Correspondent Tom Wilmer met up with Georgia Durante at 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 incredible life journey.
This show was originally broadcast January 4, 2018 and is reposted as a “best-of-the-best” podcast in celebration of Journeys of Discovery’s 30th anniversary producing on-air and digital media podcasts featured on KCBX and NPR One.
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.
Married to a mobster, her life took an ugly turn when she realized too late her husband was a brutally abusive person. Durante eventually escaped her life as a mobster’s wife and started a new life as a Hollywood stunt driver.
You are invited to subscribe to the Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel show podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast Directory, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, the NPR One App & Stitcher.com. Twitter: TomCWilmer. Instagram: Thomas.Wilmer. Member of the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Underwriting support provided by Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, and the Society of St. Vincent De Paul.
