Louella Parsons | |
|---|---|
 Parsons in 1937 | |
| Born | Louella Rose Oettinger (1881-08-06)August 6, 1881 Freeport, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | December 9, 1972(1972-12-09) (aged 91) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1902–1965 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Harriet Parsons |
| Awards | Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Louella Rose Oettinger (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972), known by the pen nameLouella Parsons, was an Americangossip columnist and screenwriter. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 700 newspapers worldwide.
She was the first writer of a dedicated column onmotion pictures in the United States, writing one in 1914 for theChicago Record-Herald.[1] She later started a similar column for theNew York Morning Telegraph, being lured away byWilliam Randolph Hearst'sNew York American in 1924 because she had championed Hearst's mistressMarion Davies.[2] She subsequently became an influential figure in Hollywood and remained the unchallenged "Queen of Hollywood gossip" until the arrival of the flamboyantHedda Hopper, with whom she feuded for years.
Parsons was born Louella Rose Oettinger inFreeport, Illinois, the daughter of Helen (née Stine) and Joshua Oettinger. Her father was of German Jewish descent, as was her maternal grandfather, while her maternal grandmother, Jeanette Wilcox, was of Irish origin. During her childhood, her parents attended anEpiscopal church.[3] She had two brothers, Edwin and Fred, and a sister, Rae. In 1890, her widowed mother married John H. Edwards. They lived inDixon, Illinois.
Parsons decided to become a writer or a reporter during high school. At her 1901 high school graduation, she gave a foretelling speech, titled "Great Men", after which her principal announced that she would become a great writer.[4]
After high school, Parsons enrolled in a teacher's course at a local Dixon college. She received a financial contribution from a distant German relative. While still in college, Parsons obtained her first newspaper job as a part-time writer for theDixon Star. In 1902, she became the first female journalist in Dixon, where she gossiped about Dixon social circles, making a step towards her Hollywood career.[5]
She and her first husband, John Parsons, moved toBurlington, Iowa. Her only child,Harriet (1906–1983), who grew up to become afilm producer, was born there. While in Burlington, Parsons saw her firstmotion picture,The Great Train Robbery (1903).
When her marriage broke up, Parsons moved toChicago. In 1912, she had her first taste of the movie industry working forGeorge K. Spoor as a scenario writer at theEssanay Company in Chicago, selling her first script for $25.[1][6] Her daughter,Harriet, was billed as "Baby Parsons" in several movies, which includedThe Magic Wand (1912), written by Louella Parsons. She also wrote a book titledHow to Write for the Movies.[7]: 29
In 1914, Parsons began writing the first moviegossip column in theUnited States for theChicago Record Herald.[1]William Randolph Hearst 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 York City and started working for theNew York Morning Telegraph writing a similar movie column, which attracted the attention of Hearst after he saw her interview of his mistress and protégéMarion Davies.[2][8] Parsons had encouraged readers to "give this girl a chance" while the majority of critics disparaged Davies.[9] Parsons showered the former chorus girl with praise which led to a friendship between the two women and led to an offer from Hearst in 1923 for her to become the $200-a-week (equal to $3,691 today) motion-picture editor of hisNew York American.[6] Her perpetual praise of Davies did not go unnoticed by others as well. The phrase "Marion never looked lovelier" became a standard in her column and a tongue-in-cheek cultural catchphrase.[10][11]
There was persistent speculation that Parsons was elevated to her position as the Hearst chain's lead gossip columnist because of a scandal about which she didnot write. In 1924, directorThomas Ince died after being carried off Hearst's yacht, allegedly to be hospitalized for indigestion. Many Hearst newspapers falsely claimed that Ince had not been aboard the boat at all and had fallen ill at the newspaper mogul'shome.Charlie Chaplin's secretary reported seeing a bullet hole in Ince's head when he was removed from the yacht. Rumors proliferated that Chaplin was having an affair with Hearst's mistress Davies, and that an attempt to shoot Chaplin may have caused Ince's death. Allegedly, Parsons was also aboard the yacht that night but she ignored the story in her columns. The official cause of death was listed asheart failure.[12][13][14]
Parsons was a founding member of theNew York Newspaper Women's Club, and was elected president of the organization for one term in 1925.[15][16]
In 1925, Parsons contractedtuberculosis[6] and was told she had six months to live. She spent a year inPalm Springs, California, which led to it being a popular resort for Hollywood movie stars.[6] She moved toArizona for the dry climate, then toLos Angeles, where she decided to stay. With the disease in remission, she went back to work, and Hearst suggested she become a syndicatedHollywood columnist for hisnewspapers.[6] As she and the publishing mogul developed an ironclad relationship, herLos Angeles Examiner column came to appear in over seven hundred newspapers the world over,[6] with a readership of more than 20 million, and Parsons gradually became one of the most powerful voices in the movie business with her daily allotment of gossip.[1]
Beginning in 1928, she hosted a weeklyradio program featuringmovie star interviews[17] that was sponsored bySunKist. A similar program in 1931 was sponsored by Charis Foundation Garment. In 1934, she signed a contract with theCampbell's Soup Company and began hosting a program titledHollywood Hotel, which showcased stars in scenes from their upcoming movies. The stars appeared for free which did not please rival broadcasters or all of the stars but they did not complain in case of reprisals. Her opening line of the show was "My first exclusive of tonight is...", which became feared. The show was cancelled after theScreen Actors Guild demanded payment for its members.Warner Bros. paid her $50,000 (equal to $1,093,634 today) to appear in afilmed version in 1937, but the film flopped.[6]
Parsons saw herself as the social and moral arbiter of Hollywood and many feared her disfavor more than that of movie critics.
