STAGE ACTRESS EVELYN HAMBLY, ACCORDING TO JACK PECOVER: UNFAILINGLY KIND AND FORGIVING....

One of our most valuable sources for information regarding Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan, his second wife Evelyn Hambly, and their time in Calgary during the decades of the 1940s and 1950s comes from retired Albertan lawyer and author Jack Pecover, who grew up as a neighbour to the couple. In his most recent letter to us sharing his reminiscences, Jack was his usual imitable self as he summarized the MacLauchlans’ relations with the neighbourhood children (of which he was one at the time):

Give Evelyn this for starters: she was unfailingly kind and forgiving to a horde of kids thundering roughshod over her domicile and grounds in which she took more than ordinary pride; in terms of beauty she may not have been Ingrid Bergman (no one, not even Ingrid Bergman herself, could possibly have been that beautiful) but she was svelte, open, (again) kind, and, as you and her contemporary press have made amply clear, she was a skilled actress, nor were Calgary’s Grand Theatre, (see Don’s Calgary’s Grand Story), San Francisco and so on necessarily the boonies in those years. I can think she might have done well on Broadway or London’s West End had the fates conspired to waft her to either, and perhaps had not the ill-fated intercession of her second husband intervened. They ain’t all that many of us can claim a comparable CV.

In the first sentence of the quote, Mr Pecover is subtly responding to a criticism of Evelyn Hambly by another of our correspondents, Mrs Jean Hunter, who has described Evelyn to us as, among other less than admirable terms, “porcine”. As it happens, Mrs Hunter and Mr Pecover are siblings – which may or may not play a role in their differing opinions of said Ms Hambly. So that our loyal readers can draw their own conclusions concerning the physical attractiveness of this 1920’s stage actress we invite them to view two photos discovered in remote corners of the world-wide web. One was taken when Evelyn was in her 20s, the other when she was in her late 30s.  The black and white photograph is from Calgary’s Glenbow Archives and was taken when she was the director of the Calgary Light Opera Society in 1935. The sepia-toned one is from the collection of the University of Washington and was taken in 1925, 10 years earlier. (The “Don” referred to is Emeritus Professor Don Smith of the University of Calgary, who has also been helpful in our researches.)

WHICH WEST COAST DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION WAS MURDER VICTIM DR ROBERT HENRY MACLAUCHLAN A SENIOR MEMBER OF?

As was mentioned in this blog a few postings ago (November 18, 2013), now deceased journalist Dennis Bell told his uncle, retired Albertan defence lawyer and author Jack Pecover, that off-the- record police sources had told him (Bell) that Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan had been the Number 2 man in the West Coast drug trade. MacLauchlan, faithful readers will remember, was murdered along with his wife, Margaret Anne “Nan” Cunningham MacLauchlan, on March 21, 1966 shortly before both were due to go on trial for trafficking in narcotics (heroin). When he was arrested in late December 1965, MacLauchlan had been in possession of about $200,000 worth of heroin. Police were of the opinion that MacLauchlan had been silenced three months later to prevent him from revealing the names of “Mr. Big” in whichever organization he was part of.

Speaking very generally, during the mid- to late 1960s and early 1970s, there were two major Vancouver-based criminal organizations – one headed by William Faulder “Fats” Robertson and the other by the Palmer Brothers. The Robertson Gang, it can be determined from newspaper accounts, consisted over the years of about two dozen individuals. Through a few of these individuals, the Robertson Gang was linked to the Montreal Mafia, centred around Jean-Louis Bisson and Robert Tremblay, who were in turn linked to the New York Mafia. The Palmer Brothers had about a dozen associates, a small number of which were similarly linked to the Montreal Mafia.

WERE THEY DROP POINTS FOR MACLAUCHLAN’S MAIL? OTHER BUSINESSES AT 660 HOWE STREET IN VANCOUVER 1955 -- 1964

In our last blog posting, in our search for clues as to why convicted abortionist Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan (charged with drug trafficking in 1965 and murdered in 1966) was receiving his mail at 660 Howe Street in Vancouver, we listed four law firms (Pandia & Faminow, Thomas & Williams, WE Marshall, Harry Pedrini,) that on occasion had offices at 660 Howe Street in Vancouver between 1955 and 1964. We also listed Bennett and White, a Calgary-based construction firm, the CBC and the provincial department of education as tenants who occupied offices in the building continuously during the aforementioned period.

There were 25 other businesses in the building who occupied offices for periods ranging from one to five years. Two of them – Alpha Steel Company and Paramet Real Estate Investment Corporation – appear to have been subsidiaries of, or linked to, Bennett and White.

