Every profession has its "Peck's bad boy(s)".... Perhaps he was one of the entertainment world's offerings.... A most competent actor... a reasonably competent producer... and certainly a most attractive man... even as a child he had a definite mind of his own... and used it to further his ambition.... There has never been another quite like
Richard "Dick" Kollmar He was born Richard Tompkins Kollmar in Ridgewood, New Jersey in December of 1910.... His father did not do well operating his own business so he settled comfortably for a position on the local board of education.... His mother... inordinately proud of being a direct descendant of Daniel D. Tompkins... never let her son forget where he "came from".
While still a youngster Dick ran away from home to become a "famous actor".... His father found him and hauled him straight to a farm for juvenile delinquents.... Eventually Dick straightened out and attended the famed Drama School at Yale University... but dropped out before attaining a degree.
Dick did indeed become an actor... and a good one!.... He had a fine speaking voice... and that... together with his handsome youthful appearance... garnered him many juvenile leads on Broadway... and jobs on radio as well.... His radio work included:
• The Palmolive Beauty Box Theater... Variety... (NBC-Radio-1934-36... and CBS-Radio- 1936-37).... Originally it was a program of music, songs and comedy (on NBC)... but when it switched to CBS the show became an anthology in which abbreviated versions of famed operettas were offered to the listening audiences.... Fanny Brice (as "Baby Snooks"... with Hanley Stafford as all-suffering "Daddy") was featured in the NBC comedy segments.... RICHARD KOLLMAR was the narrator.
• John's Other Wife... Soap Opera... (NBC-Radio- 1936-42) wherein Dick was a member of the cast in the tale of a department store owner torn between two women... his wife, Elizabeth... and his secretary, Martha... his "other wife".
• Dick was the announcer for the short-lived comedy program "The Adventures of Topper"... (NBC-Radio- 6/7/45 to 9/13/45).... This show later was a successful movie series... starring the same actor in film as on radio... Roland Young as "Cosmo Topper".
• Bright Horizon... Soap... (CBS-Radio- 1941-45)... in which Dick was one of the two actors who played the leading male role (the other was Joseph Julian)... a spin-off from another soap (Big Sister)... about a singer who appears to be a warm-hearted, idealistic sort of human being... but in actuality is a bitter, disillusioned man.
• Claudia and David... Drama... (CBS-Radio 1941)... another rather short-lived compilation of incidents in the life of architect David Naughton (Dick Kollmar) and his very young, naive wife Claudia (played by Patricia Ryan).
• Radio Reader's Digest... Anthology... (CBS-Radio- 1942-48)... Stories from the Digest adapted for radio.... Kollmar was one of three hosts/narrators... the other two being film star Conrad Nagel and Les Tremayne (radio's "First Nighter" program).
• And, of course, the crime series for which he is most remembered... Boston Blackie... ("Enemy of those who make him an enemy.... Friend to those who have no friend").... Boston Blackie came alive in a short story by Jack Boyle.... It is the tale of a former safe-cracker turned crime-fighter... and first went into silent films... then "talkies"... THEN into 1940's radio.... Chester Morris played the role of Blackie in a lengthy series of "B" movies... then took Blackie to radio in 1944 as a summer replacement for Amos 'n' Andy....
Morris was a fine Blackie... but in 1945 he was replaced by the longest-running Blackie of them all... RICHARD KOLLMAR.... Many devoted listeners were surprised at the switch.... Kollmar was the very antithesis of the deliberately hard-and-fast-talking Morris.... Kollmar was thought of as being half of "Breakfast With Dick and Dorothy" (more on that in a moment).... Kollmar starred as Boston Blackie in 220 syndicated episodes produced at radio station WOR in New York City... and heard through the NBC-Radio affiliates from 1945 to 1948.... They were good solid dramatic shows... old-fashioned crime dramas that were fun to solve.... The public loved 'em!.... Their distribution was particularly welcomed by small-town stations who relied on them... well into the 1950's.... There are many newly-restored episodes available today for those who wish to hear them.... The sound is remarkably good and clear... transferred directly from original transcription discs.
While acting on Broadway in "Knickerbocker Holiday" Dick Kollmar met the well-known and well-established Broadway columnist and news reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, carrying on the legacy of her father, Hearst newspaperman James L. Kilgallen.... Dorothy was later highly recognizable as one of the panelists on the immensely popular television show "What's My Line".... Dorothy Kilgallen's syndicated column was called "Voice of Broadway"... which indeed she was... and she moved in the most prominent of entertainment and news circles.... Dorothy was a clever and talented writer who, among other things, penned the screenplay of the 1937 movie "Fly Away Baby" (starring Glenda Farrell)... which was said to have been more or less adapted from her early autobiography "Girl Around the World".... Dick converted to Catholicism... and he and Dorothy were married in 1940... and eventually became parents of three children.
Kollmar decided he preferred producing to acting... and took advantage of the help and encouragement ofDorothy's many influential friends and acquaintances.... While a few of his productions made it ... many of them were not the successes he hoped for.... Among his productions were "On Your Fancy"... "By Jupiter"... and "Dream With Music"... the latter written by his wife.... For a while Dick owned and operated a nightclub..."The Left Bank"... in New York City.... As a hobby he collected cigar store Indians and models of hands... which he displayed throughout his club.... He also had an art gallery and included paintings in his club as well.... When... in 1954... he again opened in the play "Plain and Fancy" in New Haven, Connecticut... Dorothy was unable to attend opening night as she was busy covering the murder trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard.
The Kollmars then went back to radio to do their "Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy" show that emanated from their Park Avenue apartment dining room.... It was a witty, entertaining informal program... filling in avid listeners with gossip and night-life goings-on in the big city.... Dick and Dorothy were regulars at the famous Stork Club... were hosts at grandiose parties... and in general lived up to what they felt was their "due".... They lived fast and hard... and were often the subject of gossip themselves.... There was talk ofthe room in their handsome apartment that was painted black from top to bottom... accentuated only by a swan carousel that was used as seating space.
Dick was not a faithful husband to Dorothy... although they remained together for 25 years.... Because of his many extraneous affairs... and because he claimed his religious affiliation would not "allow" him to take precautions... it cost him an inordinately large amount of money to buy off claims of "pregnancy" from his allegedly fertile playmates.... Perhaps the hard-to-control youth in him was trying to re-establish a presence.
Dorothy Kilgallen died in 1965 under what some considered to be "mysterious circumstances".... The supposition was that she allegedly knew more about President John Kennedy's assassination than she was supposed to... and was about to "tell all".... We shall never know.... Dick re-married noted fashion designer Anne Fogarty in June of 1967... and they remained married until his death.... RICHARD KOLLMAR committed suicide in January 1971 by taking an overdose.................................
'Til next time... stay tuned!©2009 BeeGeeOTR 6/28/09
Let's Reminisce about OTR
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He was first to correctly identify the velvet-voiced crooner Perry Como.
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