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The Company She Keeps—the life story of Georgia Durante—from super model to Mob getaway driver

Kodak Corporation

  Host of the NPR Podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer met up with Georgia Durante, at of all places, a summer camp for kids run by St. Vincent de Paul in the hills above Santa Barbara, California where she talks about her best selling book, The Company She Keeps chronicling her amazing life journey. 

Georgia Durante grew up in Rochester, New York, and her modeling career commenced when she was just 13 years old.

Before long her stunning looks propelled her to cover-girl stardom as the most photographed young woman in America.

If you’re old enough, you might remember her as “The Kodak Girl”. All too soon, by happenstance, she became involved with the mob, and taken under the wings by legendary mobsters like Carlos Gambino and Sammy Giancana.

Georgia Durante, 1979 cigarette advertisement
Credit Courtesy Georgia Durante
Georgia Durante, 1979 cigarette advertisement

Married to a mobster, her life took an ugly turn when she realized too late her husband was, to be very kind, an abusive person who’d think nothing of holding a pistol to Durante’s head and play a game of Russian Roulette.

Georgia Durante and back in the day with her mobster husband
Credit Courtesy Georgia Durante
Georgia Durante and back in the day with her mobster husband

Durante eventually escaped her life as a mobster’s wife and started an entirely new life as a Hollywood stunt driver.   

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Culture Editor @360magazine

Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer winner of the Lowell Thomas Award 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013
Credit SATW
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer winner of the Lowell Thomas Award 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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