Louella Parsons (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was an American
gossip columnistA gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ...
who had her own radio show which featured interviews with Hollywood celebrities.
Early life
She was born
Louella Rose Oettinger in
Freeport, IllinoisFreeport is the county seat of Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 26,443 at the 2000 census. The mayor of Freeport is George W...
, the daughter of Joshua Oettinger and Helen Stein both of whom were Jewish. She had two brothers, Edwin and Fred, and a sister, Rae. In 1890, her widowed mother married John H. Edwards. They lived in
Dixon, IllinoisDixon is a city in Lee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,941 at the 2000 census. Named for its founder John Dixon , it is the county seat of Lee County. Located on the Rock River, Dixon was the boyhood home of former U.S...
, later hometown of
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
. While still in high school, Parsons obtained her first newspaper job when she became drama editor for the
Dixon Morning Star.
She and her first husband, John Parsons, moved to
Burlington, IowaBurlington is a city in and the county seat of Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 26,839 the 2000 census. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area including West Burlington, Iowa and Middletown, Iowa and Gulf Port, Illinois...
. She was a lonely and unhappy Iowa housewife who hated small-town life. Her only child, Harriet, who grew up to become a
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
, was born there. While in Burlington, Parsons saw her first
motion pictureFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
,
The Great Train RobberyThe Great Train Robbery is a 1903 western film by Edwin S. Porter. Twelve minutes long, it is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite...
(1903).
When her marriage broke up, Parsons moved to Chicago where she began writing movie scripts for
Essanay StudiosThe Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio founded in 1907 in the neighborhood of Uptown, Chicago, Illinois by George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, originally as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Company, but on August 10, 1907 changing the name to Essanay...
, once the home of
Charlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer Chaplin, KBE was an English comedic actor and film director. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable filmmaker, composer and musician in the early to mid Classical Hollywood era of American cinema.Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and...
. Her small daughter, Harriet, was billed as "Baby Parsons" in several movies, which included
The Magic Wand (
1912The year 1912 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Mack Sennett, who had previously worked as an actor and comedy director with D. W. Griffith, formed a new company with New York City entrepreneur Adam Kessel called Keystone Studios...
), written by Louella Parsons. She also wrote a book titled
How to Write for the Movies.
Career
In 1914, Parsons began writing the first gossip column in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for the
Chicago Record HeraldThe Chicago Record Herald was a newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1901 until 1914. It was the successor to the Chicago Morning Herald, the Chicago Times Herald and the Chicago Record. It was succeeded by the Chicago Herald Examiner....
.
William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst was an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher.Hearst was born in San Francisco, California, to millionaire mining engineer George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson. Following preparation at St...
bought that newspaper in 1918 and Parsons was out of a job, as Hearst had not yet discovered that movies and movie personalities were news. Parsons then moved to
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and started working for the
New York Morning Telegraph writing a similar movie column, which attracted the attention of Hearst. In 1922, after some shrewd bargaining on both sides, she signed a
contractIn law, a contract is a binding legal agreement that is enforceable in a court of law. That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy....
and joined the Hearst newspaper the
New York AmericanThe New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
.
In 1925, Parsons contracted
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
and was told she had six months to live. She moved to
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
for the change in climate, then to
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
, where she decided to stay. With the disease in remission, she went back to work, becoming a syndicated Hollywood columnist for
HearstHearst may refer to:people* Amanda Hearst* Garrison Hearst, NFL running back* George Hearst* George Randolph Hearst Jr.* Hunter Hearst Helmsley, WWE Professional wrestler* John Randolph Hearst* Lydia Hearst-Shaw* Michael Hearst* Millicent Hearst...
. As she and the publishing mogul had developed an ironclad relationship, her
Los Angeles ExaminerThe Los Angeles Herald-Examiner was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published Monday through Friday in the afternoon, and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. The afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Examiner, both of which had been publishing in...
column came to appear in over six hundred newspapers the world over, with a readership of more than twenty-million, and Parsons gradually became one of the most powerful voices in the movie business with her daily allotment of gossip. According to Hearst's mistress and protegé
Marion DaviesMarion Davies was an American film actress.Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
in her posthumously published memoirs
The Times We Had, Parsons had encouraged readers to "give this girl a chance" while the majority of critics disparaged Davies; it was on this basis that Hearst hired Parsons.
