Leo Lujak was a low-life on the outskirts of humanity. He was born in 1920 in Dover, Delaware, and was a high school dropout who hit the streets looking for a fast buck. After several run-ins with the police under his real name, Leo started using the alias of "Leo Dover", taking his hometown as a new surname.
In his late thirties, Leo shared a Manhattan office with four other men under the umbrella title of "Tractor Export Company", using the office to peddle his novelties. But when one of the other tenants, Albert Teller, was murdered, suspicion fell on him. (That's him above, center.)
With nothing to keep him tied down to that life, Leo "Dover" Lujack left New York and hit the road, finding work as a carnival barker with a traveling circus. Four years after his first run-in with a murder investigation, Leo came under suspicion for another homicide when the circus returned to the New York City area. One night, the carnival took part in a charity gig which was attended by Nick and Nora Charles. When the couple tried to use the "fun machine", a corpse rolled out of it.
When word got out that Leo had been involved with an earlier murder, the superstitious carny folk made it impossible for him to remain with the troupe. So Leo, back to using his own last name of Lujack, struck out on his own and tried to stay on the straight and narrow.
But times being what they were, Leo soon returned to a life of crime.
During a stint in prison where he was serving a six-year term for grand larceny, Lujack made the acquaintance of an arch-criminal from Gotham City. His name was P.N. Gwynne, which he adapted to be his alias as the Penguin.
Along with a criminal with the alias of Sparrow (another henchman who had worked with the Penguin before they were apprehended), Lujack teamed up with the perfidious popinjay to open an umbrella shop in Gotham City as a cover. He took Hawkeye as his nom de crime.
Although they were eventually apprehended by the Dynamic Duo, Leo Lujack decided to throw in his lot with the Penguin for the next time they got out. But less than a year after their incarceration in Gotham State, the Penguin's high-priced lawyer, Milton Porter, was able to secure his release on a technicality. Leo Lujack, however, was stuck with a lengthy sentence - not that he had any intention of serving it. Lujack broke out of prison and rejoined his former boss on his latest scheme, in which they teamed up with Lola Lasagna to rig a horse race in their favor. Lujack used the alias of Armband this time in hopes to hide his identity as the former Hawkeye.
But once again the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder foiled their plans and sent them back to Gotham State.
By the time he was released from prison, Leo Lujack was a broken man. He ended up on the streets, homeless, reduced to rolling other panhandlers for change... which - as he said - they would have only wasted on booze anyway.
He was rolling one such panhandler as a blizzard began in New York City, but he was caught in the act by Detective Sgt. Wojciehowicz of the 12th Precinct. Wojo chased him for fifteen blocks before tackling Lujack into a snow bank.
Once the detective brought him back to the squad room, Lujack suffered chest pains and then died of a massive coronary.
And thus ended the televised life of Leo Lujack.....
O'BSERVATIONS
All of these roles were played by Lewis Charles.
SHOWS CITED:
- The Shoeshine Murder (1954) ... Leo Dover
The Thin Man
- The Painted Witnesses (1958) ... Leo
Batman
- The Penguin's a Jinx (1966) ... Hawkeye
- Fine Feathered Finks (1966) ... Hawkeye
- A Horse of Another Color (1967) ... Armband
- The Sport of Penguins (1967) ... Armband
- The Sport of Penguins (1967) ... Armband
- Blizzard (1977) ... Leo Lujak
THE END
My thanks to Ivan Shreve, Jr. for the screencap from 'The Thin Man'.......
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