The Six Degrees of Leon Ames

(Author's note: I'm told I ramble too much - well, to Hell with that, I say. Be careful what you chase down the rabbit hole. Be more careful if you follow.)

As always, apologetically unedited.

I should not watch rom-coms. Despite my best efforts at keeping an open mind about them... well, let me just say that I get distracted. It happened again tonight, as my wife and I watched the latest J-Lo movie. Nothing against the genre, or the very talented J-Lo, but color me relieved when my wife asked about the "real" identity of one of the actors. The actor in question was, for me, one of those immediately recognizable faces whose name ya just can't place.

Hooray for me! Something to research beyond the silly romance story.

However, as usual, I digress.

The unidentified man in question in the innocuous J-Lo film was/is an actor named Edward James Olmos. He seems to be an accomplished actor running the gamut of a lot of various roles, and, overall, well, not a bad dude.

However, the researcher dude in me wanted to know more. So just who was Edward James Olmos? What were some of the "vital records" of his life?

A quick Wikipedia search showed that our boy Eddie, in addition to film roles, has also run the gamut of lovers and wives like any good Hollywood persona is wont to do. As I perused Edward's list of exes, though, one name stuck out: Kaija Keel.

Kaija Keel—an interesting-sounding name, but one that didn't mean a damn thing to me.

So I almost sped past it. After all, like I said, it didn't mean anything to me. That is until I read a bit further, and it was revealed that the lovely and talented Kaija is the daughter of old-time (?) movie actor Howard Keel (1919-2004).

Okay, before I get too far, I gotta digress a bit again. You see, I gotta tell you that "back in the day" (and well before Alzheimer's stole her mind) my mother was a bit of a movie buff. Anyone who knew her will tell you it's no secret that Mom grew up as a lonely latchkey kid in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I think because of this, or at least in part, Mom used the movies to escape—and part of Mom's escape was studying the movie credits. And Mom loved those movie credits. Mom always knew "who was who" in any movie, and I guess Mom's penchant for movie credits sorta got passed down to me.

So when I saw the phrase "daughter of" and the name "Howard Keel," I had to chase that rabbit down the rabbit hole.

I like to think that Mom would have wanted me to.

I didn't expect that rabbit hole would take me to Dad.

Say what?

You see, after a quick perusal of actor Howard Keel's movie credits and CV, I also saw that the dashing Mr. Keel was president of the Screen Actors Guild. Ya know, that organization that hands out those pesky SAG awards once a year?

Now, as interesting as all of this was, and as grateful as I am to Mom for my strange and peculiar interest in movie and actor credits, it was none of this that caught my eye. No, what caught my eye was that actor Howard Keel's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild was succeeded by what, in my family, was something of a household name.

And that name was Leon Ames.            

       Above: My sister with the baby "Leon"

There's a lot to unpack here. And truthfully, I really know nothing about Leon Ames, and if I ever met the man it was only fleetingly as I walked past his office at work one day—nor did I ever see The Postman Always Rings Twice—but I do recall it being a movie my mom mentioned from time to time. Really though, what got me going about old Leon Ames wasn't even the horrible kidnapping ordeal he and his wife went through in the mid-1960s. 

No, what got to me was Dad, signaling to me from the great beyond.

Almost as if Dad were saying, "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time..." Up flashed a newspaper article and photograph I had never seen before. And yes, I knew that my father, "the car dealer," had worked for "the car dealer"—that car dealer being, of course, Mr. Leon Ames- Dad's employer.

              

Above: Leon Ames, in later years, visiting with the charming Samantha Stevens.

So let this be a lesson to you about watching too many rom-coms, or memorizing too many movie credits, or taking too many trips down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. You see, when it comes to the six degrees of separation, Kevin Bacon doesn't have the corner on the market. By my best guess, Howard Keel does, and if not him, there's a guy named Leon Ames who just might.

☮

Now, how do I get outta that rabbit hole?