Carmen

Overview

Carmen Blackwell was engaged to be married to Joe Blackwell when he met Marva in New Orleans on a business trip. Carmen had been a rising young executive at Joe’s company, Soultown Music, starting in accounting and working her way up. She had set her cap on Joe and he had been susceptible as she’s good looking – with the hard, good looks of Diahann Carol in “Dynasty”. When Joe brought his new bride Marva back to Pittsburgh,  everyone thought there would be trouble with Carmen. Amazingly, there was none. Carmen seemed genuinely to be a good sport. She accepted her lot and got second prize, Joe’s older brother Richard, who is a glad-hander with no where near the talent of Joe, but who, as Vice President at Soultown Music, was plenty rich. When Joe got sick, Carmen couldn’t do enough for Marva and the kids – and Joe. She was a saint. But what was lurking beneath, surfaced little by little after his death. Within a year Marva was destitute, the victim of Carmen’s maneuvering. The company was hers and so were Marva and her children, to do with as she pleased.

Carmen, an Icy beauty, is also into high fashion – Chanel - and the high society of Pittsburgh, where she is a Queen, courted by all of the social powers in town. She is the exact opposite of her sweet, sister-in-law Marva. A woman not to be trusted, to be feared rather. Far more politically astute and dangerous than her blow-hard husband.