Abigail Van Alden

Abigail Van Alden
Birthplace	Atlantic City
Birthdate	June 1921
Age	3
Actor	Unknown

Abigail Van Alden (born in June 1921) is the daughter of Nelson Van Alden and Lucy Danziger.

Biography

Season 2

Lucy Danziger gives birth to Abigail alone in an apartment Nelson Van Alden is renting to keep the pregnancy secret. Nelson comes home and fetches a doctor to check Abigail. While he is out his wife Rose Van Alden tracks him down to the apartment and discovers everything about his affair with Lucy and the arrangement to buy custody of Abigail from her. Rose stays to care for Lucy and Abigail until Nelson returns and then she leaves him. Abigail remains unnamed for the first days of her life. ("The Age of Reason")

Van Alden enters his rented apartment to find his new daughter quiet and Lucy in the kitchen. He asks where the baby is and Lucy explains that she is finally sleeping after crying all day. Van Alden asks if Lucy fed the baby and she is offended, telling him of course she did. He apologises, blaming a headache. Lucy asks how Van Alden’s discussion with his wife went and he explains he has been unable to reach her because she is visiting an Aunt in Milwaukee. Van Alden had agreed with Lucy to pay for her lodgings until the baby was born and then give her a lump sum of $3000 to give the baby up so he could raise it with his wife. Van Alden believes that he is being tested by God. Lucy reminds Van Alden that he owes her money and he says he does not have it. She asks if he means he does not have it now or does not have it at all and he responds that she is enjoying the phonograph he bought her. She turns off the music as the baby’s screams fill the apartment. She presses Van Alden about the money but he is distracted by the baby crying. He claims he cannot concentrate and leaves the apartment. Lucy follows him out of the apartment shouting about their terms. A neighbour yells for quiet and she angrily bangs on his door before going back inside. ("Peg of Old")

Nucky's assistant Eddie Kessler enters and announces visitors. Annoyed, Nucky tells Eddie he is in a meeting with his attorney Isaac Ginsburg. Eddie nevertheless shows in Lucy and her baby. Ginsburg takes the opportunity to leave. Nucky, fearing Lucy will claim that he is the baby’s father, reminds her that they last saw one another on May 23, 1920. She tells him not to begin like that and he looks at the baby and then apologises and offers his congratulations. Lucy confesses that she considered telling Nucky the baby was his but knew he would not believe her and felt it would have been unfitting now that she is a mother. Nucky tells Lucy he is glad she is taking her responsibilities seriously. She twice draws his attention to the baby and having elicited a smile from him she reminds him of their shared history. She tells him her purpose every day they were together was to make him happy and that she now wants to apply that attitude to her daughter. Nucky believes she will be a good mother and she tells him she needs money. Nucky asks where the baby’s father is suspecting that Lucy does not know who the father is. She tells him she knows and that it someone he might know too. ("Peg of Old")

Van Alden arrives at Nucky’s office and Nucky asks Lucy to give them privacy. She takes the baby outside, telling Van Alden that she did not know what else to do on her way past. Lucy takes the money Nucky has given her home while Nucky uses the information she gave him to attempt to blackmail Van Alden. ("Peg of Old")

Van Alden returns to his apartment looking for Lucy. He finds Alfreda Short, his downstairs neighbour, caring for the baby. She explains that Lucy left to buy formula about twenty minutes ago and asked her to care for the baby. Van Alden returns to the living room and hears the turntable spinning. He smells something unpleasant and lifts the case to find a soiled nappy with the front page of the script for A Dangerous Maid pinned to it. Lucy does not return to the apartment leaving Abigail with Van Alden. ("Peg of Old")

Van Alden holds his daughter and reads names from the bible. She murmurs when he says Abigail and he smiles at her. ("Peg of Old")

Van Alden stands over Abigail in a wicker crib and checks his watch. He answers a knock on the door of his apartment and lets in a young woman. He asks if she is Ingrid, the nanny he is expecting, and she corrects him; her name is Sigrid. He offers to take her suitcase and then interrupts her as she goes to the baby, telling her that her room is the first door out of the hall and that she will be expected to keep the baby in her room at night. He points out the kitchen, bathroom and the Vitrola record player. She is delighted with the new technology and confides that she enjoys singing. He asks if she has questions and she enquires about the salary. He offers room and board, meals and $18 a month. She agrees to this and he points out that he expects her to work seven days a week. She asks for some time to herself and he concedes one Sunday a month providing that she prepares food in advance for the baby. She agrees and says that she is an excellent cook. She offers to make fish stew for Van Alden but he declines but says that the cupboards are well stocked. She asks him what the baby’s name is and he hesitates before saying Abigail. Sigrid picks Abigail up and rocks her gently. Van Alden puts on his hat and Sigrid wonders if he wants to kiss Abigail goodbye. He does so and then leaves as Sigrid tells Abigail that her father loves her and begins to sing. ("Two Boats and a Lifeguard")

Van Alden arrives home to find Sigrid still serenading Abigail. He walks past them and closes the door to his room. ("Two Boats and a Lifeguard")

Van Alden sits in the kitchen of his rented apartment while his daughter Sigrid feeds Abigail in the adjoining lounge. He observes that Sigrid seems at home caring for a baby and she explains that she is the oldest of seven children and cared for her siblings growing up. She reveals a story from her childhood, apparently aged six she tried to feed her baby sister from her own breast. Sigrid tells Abigail that she wishes she had milk for her. Van Alden stands and takes out a bill, leaving it for Sigrid to buy groceries. As he goes to put it down he noticed an unopened letter from his estranged wife Rose on the side. He demands to know when it arrived; Sigrid tells him she put it there yesterday. Annoyed, he instructs her that he should receive all correspondence from his wife immediately and opens the letter. Inside there is a petition for divorce with a short note politely and formally asking him to complete the paperwork as soon as he is able. As he reads the contents Abigail begins to cry. Sigrid stands and rocks her while Van Alden grips the bridge of his nose. ("Georgia Peaches")

He completes the petition. ("Under Gods Power She Florishes") In July 1921 he is exposed as the murderer of his partner Eric Sebso and flees Atlantic City. He takes Sigrid and Abigal with him to Cicero. They rent an apartment and live there as "the Muellers". ("To the Lost")

Season 3

Sigrid marries Nelson, under their assumed identities. They have a son in 1922. Nelson takes a job as a salesman. The family remain in their small apartment in Cicero, as he struggles to make any sales. He returns home on December 31, 1922 to report that he lost the annual sales contest. ("Resolution")

Relationships

• Nelson Van Alden: Father
• Lucy Danziger: Mother
• Sigrid: Nursemaid, stepmother
• Chester Van Alden - Half-brother

Memorable Quotes

• First words pending!

Appearances

Season two appearances
21	Ourselves Alone	A Dangerous Maid	What Does the Bee Do?
Gimcrack & Bunkum	The Age of Reason	Peg of Old	Two Boats and a Lifeguard
Battle of the Century	Georgia Peaches	Under God's Power She Flourishes	To the Lost

Season three appearances
"Resolution"	"Spaghetti and Coffee"	"Bone for Tuna"	"Blue Bell Boy"
"You'd Be Surprised"	"Ging Gang Goolie"	"Sunday Best"	"The Pony"
"The Milkmaid's Lot"	"A Man, A Plan..."	"Two Imposters"	"Margate Sands"