Beginning in 1928, she hosted a weekly
radioRadio programming is the content that is broadcast by radio stations.The original inventors of radio, such as Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, expected it to be used for one-on-one communication tasks where telephones and telegraphs could not be used because of the problems involved in stringing...
program featuring
movie starA movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
interviews that was sponsored by SunKist. A similar program in 1931 was sponsored by Charis Foundation Garment. In 1934, she signed a contract with the Campbell's Soup Company and began hosting a program titled
Hollywood Hotel, which showcased stars in scenes from their upcoming movies.
Parsons was especially known for her uncanny ability to scoop her competitors with the juiciest stories and for knowing all the secrets of everyone in screendom. She was associated with various Hearst enterprises for the rest of her career. Parsons established herself as the social and moral arbiter of Hollywood. Her judgments were considered the final word in most cases, and her disfavor was feared more than that of movie critics. Her column was followed religiously and thus afforded her a unique type and degree of power. Her formidable power remained unchallenged until 1937, when
Hedda HopperHedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
, a struggling character actress since the days of
silent moviesA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made practical in the late 1920s with...
, whom Parsons had been kind to and mentioned occasionally in her column, and who had returned the favor by giving Parsons information on others, was hired to be a gossip columnist by one of Hearst's rival newspapers. Parsons and Hopper then became arch-rivals and had a notorious feud.
Parsons also appeared in numerous cameo spots in movies, including
Hollywood HotelHollywood Hotel is a 1937 American film, directed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, and Ted Healy. Ronald Reagan and Benny Goodman also appear.- Production :...
(
1937The year 1937 in film involved some significant events.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.*May 7 - Shall We Dance premieres in the US.-Top grossing films:#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Maytime#Saratoga...
),
Without ReservationsWithout Reservations is a 1946 comedy film made by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and adapted by Andrew Solt from the novel "Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here" by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston....
(
1946The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
) and
StarliftStarlift was an American musical film released by Warner Brothers in 1951, starring Janice Rule, Dick Wesson, Ron Hagerthy and Ruth Roman. The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and written by Karl Lamb and John D. Klorer...
(
1951The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...
). She was caricatured in
Frank TashlinFrank Tashlin was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director. He was 6'2" tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds....
's 1937
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
The Woods are Full of Cuckoos as "Louella Possums".
In 1944, she wrote her memoirs,
The Gay Illiterate, published by Doubleday, Doran and Company, which became a bestseller. That was followed by another volume in 1961,
Tell It To Louella, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Personal life
Parsons was married three times; first to real estate developer John Dement Parsons whom she married in 1905 and divorced in 1914. She married second husband John McCaffrey, Jr. in 1915. The couple later divorced and Parsons wed surgeon Henry W. Martin (whom she called "Docky) in 1926. They remained married until Martin's death in 1964.
Later years and death
By the 1960s, Parson's influence had waned. She officially stopped writing her column in December 1965, which was taken over by her assistant, Dorothy Manners, who was said to have been writing it for more than a year.
After her retirement, Parsons lived in a nursing home where she died of
arteriosclerosisArteriosclerosis refers to a stiffening of arteries.Arteriosclerosis is a general term describing any hardening of medium or large arteries...
on December 9, 1972 at the age of ninety-one . A later convert to Roman Catholicism, her funeral mass was attended by several stars of the movie industry. She is interred in
Holy Cross CemeteryHoly Cross Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Los Angeles Archdiocese.Opened in 1939, Holy Cross is . It contains—among others—the graves and tombs of show business professionals...
Culver City, CaliforniaCulver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 38,816. The community is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also has a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County...
.
Louella Parsons has two stars on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, that serves as an entertainment museum...
in Hollywood; one for motion pictures at 6418 Hollywood Boulevard and one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard.
Listen to
External links
- Interviews conducted by Louella Parsons with silent film Actors, Actresses, and Directors, reprinted in Taylorology
Taylorology was a fanzine centered on the unsolved 1922 murder of Hollywood silent film director William Desmond Taylor. The first issue was published in 1985, and two more printed issues followed. In 1993 it switched to monthly electronic publication which continued until 2000. The editor was...