291125 - Topic: Glacier Park Winter

So here we are nearing the end of November, and up high in the Northern Rockies (the climate of the North American continent being what it is) we can all anticipate a significant chance of cold temperatures and an ample amount of snow. Shall the welcoming lodges and chalets of Glacier National Park be cheerfully warmed by roaring fires, and staffed with stout and eager young bellhops, and the rosy-cheeked, smiling visages of adorable young college lasses on break from their university studies?

Uhmmm….. no.

It’s the off-season. They call it that for a reason. Everything is pretty much, you know, turned off. The lights are off, the heating is off (or at least very low), the “Open” signs in the gift shops are off … you get the idea. Nothing stirring but the caretaker and some assorted non-hibernating wild animals.

Many Glacier Hotel in the winter. GPI photo

The original press release for this episode included the following:

Blizzards and snow tie up the unorthodox excursion at the caretakers’ quarters at Many Glacier, many miles from the railroad, but there the radio brings them Andy Sannella’s orchestra and Bob MacGimsey, the three-part harmony whistler. Chief Two-Guns White Calf, whose likeness appears on the buffalo nickels, tells the Old Timer a Blackfoot legend of a winter of long ago.

[stay with me here, but that whole nickel thing is not all that it seems to be . . .]

What better time of year to make a special journey out to north central Montana, to travel into one of the most remote areas of the park, and spend one’s honeymoon? See for yourself; here’s the opening of the evening’s broadcast:

ANNOUNCER:

The Great Northern Railway presents Empire Builders, with Andy Sannella and his orchestra, and Bob MacGimsey, harmony whistler.

(MUSIC FADE INTO DEPARTING TRAIN EFFECT)

TOM:                  (Disgustedly)  There goes the train, my dear. Take a long last look at that!

DOROTHY:         (Enthusiastically)  Oh, Tom! It’s snowing!

TOM:                  (Sarcastically)  Well, isn’t that nice! Of all the places in the world for a honeymoon, you have to pick the Rocky Mountains in midwinter!  (PAUSE)  Whew! Snowing is right!

DOROTHY:         Now, Tom, don’t be so critical! You know I’ve wanted to get out here in winter for a long time. After all, novelists are entitled to a little consideration, even if they are women with husbands! And we had such a time arranging to get into Glacier Park at this time of the year.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. In addition to the notion of this being the couple’s honeymoon, newlywed Dorothy turns out to be an aspiring writer with the intention of drawing inspiration and atmosphere from a national park icebox.

But as you might suspect, the plot thickens. They have arranged for none other than the Old Timer to accompany them on their journey from the friendly conveyance of a warm Great Northern train to the locale of Many Glacier Hotel, situated on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake. The party was ferried there in one of the park’s ubiquitous red busses and its able driver.

Although Thanksgiving was still a few days off, the characters in this story were already contemplating Christmas (not unlike today, where most of the major news services are devoting considerable time to “Black Friday,” and at least one local radio station where I live started several days ago playing non-stop Christmas music). Here Dorothy describes the beautiful scenery found in the unsullied and tourist-free views along the 55-mile trip to Swiftcurrent Lake:

DOROTHY:          Tom, just look at those mountains over there! It must have been just like this hundreds of years ago, when only the Indians lived here. Oh, I feel that I really am seeing the Park, this way. Look at the snow on those trees. How it sparkles! They look like great tall Christmas trees – tinsel and all!

Well, about this point in our story there came a confluence of key characters – both real and fictitious. In fact, even one of the real ones was fictitious (once again, stay with me here for a moment longer…). Dorothy was aching to hear a real Blackfeet myth – but first, she and Tom helped perpetuate one that the GN was primarily responsible for:

DOROTHY:          M’m! Nice and warm here in the cabin, isn’t it? And isn’t that log fire cheerful? Oh, here’s the Old Timer, and Chief Two Guns.

TOM:                    He reminds me of somebody.

DOROTHY:          (PAUSE)  I know. Give me a nickel.

TOM:                    A nickel! What on earth! Here . . .

DOROTHY:          (Triumphantly)  There’s his picture!

TOM:                    Well, can you imagine that! I knew I’d seen that face somewhere. The Indian on the nickel. I’ll be darned.



Two Guns White Calf - there is a resemblance, but ...

Once everyone was settled in at Ranger Jim’s caretaker cabin, Dorothy decided it was time to see if she could get some good material to write about. She approached the Old Timer:

DOROTHY:          (Whispers)  Mr. Old Timer, can’t you get Chief Two Guns to tell us a story? I want to hear an Indian legend – a real one, from a real Indian!

