Gilda’s Club

During the time that Gilda had ovarian cancer, she attended the Wellness Community in Los Angeles, which offered a social and psychological support group for people who were living with cancer.  Gene promised Gilda that he would do something in her honor after she passed. She wanted a place in New York where people with cancer and their loved ones could gather. That would eventually become Gilda’s Club, which became an international organization of local chapters that provide meeting places to support those with cancer and their friends and family in need of emotional and psycho-social support. It was a way to supplement the medical care they received, since cancer impacts so much more than just a person’s physical health.

A lot of prominent people were involved in Gilda’s Club, including then-New York First Lady Maria Cuomo and her best friend, Shelby Modelle of Modell’s Sporting Goods. Joanna Bull, who was Gilda’s wellness counselor in Los Angeles, played a major role in both the launch and eventual expansion of Gilda’s Club. Joel Siegel was an early investor; both he and Gene donated $10,000 each to fund an executive director’s salary. Then they contacted Ann Moore, who was then the editor of People magazine, and she was able to get celebrities like Tony Bennett and Princess Diana to get involved.

Gene’s promise was to do a Gilda’s Club in New York; Joanna was much more ambitious and wanted it expanded internationally. She wanted to keep Gene involved but he bowed out after a gala featuring Princess Diana. By then Gene had helped establish the Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program and the Gilda Radner Registry, helped write Gilda’s Disease, among a litany of other research-related programs, and he announced “I’m giving up my medical practice.”

Gilda’s Club wanted to give Harry Belafonte a humanitarian award but he agreed to accept it only if Gene was the one to present it. Among the guests at that gala was a man who claimed he’d discovered the monoclonal antibody that cured ovarian cancer. He turned out to be a charlatan, but he did try to convince Gene he’d found a cure and just needed investors to make it to market. Gene declined but we both remained involved in philanthropy, supporting local causes as well as those tied to cancers.

- Excerpt from BEYOND IMAGINATION:THE KAREN BOYER WILDER AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Karen Boyer Wilder, Richard Ticho and Anne Saita

Image Caption: Karen, Gene and Joanna Bull enjoy a dip in the pool in the backyard of Gene and Karen's home in Stamford, Connecticut.

Image Credit: From the Karen Boyer Wilder Collection.