GLR September-October 2023

Short Life of an Actor in Un-gay Times

I F YOU DON ’ T KNOW who Dick Kallman was, you aren ’ t alone. He ’ d be a stumper as a Jeopardy! or Trivial Pursuit question. You can discover this has-been (never-was?) minor celebrity in a new novel on his tumultuous life, Up With the Sun , by Thomas Mallon, a promi nent writer of gay historical fiction. Mallon

in the sitcom Hank as a charming con artist who insinuates his way into a local college, sometimes impersonating absent students, in order to take classes, pick up some illicit credits, and (he hopes) earn a college degree. Poor ratings and reviews ended the series after one season. This was the zenith of his acting career.

B RIAN B ROMBERGER

UP WITH THE SUN: A Novel by Thomas Mallon Knopf. 353 pages, $28.

A short-lived national tour in a musical show, a few unsuc cessful albums of pop standards, and sporadic appearances on comedy and drama series led to Kallman ’ s disenchantment with show business and his “ retirement ” in the early 1970s. Making use of his business acumen, he founded, with actress Dolores Gray, an antique business named Possessions of Provenance. Despite a few ethical lapses on Kallman ’ s part, the business prospered. At this time he met Steven Szladek, a graduate student two years his junior, who became both his part ner and his business assistant. These chapters are nar rated by an omniscient voice who offers flashbacks ofKallman ’ s career. In alternating chapters, the first

has resurrected Kallman from the almost dead; and indeed, how he died is perhaps his biggest claim to fame. On February 22, 1980, he and his male lover were shot to death by three intrud ers in their tony Manhattan townhouse, in a robbery of their an tiques business gone awry. Kallman ’ s acting career, the events leading up to this sen sational homicide, and the aftermath, including the killer ’ s trial, form the bases for Mallon ’ s novel, which is part show-business history, part crime mystery, and part love story covering a thirty-year period spanning the pre-Stonewall era to the early AIDS epi demic. Gossipy and entertaining, featuring ap pearances from authentic Broadway and Hollywood stars, the novel is a moral dissec tion of a closeted gay life and a psyche distorted by ambition. Born in 1933, Kallman ’ s wealthy father owned the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in New Hampshire and the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in Man hattan. His mother, Zara, was a minor opera and Broadway actress. She pushed Dick into per forming for the kinds of people who stayed at their hotels. His first success was a supporting perform ance in the Broadway musical Seventeen ,whichwon him1951 ’ s Theatre World Award as “ Most Promising Newcomer. ” During this stint, he became infatu ated with lead star Kenneth Nelson, even giving him a small diamond pin (which will later hold clues to the motive behind his demise), which Nelson rebuffed, mainly because he didn ’ t

person narrator is Matt Liannetto, a piano accompanist who met Kallman when he starred in Seventeen way back in 1951 and who meets up with him sporadically for the rest of his life. He ’ s the sweet-natured foil to Kallman, but he also has serious reserva tions: “ I ’ m sorry I can ’ t write more about Dick. I disliked him for all the obvious reasons that most people did. ” He had dinner at Kallman ’ s apartment the night that he and Steven were killed. He later iden tified, through a vocal lineup, one of the murder suspects. He became ro mantically involved with Devin Ar royo, a former hustler, who worked as a clerk at the police department. Through Matt, we get details of the criminal investigation and trial of the three killers, who were eventually convicted, an account that is only intermittently intriguing. On stage, Kallman had an amiable personality and a pleasant singing voice, but in private he was reputed to

like Kallman, who never got over this rejec tion. It was a crush that would morph into a lifelong obsession. Nelson is best known to LGBT audiences as the acerbic Michael in the off-Broadway play The Boys in the Band . Years later, he was the warmup act for singer-actress So phie Tucker in Las Vegas. Back to Kallman: he became part of Lucille Ball ’ s comedy troupe workshop in the late 1950s. He

be nasty, self-serving, and obsequious, deploying embarrassingly false flattery that came across as phoniness. Mostly in the closet but still pegged

toured the country as the lead in the musical HowTo Succeed In Business With out Really Trying . In the 1965- ’ 66 TV season, he starred September – October 2023

Dick Kallman

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