Parsons had informants in studio corridors, hairdressers' salons, and lawyers' and doctors' offices.[10] Her husbandHarry Martin was a urologist and Hollywood physician, and it was thought that he passed on information he learned in his position as a studio doctor. She worked from her Beverly Hills home with a staff consisting of a secretary, her assistant reviewer (Dorothy Manners, who worked with Parsons for thirty years),[18] a "leg" man who gathered news, and a female reporter who covered thecafés. She had three telephones in her office.[7]: 4 She also had former silent-movie stars on her payroll to help them financially.[6]
She considered the biggest scoop of her career to be the divorce ofDouglas Fairbanks Sr. andMary Pickford, at that time the most famous couple in Hollywood. Parsons had learned of the split from Pickford herself, who had made the mistake of counting on the columnist's discretion.[10] Parsons sat on the story for six weeks, hoping that they would reconcile and concerned that the news might damage the film industry, but published once she heard that theLos Angeles Times had also gotten the story.[6]
When she received a tip thatClark Gable was divorcing his second wife Ria, Parsons essentially held Mrs. Gable hostage at her home until she was sure that her story was speeding across the wire ahead of any other service.[10]
Her unofficial title 'Queen of Hollywood' was challenged in 1938 by newcomerHedda Hopper, to whom she was initially friendly and helpful.[19] However, they came to be fierce rivals.[20]
Parsons also appeared in many cameo spots in movies, includingWithout Reservations (1946), andStarlift (1951).
In contrast to her arch-rival Hedda Hopper, who was notorious for her column's crass tone, Parsons' writing style was often described as "sweetness and light" or "gooey".[10] She received criticism for her casual chatty tone and casual regard for dates and places.[7]: 1 She countered that "the best gossip" is informal[7]: 2 and that the speed at which she needed to complete her daily column did not allow for much rewriting or polishing. She stated that she would rather get the word out than potentially disappoint her readers.[7]: 3
She became known in Hollywood for assuming an air of goofy vagueness in order to snap up material without people suspecting she was listening or otherwise letting their guard down.[10]
After the death of Hearst in 1951 and with the rise of stars becoming producers, Parsons's influence diminished.[6] She began to show signs of physical deterioration and when theLos Angeles Examiner folded in 1962 her column was switched to the Hearst afternoon paper, theLos Angeles Herald-Express. This meant she lost an edge to Hopper's appearances in the morningLos Angeles Times.[10]
She continued her column until December 1965 when it was taken over by her assistant, Dorothy Manners, who had already been writing the column for more than a year.[1][10]
When Hedda Hopper initially came to Hollywood, she and Parsons had a mutually beneficial arrangement. Hopper was then a moderately successful actress, and according to Parson's successor, Dorothy Manners, "if anything happened on a set—if a star and leading man were having an affair—Hedda would give Louella a call." In return, Hopper was guaranteed a few lines of copy under Parsons's increasingly influential byline.[21]
After MGM canceled her contract, Hopper struggled to maintain her career as an actress. She was offered a position as a Hollywood columnist by the Esquire Feature Syndicate due to a recommendation by Andy Hervey ofMGM's publicity department.
One of the first papers to pick up "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" was theLos Angeles Times, a morning paper like Parsons'sExaminer. Hopper first publiclyscooped Parsons with the divorce of the president's sonJimmy Roosevelt (a Goldwyn employee), who was involved with a Mayo Clinic nurse, from his wife,Betsey. The story became front-page news across the country.[10]
When rumors began to surface thatOrson Welles debut filmCitizen Kane was inspired by Hearst's life, Parsons lunched with the director and believed his evasions and denials.[10] Hopper arrived uninvited to an early screening of the film and wrote a scathing critique, calling it a "vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man".[22]: 205 As a result, Hearst sent Parsons a letter complaining that he had learned aboutCitizen Kane from Hopper and not her.