PIONEER:            Well, Ma’am, I asked him a while ago, and he said he would. He doesn’t speak much English, but Chief Owen Heavy Breast, here, will translate for us.

So before we go much further, a couple comments about Two Guns White Calf. Yes, it was claimed for many years, in virtually every conceivable venue, that he was the model for James Earle Fraser’s Plains Indian portrait that first appeared on the 1913 “buffalo nickel.” What a coup for the imaginative PR man of the GN, Hoke Smith. He told people across the country to simply pull a nickel out of their pockets (the buffalo nickel was circulated from 1913 to 1938) and they would behold the very countenance of one of Glacier Park’s newly anointed celebrities, John Two Guns White Calf. The GN contracted with artist Winold Reiss to draw portraits of many of the Blackfeet to be used to illustrate their wall calendars and various other promotional items.

Winold Reiss with Two Guns White Calf, circa 1927. Photo by Tjark Reiss

When Reiss provided the GN with one of the many iterations of his portraits of Two Guns White Calf, the railroad’s publicity men deliberately circulated stories stating that Reiss had drawn the very man who modeled for the buffalo nickel. This often morphed into the implication that not only was Two Guns the one and only model for the buffalo nickel, but that the nickel’s artwork was executed by Reiss himself. In an interview several years ago with Reiss’s son, I learned that Reiss was not too impressed with the image on the buffalo nickel, and never once tried to claim the work as his own. On several occasions, according to Reiss’s son, Fraser actually wrote to Reiss demanding that he stop spreading such misinformation to the press. Reiss just ignored all the complaints, as he had nothing to do with it.

An accomplished author and very good friend of mine, Ray Djuff, is presently working on a biography of John Two Guns White Calf. His research has been thorough and meticulous. Here is a peek at what he has learned, particularly with regard to the whole buffalo nickel myth:

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=26596

In the radio broadcast, Two Guns White Calf began to tell the story of the Sacred Buffalo Stone. Owen Heavy Breast provided an interpretation for a little while, and then a number of Empire Builders actors took on the roles of the story’s characters to dramatize the rest of the story.

DOROTHY:          Hush, Tom. What’s the story to be about, Mr. Old Timer?

OLD TIMER:        Listen …  (PAUSE)  Go ahead, Chief.

(MUSIC WITH MOTIF FOR ATMOSPHERE PREPARATORY TO TELLING INDIAN LEGEND. CAN RUN ONE TO TWO MINUTES. FADES INTO SOUND OF TWO GUNS’ VOICE BEGINNING STORY IN BLACKFEET LANGUAGE. FADE OUT, AND HEAVY BREAST BEGINS TO TRANSLATE, IN ENGLISH)

The story of the buffalo stone appears to be a real legend of the Blackfeet, a tale considered sacred to their people. But I’m not absolutely certain of that. One of the people whose writing brought that story to the masses was James Willard Schultz, who probably embellished or even flat out invented some of the stories he conveyed to his readers. I believe the story of Mink Woman and The Sacred Buffalo Stone is related by Schultz in his 1923 book, “Friends of My Life as an Indian.” [if you happen to have a copy of that book, please verify for me that such a story is published in it]

In the story told in this broadcast, the Blackfeet Indians are in woeful shape. Winter has set in, and all the game animals that would normally sustain them have disappeared. The Indians grow progressively weaker. A young woman named Mink Woman, one of the wives of Black Elk, is just about the last of the group to still have any energy – the others have pretty well huddled in their teepees and braced themselves to meet their demise. Mink Woman goes into the trees to find dry wood for the lodge fire, and is drawn by mystical powers to the Buffalo Stone, which speaks to her and assures her it possesses the Sun’s power.

She takes the stone back to her husband’s teepee lodge and falls asleep with the stone beneath her. Then in her dreams, the Buffalo Stone speaks to her again and tells her to expect the buffalo to return, and then instructs her in how the Blackfeet must create a buffalo jump to capture enough buffalo to restore life and energy to the tribe.

At the conclusion of the Blackfeet legend of Mink Woman and the Sacred Buffalo Stone, aspiring author Dorothy decides she now has some fabulous material to write about, and she and Tom are shown to another cabin that the ranger has prepared just for them.

There are very few instances where the GN consciously elected to offer their listeners any form of souvenir or premium, as became commonplace in the promotion of many other radio shows in later years. A devout listener of Empire Builders would be doomed to disappointment if they hoped for much in the way of freebies besides timetables, travel brochures, and other ephemera commonly handed out to promote the railroad. On this occasion, however, the GN told its listeners they could write for a very particular souvenir – one with no other intrinsic value than as a decorative memento of the radio show.

Possible radio premium (about 5.5 inches by 7 inches). I have many reproductions of Reiss's Indian portraits. This is the only image - of any Blackfeet subject - in this size and format. I strongly believe this was the print given to listeners of Empire Builders.  Author's collection

 

Here’s their pitch:

CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT:

               Our friends have seen the stirring beauty of Glacier Park in a winter setting – but they have a new treat in store when they return next summer. The snow that mantles every foot of ground retires to the high fastnesses of the mountain peaks. The wildflowers carpet the valleys with a riot of color, and nature smiles again.

               The incomparable winter beauty of Glacier – your most scenic summer vacationland, and the only National Park on the main line of a transcontinental railway – may be glimpsed for sixty miles from the snug warmth of the Empire Builder and Oriental Limited observation cars. The majesty of winter is a thrilling invitation to glorious summer days in Glacier – the greatest “dude ranch” in the world.

               And now, if you have enjoyed this wintertime story of Glacier National Park, may the Great Northern Railway have the privilege of sending you a striking souvenir of this program – a reproduction of a portrait of Chief Two Guns White Calf, painted by Winold Reiss, eminent portrayer of Indian types. Drop a card to the Great Northern Railway, St. Paul, Minnesota. Your portrait of Two Guns White Calf will be mailed at once.

               ANNOUNCER:    You have been listening to Empire Builders, a program sponsored by the Great Northern Railway. Next Monday evening at the same hour this program will present to you another romance of the west.

               Empire Builders comes to you from the New York Studios of the National Broadcasting Company.

 

 

So until next time, Happy Thanksgiving, and keep that dial tuned to Empire Builders!

291118 - Topic: Longview (WA) lumbering story

 

This is one more episode of the series for which we do not as yet have a continuity, so we don’t know the detail of the broadcast. However, a complete press release was located, and the pertinent passages are transcribed here:

The great lumber mills of Longview, Wash., and the forests which furnish the huge logs, afford the locale of a western romance which Empire Builders will broadcast Monday night (November 18).

A modest industrial miracle, the transformation of a group of dairy farms into the lumber milling center of the world and the planning and development of a model city all within six years, is unfolded during the course of the story.

The romance reaches its dramatic climax in a thrilling rescue which unites two lovers.

Andy Sannella and his orchestra, Bob MacGimsey, the three-part harmony whistler, and Harvey Hays as the Old Timer are other features of the half hour sponsored by the Great Northern Railway.

In contrast to the copy above, here’s what appeared in a number of newspapers on the eve before the Longview broadcast:

... A melodrama of the logging town of Longview, Wash., in which a brave young Easterner rescues his sweetheart from certain death beneath the branches of a falling sequoia, will be portrayed in the sketch which the Empire Builders will broadcast at 10:30 o'clock tonight from WJZ, WBAL and WLW.

What jumps out about this write-up is the reference to a “falling sequoia.” If such a species of tree was actually mentioned in the continuity for this broadcast, it is hoped the action took place in California. Sequoias don’t normally grow in southwest Washington. Nor would it seem likely they would be transported up to Longview from California (or even Oregon) for milling. It may well have been another of the many faux pas that GN management cringed over whenever such mistakes appeared in hastily written press releases by well-meaning copy writers who didn’t really know what they were writing about. Having said that, it’s my understanding that sequoias can in fact grow in the state of Washington, but they just aren’t all that common.

The city of Longview, Washington, was founded in 1924. It was a planned townsite, built up around mills operated by the Long-Bell Lumber Company. The principals of this company were Robert A. Long (1850-1934) and Victor Bell (1856-1905). The communities of both Longview, Washington, and Longville, Louisiana, were founded by R.A. Long. A high school in Longview is also named for him. [Much more information about the life and legacy of R.A. Long is found here:  http://www.ralonghistoricalsociety.org/]

Here’s a publicity photo of an ensemble of Empire Builders actors, musicians, and others. The photo is undated, but judging by the individuals who can be easily identified, the photo appears to have been taken in New York City during the second season of the series.

 

 

 

Below is another copy of the publicity photo with selected individuals highlighted in silhouette and identified in the caption.

 

Individuals identified: (A) Raymond Knight, producer; (B) Andy Sannella, musical director; C)  Harvey Hays, actor; D) Bob MacGimsey, harmony whistler; E)  Edward Hale Bierstadt, continuity writer and editor; F) Virginia Gardiner, actress;  G) John S. Young, announcer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

291111 - Topic: Armistice Day; a story of Over There

This episode of Empire Builders was initially scheduled to be a story about the Old Timer’s hound dog, named “January” (no doubt because that’s the month in which the series began – January, 1929).



Empire Builders publicity photo from the final season, showing the Old Timer encouraging "January" to speak into the mike.  Author's collection

Early press releases said the story would be a melodrama “into which rushes the Fast Mail at the opportune time.”

 

 

At the last minute, a new program was prepared in its stead. I’m not sure if Harold Sims just didn’t initially notice this date on the calendar and make the connection with its being Armistice Day (which had only been around for ten years – not quite the age-old holiday that we know it as now). In any event, a story was written that put the Old Timer on the Western Front. Here’s a portion of the updated press release that corrected the broadcast information:

An ammunition train which develops asthma, neuralgia and paralysis just as it gets within range of the enemy’s guns is the beginning of considerable excitement on a certain French railway around which Empire Builders’ Armistice night story is woven.

As might be expected, the Old Timer, although somewhat over age, just naturally talked his way into the service and, of course, bobs us right in the middle of things.

In Monday night’s story Andy Sannella and his orchestra are all “over there” entertaining doughboys between fighting, as is also Bob MacGimsey, the three-part harmony whistler.

It’s a wartime railway story, dedicated by the Great Northern to the railway outfits which manned French lines during the war.

The continuity for this broadcast has not surfaced yet. In the meantime, it’s probably a good bet that George M. Cohan’s classic “Over There” was featured, along with a few other patriotic tunes from the era of the “Great War.”

 

 

Veterans Day – as Armistice Day became known in the U.S. during the WWII era – has always had a coincidental twist for me. It happens to be my own father’s birthday. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy right out of high school. I used to tease him that he’s such a special fellow, they made a national holiday out of his birthday.

 

Happy 88^th birthday, Dad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

291104 - Mission Bells

This episode of Empire Builders was notable for several reasons. The topic focused on California, a territory just barely served by the GN, and then only by way of an eventual link through central Oregon connecting with the Western Pacific Railroad at Bieber, California.

This episode was also one of the first to bring to the radio audience Robert Hunter “Bob” MacGimsey, a man of singular and remarkable talent. He could whistle in 3-part harmony, in perfect pitch. I intend to write at greater length about Bob MacGimsey (he deserves his own biographical tome, to be honest) in a future post. At this time, however, I’ll keep things more brief – and I’ll come back to him later.

Another point about this episode that deserves attention is the use of a dramatic technique called “self-reference.” Near the end of the story being dramatized, the characters tune in a radio to listen to the very radio program they’re a part of – Empire Builders. That’s not to say they were listening to the very broadcast they were broadcasting (woof… THAT would be weird!), but rather, characters in this evening’s program were having a conversation onboard an Empire Builder train, and they tuned in a radio in the train’s observation car and caught a few closing seconds of one of their own shows. More about that later.

 

As for the California connection, later episodes of Empire Builders revisited this theme as the GN was working to complete their access to the south. The GN’s rail link into the Golden State was completed two years after this episode aired, but it is clear the GN wanted to draw plenty of attention to both freight and passenger travel options down the west coast. At the time of this broadcast, GN passengers wanting to visit California had to transfer at Portland, Oregon, to a train operated by the Southern Pacific. In fact, any thoughts of developing regular through-passenger service over the GN via central Oregon and the Bieber connection fizzled, leaving the SP connection as the only viable option for passengers to travel from the Pacific Northwest southward to California. It was preferable to connecting with the Union Pacific, which also served Portland, but which then worked its way southeast to Salt Lake City, through Nevada, and finally into Los Angeles.

 

Bob MacGimsey (pronounced “mack-JIM-see”), was quite an interesting and talented man. Not only could he whistle in 3-part harmony, he sometimes achieved a 4^th part – all of them in perfect pitch. He also had the ability to create a discord if he did so deliberately. He was capable of playing numerous instruments by ear, including the piano, pipe organ, and saxophone. MacGimsey devoted virtually his entire life to music, spending many years travelling his native Louisiana and elsewhere interviewing and tape recording songs of older generations of blacks across the plantation South. The GN signed him to a contract that ended, oddly, in April – well before the end of the scheduled second season of Empire Builders. It is not clear exactly why they did not sign him to continue through the end of the season, although MacGimsey had a share in a partnership that operated a cotton plantation, and he wrote to his partners that he felt his foray into professional recording and broadcasting had created an unfair burden on the others.

From a press release indicating doctors were unable to identify anything out of the ordinary upon examination of whistler extraordinaire, Bob MacGimsey.

The opening text of this broadcast’s continuity explains MacGimsey’s participation:

(MUSIC:           Opening bars of Spanish music of a sentimental character. Fade down for Announcement.)

ANNOUNCER:  You are listening to EMPIRE BUILDERS, a program sponsored by the Great Northern Railway. And with us again tonight is Bob MacGimsey, whistler extraordinary, who whistles three-part harmony probably with less effort than most of us in carrying an ordinary tune … Bob MacGimsey.

(MUSIC:            Music up again, this time with Bob MacGimsey, and then fade down to background for the following scene.)

 

The whole point of the Empire Builders radio series was to serve the railroad as an advertising campaign. Along the way, many new frontiers were explored in the fledging realm of radio broadcasting. It is not clear how often, prior to the Empire Builders series airing, that a regular network radio series drew attention to itself as a device embedded in the broadcast itself, but this episode may well be the first time it happened on Empire Builders. Either way, it was a novel idea that was not yet commonplace.

The story of the “Mission Bells” was rooted in the history of early California. After the story reached its climax, sound effects were utilized to segue to modern times, and bring to the microphone the Old Timer and some travelling companions, riding the Empire Builder westward. Here is how this passage played out in the continuity:

(THE BELLS BREAK INTO A JOYOUS PEAL, AND THE MUSIC CATCHES IT UP, BECOMING GAY AND LIGHT, BUT RETAINING ITS SPANISH QUALITY. GRADUALLY THIS FADES DOWN, AND THROUGH IT CAN BE HEARD THE NOISE OF A TRAIN, APPROACHING FROM A DISTANCE. BRING IT FAIRLY LOUD TO THE FRONT, THEN AS IT STARTS TO RECEDE, MAKE TRANSITION INTO INTERIOR TRAIN NOISE, CLICK OF RAILS, FAINT WHISTLE. FADE MUSIC OUT COMPLETELY, AND KEEP TRAIN NOISES VERY FAINT. USE DISTANT WHISTLE ABOUT EVERY 30 SECONDS, SPOTTING IT BETWEEN SENTENCES, SO AS NOT TO DETRACT FROM DIALOGUE.)

PIONEER:          Well, folks, that’s the story of how the San Gabriel Mission was founded, way back about the time of the American Revolution. Hardship an’ romance went pretty much together in those times.

MAN:                Is the mission still there, Old Timer? Can we see it when we get out to California?

WOMAN 1:     Oh, I hope so!

PIONEER:          Well, I’ll tell you. About four years after the story I told you happened, the original mission was attacked and burned, but you’ll find the adobe ruins there to this day. They put up a new mission then, an’ that’s still there.

WOMAN 2:      And the bells too?

PIONEER:         The bells too.

MAN:                Just about where is it?

PIONEER:          Let’s see. It’s just about nine miles east of the present city of Los Angeles.

WOMAN 1:      HOWARD, we must visit that mission. I want to hear those bells. Oh, Howard, that reminds me! Do turn on the radio! It’s just about the time the Great Northern’s Empire Builder program is going on in New York, and it would be such fun to hear it way out here in the west, riding on the Empire Builder train!

The Old Timer announced that he was ready for bedtime (odd, since the Empire Builders show was live on the air, and he not only would have still been up if he were on the radio, but it would be at least a couple hours later since the shows were being broadcast from New York City). It’s probably just as well that the Old Timer left the observation car, since he couldn’t very well have been standing there listening to the radio, and at the same time come on the radio in a live performance out of New York!

Here’s how the continuity handled the closing minutes of the radio show, as heard onboard the Empire Builder train:

HOWARD:         I’ll see if I can pick up the Empire Builder program for you. Wait … Here it is.

(MUSIC:            MUSIC COMES IN, AS IF TUNED IN ON RADIO. IN MIDDLE OF PIECE, WITH BOB MACGIMSEY WHISTLING. INTERIOR TRAIN NOISES OUT. MUSIC FADES TO BACKGROUND.)

ANNOUNCER:   While California basks under the rays of a warm sun, Old Man Winter plies his magic craftsmanship in the Rockies and the Cascades along the route of the Great Northern Railway. Jagged peaks and frowning precipices assume fantastic shapes. Tumbling waters peak out from under sheets of crystal. Californians and visitors to California find that the Great Northern way affords an opportunity to become intimate with this winter fairyland from the snug warmth and luxury of two of America’s finest trains – the Empire Builder and the Oriental Limited – always dependable. These trains, piercing the Cascades through the great 8-mile tunnel, crossing the Rockies at a low altitude, and pulled by giant super-powered locomotives – can be relied upon to maintain their fast schedules the year around.

(MUSIC:           MUSIC SWELLS FOR A FEW BARS: THEN FADES AGAIN.)

ANNOUNCER:  You have been listening to Empire Builders, a program sponsored by the Great Northern Railway. Next Monday evening at the same hour you will hear another romance of the West. This is John Young announcing.

WOMAN 1:      Oh dear! We only got it at the very end.

                           (MUSIC SWELLS QUICKLY WITH LIGHT, FAST STUFF. MUSIC FADES OUT. FAINT LOCOMOTIVE WHISTLE HEARD IN DISTANCE.)

The Empire Builders program has come to you from the New York studios of the National Broadcasting Company.

 

Many episodes of Empire Builders were historically accurate fictionalized accounts of people and events that helped shape the early development of the Pacific Northwest. This was especially true of broadcasts during the first season of the series. During the second season, primary continuity writer Edward Hale Bierstadt took liberties with many published works that addressed the early days of the West and crafted them into his own stories for the radio. I am not a scholar of the early days of the western U.S., but to the best of my knowledge, there never was a man named Don Luis de la Torre, associated with the San Gabriel Mission, as related in this episode of Empire Builders. Bierstadt’s story appears to be borrowed heavily from a work of fiction, a short story, published in 1902 and written by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton. She wrote a collection of short stories under the title of “The Splendid Idle Forties,” one of which was “The Bells of San Gabriel.” In Atherton’s story, her protagonist, Don Luis de la Torre, is sent from Mexico City (where his fiancé awaits his return) to the fledgling mission of San Gabriel with a contingent of soldiers to protect the padres. Atherton set the stage for an underutilized and somewhat bored military man: “The Indian workmen were slugs; California, a vast region inhabited only by savages and a few priests, offered slender attractions to a young officer craving the gay pleasures of his capital and the presence of the woman he was to marry.” In Atherton’s story, de la Torre and his men fell under a sudden and overwhelming attack by the Indians. The battle raged on until, being one of the last defenders standing, de la Torre was slain and fell dramatically across the threshold of the mission he was trying to defend.

Meanwhile, back in Mexico City, the fiancé of Don Luis de la Torre – the stunningly beautiful Delfina de Capalleja – pined away for her distant lover. She soon learned of his sad fate, and was consoled by the padres there who were founding a set of bells to be shipped to the mission. Distraught with grief, señorita Capalleja took a gold chain from her neck and flung it into the molten silver. Others in attendance were just naturally caught up in this odd behavior and immediately did the same, tossing enormously valuable jewels into the molds to become one with the mission bells. Having instilled in the bells a remarkable tonal quality not found in pedestrian bells made without such fervent tossing of jewels and other such personal adornments, the lovely señorita “who had stood with panting chest and dilating nostrils, turned from the sacrificial caldron… ”  and then “raised her bewildered eyes … and thrust out her hands blankly, then fell dead across the threshold.”

 

The end.

Bierstadt apparently took this tale and molded it into this night’s episode that he called “Mission Bells.” In the Bierstadt version of the story – the one aired on Empire Builders – Don Luis de la Torre is presented as very compassionate and benevolent toward the Indians. Another Spaniard is alluded to, one who despite being married has a reputation for trifling with the native women, and this man apparently raised the ire of the menfolk among the native population – so much so that they attacked the mission. In this version of the tale, de la Torre is brought down by a poisoned arrow and separated from his men. Later they cannot find him, and give him up for dead. Once again we find the heartbroken fiancé down Mexico way, hanging out with some padres who are making bells for the mission. The young lady (still just as beautiful, but now going by the name Carmen) is once again compelled to toss all her jewels into the molten silver (only this time it’s just her gem collection that gets sacrificed). Señorita Carmen travels to the Mission San Gabriel to help deliver and dedicate the new bells. Wouldn’t you know it, but who should appear after months of absence but that zany Torre guy. Turns out some young Indian maiden he once befriended came to his aid and nursed him slowly back to health. After the mission bell dedication ceremony, the first wedding ceremony at the mission was conducted, and this version of the tale ended on a decidedly happier and less tragic note than Gertrude Atherton’s original story.