Hot L Baltimore (Characters)

Characters

Mrs. Bellotti

Mrs. Bellotti is the mother of a former tenant. Described as a whiner and complainer, she tells the audience that her husband just had a leg amputated because of diabetes. When Katz makes it clear that her son will not be allowed to return, she goes upstairs and begins to pack his belongings.

The Girl

A nineteen-year-old prostitute, the Girl is caring and concerned about the other residents. She goes to great effort to help Morse. It is she who tells Jackie that she has bought worthless land.

Paul Granger III

Paul is a college student who was arrested for selling drugs. He has recently been released from a work farm. He comes to the hotel to look for his grandfather.

April Green

April is one of the prostitutes in the play. She is described as large, pragmatic, quick to laugh, and pretty. She is protective of Suzy.

Jackie

Jackie is a hustler traveling with her brother, Jamie. She needs money and tries to get Katz to co-sign a loan so they can go Utah to grow health foods on a worthless piece of land she has bought. She steals jewelry from Morse’s room, but is caught and ordered to leave. She tells Jamie that she is going to buy gas, but never returns to pick him up.

Jamie

Jamie is Jackie’s nineteen year-old brother. He is described as being a bit slow. In the last act, Jamie is abandoned by his sister, who simply drives off and leaves him to manage on his own.

Mr. Katz

Mr. Katz is the hotel manager. A balding, tired man, he resists Jackie’s pleas for money. He gives the residents one month’s notice because the hotel is to be torn down.

Bill Lewis

Bill is the night clerk at the hotel. He has a difficult time communicating and covers by talking too loudly. Bill is interested in the Girl and is more tolerant with her than the other hotel employees.

Millie

Millie is a retired waitress. Considered eccentric, she believes in ghosts and lives in a world more imagined than real. She tells the other residents that she grew up in a mansion. She is a caring person who tells Paul that she knows that his grandfather is still alive.

Mr. Morse

An elderly man, Mr. Morse is loud and demanding. He plays checkers all day and gets into arguments with other residents. When he and Jamie come to blows over a checker game, Morse hides in the broom closet and will not come out until he is convinced that he won the fight. He is robbed by Jackie.

Mrs. Oxenham

Mrs. Oxenham is the desk clerk and phone operator at the hotel. She is tough and tries to keep the prostitutes’ customers out of the hotel.

Suzy

Suzy is a prostitute. In the opening act, she brings one of her customers to the hotel; she accuses him of beating her and locking her out of her room.

She is tough but also romantic in her search for happiness with a new pimp.

Media Adaptations

• Hot L Baltimore has never been made into a film, but the play was adapted to television in 1975 by ABC.