get better.
It's crazy to hold up this piece of paper
and know that it was written more than 80 years ago.
I'm starting to realize that they've written
so many letters to each other
because Daniel is stuck in a sanatorium,
and they have to be apart.
- (Lucy) August 7th 1930.
Dan darling, sometimes I feel a little bit afraid
because we love each other so much.
If anything should happen, but that's silly, I know.
- I mean, obviously Lucy doesn't want to say
she's scared Dan will die.
But you can tell she's still very worried about him.
And at this point we don't know how sick he is.
And we don't know if this is
like a life-or-death situation or not.
Reading one of Lucy's latest letters,
it sounds like she's studying to be a nurse.
So she might be college age.
She might be in her late teens.
But she also talks about being young.
Like, she feels like she's not yet a young lady.
I'm four letters in, and we finally got to some sex stuff.
It sounds like Dan had
some kind of sexual dream that he told Lucy about.
Unfortunately, I don't have that letter.
But I do have Lucy's response.
- (Lucy) September 23rd, 1930.
My sweetheart, you surely did have a funny dream.
Well, I can't tell you just how I would act
under such circumstances.
You see, darling,
I really haven't had much experience
with gentlemen who do things like you did in your dream.
That's right, I'm not a blonde!
So one could hardly expect you to be a gentleman.
But I always wear pjs, Dan.
Always!
However, I just love trying new things,
and with sufficient inducement.
- Lucy talks about Dan wanting something
that she can't give him yet, until they get married.
And I have a feeling that that things is sex.
It's not clear, but that's my best guess.
- (Lucy) October 2nd, 1930.
Here I am in my little bed, in the little pink room,
just wishing so hard that you were here with me.
I surely hope that you don't get much thinner.
It makes me feel terrible to see you like that.
And I guess it's my fault.
Darling, I hadn't thought of that
before you told me yesterday.
I do love you so much, Dan darling.
I'd surely like to give you what you want,
and I want it, too.
But there's no use to think of it right now.
Sweetheart, I hope that we can be married next summer.
So you'll try real hard to be patient, won't you, Dan?
- (Dan) January 22nd, 1931.
My own little sweetheart, I need you tonight
because I'm as lonely as can be.
I'd like to crawl into your arms
and be your little boy tonight.
I'm just blue and need to be comforted.
I'll always need you, darling girl.
But just now it seems
like I'll go crazy if I can't have you soon.
Oh, Lucy, my sweetheart.
I shouldn't be begging you all the time,
but I can't help it.
- So Dan sent pretty much an entire letter
about how he wants to go to the bone zone.
With Lucy.
- (Dan) March 13th, 1931.
I like to tease you a little bit about certain things,
because you're so funny, sweet about it.
You're just a darling baby girl, my sweetness.
You don't mind if I talk that way sometimes.
Do you?
As a matter of fact, I think you'd like it,
just as you'd like what I talk about.
Anyway, I'll promise what you asked me, honey,
and I won't really try to do what I said.
Although if it happens, I can't help it.
Can I?
And I kinda hope it does,
'cause I'll surely like to have another baby girl like you.
- I just feel like, if you're a woman 80 years ago,
dating had to be so stressful.
Your only options are,
wait until you're married to have sex,
or roll the dice.
Because birth control options were very limited.
Abortions were illegal.
Having a child outside of marriage was pretty frowned upon.
You didn't have a lot of options.
And if your boyfriend in the hospital
is pressuring you to have sex,
you know, I feel for Lucy.
- (Lucy) March 30th, 1931.
Do you know what I love to think about?
It's the time when you'll be well,
and we can do things together.
That will be so nice.
- At this point, Dan has been in the hospital for months.
It sounds like they can only spend time together
when Lucy comes to visit the hospital.
She obviously wants to visit as much as she can,
but she's gotta work.
She's got a life to live.
And it sounds like it's really hard.
- (Lucy) March 31st 1931.
