Daily News from New York, New York • 1614

SUNDAY NEWS, FEBRUARY 12, 1967 him ftsmoir off Mds Wapv Dick without Dorothy has no regrets about surrendering singing fame to a columnist's shadow By ERNEST LEOGRANDE SIX AFTERNOONS a week, a quiet, distinguished -looking man leaves his penthouse apartment on E. 72d St. and makes a trip 19 blocks downtown. lie climbs a flight of stairs at the head of which a life-size papier mache clown grins a greeting. He -sits down at a desk and sets about the business of selling whimsy in art.

"Hello, Dick!" That could be the call from any one of a long list of famous people as they drop in browse: Ethel Merman, Joan Crawford, Xavier Cugat, Julia Meade, Salvador Dali. Chances are they have been followed by wide-eyed recognition as they made the trip from cab or limousine to the stairway. Their friend Dick makes that trip six days a week in anonymity, al- "though he has been in the public eye and ear for 25 years in his fashion. His name is Dick Kollmar. Does that rinsr a beli Perhaps not.

And yet only yesterday, it seems, he was making a smash beginning to a matinee idol's career on Broadway. 1 with a fine voire he was the juvenile lead in "Knickerbocker Holiday," That show is remembered today for Walter Huston singing "September Song." That was prophetic because Dick, the rising young star, was soon to give up the actor's life for a producer's. Among those that Dick im pressed much more than Huston did at the time was a young newspaper reported Dorothy Kilgallen, destined some day to be a nationally famed columnist and television figure. In her very first column, she gave Dick a plug and she kept coming back to the show to see him. one could have guessed that they would be married, that the engaging young singer would quietly slip into her shadow as far as public interest is concerned.

Her career was always in the spotlight; his was conducted with far less attention. Together they reared a fine family. Everyone knows that Dorothy is gone now. But nobody, except some important people, know that Dick just became a grandfather and that he seek3 the quiet, stable life more than ever so as to complete the long-running fatherhood role he He still has a 12-year-old son at home, and this is his preoccupation now. Kollmar established his name as the voice of radio's "Boston Blackie." It was back in the 1930s that he went on to stand out in "Knickerbocker Holiday" and "Too Many Girls." He became a producer of shows himself, most notably with "Plain and Fancy," operated two Continued on page 25 1.

Dorothy Killgallen and husband Dick attend opening night when careers demanded they keep strenuous night owl schedules. 1 -13 --Jf' 1 -v -Air i i- Lmm.m mi -1 Hfc ii i rr f8- f'l'm 4. Jf Ksamsmmsmm Rising young stars Mary Martin and Dick Kollmar were regular dates until columnUtDocQthyt 5 his st.eady cjirl-Jriend Showgirls Choo Choo. Johnson (I.) and Louise Jarvis helped 'Earlytto Bed.".