Arlene Martel

In loving memory of our friend Arlene Martel (1936-2014)

 

    When fans realize that Arlene Martel played such an immense variety of characters on TV, with so many different looks, different voices, different mannerisms, they are stunned to realize that the same person played all these different roles.  Born in NYC and raised in the Bronx and New England, Arlene, without her mother’s knowledge, secretly auditioned for the High School of Performing Arts (the renowned school the film "Fame" was based on).  Arlene, then known as "Arline Sax," graduated with the schools coveted Drama Award.  She attributes the outstanding training she received there to Sidney Lumet, the great film director who taught there, and classes with Lee Strasberg.   Arlene wended her way to Los Angeles and so it was that her remarkable TV career was born.  Divorced, she had three grown children --- Adam, Avra, and Jod, all gifted and unusual. She embraced life with all the challenges and rewards it “washes up upon our shore”   Her detailed memoir, So Far...So Good, was in the process of being completed.

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Mixed Messages
   The story is real.  It chronicles the two paths of a unique pairing who come to experience love when they meet through a social network, as each attempts to express the long, denied part of themselves in their romantic journey together.  As they try to inspire and infuse new energy into each other’s lives, many hidden truths emerge that invite the reader to evaluate where and in what ways we grapple with emotional intimacy, and question how happy and healthy we are willing to be.

   You may think you already know me from the logical character I played on Star Trek as Spock's wife T'Pring.  Well, in reading Mixed Messages, you'll see the totally illogical and wildly romantic person I rediscovered during the course of this new journey.  I was whirled and spun into a new galaxy of emotions, and I may never be able to return to my former self. Nor do I wish to.

   My "special friendship" with Jeff Minniti gathered momentum before we had a moment to find our sense of direction.  Where would we go with this? Swim with us and see.