Sara Jordan-Heintz informed and entertained her audience at the Mowry-Irvine Mansion on Tuesday evening, July 9. The program was sponsored by the Historical Society of Marshall County. Jordan-Heintz spoke about her books, “Going Hollywood: Midwesterners in Movieland,” and “The Incredible Life and Mysterious Death of Dorothy Kilgallen.”

Midwesterner Marilyn Maxwell was born in Clarinda, Iowa, in 1921. She had a glamorous image as a singer and actress during a career that spanned the 1940s and 1950s. She sang in USO tours all over the country, helping to raise millions of dollars for war bonds. Maxwell worked with some of the greatest stars of her era, including Rock Hudson, Bob Hope, and Perry Como. She had extramarital affairs with Sinatra and Hope, and dated Rock Hudson.

Her relationship with Hudson was initially arranged by Hudson’s agent in an effort to dispel rumors of his homosexuality. Nevertheless, the two became very close friends.

Maxwell’s acting career never really took off in a big way, and she is nearly forgotten today. Her 15-year-old son found her dead in her home of an apparent heart attack at the age of 50. The first person her son reportedly called was Rock Hudson. As evidence of the close relationship between Maxwell and Hudson, he reportedly offered to take care of her son after her death.

Any discussion of Midwestern movie stars must include the sad story of Marshalltown’s own Jean Seberg. Jean’s social and political activism resulted in surveillance, phone taps, and the spreading of false information about her by the FBI. The rumor planted in the press by the FBI that her infant daughter was fathered not by Jean’s husband, but by a member of the Black Panthers, is believed to have contributed to Jean’s death.

Was it actually a suicide, or an accidental overdose? Or could there have been foul play involved as a result of her activism? We may never know the full story. Jordan-Heintz believes that Seberg was a “giver” surrounded by “takers” and that she found the world to be less welcoming of other ideas than she might have hoped.

Other Hollywood stars with Midwestern roots included in Jordan-Heintz’ program and in her book were Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, and Luella Parsons, screenwriter and Hollywood gossip columnist.

Dorothy Kilgallen, the subject of Jordan-Heintz’ most recent book, was the daughter of a well-known and respected newspaper reporter. She became a reporter, columnist, journalist…and a regular panelist on the popular 1950s and 60s television game show, “What’s My Line.” She was clearly a woman ahead of her time.

Her first job, at the tender age of 17, was as a reporter for the Hearst Corporation’s New York Evening Journal. William Randolph Hearst, himself, directed her career, determining all of her assignments, despite never meeting her in person or communicating directly with her. Ernest Hemingway later called her “the best female writer in the world.”

In an era when female reporters were usually covering cooking, child-rearing, and other typically feminine topics, Hearst sent Kilgallen traveling the world, covering big stories such as Queen Elizabeth’s wedding and coronation, the advent of worldwide airline travel, politics, and major court cases. One of those cases was the trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard, accused of murdering his pregnant wife in 1954. The story became a TV series and later a movie, both titled, “The Fugitive.”

Reporting on the assassination of President Kennedy, Kilgallen managed to get an amazing exclusive interview with Jack Ruby after he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Her report was carried in newspapers nationwide. She had serious questions and concerns about the assassination, the investigation, and about the government’s “Warren Report” findings, though. And according to Jordan-Heintz, it may have gotten her in enough trouble to have caused her death. Kilgallen was involved with a much younger man, Ron Pataky, who had participated in a “military action” in Guatemala in 1954, one that was the result of a secret CIA operation to oust the elected president there and install a US-backed president. In other words, it was a coup, rather than a legitimate military action.

That claim seems to indicate that the man was with the CIA. Was he actually spying on Kilgallen for the FBI/CIA because of her doubts about the results of the investigations into Kennedy’s assassination? The circumstances surrounding her death in 1965 were mysterious, and possibly even staged. Missing from her home were the research notes intended for her next project, a book about the Kennedy assassination that Kilgallen had promised would “blow the lid off ” the case. No proper death investigation took place. Her cause of death was given as an overdose of drugs and alcohol. It remains a subject of controversy even today.

Research into Kilgallen’s life and death began when Jordan-Heintz was just a teenager, working with her parents on the family’s magazine, “Midwest Today.” It included multiple taped phone conversations with Ron Pataky, the man who was involved with Kilgallen at the time of her death and who may have known far more than he revealed.