Richard Kollmar

Richard Tompkins Kollmar (December 31, 1910 – January 7, 1971), also known professionally as Dick Kollmar, 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 to Mr. and Mrs. John Kollmar. His great-great-grandfather was Daniel D. Tompkins, the fourth governor of New York and the sixth vice president of the United States. When Kollmar was an infant, the family moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey, where his father worked as an architect. Kollmar attended Tusculum College, where he became interested in acting, and 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 procuring steady work on radio commercials, Kollmar appeared in the Broadway plays Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Too Many Girls (1939). Kollmar, along with Cy Walter and Jimmy Dobson, composed the song I'll Never Tire of You. It was performed by the Sam Donahue Orchestra on November 12, 1941 during a recording session at Bluebird Records. After becoming a Broadway producer, Kollmar hired Fats Waller to compose the 1943 musical Early to Bed. This episode in Kollmar's career 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. 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. ...