MISSING LINKS MONDAY - "COLUMBO" & "MATLOCK"

'COLUMBO'
"LADY IN WAITING"

Bryce Chadwick:
I've written a letter to Peter Hamilton.
He'll receive it when he gets back from Atlanta today.

Beth Chadwick:
How's Atlanta?
Peter Hamilton:
Oh, just fine, all of it.

Lt. Columbo:
Can you account for your whereabouts this evening?
Peter Hamilton:
I came in from Atlanta,
I landed at ten o'clock.

Peter Hamilton was probably on a business trip to Atlanta as in-house counsel for the Ellison-Chadwick Agency.  But that doesn't mean he didn't have time to check in with an old friend of his from the Harvard Law School.

Both Peter Hamilton and Ben Matlock were born in 1926, but they weren't at Harvard Law School as students at the same time.  Hamilton entered grad school there immediately after his undergrad years at university in 1948.  But Ben put off entry for nine years and instead went to work to save up enough to pay his way.

By the time Matlock entered Harvard Law School, Hamilton was working himself - as the teaching fellow under Professor Erskine Tate.  If it weren't for Peter's mentorship under Tate's guidance, Ben might have dropped out.

Peter Hamilton watching
Ben Matlock in action (1960s)

Ben Matlock in action (1990s)

Once they both had moved into practice - Peter as a corporate lawyer, Ben in criminal defense - they were able to enjoy each other's friendship on an equal footing.  Peter sought his fortune out west in Los Angeles while Ben went home to the greater Atlanta area of Georgia.

I'm sure when Ben Matlock came to Los Angeles to defend Dr. Jesse Travis of murder, he squeezed in time to hang out with Peter Hamilton - dinner at a fancy restaurant perhaps, like Vittorio's (under the ownership and management of Mario DeLuca for the last forty years since the death of his uncle Vittorio Rossi.)

Unless of course, Ben was expected to pay.....

SHOWS CITED:

• 'MATLOCK'
• 'COLUMBO' - "LADY IN WAITING"
• 'DIAGNOSIS MURDER'
• 'COLUMBO' - "MURDER UNDER GLASS"

BCnU!