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Dorothy Kilgallen story optioned for big screen biopic

October 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen & John Charles Daly

November 8, 1965 was the last time Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated columnist of The Voice of Broadway, appeared as a member of the What’s My Line? panel. Twelve hours after that live Sunday night broadcast, Ms. Kilgallen was found dead on the third floor of her five-story New York townhouse.

It was her 515th stint as a regular panelist on the popular and erudite (by game show standards) quiz program and for years controversy has surrounded her death. Viewers of her last show saw a visibly disoriented Ms. Kilgallen slur, sweat and stammer her way through the thirty minute program. A career substance abuser (mostly booze), when her hairdresser arrived the next morning, he discovered the lifeless body of the chinless columnist. The cause of death was listed as a combination of alcohol and Seconal, possibly concurrent with a heart attack. Unable to determine whether or not her demise was a suicide or an accident, medical examiner James Luke added “circumstances undetermined” to the death certificate.

According to Variety, producer John Davis (Dudley Do-Right, I Robot, Fat Albert, Norbit) has optioned Good Night, Dorothy Kilgallen, a proposal for an expose book by Paul Alexander that ties the columnist’s death to her investigation of the JFK assassination. Kilgallen was an outspoken critic of the Warren Commission. A friend of JFK’s, she began a crusade to single-handedly uncover a conspiracy behind his murder. She conducted an interview with assassin’s assassin Jack Ruby that purported to contain important new information on the murder of President Kennedy. She conceived the interview as a centerpiece for her expose Murder One, Alexander’s book insists that Kilgallen died mysteriously and the notebooks containing the information she was about to publish disappeared.

While the Kennedy cover-up might have been her last bout with controversy, it wasn’t her first. Frank Sinatra refused to appear on What’s My Line due to a long standing feud with the singer that began after an antagonistic 1956 article titled The Frank Sinatra Story. Frank went out of his was to belittle the “chinless wonder” in his Vegas act and it wasn’t until years after her death that Sinatra finally agreed to appear as a WML? mystery guest. In addition to Mr. Sinatra, she also fought with Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey. Her feud with Paar was based on his support of Fidel Castro and Kilgallen, a staunch anti-Communist, criticized him for it.

Producer John Davis will bring the project to Fox through his first-look deal. No talk yet of who they will get to play Ms. Kilgallen, but I’m rooting for Patricia Clarkson. As for the Bennett Cerf role, my vote goes to Dave Thomas! Sadly, SCTV’s What’s My Shoe Size? is no longer available on YouTube, so you’ll just have to make due with the real thing.

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