Richard Kollmar

Richard Kollmar (December 31, 1910 - Jan 1 or 7, 1971) was an actor and Broadway producer, best known as the husband of journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.

Early Life and Career

A graduate of Tusculum College in Tennessee, Kollmar also attended Yale Dramatic College but did not graduate.^[1] After moving to New York and getting steady work on radio commercials, he appeared in the plays: Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Too Many Girls (1939). Between 1944 and 1950, Kollmar played Boston Blackie on a radio program of the same name on the Mutual Radio Network. Kollmar had other radio credits and worked as an actor and host on live television variety shows. He also acted in a 1948 low-budget movie titled Close-Up that was directed by Jack Donohue and filmed in Manhattan. It is available for purchase from Alpha Video.

Kollmar appeared five times on What's My Line on which his wife was a regular panelist. Kollmar appeared three times as the mystery guest and twice as a panelist.^[2] One of the episodes on which he appeared as a panelist aired live on July 6, 1952 and the kinescope was lost.^[3]

In April 1945, Kollmar and columnist wife Dorothy Kilgallen hosted a radio show Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick. The program ran on WOR until 1963 and covered the New York City entertainment and nightclub scene. Although the married couple mentioned many names of entertainers on the air, surviving audio recordings indicate that they also discussed their many trips to Europe and a wide range of other topics, not all of them involving American show business or gossip. On at least one occasion, FBI agents expressed concern (in 1953) over Dorothy and Dick's discussion of movies that had been made by the government of the Soviet Union and later released at a New York movie theater called the Stanley Theatre located at 586 Seventh Avenue.^[1][4] "We almost died laughing" at one of these films that was supposed to be a love story, according to what Dorothy Kilgallen said on the radio airwaves.^[1]

In 1958, Kollmar was the producer of a Broadway musical titled The Body Beautiful. He took a chance hiring lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who was getting his first credit in the legitimate theater, and composer Jerry Bock, also a newcomer. Although the show, which was about boxing, was a flop with audiences, it gave Harnick and Bock opportunities to network with producers and financial backers.^[5] Kollmar paved the way for the composing team's first Broadway success, Fiorello!, and for their legendary classic Fiddler on the Roof.^[6] Fiddler on the Roof became an overnight smash six years after the failure of The Body Beautiful.

By the time of the Fiddler on the Roof premiere in 1964, the radio show Kollmar had done with his wife no longer was on the air, two nightclubs he had managed were gone and he seldom appeared in public. When he appeared on What's My Line? for the last time in February 1965, he was seen alongside Martin Gabel, Phyllis Fraser, the wife of Tony Randall, with the gimmick that they were spouses of the panelists. The kinescope can be seen on YouTube, and Kollmar does not say anything.

Personal life

Kollmar was married twice: The first was to columnist Dorothy Kilgallen from 1940 until her death in 1965. The couple had three children, Jill, Richard Jr., and Kerry. The second marriage was to fashion designer Anne Fogarty, from 1967 until his death.

Kollmar died in early January 1971. The exact date of death is disputed and is believed to be either January 1 or January 7.^[7]

Productions

• By Jupiter (1942)
• Early to Bed (1943)
• Leave It to the Girls (1945)
• Dream of Music
• Plain and Fancy (1955)
• The Body Beautiful (1958)

References

• The Other Side of Me, Sidney Sheldon. Grand Central Publishing, 2005. ISBN 978-0446532679

External links

• Kollmar at the Internet Movie Database
• Kollmar at the Internet Broadway Database