Richard Kollmar

Richard Kollmar
Born	Richard Tompkins Kollmar (1910-12-31)December 31, 1910 Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	January 7, 1971(1971-01-07) (aged 60) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Gate of Heaven Cemetery
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Tusculum College Yale School of Drama
Occupation(s)	Actor, television personality, stage producer and director
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Kilgallen ​ ​ (m. 1940; died 1965)​ Anne Fogarty ​ (m. 1967⁠–⁠1971)​
Children	3

Richard Tompkins "Dick" Kollmar (December 31, 1910 – January 7, 1971) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor, television personality and Broadway producer. Kollmar was the husband of journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.

Early life

Kollmar was born in Brooklyn, New York to John and Christine L. (née Smith) Kollmar. His great-great grandfather was Daniel D. Tompkins, the fourth Governor of New York and the sixth Vice President of the United States. The Kollmars moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey where John Kollmar worked as an architect. Kollmar later attended Tusculum College where he became interested in acting. While in college, he performed in the school's glee club and was the editor of the school newspaper. Upon graduation, he enrolled at the Yale School of Drama but dropped out after winning a role on a radio drama.

Career

After moving to New York City and getting steady work on radio commercials, Kollmar appeared in the Broadway plays Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Too Many Girls (1939). In the early 1940s, Kollmar portrayed the role of Dennis Pierce on the radio series Pretty Kitty Kelly on CBS Radio.

Kollmar tried his hand at producing a Broadway musical when he helped launch Early to Bed. Its songs were composed by jazz pianist/popular song composer Fats Waller. Kollmar's role in introducing Waller's music to New York theatergoers was recalled in a 2016 essay about Waller by John McWhorter, an American academic and linguist who is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music history. (He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations.)

Even as late as 1943, the idea of a black composer writing the score for a standard-issue white show was unheard of. When Broadway performer and producer Richard Kollmar began planning Early to Bed, his original idea was for Waller to perform in it as a comic character, not to write the music. Waller was, after all, as much a comedian as a musician. Comedy rarely dates well, but almost 80 years later, his comments and timing during “Your Feet’s Too Big” are as funny as anything on Comedy Central, and he nearly walks away with the movie Stormy Weather with just one musical scene and a bit of mugging later on, despite the competition of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne, and the Nicholas Brothers.

Kollmar’s original choice for composer [of Early to Bed] was Ferde Grofé, best known as the orchestrator of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” whose signature compositions were portentous concert suites. But Grofé withdrew, and it is to Kollmar’s credit that he realized that he had a top-rate pop-song composer available in Waller. Waller’s double duty as composer and performer was short-lived. During a cash crisis and in an advanced state of intoxication, Waller threatened to leave the production unless Kollmar bought the rights to his Early to Bed music for $1,000. (This was typical of Waller, who often sold melodies for quick cash when in his cups. The evidence suggests, for example, that the standards “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street” were Waller tunes.) Waller came to his senses the next day, but Kollmar decided that his drinking habits made him too risky a proposition for eight performances a week. From then on, Waller was the show’s composer only, with lyrics by George Marion, whose best-remembered work today is the script for the Astaire-Rogers film The Gay Divorcée.

From 1945 to 1950, Kollmar portrayed the role of Boston Blackie on the radio program of the same name on the Mutual Radio Network. He also had lead roles in other radio shows including the soap opera Bright Horizon, Gang Busters and Grand Central Station.

In April 1945, Kollmar and columnist wife Dorothy Kilgallen (whom he married in April 1940) began hosting a 45-minute breakfast radio show called Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick. The program aired Monday through Friday on WOR and was broadcast from the couple's 16-room Park Avenue apartment. Over breakfast, served by their butler Julius, the couple talked about New York City entertainment, sports, celebrity gossip and the city's nightclub scene. The couple's two children, Richard, Jr. ("Dickie") and Jill, often made appearances. Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick was broadcast locally throughout New York City and its suburbs, drawing an audience of 20 million listeners. In 1952, the Kollmar family moved from their Park Avenue apartment to a brownstone on East 68th Street, and the show began originating from there. Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick ceased production on March 21, 1963.

In 1948, Kollmar made his first and only film appearance in the 1948 low-budget crime drama Close-Up, directed by Jack Donohue. In June 1949, he began hosting the live television variety series Broadway Spotlight. The series, which aired on NBC, was canceled in September 1949. Throughout the early to mid-1950s, Kollmar continued his career as an actor with guest roles on television. In 1952, he became the master of ceremonies for the DuMont Television Network game show Guess What?. That show was also canceled after one season. From 1952 to 1965, Kollmar made five appearances on the game show What's My Line?, on which his wife was a regular panelist. Kollmar appeared once as an occupational guest, twice as part of a group of mystery guests and twice as a panelist.

