JOHNNIE RAY IS SHOCKED BY DOROTHY'S DEATH : HE MUST GO ON - THE ROAD, IN LIFE

Once Johnnie Ray and Bill Franklin were a couple and in a star-manager relationship, and Johnnie's health began to restore, the two of them went to live in Torremelios, Spain,  not yet a resort, and lived a simple and affordable life. Johnnie had wanted to quit the show business treadmill he was on.  At this point he was 38 years old and had given up drinking knowing the cirrhosis could kill him. Actually most people would have died as much as he drank.

"That he was still unable to sleep even after this average daily elbow bending and pill popping regimen is an ugly insight to the myriad tensions, pressures, anxieties and mental snares that assailed him.  Johnnie's life was an exercise in extremes, unimaginable emotional zeniths, the rise and plunge of glorious rapture and shattering torture.  His anguish, like his capacity for intoxicants, was beyond comprehension. (page 313).

"Like New York, Dorothy Kilgallen had also changed.  Johnnie was shocked when they met face to face.  Dorothy was obviously deteriorating - her face was puffy, her figure was shot.  She had gained quite a bit of weight and seemed weak; her bearing and gait were stilted, her speech was no longer the tuneful silvery voice of Broadway, but closer to labored, thick-tongued voice of the Bowery.  Dorothy's passion and principals ranj as high, true and clear as ever, but her mental clarity and standards of practice were also degenerating.  (Page 318) 

She had also taken up with a new lover, the one that author Mark Shaw thinks may have cooperated with the Mafia to murder Dorothy.

Johnnie was trying to make a return (ie. not called a comeback) changing his show song list.  When he restarted his return with a show at The Latin Quarter in 1965, Dorothy was back stage for every show. After this success, bookers will calling from all over, and Johnnie agreed to perform in Las Vegas at the Tropicana. He was now mod in his appearance, upgrading to the 1960's with tossled hair and the picture of health.

Dorothy and her husband were also experiencing financial problems like never before.  So she took a paid "press junket" to Vegas in order to see Johnnie perform there.  It was important to Johnnie that she be there to show her support.  At the same time she was, as an investigative journalist, independently investigating the President John F. Kennedy assassination.

Bill Franklin took her calls and said she was using a "Little Girl Lost" voice.  He thought drugs were taking over her life. (Page 423-324)  Still, she arrived dressed beautifully to hear him sing and show her support.

"Dorothy spent four days in Las Vegas.  Between her boundless passion and limited time, Bill felt even more uncomfortable that he had as part of a trio in New York. "We all saw a lot of each other, and there were times when Johnnie and she went out alone.  She would come out to the house one night, Johnnie would go to her hotel the next," he said.  "I kind of felt in the middle there... a lot in the middle.  That happened a lot with her anyway, but it seemed she was feeling like maybe Johnnie didn't love her like she thought he should."  (page 326)

After the success of The Tropicana, Bill still had to search out more bookings for Johnnie.  On the night that Dorothy died, Johnnie wanted to watch "To Tell The Truth," another television game show on which there were mystery guests. Dorothy was one of the mystery guests and the show had been taped previously.

"We had lunch on the Sunset strip," Jimmy Campbell recalled.  "And John picked up the newspaper, opened it up and there was the headline: 'Dorothy Kilgallen Dies In Her Sleep.'  Jesus Christ -- he almost fainted on the spot.

He said, 'Wait a minute now ... and started crying like a baby.  He cried for real. She was a good lady, man.  Good to him, good to me, good to all of us," Campbell's voice tapered to near silence with the recollection.  "We got back up to the house, we're both crying now, and John says, 'Give me a drink.' We got drunk.  They were close, man, really tight.  She was one of the best friends he had.

