| Dorothy Kilgallen |
Article Index for Dorothy |
Website Links For Dorothy |
Information AboutDorothy Kilgallen |
|
Reporter, columnist and television personality Kilgallen's early working career was as a trial reporter. She covered the trials of Dr. Sam Sheppard (the inspiration for the television show '' The Fugitive ''), Bruno Hauptmann (who was convicted of the kidnapping and death of Charles Lindbergh 's son), and convicted murderess Anna Antonio. She worked for William Randolph Hearst and other publishers. In 1936, she competed with fellow newspaper reporters in a race around the world and, despite being the only female contestant, she came in second. She described the event in her book, ''Girl Around The World'', which inspired a movie, ''Fly Away Baby'' ( 1937 ). Returning to New York , Kilgallen began in 1938 to write a regular column, ''The Voice of Broadway'', for Hearst's '' New York Journal-American ''. The column, which she wrote until her death in 1965, chiefly featured New York show business news and gossip but also ventured into other topics, including politics. Its success soon led to its syndication to newspapers across the country. Beginning in 1945 , she co-hosted a long-running radio talk show, ''Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick,'' with her husband, Richard Kollmar. Airing live on WOR Radio every morning except Sundays (when the broadcast was pre-recorded), the show originated from the couple's Park Avenue apartment and featured the Kilgallens talking "over the breakfast table" about news, gossip, and their family. In 1950 , she became a panelist on the American television Game Show '' What's My Line? '', which aired on the CBS television network from 1950 to 1967, and she remained on the show for 15 years until her death. The program became a classic television game show, noted for the urbanity of its host and panel members. Kilgallen was typically introduced by the show's announcer as "the popular syndicated columnist whose ''Voice of Broadway'' appears in newspapers coast to coast." She brought to her role as panelist New York sophistication, a competitive spirit, keen questioning of guests, and a gleeful appreciation of humorous moments. People outside of North America could not watch Kilgallen on '' What's My Line? ''. (Many countries launched their own versions of the game to account for differences in culture, the labor market and their primitive means of television broadcasting.) The program's American success evidently gave officials of the Hearst Corporation such confidence, however, that they circulated ''The Voice of Broadway'' to Canada, Europe, an English-language newspaper in China as well as Australia . The Kinescope of the ''Line'' episode that aired live on February 13, 1955 includes an announcement at the beginning that Dorothy Kilgallen's column can be read in Australia. It is not known whether she ever published overseas anything of historical value that American editors refused to publish. Controversial articles and statements She was often antagonistic toward Frank Sinatra in her columns and in the multi-part 1956 feature story "The Frank Sinatra Story"; the Chairman of the Board took umbrage to this and referred to her publicly as the "chinless wonder." Ironically, the two had been good friends for several years until Kilgallen began criticizing Sinatra for his alleged Organized Crime connections. Kilgallen also had a relationship with the singer Johnnie Ray . After the power of Broadway columnists started to give way to television commentators and other personalities in the late 1950s, Kilgallen came in for some rough criticism in parodies from comedienne Hermione Gingold and the editors of '' MAD '' magazine, among others. In 1961, when country music performers from Nashville 's Grand Ole Opry appeared at a concert at Carnegie Hall to benefit New York's Musicians Aid Society, Kilgallen dismissed them as "hicks from the sticks." In her column she advised that "everyone should leave town. The hillbillies are coming." Patsy Cline , one of the headliners, riposted that "Miss Dorothy Kilgallen, the Wicked Witch of the East, called us 'hicks from the sticks'. And if I happen to meet that witch while I'm here, I'll let her know just how proud I am to be a so-called 'hillbilly'!" In fairness to Kilgallen, it should be noted that she and her New York friends probably were subjected to negative stereotypes associated with Country & Western music at the time. Another powerful New York-based female critic, Harriet Van Horne , tried to turn her readers, Kilgallen among them, against the genre. Kinescopes show Kilgallen reacting positively to -- never snubbing -- Tennessee Ernie Ford and all other country singers and Southerners she encountered on live television. She was heard ridiculing, however, the Southern pronunciation of "Elvis" on the live telecast of ''What's My Line?'' on October 28, 1956. Kinescope of ''What's My Line?'' live telecast from October 28, 1956. Kilgallen's ridicule is heard during the segment featuring mystery guest Charlton Heston . Although Game Show Network skipped this episode when it came up in the rerun cycle in 2005, the network did broadcast it in 1998 and 2002. Kilgallen and the Kennedy assassination Dorothy Kilgallen conducted an interview with Jack Ruby shortly before her death, during a recess of his trial for the shooting death of Lee Harvey Oswald . Her '' New York Journal-American '' column was Critical of the Warren Commission . On September 3, 1965 , Kilgallen wrote, regarding the assassination, "That story isn't going to die as long as there's a real reporter alive, and there are a lot of them alive." Microfilmed copy of the ''New York Journal-American'' edition of September 3, 1965 available at the Library of Congress, Columbia University and the University of Texas at Austin. She had a history of government criticism, once suggesting that the CIA recruited members of the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro (which many years later was proven to be the case). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover kept a file on her activities. During one of Kilgallen's visits to Dallas to cover Ruby's trial for murder, the Dallas Times-Herald ran a short profile of her without a byline along with a photograph of her inside the courthouse flanked by the defendant's attorneys Melvin Belli and Joe Tonahill. (Biographer Lee Israel claimed that Jim Lehrer wrote the piece.) The article and the caption for the photo both claimed that Kilgallen was preparing articles exclusively for "several European publications" about the events in Dallas. ''Dallas Times-Herald'' edition of February 19, 1964. Page 7A What those media outlets were is not known. The ''Kilgallen'' biography by Ms. Israel does not cite any of them. Kilgallen had at least one show business article published in a German-language magazine called ''Quick'' (in 1964). Scrapbook # 5 in the Kilgallen collection in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts . Several days before her death, when Esquire asked her what she fantasized about a Hollywood film that conceivably could be made of her life, she noted that she had visited Berlin a few years earlier (where a stranger mistook her for Vivien Leigh , whom Kilgallen wanted for the film). Esquire January 1966 issue. Inside it is a two-page spread with caricatures of celebrities, including Kilgallen and Jack Ruby's lawyer Melvin Belli, and their choices for actors to portray them. She is known to have visited Europe for weeks at a time during the summers of 1964 and 1965. It may never be known, however, what her presence there had to do with any plans to expose a suspect or suspects in the assassination. Columns on UFOs Kilgallen wrote at least two columns on Unidentified Flying Objects with sensational statements that are often cited by UFO researchers. On February 15, 1954, she commented in her syndicated column, "Flying saucers are regarded as of such vital importance that they will be the subject of a special hush-hush meeting of the world military heads next summer." Timothy Good , ''Above Top Secret'', 231) This statement is sometimes linked to the alleged secret UFO study group Majestic 12 or MJ-12 and a document dated the summer of 1954 found in the National Archives concerning a high-level meeting mentioning MJ-12 by name. (See Majestic 12 for details) On May 22, 1955, an International News Service (INS) syndicated report from London by Kilgallen stated, "British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions of Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet. The source of my information is a British official of Cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified. 'We believe, on the basis of our inquiry thus far, that the saucers were staffed by small men--probably under four feet tall. It's frightening, but there is no denying the flying saucers come from another planet.' " This article, which was separate from Kilgallen's column, appeared on the front pages of the New York Journal American , the Cincinnati Enquirer and other newspapers. Various attempts to get to the bottom of the story, including by the London news editor of INS, were unsuccessful. Gordon Creighton , editor of the magazine Flying Saucer Review , alleged the information was given to Kilgallen by Lord Mountbatten at a cocktail party, but attempts to verify this were also unsuccessful. Good, 43-44 Creighton made his claim after Mountbatten was killed in a 1979 boat explosion. Death ]] On November 8 , 1965 , Kilgallen was found dead in her New York City home at the age of 52 -- just 12 hours after she appeared, live, on ''What's My Line?''