Part 1: Youth and Copenhagen
Part II: fame and marriage
Part III: The geography of Charlotte McLeod in New York, 1957
1. 45 East 68th Street. The home of Dorothy Kilgallen and Richard Kollmar. “I got tired of Dorothy Kilgallen chasing me around and writing things about me that I have never thought of doing. And I went to her house one day and knocked on her door and the butler recognized me, it was strange, he said, ‘aren’t you Miss Charlotte?’ And I said, yes. And he said, don’t go away. I said, well I have no intention, that’s why I’m here. So I met Dorothy. And I said, well Dorothy, I’m tired of this, this business and I need a job. If you’ll help me get a job, I’ll tell you anything you want to know."
2. 44 East 67th Street. The then office of Harry Benjamin.
3. 318 51st Street. The Washington-Jefferson Hotel where Charlotte lived. This is still in business. Its rooms are now $126 a night and up. Charlotte says: it “was a place for retired show people who lived there” which probably means that even after adjusting for inflation it was cheaper in 1957, particularly if you paid by the month.
4. 723 7th Ave. Maxie's. A restaurant close-by that Charlotte sometimes visited. There she ran into Ralph Heidal, whom she had met in Bergen, Norway, and had stayed in touch with by mail. They married in 1959.
5. 309 West 50th Street. The West Bank Club, owned by Richard Kollmar, where Charlotte worked as a hostess and hat-check girl. It was there that she met Harry Benjamin, who came in as a customer.
Richard Kollmar was a sometime actor and radio personality, the husband of Dorothy Kilgallen. For years they had a morning radio show, Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick.
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