Before Liz Smith and Perez Hilton became household names in the world of celebrity gossip, before Rush Limbaugh became the voice of conservatism, there was Hedda Hopper. In 1938, this 52-year-old struggling actress rose to fame and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers throughout Hollywood’s golden age. Often eviscerating moviemakers and stars, her column earned her a nasty reputation in the film industry while winning a legion of some 32 million fans, whose avid support established her as the voice of small-town America. Yet Hopper sought not only to build her career as a gossip columnist but also to push her agenda of staunch moral and political conservatism, using her column to argue against U.S. entry into World War II, uphold traditional views of sex and marriage, defend racist roles for African Americans, and enthusiastically support the Hollywood blacklist. While usually dismissed as an eccentric crank, Jennifer Frost argues that Hopper has had a profound and lasting influence on popular and political culture and should be viewed as a pivotal popularizer of conservatism. The first book to explore Hopper’s gossip career and the public’s response to both her column and her politics, Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood illustrates how the conservative gossip maven contributed mightily to the public understanding of film, while providing a platform for women to voice political views within a traditionally masculine public realm. Jennifer Frost builds the case that, as practiced by Hopper and her readers, Hollywood gossip shaped key developments in American movies and movie culture, newspaper journalism and conservative politics, along with the culture of gossip itself, all of which continue to play out today.
A biography of Louella Parsons, America's premiere movie gossip columnist from 1915 to 1960, chronicles her reign over Hollywood during the studio era, her lifelong alliance with William Randolph Hearst, and her complex and turbulent ...
From her birth in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, to her early days as a Broadway understudy to her rise and fall as a Hollywood starlet, Hopper tells the story of the golden age of the movie business with candor and grace.
Dear Muffo : Thirty - Five Years in the Fast Lane . New York : Stein and Day , 1982 . Crane , Cheryl , with Cliff Jahr . Detour : A Hollywood Story . New York : Arbor House / William Morrow , 1988 . Daily ) Isllini ) Covers the Century ...
... conference “it received all the enthusiasm of Wallace for President,” a reference to the recent election bid of George Wallace, the racist governor of Alabama. Hunter and Seaton did include one aging actress in the ensemble.
Japanese citizen Tanemichi (Michi) Sohma served as Hollywood actress and columnist Hedda Hopper's houseboy for the years following World War II. The young man had the opportunity to meet many of the world's most famous people.
Representative Richard Fulton from Tennessee demonstrated this fact. In advocating for the 18- year- old vote, Fulton repeated the Johnson administration's Cold War rationale for sending American troops to Vietnam.
But Andrews later became an unofficial advisor to Representative Richard M. Nixon during his pursuit of Alger Hiss, and the Tribune , fed by Nixon, led the pack in breaking stories about his investigation into Hiss's alleged Soviet ...
Geoffrey Shurlock , a Production Code officer , wrote a memo to Jack L. Warner , dated March 22 , 1955 : " It is of course vital that there be no inference of a questionable or homosexual relationship between Plato and Jim .
And we're not going to take it any more. Praise for Hollywood, Interrupted "This is a fun book!" —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "This is a great book to read and a dangerous book to write.
The flashback scenes with Jane and Jeanne portraying the flapper sister act are high energy and fun, and Jane is a hoot when taking on the role of the Jones Sisters' elderly mother. Rudy Vallee, playing himself, is a highlight, ...