. She apparently had succumbed to a fatal combination of Alcohol and Seconal , perhaps concurrent with a Heart Attack . It is not known whether it was Suicide or an accidental Death , although the amount of Barbiturate in her system was small enough to suggest an accident. Owing to her open criticism of the Warren Commission and other US Government entities, and her association with Jack Ruby and recent interview with him, some speculate that she was murdered by members of the same alleged Conspiracy against JFK. There was no evidence of a break-in or a struggle in Kilgallen's bedroom, although it was later reported that none of her "current" story notes were found after her death. Husband Richard, who was in the "apartment" -- actually a five-story townhouse -- reported nothing unusual. He slept on a different floor of the townhouse than his wife, however, and he contradicted himself to police about whether he had seen her after her return home from '' What's My Line ''. Her Autopsy does not suggest Evidence of Homicide ; however, her Death Certificate cites the cause of death as "undetermined"...because the actual cause of death could not be determined. Kilgallen's Widower Several people, including the hairdresser who discovered her body, commented they couldn't prove murder, but if that was the case, Richard had nothing to do with it. Less than two years later, the widower, then 56, married the middle-aged designer Anne Fogarty , who had created the dress Kilgallen had worn on the last night of her life. Fogarty lost an important client. She and Richard settled in the very same townhouse but rented out the ground floor to an Ophthalmologist for his office. Evidently, Richard gained nothing from Dorothy's death. At the time of her death, Dorothy and Richard had been married for 25 years and left behind three children. They are both interred in the Cemetery Of The Gate Of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York . Anne Fogarty is buried in New York City. The fashion designer's two children were very young when their stepfather Richard died in 1971. Richard and Anne were close with her much-older niece who has said she does not recall either of them expressing interest in the JFK assassination or speculating about what Dorothy had known (even though the niece had been an acquaintance of Dorothy). The ophthalmologist has stated he recalls Anne Fogarty, who was "personable," visiting his office sometimes to discuss landlord/tenant issues, but he never met Richard or the children. Anne, whose age is difficult to determine because of conflicting reports, died shortly after the publication of Lee Israel's book, to which she had not contributed. Information about Anne's work for Dorothy, including the original dresses for her last several episodes of ''What's My Line?'', comes from Dorothy's hairdresser, who knew many designers and Diana Vreeland . Marc Sinclaire was interviewed by Sara Jordan for the long article in Midwest Today. She has audio and video of him talking for hours. On the ''What's My Line?'' broadcast following Dorothy Kilgallen's death, host John Charles Daly opened the show explaining that, after consulting with her widower Richard, the show's tribute to her would be to go on as usual. During their usual "goodnight"s, each panel member gave a short tribute to her. Bennett Cerf and Steve Allen reminded viewers that her "line" was a print reporter while Arlene Francis and Kitty Carlisle focused on the impact Dorothy had on their television show. Carlisle's statement "... no one can ever possibly take her place" was prophetic. CBS announced 15 months later the cancellation of not only ''What's My Line?'' but Carlisle's own show '' To Tell The Truth '' along with Allen's show '' I've Got A Secret ''. Silence About Kilgallen's Legacy The '' New York Journal American '', which ran Kilgallen's ''Voice of Broadway'' column as usual on the day of her death, expired five months later -- a tremendous blow for the Hearst Corporation . During the five months, the newspaper did not publish any remarks from widower Richard, although Dorothy's father Jimmy, still a highly respected reporter at age 77, was quoted as saying she "apparently suffered a heart attack, her first." While Richard remained silent, Jimmy reminisced fondly about her career and girlish quality for the February 1966 issue of '' TV Radio Mirror ''. Mr. Kilgallen said he knew nothing about her prescription medication and declined to discuss the assassination. All the way until 1981, he kept working in the Hearst building on Manhattan's Eighth Avenue, but the word in New York journalism circles was "Don't ask Jimmy about his daughter." For her contribution to the television industry, Dorothy Kilgallen has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6780 Hollywood Boulevard. Film credits
Bibliography
Further reading
Footnotes External links
|
|
|