Louella Parsons

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Louella Parsons (born Louella Rose Oettinger, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was the first American movie columnist and screenwriter.

She was retained by William Randolph Hearst because she had fought Hearst's mistress Marion Davies, who later became a popular celebrity in Hollywood.

Her columns were read by 20 million people in 400 newspapers around the world at her peak. She remained the unchallenged "Queen of Hollywood gossip" until the flamboyant Hedda Hopper's arrival, with whom she rivaled for years.

Early life

Louella Parsons was born in Freeport, Illinois, and the niece of Helen (Stine) and Joshua Oettinger. Her father was of German Jewish descent, as had her maternal grandfather, and Jeanette Wilcox, her maternal grandmother, was of Irish origins. Her parents attended an Episcopal church in her youth. Edwin and Fred, her two brothers, as well as a sister, Rae. Her widowed mother married John H. Edwards in 1890. They lived in Dixon, Illinois.

During high school, Parsons decided to become a writer or a reporter. She gave the "Great Men" speech at her 1901 high school graduation, the year's premier, after which her principal announced that she would be a great writer.

Parsons enrolled in a teacher's program at a local Dixon college after high school. She received a loan from a distant German cousin. Parsons began working as a part-time writer for the Dixon Star while still in college. She became Dixon's first female journalist, gossiping about Dixon's social circles, and taking a step toward her Hollywood career in 1902.

She and her first husband, John Parsons, migrated to Burlington, Iowa. Harriet (1906-1983), her only child who aspired to be a film director, was born in the United States. While in Burlington, Parsons took The Great Train Robbery (1903), her first motion picture.

Parsons immigrated to Chicago after her marriage ended. She had her first glimpse of the movie industry with George K. Spoor as a scenario writer at the Essanay Company in Chicago in 1912, selling her first script for $25. In several films, including "Baby Parsons' The Magic Wand (1912), written by Louella Parsons, her daughter Harriet was billed as "Baby Parsons." How to Write for the Movies was also a book she wrote.

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Personal life

Parsons have been married three times. John Dement Parsons, a real estate developer and broker, was first to introduce real estate developer and broker John Dement Parsons, who married in 1905. They had one daughter named Harriet, who was born on August 23, 1906 in Burlington City, Iowa. In 1914, Parsons married John Parsons. In 1915, she married second husband John McCaffrey Jr. a year later. The couple later divorced.

She pursued singing as a hobby and began voice lessons with Estelle Liebling, Beverly Sills' voice coach.

Dr. Harry Martin, a Los Angeles surgeon who was also known as "Docky") in 1930, was her third marriage; Martin served in the Army Medical Corps during World War I and World War II. His passion was venereal diseases, and he rose to the role as the Twentieth Century Fox's chief medical officer. He was also known as a heavy drinker. They were married until Martin's death on June 24, 1951.

After Martin's death, she dated Jimmy McHugh, a fellow Catholic who led her to many of the new teenage musical sensations of the day, including Elvis Presley. Both were a hit at dances, premieres, and even nightcaps like Dino's Lodge on Sunset Strip.

Harriet will write a book about her mother's passion for writing and find a career as a writer for a well-known California publication. She became one of the few female producers in Hollywood's film industry, though she struggled in this position despite her impressive mother's influence.

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Career

Parsons first began writing the first movie gossip column in the United States for the Chicago Record Herald in 1914. William Randolph Hearst bought the newspaper in 1918, but Parsons was out of work as Hearst did not know that movies and movie stars were news. Parsons later moved to New York City and started writing a similar movie column, which attracted Hearst's attention after he heard her interview with his mistress and protégé Marion Davies. While the majority of critics dismissed Davies, Parsons encouraged readers to "give this girl a chance." Parsons lauded the former chorus girl for her friendship, which culminated in her joining Hearst in 1923 for her to become the New York Times' $200-a-week motion picture editor. Davies' continuing praise of her incessant praise did not go unnoticed by others. In her column and a tongue-in-cheek societal catchphrase, "Marion never looked lovelier" became a common.

Parsons' employment as the Hearst chain's top gossip columnist was reportedly boosted due to a controversy surrounding which she did not write. Thomas Ince, a 1924 director, died after being carried off Hearst's yacht, who was reportedly hospitalized for indigestion. Ince had not been aboard the boat at all and had fallen sick at the newspaper mogul's house, according to several Hearst newspapers. When he was removed from the yacht, Charlie Chaplin's secretary noticed a bullet hole in Ince's head. Chaplin was reportedly having an affair with Hearst's mistress Davies, and it was suggested that a plot to kill Chaplin may have caused Ince's death. Parsons was on the yacht that night, according to her, but she denied the tale in her columns. Heart disease was the suspected cause of death.

Parsons was a founding member of the New York Newspaper Women's Club and was elected president of the group for a single term in 1925.

Parsons had tuberculosis in 1925 and was told she had six months to live. She spent a year in Palm Springs, California, which later made it a hit among Hollywood movie stars. She moved to Arizona for the dry climate and then to Los Angeles, where she stayed. She returned to work after the disease had been laid off, and Hearst suggested she become a syndicated Hollywood columnist for his newspapers. With a readership of more than 20 million, Parsons' Los Angeles Examiner column became one of the most influential voices in the movie industry with her daily doses of gossip.

She hosted a weekly radio show starring movie star interviews that SunKist sponsored. Charis Foundation Garment sponsored a similar program in 1931. She signed a deal with the Campbell's Soup Company in 1934 and began hosting a Hollywood Hotel, which showcased actors in scenes from their forthcoming films. The actors appeared for free, which disappointed neither the actors or all of the actors, but in the case of reprisals, they did not protest. "My first exclusive of tonight is..." the show's opening line was feared. Since the Screen Actors Guild refused to pay its members, the show was cancelled. Warner Bros. paid her $50,000 to appear in a filmed version of 1937, but the film flopped.

Parsons viewed herself as the social and moral arbiter of Hollywood, and many of them feared her disfavor more than movie critics.

In studio corridors, hairdressers' salons, and attorneys' and physicians' offices, parsons were notified. Harry Martin, a urologist and Hollywood doctor, was arrested and debating evidence he acquired while working as a studio doctor, according to the website. She worked from her Beverly Hills home with a team consisting of a secretary, her assistant reviewer (Dorothy Manners, who served with Parsons for thirty years), a "leg" man who assembled news, and a female reporter who covered the cafés. She had three telephones in her office. 4.1 To assist them financially, she had former silent-movie actors on her payroll.

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford's divorce was her most notable celebrity at the time, according to her, she was the most important news of her career. Parsons had no idea of the demise of Pickford herself, who had committed the error of counting on the columnist's discretion. Parsons sat on the story for six weeks, wishing that they would reconcile and concerned that the news would hurt the film industry, but the Los Angeles Times revealed when she learned that the Los Angeles Times had also picked the news.

Parsons essentially held Mrs. Gable hostage at her house until she was sure that her story was moving across the wire ahead of any other service. Clark Gable had been divorcing his second wife Ria.

In 1938, Hedda Hopper, a youngster, was first friendly and helpful. However, they were determined to be fierce rivals.

Parsons have appeared in many cameo film, including Without Reservations (1946) and Starlift (1951).

Parsons' writing style, in comparison to her arch-rival Hedda Hopper, who was known for her column's crass tone, was often described as "sweetness and light" or "gooey." She has been chastised for her casual chatty tone and casual mention of dates and places. 1 She defended her assertion that "the best gossip" is informal: 2 and that the speed at which she had to complete her daily column did not allow for much editing or polishing. She said she'd rather get the word out than potentially offending her readers.

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She became well-known in Hollywood for assuming a goofy tone in order to snap up material without people knowing she was listening or otherwise letting their guard down.

Parsons' fame has diminished following Hearst's death in 1951 and with the emergence of actors as producers. She began to show signs of physical decline, and when the Los Angeles Examiner folded in 1962, her column was moved to the Hearst afternoon newspaper, the Los Angeles Herald-Express. That gave Hopper's appearances in the morning Los Angeles Times that she had no advantage over him.

Dorothy Manners, her assistant, had been writing the column for more than a year, and she continued her column until December 1965, when it was taken over by her assistant, who had already been writing the column for more than a year.

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