Five companies -- Porr Piling Gen. Construction, Wytane (Canada) Oil Products, Netupsky Engineering, Cement Enamel Wall Covering Specialists, CJ Oliver gen. Contractors – were linked to the construction and building industry. It appears that, of the companies listed in this category, only Netupsky remains in business.

Three companies or organizations – Pacific  Show Production, Assoc of Can. TV & Radio artists, Tower School of Radio & TV broadcasting – were show-business oriented, with the first and second still in operation.

Two collection agencies -- Aabel Agencies and Coast Credit Collections – were located at 660 Howe Street, neither of which appears to be operating at present.

Three companies were in the financial services industry – S Kartar (accountant), E J Lindow (accountant), and Continental Mortgage Exchange. A company of the last name was involved in a court case in 1986 in New Mexico, in which it was charged with selling fraudulent mortgages. More information is being sought on this particular bit financial history to see if the New Mexico company had any connection to its 1961-62 Vancouver namesake.

One of the most interesting people operating out of 660 Howe Street was realtor Phil Matty who in 1968 bought 32 acre Passage Island, located between West Vancouver’s Lighthouse Park and Bowen Island. More information is being sought on this long-ago real estate deal too.

Finally, there were four other individuals or firms located at 660 Howe Street -- Federated Ins. Companies, R MacLean, RP Godfrey & company, and Trans Pacific Leasing Service.

The point of all this somewhat detailed information is that someone was receiving Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan’s mail for him at 660 Howe Street, and we are hoping that someone (or some relative, descendant or former associate of one or more of these companies) might have come knowledge of this situation and will contact us through this website.

WHO, AT 660 HOWE STREET IN VANCOUVER, KNEW CONVICTED ABORTIONIST AND DRUG SMUGGLER DR ROBERT HENRY MACLAUCHLAN?

In our unceasing search for more background to the March 22, 1966 murder of Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan and his third wife Nan in New Westminster, BC, we have uncovered a rather curious bit of information. From 1955 (following his release from Lethbridge Provincial Jail in Alberta after serving a year for conspiring to procure abortions) to 1965 (when, shortly before Christmas, he and Nan were charged with drug trafficking) MacLauchlan received his mail not at 912 Fifth Street in New Westminster where they lived but at 660 Howe Street, near the heart of downtown Vancouver. This address was just around the corner from the Vancouver Court House. One wonders why MacLauchlan was receiving his mail at an address so remote from where he actually resided.

Investigation reveals that 660 Howe Street was a major office building containing, over the years, several lawyers, advertising agents and talent scouts, all which stayed four years or less. The following law firms had offices in the building between 1955 and 1964: Pandia & Faminow, Thomas & Williams,WE Marshal, and Harry Pedrini.

Pandia and Faminow were D Paul Pandia and Peter Faminow. Peter Faminow served as a councillor and alderman for the District of North Vancouver between 1960 and 1974 and ran once for Reeve. He also ran once as a New Democrat in the Federal election of 1963. Harry Pedrini was politically active in the provincial Liberal party and ran in East Vancouver against the NDP’s Alex MacDonald in the 1966 BC election.

Of note is an article in a late 1950s issue of the Vancouver Sun relating that Pedrini had appeared before Vancouver City Council on behalf of a Vancouver social club. The Vancouver City Police recommended against giving a license to the group on the grounds that it was really just a front for organized gambling. The police said that two of the club’s six directors had criminal records.

The only commercial company which was continuously at 660 Howe Street was Bennett and White, an Alberta Construction company of some stature during the decades of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Bennett and White were headquartered in Calgary, hometown of Dr MacLauchlan for over two decades. This leads to the remote possibility that MacLauchlan may have been getting his mail via Bennett and White, and that he had known someone in their Vancouver office from a previous Calgary acquaintanceship.

The only other organizations which had steady occupancy at the address were the CBC and the Provincial Department of Education’s Broadcast Office. It hardly seems likely that either of these two entities would be amenable to receiving the postal deliveries of a convicted felon. We of course would like to find out who at 660 Howe Street was holding Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan’s mail for him. Feel free to offer any ideas or suggestions to us via our contact information on the Home Page of this web site.

THE STAGE CAREER OF EVELYN HAMBLY: FROM TOAST OF CALGARY TO “RETIRED SHOWGIRL”

In 1927 Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan married for the second time. His new wife, Evelyn Hambly (Jan 27, 1897 – Jan 14, 1964), was a 30-year old actress who did most of her professional work during the first two decades of the 20^th Century in California, the Pacific Northwest and, for four years between 1922 and 1926, in Calgary, Alberta. After that she seems to have mostly left the craft and faded from sight -- although, to a limited degree, after marrying MacLauchlan, she did some producing and directing in Calgary for amateur productions.

Evelyn Dee Hambly was born in San Diego, California. She seems to have been a bit of a prodigy, appearing on stage when she was four years old. Her single film role was in the silent flick “The Shark God,” released in May 1913. This was a story of pre-missionary Hawaii, woven around the ancient superstition of the Hawaiians concerning the shark god and its power over the lives of the people, and the love affair of a chief's daughter. It was released on May 5, 1913.

In May 1917, she married fellow actor Robert E. Lawrence in California; he was four months younger than her, having been born May 19, 1897 in Missouri. Both bride and groom were 20 years old. Their son, Robert, was born November 20, 1918.

The most documented part of Evelyn Hambly’s theatrical career, if not her life, relates to her stage career in Calgary, Alberta between 1922 and 1925. During the latter year, she left Calgary and went to Seattle to stay with her sister Mabel, who was also involved in theatre and was married to a rather well-known set designer named Alwin Theall. Born in St Johns, New Brunswick, Canada on Oct. 7, 1876, Alwin Theall came to northern California with his parents in 1880. By the turn of the century he was working as an artist in San Jose. He later worked as a scenic artist at the Liberty Theater in San Francisco. He died there on June 10, 1939. 

As the world entered a new decade, Hambly was hitting the big time boards – in Vancouver. She had quite a serious role in a Vancouver stage production by the Empress Theatre Company of Eugene Walter’s The Knife, a play about a female doctor, a relative novelty at the time. The June 24, 1920 Vancouver Sun praised Hambly’s performance as follows:

Miss Evelyn Hambly, who has come to be regarded as one of the most accomplished members of the [Empress Stock Company] gives the character an interpretation which is thoroughly satisfying. She visualizes the woman medico as a smart tailor made, efficient business woman, self confident and alert. The part is an important one, because from her lips comes the speech which throws the fine light on the conduct of the hero which clears him from an easily misunderstood situation.

While in Calgary, Hambly lived at a fairly exclusive address – The Devenish Apartments.

By 1926, Hambly’s stage career was pretty well over and in that year she moved to Seattle to be with her sister Mabel. As mentioned above, her marriage to Dr MacLauchlan followed shortly after. The papers in Calgary, during the height of her stage career in that city, had described her in glowing terms – praising her vivaciousness and sprightly personality. However, the bloom went off her rose and by 20 years later, her neighbours, the Pecover sisters, saw her in a different, rather unattractive light:

Evelyn MacLauchlan had henna hair, bad teeth and jowly cheeks. You would know by her look that she was a retired show girl.

WAS DR MACLAUCHLAN NUMBER 2 IN THE WEST COAST DRUG NETWORK OF THE LATE 1960s?

As has been mentioned before in this blog, retired Albertan author Jack Pecover and his sisters Jean Hunter and Helen O’Connor, in their youth, were neighbours of Dr Robert Henry and Evelyn Hambly MacLauchlan, when the couple lived in Calgary in the 1940s and 1950s. These now elderly (but still vigorous!) siblings have another connection which has been of great help to us. Jean Hunter’s son, the late (June 2012) Dennis Bell, was a well-known and very respected journalist with The Sun, The Province, the Globe & Mail and the Canadian Press over the years. By his retirement in the last decade or so, he was News Director at BCTV 

According to both his uncle and his mother, at the time of the MacLauchlan Murders Dennis was still a print reporter and as such apparently had the ear of the cops. One of the police told Dennis Bell then that during their investigation they had learned that “[Doc MacLauchlan] was No. 2 in the West Coast drug network”.

We at this blog of course would like to hear from any other retired news reporters who may have similar information on the murdered doctor, Robert Henry MacLauchlan. Please contact us through this website.

EVERY YEAR A NEW CADILLAC FOR DR MACLAUCHLAN

Retired high calibre Albertan defense lawyer and author Jack Pecover, who in his teenage years lived next door to Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan during the late 1940s and early 1950s, recalled how every year (once post-war automobile manufacture had resumed), MacLauchlan acquired a new Cadillac. The average new Cadillac retailed in Canada in 1950 for about $3500. A midrange Cadillac today will run about $60,000. In the Calgary of 1950, there appears to be only one Cadillac dealer, Calgary Motor Products Ltd, located at Fourth Ave and Second Street West, the president of which was S J Parkinson. It seems likely that the doctor would have bought his cars in Calgary and very likely from this dealer. To that end, we invite any former Calgary Motor Products employees or descendants of former employers to contact us at this website concerning well known – but infamous – customers – such as Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan. We believe in outreach – even after 60 years, because you never know. Someone might remember something valuable!