JOHNNIE RAY HAS OTHER MEN and DOROTHY : HUSBAND RICHARD FINALLY CONFRONTS THE COUPLE : THE PASSIONATE LOVE AFFAIR ENDS

Notes and Excerpts:

It seems that Dorothy's understanding that Johnnie was bisexual may not have been any more sophisticated than his own understanding of it.  He had other men, some living with him at his home, while he had his passionate affair with Dorothy.  According to this book, she was jealous of other women but not these other men. She even went out with him and some of his men on the town. Perhaps she didn't know he was not sexually loyal to her. While some of these men might have been leeching off Johnnie and tagging along on their dates, Dorothy may have become clingy at this point in their affair. It's reported that Johnnie avoided some of her phone calls and did not want to have her over, creating a boundary there for his other personal life. She might not have thought him capable of sexuality with anyone else, because he spent so much time with her. 

Unlike with her husband, she was sexually fulfilled with Johnnie.  

As 1960 went on, Dorothy found that her celebrity had caused a curiosity about her that was resulting in media interest as well.  She found herself roasted in some media and took to having to defend herself.

While some people were horrified by her affair with Johnnie Ray, there were those who genuinely liked her and liked Johnnie, separately and as a couple. One man said, 'He is so kind, so innately generous... "  However, people who were in the know felt she was not being realistic about there being a future for her with the much younger singer. Johnnie might have lead her to believe he wanted a future with her too. There were those in his camp who thought she was not good for him. By 1962, the hard drinking with Johnnie had taken a toll on Dorothy's health as well and she may have been checking into hospitals to withdraw from not only alcohol but pills too! It's thought that her heath went downhill after this. (And the portrayal of Dorothy as in need of rehab in this book makes the idea that she could not have died of an overdose a bit more realistic.)

'One night in early 1963, Dorothy, Johnnie, Allen, and a large group of frolickers did the town in several limousines. They all drank heavily.  While the rest of the group returned to Johnnie's, the singer and the columnist went off on their own.

They stopped at the Left Bank (Richard's restaurant) and, with Richard present, they necked.  Richard attempted to ignore the situation. They were at a table and he was at the bar. His bartender watched the couple until he could tolerate it no longer and whispered to Richard, "Are you just going to stand here and let her humiliate you like that?"

Richard ordered another drink and said nothing.

Johnnie took Dorothy home to her town house. The two of them were fondling in the Black Room when Richard, bold with booze, burst in on them.

He screamed at Johnnie:  "I'll kill you if I ever see you with my wife again."

"That is entirely her decision," Johnnie said.

"I want you out of here and out of her life," Richard raged.

As Johnnie put on his jacket and prepared to leave, Dorothy, her entire face trembling, begged; "I want to go with you now. Please take me with you. I don't want to be in this house anymore."

Johnnie recalled the episode and all the reasons he marshaled against her desperate imploration: "I thought very fast. I knew that if she were to walk out - and she was ready - everything would collapse for her. I explained to her that she'd lose the column, the television show, everything she had worked a lifetime to achieve. She said she didn't care about any of it.  And I thought about Kerry. I told her, "I'm gonna have to walk out and leave you here.' (page 347)

And though she begged, Johnnie, aided by his friends, tried to make the final cut with Dorothy, who even threatened to kill herself. No doubt she was obsessed with him. Is obsession love? I wonder who hasn't had an experience like this. Dorothy ended up hospitalized and the Dorothy and Dick radio program ended after many years. This passage in Lee Israel's fine autobiography of Dorothy leaves me to think that the marriage was not an agreed-upon Open marriage and that she did have a serious drinking problem and was also psychologically unwell. By mid 1964 Johnnie had moved on and Dorothy had accepted the situation.  (That Richard threatened to kill Johnnie and the idea that he had cause, made Richard Killer a possible murder suspect when Dorothy was found dead, however this is not explored in Israel's book.)  Johnnie Ray became involved romantically with the younger man who came into his life to rescue or revive his career.  As it turned out, Dorothy flew to Las Vegas to see him perform shortly before she died, and this was the last she saw him.

 

Over the last few weeks we have learned so much about the woman Dorothy Kilgallen, who was willing to give it all up to be with her lover, Johnnie Ray, while the book by Mark Shaw is focused on her as an investigative reporter. What I want to know is if Johnnie Ray accepted that Kerry was his son and if he was at least a friend to him.

