The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella ParsonsUniversity of California Press, 2005 M10 24 - 426 pages Hollywood celebrities feared her. William Randolph Hearst adored her. Between 1915 and 1960, Louella Parsons was America's premier movie gossip columnist and in her heyday commanded a following of more than forty million readers. This first full-length biography of Parsons tells the story of her reign over Hollywood during the studio era, her lifelong alliance with her employer, William Randolph Hearst, and her complex and turbulent relationships with such noted stars, directors, and studio executives as Orson Welles, Joan Crawford, Louis B. Mayer, Ronald Reagan, and Frank Sinatra—as well as her rival columnists Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Loved by fans for her "just folks," small-town image, Parsons became notorious within the film industry for her involvement in the suppression of the 1941 film Citizen Kane and her use of blackmail in the service of Hearst's political and personal agendas. As she traces Parsons's life and career, Samantha Barbas situates Parsons's experiences in the broader trajectory of Hollywood history, charting the rise of the star system and the complex interactions of publicity, journalism, and movie-making. Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, The First Lady of Hollywood is both an engrossing chronicle of one of the most powerful women in American journalism and film and a penetrating analysis of celebrity culture and Hollywood power politics. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... John Parsons ; her se- cret divorce ; and an unhappy second marriage that she had hidden from her colleagues in Hollywood for over twenty years . The following morning , standing on the train platform , she stared out one last time at ...
... John Parsons ; her se- cret divorce ; and an unhappy second marriage that she had hidden from her colleagues in Hollywood for over twenty years . The following morning , standing on the train platform , she stared out one last time at ...
Page 13
... John Edwards , a thirty - three - year - old traveling candy salesman . Though he had come from one of the well - off pioneering families of neighboring Lee County , John , who worked for the Kranz Confectionery Company , lived alone in ...
... John Edwards , a thirty - three - year - old traveling candy salesman . Though he had come from one of the well - off pioneering families of neighboring Lee County , John , who worked for the Kranz Confectionery Company , lived alone in ...
Page 14
... John began to quarrel over money . Unwilling to curtail her spending despite the family's dwindling bank account , Helen continued to spend lavishly on trips , furnishings , and clothes . Eventually compromises were made . The trips to ...
... John began to quarrel over money . Unwilling to curtail her spending despite the family's dwindling bank account , Helen continued to spend lavishly on trips , furnishings , and clothes . Eventually compromises were made . The trips to ...
Page 15
... John Edwards took what was left of his and Helen's assets and opened a small grocery on Stephenson Street . The venture soon failed , and by 1898 , Louella's sopho- more year in high school , John decided to move the family thirty miles ...
... John Edwards took what was left of his and Helen's assets and opened a small grocery on Stephenson Street . The venture soon failed , and by 1898 , Louella's sopho- more year in high school , John decided to move the family thirty miles ...
Page 16
... John reasoned that proximity to his well - off kin would boost not only his family's morale but also their finances . John and Helen sold the house on North Van Buren , packed their furniture and belongings into a wagon , and took ...
... John reasoned that proximity to his well - off kin would boost not only his family's morale but also their finances . John and Helen sold the house on North Van Buren , packed their furniture and belongings into a wagon , and took ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
28 | |
The Column | 44 |
New York | 61 |
The Lovely Miss Marion Davies | 77 |
On the Way to Hollywood | 93 |
Hollywood | 108 |
The First Lady of Hollywood | 193 |
Raising Kane | 213 |
The Gay Illiterate | 237 |
War and Peace | 259 |
Scandal | 283 |
The End of an Era | 308 |
Eclipse | 332 |
Notes | 347 |
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Common terms and phrases
According actors actress Adela Rogers St American AMPAS Angeles announced appeared Bebe Daniels became began Bergman Beverly Hills Brady broadcast California called career Carton celebrity censorship Chaplin Chicago Citizen Kane City claimed columnist communist criticized Culture D. W. Griffith Daily director divorce Dixon Dorothy editor Eells Collection Essanay fan magazines File film industry Freeport friends Gay Illiterate George Eells gossip guests Harriet Harry Hayworth Hearst Collection Hearst papers Hedda Hopper Helen Herald hereafter Hollywood Hotel Hollywood Reporter interview John journalism later LOP Scrapbook Louella Parsons Louella told Louella wrote Louella's column Marion Davies Mayer Miss Parsons Motion Picture movie never newspaper party Photoplay Pickford play popular producers publicists radio show Rambling Reporter readers San Simeon screen screenwriter Selznick Sept Skolsky stars story studio telegram Telegraph theater University Warner Brothers week William Randolph Hearst Winchell woman women writing York
Popular passages
Page 28 - HOG Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen...
Page 86 - Hearst for bragging about spending so much money on the picture. Addressing my remarks personally to Mr. Hearst, I wrote: "Why don't you give Marion Davies a chance? She is a good actress, a beauty and a comedy starring' bet. Why talk about how much was spent on the lovely costumes and the production cost?
Page 228 - A few obsequious and/or bulbous middle-aged ladies think the picture ought not to be shown, owing to the fact that the picture is rumored to have something to do with a certain publisher, who, for the first time in his life, or maybe the second, shall be nameless. That the nameless publisher might be astute enough to realize that for the first time in his rowdy life he had been made a human being did not worry the loyal ladies. Sycophancy of that kind, like curtseying, is deliberate.
Page 31 - ... and close contact, does not make for a natural existence and throws a so-called glamor over many people. Contrast its possibilities with those of the picture studio. In the latter place work is done in regular office hours — daylight work; no glamor of night, of orchestra, of artificial light. A player is located in one neighborhood and is recognized as a permanent and respectable citizen. Evenings can be spent at home, and the normal healthiness of one's own fireside is an atmosphere conducive...
Page 305 - I'm wondering if the mothers and families of those who've died and the wounded who are still living will be happy to know their money at the box office has supported and may continue to support those who have been so late in the defense of their country?
Page 20 - Yet religion seems to permeate the daily air, not as a stress on discriminating the "saved" from the sinners. . .but as a vital concern with the negations on moral conduct which the churches set up. The religious control of morals operates mainly through gossip and the fear of gossip. People report, suspect, laugh at, and condemn the peccadilloes of others, and walk and behave carefully to avoid being caught in any trifling missteps of their own.
Page 176 - I have never found one single person who, for talent and character, commands the respect of the American people who has not agreed with me that William Randolph Hearst has pandered to depraved tastes and has been an enemy of everything that is noblest and best in our American traditions There is not a cesspool of vice and crime that Hearst has not raked and exploited for money-making purposes.
Page 189 - After you have had a couple of good editorials regarding the indecency of this picture, then DO NOT MENTION MAE WEST IN OUR PAPERS AGAIN WHILE SHE IS ON THE SCREEN AND DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE.