The Mail Story

The Mail Story, subtitled Handle with Care, is a half-hour dramatic television anthology series which aired on ABC for thirteen weeks from October 7 to December 30, 1954. In the premiere episode then Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, who served in the administration of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, introduced the program to American audiences. The program was partly documentary in offering explanations of the services available from the Post Office Department, now known as the U.S. Postal Service. It also had original dramas about individuals or groups who tried to misuse the mail and hence faced apprehension for their crimes. Such segments ranged in date from the 1850s with stagecoach robberies to contemporary times with sophisticated mail fraud cases. The three-month series aired at 8 p.m. on Thursdays opposite Meet Mr. McNutley, renamed The Ray Milland Show on CBS, and You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx on NBC.