On the warpath, Parsons then demanded a private screening of the film and threatened RKO chiefGeorge J. Schaefer on Hearst's behalf, first with a lawsuit and then with a vague but powerful threat of consequences for everyone in Hollywood. On January 10, Parsons and two lawyers working for Hearst were given a private screening of the film.[22]: 206 Horrified by what she saw, Parsons rushed out of the studio screening room to cable Hearst, who telegraphed back the terse message "Stop Citizen Kane".[10] Soon after, Parsons called Schaefer and threatened RKO with a lawsuit if they releasedKane.[23]: 111 She also warned other studio heads that she would expose the private lives of people throughout the industry and reveal long-suppressed scandalous information.[10][22]: 206
When Schaefer—who had also been threatened by Hearst with legal action—announced thatCitizen Kane was scheduled to premiere in February 1941 atRadio City Music Hall, Parsons contacted the manager of Radio City Music Hall and advised him that exhibiting the film would result in a press blackout.[10] The premiere was canceled. Other exhibitors were fearful of being sued by Hearst and refused to show the film.[22]: 216 As a result, despite support from Hearst adversaries asHenry Luce, on release overall the film lost money.[22]: 215 [24] Parsons was by no means alone in her campaign againstCitizen Kane but Welles never quite recovered his position in Hollywood afterward.[10]
In the early 1950s, theLos Angeles Examiner ran on its front page, above Parsons's byline: "Ingrid Bergman Baby Due in Three Months at Rome". Bergman had left her husband, neurologist Peter Lindström, to live in Italy with directorRoberto Rossellini but the news that she might be pregnant was met with some skepticism. Bergman was well known for the angelic role of Sister Benedict inThe Bells of St. Mary's.[10]
Hopper, who had been a public supporter of Bergman, had believed the actress' denial of the pregnancy, and printed a fervent repudiation of the rumor.[25] However, Bergman was indeed pregnant and Hopper, enraged at being scooped, launched a PR campaign decrying Bergman for being pregnant out of wedlock and carrying a married man's child.[26] Parsons had allegedly received the tip fromHoward Hughes[10] who was incensed at Bergman for being unable to shoot a film for him as promised.
Reportedly, whereas Hopper was more inclined to see their much-publicized antagonism as funny and good for business, Parsons took it personally and saw Hopper as a rival in every possible way. Hopper also referred to Parsons' husband,Harry "Doc" Martin, as "that goddamnclap doctor", which infuriated Parsons.[10]
It has been suggested that Hopper was set up as a columnist byLouis B. Mayer (with the blessing of other studio chiefs) to offset Parsons's monopolistic power. Gossip columnistLiz Smith, stated that: "The studios created both of them. And they thought they could control both of them. But they became Frankenstein monsters escaped from the labs."[10] Hopper and Parsons had a combined readership of 75 million in a country of 160 million.[10][19]
Parsons' memoirThe Gay Illiterate (1944), published byDoubleday, Doran and Company, became a bestseller. It was followed by a second volume in 1961,Tell It to Louella, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
In her personal histories, she expunged significant bits of her history in order to align her life with the Catholicism she began to practice in middle age. She alleged that her first husband died on a transport ship on the way home from World War I, leaving her a widow instead of a divorced single mother. Her second marriage to Jack McCaffrey and eventual divorce is omitted.[10]
Parsons was married three times. First, to real estate developer and broker John Dement Parsons, whom she married in 1905. From this union, they had one daughter namedHarriet who was born on August 23, 1906, in Burlington City, Des Moines County, Iowa. Parsons divorced John in 1914. A year later, she married second husband John McCaffrey Jr. in 1915. She learned to juggle so she could entertain her wedding guests. The couple later divorced.
She pursued singing as a hobby, and took voice lessons withEstelle Liebling, the voice teacher ofBeverly Sills.[27]
Her third marriage was to Los Angeles surgeonDr. Harry Martin (whom she called "Docky") in 1930; Martin served in the Army Medical Corps during World War I and World War II. His specialty was venereal diseases and he advanced to the post ofTwentieth Century Fox's chief medical officer. He was also known as a heavy drinker.[10] They remained married until Martin's death on June 24, 1951.[28]
After Martin's death she dated songwriterJimmy McHugh, a fellow Catholic who introduced her to many of the new teenage musical sensations of the time, includingElvis Presley. The couple were a fixture at parties, premieres, and such nightspots as Dino's Lodge on Sunset Strip.[10]
Harriet would later follow her mother's passion for writing, and would find employment as a writer for a popular California magazine. She also became one of the few female producers in the Hollywood studio system although she still struggled in this role despite the influence of her powerful mother.
After her retirement, Parsons lived in a nursing home where she died ofarteriosclerosis on December 9, 1972, at the age of 91. Her funeral mass was attended by individuals from the movie industry with whom she had maintained genuine friendships. A convert toRoman Catholicism,[29] she was interred in theHoly Cross Cemetery inCulver City, California.
Parsons has two stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame inHollywood, one for motion pictures at 6418 Hollywood Boulevard and one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard.
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[Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper] were an unlikely couple, but they had one thing in common—they loathed each other.
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