Lydia Hall is a burlesque dancer at the Star Room Theatre. She is the best friend of her more popular and savvier Star Room co-star, Nina Bloom.
Appearances and Mentions
From Buffalo With Love
- Lydia and Nina are interviewed by William Murdoch immediately following the murder at the The Star Room Theatre Star Room]. They say they don't know anything about it as they were performing together on stage when it happened. Murdoch understands that Lydia was friendly with the victim. She initially tells him that she wasn't, but then admits she knows his name and where he lives.
- While Crabtree and Nina are together in the ladies dressing room, a gun falls out of Lydia's bag. When George says he has to speak to Lydia about it, Nina says not go too hard on her. She's not a killer, she's barely a dancer. All she wants is to find a husband. She's a simple girl, really. With Nina's help, George is able to convince a nervous Lydia to come to the station to tell the constabulary what she knows about the victim, Jerry Sachs (aka Jerry Sloane).
- Lydia says that after the murder a different man came into her room and she had to fight him off. He's been coming around for a few weeks and calls himself Joe. They discover he is the son of the head of the The Black Hand, Giuseppe Falcone. Lydia also tells them that a few months earlier, she met Jerry, the murder victim, while dancing at the Star Room. He already had a wife in Buffalo but he promised he would leave her to marry Lydia. He said he had been a thief in Buffalo but he wanted to start over and go clean in Toronto. Lydia had gone to Buffalo to get his wife to let him go. Murdoch and Brackenreid tell her Jerry lied to her about his past and that Lydia had unknowingly led the Black Hand to him. She finally realizes Jerry was never going to leave his wife for her. She says she had only wanted a husband so she could finally hold her head up high.
Great Balls of Fire, Part 1
- After Lydia complains that the Star Room is deadly dull that night, Henry Higgins comes in and tries to introduce himself to her. Henry has been eager to meet a young lady for some time. Earlier in the episode, he had asked George to introduce him to one of the women who dance with George. At the time, he didn't care which one. Later on, however, Henry is smitten with Lydia at her performance as an Egyptian queen when he waves to her from the audience with a handful of flowers for her.
Great Balls of Fire, Part 2
- It is Lydia who alerts George and Nina to the fire on Melinda Street. She helps the others with the water bucket brigade trying to put out the fire.
- Later at the Star Room, while not on stage performing, Lydia plunks herself down in Henry Higgins's lap in the audience and tells him it is his lucky day as she has decided to give him a chance at her heart. To her surprise, he says he is sorry but he has to leave. Crushed, Lydia tells George "I thought you said your friend was interested in me." George replies "I thought he was." Henry has not lost interest, he is just preoccupied with concerns that he started the fire. After he learns that he did not start it, he tells Brackenreid that he has a woman to apologize to.
Painted Ladies
- Lydia walks in on George and Nina in bed, saying she is going to help Josie with her routine.
- When William Murdoch and George come to the Star Room later to inquire whether the ladies of the burlesque use lip rogue, Lydia, Nina, and Josie all say they love the stuff. William also asks whether they ever give men flirtation cards to get their attention. They all say they don't have to because men give the cards to them. Lydia says they have a running tally of who gets the most. Nina is well in the lead.
Excitable Chap
- When Lydia arrives at The Star Room, she tells Nina and Crabtree that she had just been attacked by The Lurker. She saved herself by stabbing him in the hand with her hat pin but he then got away. Later, when on stage performing a 'Lurker skit', the real Lurker appears. This time, Nina smashes him over the head with a bottle, to reveal The Lurker's real identity– James Pendrick.
Hot Wheels of Thunder
- While rollerskating with Nina Bloom on the boardwalk, she is introduced to Dr. Ogden and Miss Rebecca James who Lydia helps create a roller-racing team to compete against The Buffalo Queens. Lydia says she loves to rollerskate because it's a good way to give your legs a workout and keep them looking attractive.
- It is revealed that Lydia moonlights as an artist's model when Inspector Brackenreid collects her to join the roller racing team.
Hell to Pay
- One week earlier, Lydia was working at a private gentlemen's party when she overheard Councilman Williams and Mr. Graham talking about buying a building on Melinda Street, getting rich, and "taking care" of a man named Dobbs. Fearing for her life, she asks Murdoch for help. Mr. Edward Dobbs has been missing for three days. Mrs. Dobbs fears the worst for her husband because he called for a strike, with some success, against Robert Graham’s company. A union man in Colorado was tarred and feathered not long ago. Graham would do worse to Edward. Graham is rebuilding Toronto from its ashes with the support of powerful construction bigwigs and corrupt politicians. The Inspector warns his Detective that if he wants to go after newly elected Councilor Williams and Robert Graham, Murdoch is going to need more than the words of a dance-hall girl and a socialist's wife.
- Lydia’s life is in danger as two men come looking for her at The Star Room. She goes to Murdoch at the Windsor House Hotel wanting to leave town for her safety instead of staying to help him with the case. She doesn't want to end up like Mr. Dobbs– strangled and later pulled from the river. Lydia had seen Williams murder Dobbs at Graham’s insistence at that party and she didn't– couldn’t help, but before the Detective can do anything, they are both attacked. When consciousness returns to Murdoch, he finds himself in his own bed with Lydia’s lifeless body and the Constabulary banging on the (wrong) door led by Councilor Williams. Murdoch escapes.
Up From Ashes
- A now dead Lydia is seen in flashback scenes as the team tries to uncover who really murdered her and Mr. Dobbs. Lydia's death haunts William while he is on the run because he had failed to protect her when she came to him for help.
- After Robert Graham tells a shaken Julia that Lydia's body was found in bed with her husband, Dr. Ogden looks for Nina to get the truth, no matter how harsh. Nina tells Julia that she saw Lydia and William together – they were just talking. She heard Lydia say that she was a witness to something at a private party, “Sometimes we're called to attend them. Some of the girls go. All she would tell me is that she heard something that she never should have heard.” But it must have been something because a couple of days later, two men came here looking for her, but she was gone. Nina never saw Lydia again. Dr. Ogden acknowledges her loss. Nina hopes she finds her husband because he's a good and decent man. Then, she breaks down in tears, “She was my friend. She was so funny.” Julia holds her as she cries; two women grieving.
Trivia
- In October 2017, showrunner Peter Mitchell revealed in the Murdoch Mysteries Facebook discussion group that Lydia was one of his favorite recurring characters along with Nate Desmond.
Gallery
Hot Wheels of Thunder
Hot Wheels of Thunder
Hot Wheels of Thunder
Hot Wheels of Thunder
Hot Wheels of Thunder
The Lurker
The Lurker
The Lurker
The Lurker
Hell to Pay
Hell to Pay
Hell to Pay
Hell to Pay
Hell to Pay