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DOROTHY KILGALLEN'S AFFAIR WITH JOHNNIE RAY: SHE BIRTHS A THIRD CHILD AND THE FATHER IS NOT LIKELY HER HUSBAND :

 Notes and Excerpts:

Dorothy was competitive by nature and liked to win, so when she became a panelist on the television game show What's My Line, she was respected, if not enjoying a camaraderie with her fellow panelists; their various personalities made the show, which involved guessing the profession (i.e. line of work) of a guest. Her career in reportage continued. In 1953 she covered the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II wearing 'a voluminous gown with more than fourteen thousand embroidered jewels and pearls that were encrusted at the scalloped neckline.  She placed a tiara on her head, put on her white mink cape lined in silver lame, grabbed some pencils, and was off to Westminster Abbey. ... Dorothy's apparent fragility continued to bring out the chivalric in the male animal... (page 238)

(With her husband Richard Kollmar's endeavers in the theater and a restaurant called The Left Bank, he was rarely around. She was tremendously busy too. However, she did not want to be seen socially without a male escort and usually found one.  As for Richard, as he hit middle age, he was rarely totally sober and began to bloat while Dorothy was healthy and energetic. She found other men attractive and had lost respect for her husband. Never the less, the couple bought a five story town house right off Park Avenue, a another upgrade in housing, this one taking most of their income. They had been married fourteen years.)

Excerpt: 'The union that produced their third child was suspiciously identifiable. They were late for a dinner party at the Boscowitzes, offering a flushed and clearly bogus excuse.  Hubie and Lillian giggled at their embarrassment and could pinpoint, years later, the evening Dorothy had conceived. ... He was named Kerry after a county seat in Ireland and Ardan for an Irish warrior who, Dorothy wrote, "was said to have the most beautiful singing voice in all Erin.' (page 253)

'In the early part of 1956, Johnnie Ray appeared on 'What's My Line? as a guest celebrity.  The twenty-nine year old singer, sandy-haired and boyishly lanky, was still headlining in clubs, though the hysteria of the early 1950's had cooled. He remained, however, one of Dorothy's pet-pailletted crushes.  Endsville!' (page 278) 

(After this evening, the two saw each other socially and she started being nice to him in her columns. She was 44 and this was her first affair. They even went to The Left Bank restaurant together but she never joined him when he went on the road to tour.)

'Johnnie did not possess the polish and panache to which Dorothy had gravitated all her life.  He was tender, guileless, show-biz smart but essentially neither intellectual nor verbal... (page 279)

'Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie lit up the life she had.  She mentioned him so often and so effusively in the column that he had to tel her to cool it. (page 280)

'She came to Johnnie with staggering emotional and physical appetites  She had not had any sexual relations with Richard for years... (page 283)

'Johnnie was fond of Dorothy and attracted to her, and a bit in awe.  He did not have the macho peer problem that turned so many men off. That she was not regarded by the community as beautiful did not affect his feeling for her or his pride in being seen with her... "She was probably the most feminine woman I've ever known, " Johnny said. "And I always thought she was a pretty lady - the softest thing you ever touched...' (page 283)

'She bought him gifts from Bergdorf's and Cartier including a pair of cuff links with diamonds and sapphires, which he was afraid to wear because of their value.  He sent her lavender roses when he could get them from his little corner florist. "They were almost steel-blue and gorgeous,  I think they were brought in from Holland...  She was as sentimental as a pop tune.  Johnnie was constantly receiving surprise packages... (pages 286-287)

(Some of her friends didn't like him and some dumped her. After some time Dorothy and Johnnie became less discreet. They were excessively together and sometimes openly affectionate.  People thought Dorothy had radically changed.  Johnnie considered himself heterosexual and Dorothy thought of homosexuals as feminine men, which Johnnie was not.)

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DOROTHY KILGALLEN : WE LEARN FROM AUTHORS LEE ISRAEL, JONNY WHITESIDE, and MARK SHAW : WAS SHE MURDERED BECAUSE OF WHAT SHE LEARNED ABOUT THE JFK ASSASSINATiON?

