Wife
Harriet Parsons
Queer Places:
803 S Main St, Kokomo, IN 46901
702 N. Rodeo
Drive, Beverly Hills, California
King Kennedy (December 1, 1903 - November 1, 1974) was an actor and playwriter, known for Seven Days' Leave (1942) and On Probation (1935). Louella Parsons’ gay
sidekick King Kennedy would marry her lesbian daughter
Harriet Parsons in 1939, even if
they hardly ever lived together. Hedda
Hopper employed a lesbian woman,
Dema Harshbarger, as manager
and general personal assistant. When Kennedy left Parsons, he joined Hopper.
Later, Robert Shaw also worked for her. According to him, she often used gay
men as informants.
King Kennedy was born James Darius King Kennedy Jr. in Kokomo, Indiana on
December 1, 1903. His father, who also went by King Kennedy, owned the King
Kennedy Clothing Company in Kokomo, a highly successfull clothing store. His
mother was Georgia Kennedy, a society lady of the community that he would be
very close to her entire life. His grandfather Keating was the first mayor of Louisville,
KY. He was educated in private schools at Asheville, NC. Mother and son lived together at the family
home at 803 S. Main Street in Kokomo until they moved, together, to 702 N.
Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, California in about 1924. They continued to live
there together until 1939 when he married Harriet Parsons, a lesbian and
daughter of columnist Louella Parsons, from 1939 to 1946.
King Kennedy was listed on a ship manifest in 1925 along with
Gilmor Brown, founder of the
Pasadena Playhouse, and two other men - Maurice Wells and William Reis. Kennedy's career began at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Since then he played professionally in support of Mary Boland (Meet the Wife), Frances Starr (The Shelf), Mrs. Leslie Carter
(The Shanghai Gesture), Mrs. George Fawcett, Carolotta King, Helen McKellar and Nancy O'Neill
(Lysistrata and The Passion Flower).
He made two pictures - "Seven Days Leave" with Victor Mature, and "Higher and Higher," with Frank Sinatra. He published several plays, among them "Buckshot and Butterflies", "The Garden" and "The Girl".
In the late 1930s he was interested in the Little Theater movement and appeared on the legitimate stage with
Constance Collier in "The Torch Bearer'.
After working for Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, he opened a publicity and public relations firm in Beverly Hills.
When Kennedy passed
away on November 1, 1974, his ashes were given to Harriet.
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