Such an experience is provided by “The Lady and the Dale,” HBO Max’s Duplass Brothers-produced docuseries that opens a window on 1970s America by relating the details of an implausible but true automotive industry scandal that captured headlines before fading into obscure cultural memory. In the process, it turns a . . .
Netflix’s ‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel’ (about Elisa Lam) and HBO’s ‘The Lady and the Dale’ are true crime tales with a difference, ones that are just as concerned with the ‘scene’ as the ‘crime’
The Lady and the Dale on HBO: Did the Dale Car Ever Go on Sale?
On 2/1/21 at 4:55 AM EST
The Inventor. This time, the series tells the story of entrepreneur Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael, who in the 1970s made waves in the car industry with her Dale Car. According to her, the car operated 100 percent electronically, was nearly impossible to tip over and could withstand a 30 miles an hour collision into a wall without real damage all for under $2,000.
If this three-wheeled car sounds too good to be true, that is because it was and Carmichael was not who she claimed to be. Assigned male at birth, she was wanted on counterfeiting charges from the time before she transitioned.
Photo: Courtesy of HBO
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Sunday, January 31. All times are Eastern.
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The Lady And The Dale (HBO, 9 p.m. and 10 p.m, series premiere, back-to-back episodes): Produced by Mark and Jay Duplass and co-directed by Zackary Drucker (
Transparent) and Nick Cammilleri, this four-part docuseries looks at the complicated story of Elizabeth Carmichael, a trans woman and entrepreneur whose three-wheeled car, The Dale, threatened to upend the automotive industry and was also, maybe, not actually a real thing.
We’ll have more on
The Lady And The Dale later this month.
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