Breakfast With Dorothy And Dick was a popular daily chat show that aired on WOR-AM in New York City from 1945 through 1963. The show starred the husband-and-wife team of Dorothy Kilgallen, a renowned journalist and gossip columnist, and Richard “Dick” Kollmar, an actor and producer on Broadway and New York radio.
The premise of the show was simple - each morning, listeners would join Dorothy and Dick in their upscale Park Avenue apartment (and later their luxurious brownstone on East 68th Street) for a lively discussion of the latest theater news, celebrity gossip, and trends in Manhattan’s high society.
The show was broadcast right from the couple’s dining room, with their butler Julius serving breakfast and their singing canary Robin providing musical accompaniment in the background.
The Stars
Dorothy Kilgallen was a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist who covered high-profile cases like the Sam Sheppard murder trial, the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She was also famous for her recurring role as a panelist on the popular game show What’s My Line?. Kilgallen’s tragic death by overdose in 1965, while investigating the Kennedy assassination, sparked speculation that she may have been silenced.
Dorothy’s husband, Dick Kollmar, was a successful Broadway producer and actor. He starred as the title character in the long-running radio series Boston Blackie from 1945 to 1950. Kollmar also ran a small art gallery and was an active participant in the show, seamlessly working in product placements for the program’s 18 sponsors.
Key Dates
- Breakfast With Dorothy And Dick debuted on April 15th, 1945 and ran for nearly two decades.
- The show followed the Kollmars when they moved from their Park Avenue apartment to a more spacious brownstone on the Upper East Side in the 1950s. Despite the change in location, the format of the show remained the same, with Dorothy and Dick chatting with their radio audience over breakfast.
- It ended its run on March 21st, 1963.
Other Information
Breakfast With Dorothy And Dick was one of the first of its kind, though its popularity helped spawn hundreds of similar shows around the country. The Kollmars lived the quintessential New York high life, and their show provided a thrilling vicarious tour of the city’s glittering nightlife and celebrity scene for their listeners.
The program’s 18 sponsors were seamlessly integrated into the show’s banter, adding to the sense of exclusivity and insider access for the audience.
In addition to Breakfast With Dorothy And Dick, Dorothy Kilgallen also appeared in other old-time radio shows such as Dorothy Kilgallen’s Diary, People You’d Like to Know, Bright Horizon, and What’s My Line.