I love that Mark Shaw believes that Dorothy is helping the investigation of her murder from the Beyond. If you think that's hokey, well, he is also an ex defense attorney and terrific investigative reporter and is determined to get to the truth.

He too read Lee Israel's biography of Dorothy Kilgallen.  

Johnny Whiteside's book about Johnnie Ray leads us to learn about a superstar singer 70 years after his fame.  Dorothy was in love with him for many years, though their relationship had become friendship by the time she died in 1965. Ray must have suffered learning his lover and best friend had died.  He was not a suspect.

One of many books that Mark Shaw has written.  Will Dorothy get justice?  Well, he has a suspect in mind.

DOROTHY KILGALLEN THE AMERICAN 'PRINCESS' WHO COVERED CORONATIONS AND QUEEN ELIZABETH'S ROYAL WEDDING GETS MARRIED TO AN BLUE BLOOD

 

Notes and Excerpts from Kilgallen by Lee Israel

(This is about Dorothy as someone who wanted to be with the rich.)

'Dorothy knew the rich were different. She liked the difference. And she genuinely liked the rich... There was a gauzy, ethereal quality about her...' (page 101)

'Single-handedly, she covered the coronation of George VI for the Journal, filling the entire front page of the paper for days with background stories, profiles, hard news of the coronation and all related social functions. On the Queen Mary and in London, she learned about keno, plover's eggs, curtsies, the proper response to royalty, and the significance of royal ribbons... '

(page 102)

'It is well within the realm of possibility that in Dorothy's perplexing psyche, dusty with moonbeams and communion wafers, she was actually seeing these professional events as a kind of social baptism...' (page 103)

'Dorothy had never been ashamed of her family or her household. Brooklyn was another matter. When she became The Voice of Broadway, she persuaded the family to move into Manhattan...' (page 108)

(Dorothy began to socialize with debutantes younger than she.)

'It was easy to like Dorothy socially.  She was a generous friend and a pleasant companion.  Her manners were impeccable.  She never gossiped or bad-mouthed anyone.  She liked her new life.  She loved her job.  She was proud of the columns she was turning out, though never boastful. She had an innocence that the worldly found amusing, a flight, gesticulating insecurity that the more sensitive of her friends found poignant... (pages 112-113)

(And as for the man she did marry, RIchard Kollmar...)

'He proposed on their sixth date, the courtship having been interrupted while he left town with the show. Dorothy told him that she wanted very much to be his wife, but that the problem of religion had first to be solved. Richard was an Episcopalian, and she would not consider marrying outside the Church. He would have to convert... (pages 116-117)

(His mother objected strongly, his father was softer. He did convert. RIchard then formally asked Dorothy's father for permission to marry her.)

'She wanted "Cholly Knickerbocker" to break the news of her engagement on the Society page.  He did, stressing Richard's generational high marks..." (page 124)  (Cholly was a famous society and goings-on-around-town columnist based in New York City.)

(Dorothy went on to brag about Richard's heritage.)

'The simplest conclusion about the relationship between Dorothy and RIchard is drawn often and harshly by many who knew both of them. RIchard, a striving actor, saw Dorothy, a powerful columnist and thought "That will get me where I want to go," and pursued her. It is a view that appears to redound most negatively upon him, but, in fact, makes a pitiable, foolish, and desperately vulnerable woman of Dorothy.  It is a view held by many who loved her, but nonetheless perceived her as an extraordinarily unattractive woman for whom a noticeable attractive man could not conceivably have had genuine feeling. To hold that view of their relationship is to fail to recognize that power can be as vitally aphrodisiacal when it is held by a woman as when it is held by a man.  Even if Richard did perceive  Dorothy as a kind of powerhouse, it is quite likely that he was aroused by that power.  

 (pages 124-125)

(Dorothy and Richard had a wedding with 800 guests, some of them Hollywood celebrities, many of them rather new to her life. They had a reception at the Viennese Room at the Saint Regis Hotel and then went on a honeymoon to Cuba.)

...'the bride and groom left to honeymoon in Varadero, Cuba.  The entire honeymoon package was a diplomatically wrapped gift presented to Dorothy from the North American gambling syndicate that supported General Gulgencio Batista.' (page 130)

(Cuba at the time was not ruled by Fidel Castro and was in fact a popular resort.)

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