THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A DOUBLE DOSE OF LOLA

I tend to favor ‘Columbo’ when it comes to my theories of relateeveety; can’t say why.  I just hope Team Toobworld likes them.

So here’s the latest theory.  Remember it's all conjecture……

Kojak
Celia Lamb
- The Corrupter (1973)

Columbo
Clare Daley
- Fade in to Murder (1976)

Lola Albright played both women, but there’s enough difference between the way she looked in each so that I don’t have to fall back on using the twin sister/identical cousin tropes.  I am still going to claim that they are sisters.  As to which one was older?  Well, a gentleman shouldn’t delve into that.  Wouldn’t be proper.

Because Lola Albright passed away last year, and I believe most TV characters should be considered alive only for as long as the actors who played them.  However, it’s only Ms. Lamb we have to consider as having lived as long as Ms. Albright.

By 1976, Mrs. Clare Daley was one of the most powerful women in Hollywood.  (Perhaps the only woman with as much clout would have been Kay Freestone, an up-and-coming network CNC executive.)

At that time, she and her husband Sid were helming one of the most popular murder mystery series on television – “Inspector Lucerne”.  The show was based on the character made popular by the author Abigail Mitchell and it starred Ward Fowler as the popular Inspector.

But Fowler had a secret.  He was a deserter from the Army during the Korean Conflict and had moved to Canada where he changed his name and became an actor in local productions.  Ms. Daley saw the potential in his talents, but as a businesswoman, she knew she should look into that in which she invested.  Learning about Fowler’s past, she blackmailed him – as she made him a superstar, he would then funnel back half of what he made to her… in silver certificates.

Unfortunately for her, blackmail is a deadly business proposition, just about always for the blackmailer.  And that’s what happened to Clare Daley – she was gunned down, shot in the back.  Fowler made it look like a deli robbery gone wrong.

Celia Lamb was the first of the two characters to appear in Toobworld, but she still might have been the younger of them both.  She outlived her sister Clare (as I said, passing away last year around the same time as Lola Albright.) 

Celia had once been what would be called a super-model in her youth.  But as time inevitably marches on, her fading looks left her tossed aside out of the limelight.  As her funds also faded away, she fell prey to David Lawrence, a socialite businessman who made his fortune from drug smuggling.  Luckily for her, Lt. Theo Kojak was able to pull her away from the dark side and she helped him to bring down “The Corrupter”. 

It was hinted during her all-too-short time in the spotlight that she and Kojak might eventually have had a romance.  But it’s not likely that it would have lasted for very long. 

I’d like to think that Ms. Lamb (which was her maiden name and thus Clare’s maiden name as well) eventually wrote her autobiography, published by Whitestone Press.  It would have covered not only her modeling and fashion career, but even the lowest moments in her life.  It could be that it was those chapters which made the book a best-seller.

Ms. Albright appeared in a good number of TV series guest spots during the 70s into the 80s and any one of them may have been good to make this theory of relateeveety work.  I suppose the case could still be made that some of them might be “identical cousins” (which means a whole different thing in Toobworld terminology than it did in the days of ‘The Patty Duke Show’.)  But something about Clare and Celia being sisters felt appropriate.  Both of them could have grown up with dreams of making it big in show business and in their own ways, they did. 

But of those other roles she played in those other series – ‘Medical Center’, ‘Switch’, ‘Quincy, ME’, ‘Police Story’ and the like – I don’t remember the details of those which I had seen.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to start a different theory of relateeveety between them.  Millie Tate in an episode of ‘Police Story’ and Minnie in a ‘Switch’ episode would be tempting…

And maybe by August when I run my annual TV Western showcase, I might find the right Lola Albright character in one of her many “rope opera” appearances who could have been the great-grandmother for Clare and Celia.

But one character I would avoid is her longest run as Edie Hart in ‘Peter Gunn’.  (Her temporary replacement for Dorothy Malone as Constance MacKenzie can be ascribed to a quantum leaper from the future and not under consideration anyway.)  I would have to watch every episode of ‘Peter Gunn’ to make sure no details of her past life would conflict with any pozz’ble theory of relateeveety.  Not really worth the effort.

Anyhoo, that’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.
Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

O'BSERVATION - I made reference to another 'Columbo' episode - "Try And Catch Me".  I once linked the two episodes together with that same reference.  But there is another reference to another series, 'Dream On'.  I think it's easy enough to find....