I wish that I could kiss you now, my own darling lover.
Although it might never make any difference.
It's rather risky.
- We don't know what Dan is sick with.
He might have tuberculosis, and that is contagious.
I actually Googled,
(keyboard typing)
"Can you get tuberculosis from kissing?"
And it turns out, you can't get tuberculosis from kissing.
Or sex.
That's great news for Lucy and Dan.
- (Lucy) April 10th, 1931.
Honey boy o' mine.
Wouldn't it be fun if we could have
a little cottage in the desert or in the hills?
And just be there together all the time?
Sweetheart, that would be wonderful.
But too good to be true, I guess.
- (Dan) June 16th, 1931.
Something tell me that our day is coming.
We're gonna have our little house,
and just be happy having each other,
and we'll do lots of things that will be fun.
We can play and work together.
Read nice books.
Listen to music.
Take long walks and rides together.
And, always, we can have our lovin' every day.
And every night.
Well, that's paradise.
- Dan, he's coming from this place
of extreme, deep yearning
for these things that are just so simple,
as like reading a book with his girlfriend.
You have to appreciate the little things.
Dan does.
- (Dan) June 30th, 1931.
I'm anxious to get a letter today
so I'll know what you found out Monday.
Gee, I hope everything is alright.
Honey, I wish I could have gone to the doctor with you.
It doesn't seem right to send you alone.
It isn't right.
Gee, honey, I hope it isn't necessary
for you to go through a lot of trouble.
You weren't meant for trouble
and I'm sorry if I got you in for a lot of it.
Honey, I guess I'm an awful, dumb guy,
but I'm sure glad you love me anyway.
- So I guess I should not be surprised
This letter from Dan insinuates
that he may have gotten Lucy pregnant,
and she has to go to the doctor and find out.
Sounds like they may have gone to the bone zone after all.
But then, there's no more letters from Lucy left.
It's all letters from Dan.
I'm not even gonna hear from Lucy again
about whether or not she's pregnant.
Ahah!
- (Dan) August 8th 1931.
Just think, honey.
You'll be Mama, and I'll be Papa!
Aint that something?
You're my wonderful treasure.
You and a tiny bit of little precious treasure
that belongs to us.
- I have four more letters to go,
and I'm just trying to read them as fast as I can,
because I am dying to know
what happens to Lucy and Dan.
And, I hope Lucy's okay.
And I hope that they can be together.
They just want to start a little family
and live in a little house together.
Is that so much to ask?
- (Dan) August 19th, 1931.
Say, sweetheart, we're going to have
the best honeymoon of all time, aren't we?
Just being together will be a great treat for us.
Honey, I want you to take Hubbard's scrapbook along.
And that book of poems you gave me at Christmas.
And any other books you think of.
Don't you think that would be nice?
Maybe we'll be too busy to look at them.
But I don't know,
I've never been on a honeymoon before.
(cheerful swing music)
I hope that both of us are feeling good at that time.
But I know that I'll have to stick
pretty close to bed until then.
Else, I might not even be able to go.
- We're going to see what this last letter has to say.
I'm nervous because I'm worried I will be lacking in closure
about what happens to Lucy and Dan.
- (Dan) October 21st, 1931.
I can't think of anything but you and our baby and our home.
Oh, my sweetheart.
I do love you so much.
You're my very own precious little wifey.
All of my love for you, always.
Your own, Dan.
- Dan and Lucy are preparing to move in together,
in their own place.
That's what they've always dreamed of.
Unfortunately, Dan is still sick,
and I'm still really wondering
how Lucy feels about all this.
And how her pregnancy is going.
But I guess we'll never know.
Maybe their child is out there, somewhere.
(baby crying)
Reading the mail of total strangers,
mostly just made me feel really grateful.
Grateful for health.
Grateful that modern birth control exists.
Grateful to know the phrase "honey-man"
as a term of endearment
that I'm going to start calling everyone.
(slow soulful music)