He’s the Original ‘Finder of Lost Loves’ : Man’s Real Life Inspires Reel Life

Finding “lost loves” is the real-life business of Southern California private eye Lloyd Shulman, a man whose unusual 25-year-career inspired a television series.

Like actor Tony Franciosa, who plays attorney Gary Maxwell on the network’s Saturday night series “Finder of Lost Loves,” Shulman reunites people long separated.

However, Shulman does not smash bad guys or break down doors.

He claims to have located from 40,000 to 50,000 people since he decided to make it his investigative specialty in 1960.

Shulman said he was contacted about a year ago by 20th Century Fox studio personnel who had heard of his unique operation.

“They said they thought I’d make a good subject for a television show. I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And they did,” Shulman said.

He is under contract to the studio as technical consultant, but all the story lines are fictionalized.

“I sat down and told them about a lot of my cases, so they’d know what I do. Their writers take care of the rest.”

Although Shulman said he finds someone every day of the year, the holidays are particularly busy.

“People start thinking a lot. . . . In many cases, stubbornness and pride played a big part in the separations.” There was the former Marine drill sergeant who told his son to hit the road if he did not like the rules. The boy did and, 20 years later, Dad wants him home.

“Stubborn people say stubborn things. They think someone will be gone a week, not 15 or 20 years.”

There was the mother who criticized her daughter’s long-haired boyfriend just once too often back during the hippie generation. “She slammed the door on her mother that night and never came back. Fifteen years later, the mother asked me to find her. They were reunited right here in my office but neither one of them could remember the name of the boy with long hair and dirty fingernails.”

Shulman routinely reunites families split by divorce and custody disputes. In a highly publicized recent case, an Orange County woman was reunited with the mother and brother she had not seen in 29 years.

“Oh, I love these cases,” Shulman said. “People hug and kiss each other. Then they hug and kiss me.”

Shulman’s favorite cases always have an element of romance, and Valentine’s Day brings clients out of the woodwork.

“Guys begin to think about old girlfriends. They decide they want to send her a dozen roses,” he said. “He doesn’t care if she’s married or if she’s a grandmother. He just wants her to know that he remembers.”

In one case, a young man and woman met on a merry-go-round at an amusement park and were separated when the man went off to World War II. After the war, each got married to someone else, then divorced. In the 60s, “I got them back together and their romance rekindled,” Shulman said. “As far as I know, they’re still together.”