In addition to his work in radio and television, Kollmar produced and directed several Broadway stage plays. His first producing credit was Early to Bed with music by Fats Waller. In May 1944, he produced and directed the fantasy musical Dream With Music. The production starred Norwegian ballerina Vera Zorina, who recently had worked in Hollywood films, and was written by Kollmar's wife Dorothy, Sidney Sheldon and Ben Roberts. The musical was praised for its ballet sequences, but received largely poor reviews. It closed after 28 performances. In June 1944, his production of By Jupiter premiered. Kollmar's next two productions, Are You With It? and Plain and Fancy, were hits.

In 1958, Kollmar produced The Body Beautiful, a musical about prize fighters starring Steve Forrest, singers Lonnie Sattin and Barbara McNair (in their Broadway debuts), Mindy Carson and Jack Warden. He hired two newcomers, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and composer Jerry Bock, both of whom would go on to write the lyrics and music for the hit shows Fiddler on the Roof and Fiorello!. Upon its debut on January 23, 1958, reviews were generally mixed. However, more influential critics panned the show and the music (though two songs, "All of These and More" and "Summer Is", became standards) with one critic from The New Yorker calling the show "vulgar and feeble minded in equal degrees." The Body Beautiful failed to attract an audience and closed in March 1958, after 60 performances. It was the last show Kollmar would produce.

When not active in acting and producing, Kollmar operated a New York City supper club called The Left Bank (the club closed by 1965). He was also involved in the arts community, working with the Art Students League of New York and opened an art gallery in midtown Manhattan.

Personal life

Kollmar was married twice and had three children. On April 6, 1940, he married columnist Dorothy Kilgallen at the St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan. The couple had three children: Richard, Jr., (born 1941) Jill (born 1943) and Kerry (born 1954). They remained married until Kilgallen's death in November 1965.

In June 1967, Kollmar married fashion designer Anne Fogarty to whom he remained married until his death.

Death

On January 7, 1971, Kollmar died at his Manhattan home. Newspaper reports stated that he "died in his sleep late Thursday in his New York home." According to his friends, he had broken his shoulder after falling at his home on January 4, three days before his death.

His funeral was held on January 9 at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan. Kollmar is buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Broadway credits

Date	Production	Role	Notes
October 19, 1938 – March 11, 1939	Knickerbocker Holiday	Brom Broeck
October 18, 1939 – May 18, 1940	Too Many Girls	Clint Kelley
January 14 – January 18, 1941	Crazy With the Heat	Performer
June 3 – June 12, 1943	By Jupiter	–	Producer
June 17, 1943 – May 13, 1944	Early to Bed	El Magnifico	Producer
May 18 – June 10, 1944	Dream With Music	–	Producer, director
November 10, 1945 – June 29, 1946	Are You with It?	–	Producer
January 27, 1955 – March 3, 1956	Plain and Fancy	–	Producer
January 23 – March 15, 1958	The Body Beautiful	–	Producer

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1948	Close-Up	Martin Beaumont
1949	Broadway Spotlight	Host	Unknown episodes
1950	The Web		Episode: "The Witness"
1951	Penthouse Party	Himself	Episode #1.29
1952	Guess What?	Host	Unknown episodes Credited as Dick Kollmar
1952-1965	What's My Line	Himself/panelist	5 episodes
1954	Armstrong Circle Theatre		Episode: "Evening Star"
1954	Who's the Boss?	Himself/Panelist	Unknown episodes Credited as Dick Kollmar
1956	Person to Person	Himself	Episode #3.21
1956	NBC Matinee Theater	–	Episode: "Pygmalion Jones" Writer

References

• Arndt Anderson, Heather (2013). Breakfast: A History. AltaMira Press. ISBN 0-759-12165-6.
• Block, Maxine; Herthe Rothe, Anna; Dent Candee, Marjorie (1953). Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson Co.
• Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-48320-7.
• Cox, Jim (2007). Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. ISBN 0-786-42780-9.
• Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-195-07678-8.
• Fates, Gil (1978). What's My Line?: The Inside History of Tv's Most Famous Panel Show. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-139-55146-8.
• Green, Stanley (1980). The World of Musical Comedy: The Story of the American Musical Stage as Told Through the Careers of Its Foremost Composers and Lyricists. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80207-4.
• Green, Stanley (2009). Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-786-74684-X.
• Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007. McFarland. ISBN 0-786-45309-5.
• Israel, Lee (1979). Kilgallen. Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-04522-3.
• Lambert, Phillip (2010). To Broadway, To Life! : The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick: The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-199-78103-6.
• The New York Times Biographical Service. Vol. 2. New York Times & Arno Press. 1971.
• Reinehr, Robert C.; Swartz, Jon D. (2010). The A to Z of Old Time Radio. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-810-87616-7.
• Signorielli, Nancy (1996). Signorielli, Nancy (ed.). Women in Communication: A Biographical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-29164-0.
• Terrace, Vincent (2008). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2 ed.). McFarland. ISBN 0-786-48641-4.

External links

• Richard Kollmar at the Internet Broadway Database
• Richard Kollmar at IMDb