"After he got done crying about it, he got pissed off." Campbell said, "John didn't believe she died of natural causes.  He said, 'I ain't gonna tell you everything that I know about what Dorothy knows, but I don't believe she just laid down and went to sleep like that.' He didn't tell me the whole story though.  Never would.  I asked him that day and he just said, 'It's dangerous to know what Dorothy knows." (pages 332-333)

Dorothy's funeral in New York in 1965 took place at St. Vincent Ferrer, the same Roman Catholic church she had been married in. A couple thousand New Yorkers showed up. Johnnie watched the news coverage on television and cried.

"John went berserk when Dorothy died," Jim Low said. "That just tore him apart.  I''' never forget it.  He was always very high on her, thought the world of her." The loss was a brutal, devastating blow that smashed Johnnie's life apart." (page 347)

Missy here!  This is the only reference to Johnnie's reaction to his lover's death I could find and I'm glad to know that his feelings for her were genuine.

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DOROTHY KILGALLEN's AFFAIR IS ALL THE GOSSIP IN NEW YORK : EXALTED LOVE OR JUST ONE MORE FOR JOHNNIE?

More notes and excerpts:
 
"Their relationship, whether locked away in Johnnie's bedroom or sharing a table at The Colony or the Plaza, was extremely physical. One evening at El Morocco, Johnnie was seen to remove Dorothy's shoe and his her foot..." (page 226)

"When Johnnie turned 30 in 1957, Dorothy spent days arranging a "Progressive Party," with reservations for dozens of guests at seven different clubs and restaurants... (page 226)

"She had the bus decorated, and everyone was served cocktails between stops.  The first course was served at the Colony, the second at Le Pavillon, and then the St. Regis, only the best...  "And at every spot, there were place cards that she had gone over and arranged that day, so you would be sitting next to a different person at every place we went to... (page 227)

"The delicacy of carrying on the affair was a complex matter of masquerade and reliance on high society's basically hypocritical amoralism and strictly nominal discretion.  The only aspect of the subterfuge that bothered Dorothy was reconciling it with her faith's restrictive dogma. No problem, with Johnnie in on it.  "We came to terms with the Catholic problem, he said, "Once we decided to ahve some kind of commitment, it resolved itself, though it didn't resolve itself in terms of her mother finding out." 

(page 227)

Sadly, while continuing to perform at the hottest clubs in the country, Johnnie also had surgery to repair his long-damaged hearing.  The surgery was a total failure, making him even more deaf, but was promoted as a success, and he went on without a hearing aid and fooled the public. (But what a horror that had to be!)  Johnnie persevered.

The couple did have friends who acted to keep the affair discreet but as the two of them drank to excess, they began to be less careful.  Was it an unashamed display of love and passion or the alcohol? One friend said he saw them both passed out in a doorway...  Yet, Dorothy Kilgallen was also known for her professionalism, for showing up ready to work and doing a great job. So, one wonders, did she work with terrible hang-overs or were the stories of their drinking exaggerated?

As Johnnie aged, his management sought to find ways to invest and preserve his money, Johnnie also honored his professional commitments. His relationship with Dorothy may have been what preserved him in his personal life.

"This chicanery was primarily wool to mask Kollmar's bloodshot eyes.  The situation, however, was not that simple -- Dorothy did her fair share of looking the other , and ignoring Johnnie's "With Love From Your Little Man" ID bracelet was the least of her worries. Throughout their affair, Johnnie had several concurrent male lovers, a number of whom actually shared the 63rd Street apartment (his place) with him. (page 246)

Dorothy's heath began to fail, it is supposed because of the alcohol, and she was hospitalized or had to take time out of her work more than once. These hospitalizations may have been rehabs or nervous breakdowns. Johnnie's physical and mental health were also jeopardized and he began to look a bit skeletal.  He was being pulled in several directions.

She had thought Johnnie needed new management and had a number of suggestions that were meant to be helpful. New management came with Bill Franklin, who then became Johnnie's lover.

"They fell for each other hard, initiating what became the most intense and long-lived relationship with another man Johnnie ever undertook.  The situation was strange.  Slipping around behind Dorothy's back was not so extraordinary; doing so as she recovered from a breakdown caused by Johnnie's refusal to commit was rather unsavory," (page 291-292)

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