JOHNNIE RAY and DOROTHY KILGALLEN : SHE SAVES HIS CAREER and THE COUPLE OPENLY FROLICK - EVEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES KNOWSA BOUT THEM

From my notes:

In 1959 pop singer Johnnie Ray almost ruined his career when he got arrested for soliciting homosexual sex with an undercover cop in Detroit. Dorothy Kilgallen, his lover of a few years by then, and a powerful  newspaperwoman fourteen years older than he and What's My Line celebrity, was sure he had been set up by the police.  According to author Mark Shaw, Dorothy worked behind the scenes to proclaim his innocence.  (I can imagine if Johnnie and Dorothy frolicked openly that there were those who may have thought of Johnnie as heterosexual. I think back in the day people were not as acquainted with bisexuality.)  There was a jury trail and all the people on the jury were women.  He was acquitted.

(Notes from Page 68)

In January of 1961, President Kennedy's inauguration was covered by Dorothy, who had previously taken her son to the White House and visited the President. She showed up in a silver Rolls Royce for transportation and later attended the "Rat Pack" gala that featured Frank Sinatra and his singer pals. (I note from previous research that at the J.F.K. inauguration there were several balls and the new President showed up at all of them but his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy when home before the night was through, fatigued.) Frank Sinatra and she had a feud in which they threw barbs at each other, with Frank criticizing her facial features, in particular her chin. But they were polite with each other at this event.

Dorothy flaunted her romance with Johnnie and thee "frolicked" at various New York hotspots including the Copacabana and the Stork Club. Her husband Richard still attended some social events with her but was in the grip of alcoholism and was probably embittered at this point. (Richard was never a real suspect in her death, though some thought he had the motivation to kill his wife because she was so openly involved with another man. The question of Dorothy being a drinker comes up, and there are reports that Johnnie also had a drinking problem. Dorothy did drink but not to the point where it interfered in her television appearances, her work as a reporter on trials, and so on.  It would seem she separated her work obligations and duty and her personal life.)

Interested in Frank Sinatra's Mistress who became his wife, Barbara Marx Sinatra?  She's here at Mistress Manifesto! Check Pages to find out what subjects I've covered and when so you can find them in my archives!  BARBARA BLAKELEY MARX - SINATRA : TWICE A MISTRESS - THRICE A WIFE appears in October 2018

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