Play explores life of Ann Landers

The advice columnist we know as Dear Abby was born on July 4th, 90 years ago, 17 minutes after her twin sister, who grew up to become Ann Landers. Ann - or Eppie Lederer - passed away six years ago. She's the subject of a one-woman play by David Rambo. Rambo's not only a playwright. He also writes for, and co-produces, the TV show CSI. KPCC's Steve Julian met Rambo and actress Mimi Kennedy, who plays Ann Landers, at the Pasadena Playhouse before a recent performance. First, Steve wanted to know why David Rambo wanted to write a one-woman play about Ann Landers.

David Rambo: This is not just a theatrical character; this is a theatrical life. There's a conversation with an audience here. This could be great, and I really wanted to write it.

Mimi Kennedy: David has given a dialogue between me and the audience. And I ask them about stuff that they want to talk about, actually – their marriages. Or, not their personal marriages; they don't have to give away stuff, but they need to talk about social value mores, morality.

Steve Julian: Since Ann Landers wrote so often about morality, I wondered what effect playing her had on Mimi Kennedy, especially in a scene in which she must come to terms with something her husband did.

Kennedy: I'm a great believer in, you know, in marriages forever, being Catholic. And it's very moving to me to play this out. This sense of betrayal. What do you do when that's at the center of a marriage suddenly?

Julian: Millions wrote to Ann Landers about their marriages, dating relationships, sex, money, even the appropriate way to hang toilet paper – down the back or over the top?

But to use real letters, David Rambo needed the permission of Eppie's daughter, Margo Howard. It wasn't easy to get, a year after Eppie died.

Rambo: I didn't know at the time what she was afraid of was that I was going to write a spoof; some lady in a big wig doing silly stuff. She did not want that, and she also didn't want a play that centered on what she called "the sideshow" – the sisters' feud, because Ann Landers and her twin sister Dear Abby were competitors most of their lives.

Julian: What was it, in 1955, that gave these two sisters the confidence to become advice columnists? Rambo says it goes to their childhood home, where they heard a lot of very frank talk and developed common sense.

Rambo: I think a lot of it was their father, who was also a very compassionate man. One of his businesses was a movie theater – a chain of movie theatres – and on Sunday nights, when business was slow, when they were changing over the bill at the movie theater, he would take the print of that week's film over to the Florence Crittendon Home for Unwed Mothers, and show those girls a movie because he knew they didn't get out much. And also, their mother was a great poker player.

Julian: To talk with Mimi Kennedy and to David Rambo is to talk to two people who are truly smitten with a woman known to nearly every baby boomer.

Rambo: I do love Ann Landers. I really do. I think if I– I never met her. I've become great friends with her daughter. I think if I knew her, had been privileged enough to have known her personally, we would've been great friends.

Julian: That daughter, Margo Howard, recently attended David Rambo's backyard wedding.

"Ann Landers: the Lady With All the Answers" was written by David Rambo and stars Mimi Kennedy. It continues its run at the Pasadena Playhouse through November 23rd.