Dorothy Kilgallen
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Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an Irish-American journalist and television game show panelist, perhaps best known nationally for her syndicated newspaper column The Voice of Broadway and her role as panelist on the television game show What's My Line?. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of newspaperman James Kilgallen and Mae Kilgallen, a homemaker. When Dorothy was six years old, her only sibling, a sister named Eleanor Kilgallen, was born.
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[edit] Reporter, columnist and television personality
Dorothy'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, and 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 as the only female contestant, coming 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 with her husband, Richard Kollmar, Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy. Airing live on WOR Radio every morning except Sundays (when it was 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 gameshow What's My Line?, which aired on the CBS television network from 1950 to 1967, and she remained a fixture on the show for fifteen years. 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.
She was often antagonistic towards Frank Sinatra in her society columns; Frank took umbrage to this and referred to her as the "chinless wonder." Ironically, the two of them were good friends for several years until she began criticizing him for his alleged organized crime connections. She also allegedly had a relationship with the singer Johnnie Ray.
She 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, "This story isn't going to die as long as there's a real reporter alive..." 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 proved to be the case). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover kept a file on her activities.
[edit] The death of Dorothy Kilgallen
On November 8, 1965, Dorothy 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 had, apparently, succumbed to a fatal combination of alcohol and seconal, perhaps concurrent with a heart attack. It is not known whether it was a suicide or an accidental death, though the amount of barbiturate in her system was small enough to suggest an accident.
Because of her open criticism of the Warren Commission and other US government entities, and her association with Ruby and recent interview of him, some speculate that she was murdered by members of the alleged JFK conspiracy. There was no evidence of a break-in or a struggle in Kilgallen's bedroom. Kilgallen's husband, who was in the apartment (although in another bedroom) reported nothing unusual. Her autopsy does not suggest evidence of homicide; however, her death certificate cites the cause of death as "undetermined".
At the time of her death, she had been married for 25 years and left behind 3 children. She is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.
For her contribution to the television industry, Dorothy Kilgallen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6780 Hollywood Boulevard.
[edit] Film credits
- Sinner Take All - 1936, actress
- Fly Away Baby - 1937, screenwriter
- Pajama Party - 1964, Uncredited 1964 cameo appearance, although she states in the film, "My name is Dorothy. What's yours?"
[edit] Bibliography
- Girl Around the World, David McKay, 1936
- Murder One, Random House, 1967
[edit] Further reading
- Lee Israel, Kilgallen, (Delacorte Press, October 1979)
[edit] External links
- Dorothy Kilgallen at the Internet Movie Database
- Dorothy Kilgallen's FBI Files 8 PDF files which are about 4 megabytes each in size.
- Dorothy Kilgallen: Mysterious Death? – Kennedy Assassination Home Page
- Dorothy Kilgallen and the JFK Assassination – Kennedy Assassination Home Page
- Dorothy Kilgallen: bio - alleged connection of Dorothy Kilgallen to death of Marilyn Monroede:Dorothy Kilgallen
Categories: 1913 births | 1965 deaths | American journalists | American television personalities | Cause of death disputed | Hollywood Walk of Fame | John F. Kennedy assassination | Irish-Americans | People from Chicago | Roman Catholic journalists | Television personalities | Game show panelists | What's My Line panelists | Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery
