Louella Parsons

Louella Parsons
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.
Occupation	Gossip columnist, screenwriter
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	John Dement Parsons (1905-1914; divorced) 1 daughter John McCaffrey Jr. (1915-19??; divorced) Henry W. Martin (1926-1964; his death)
Children	Harriet Parsons (1906-1983)

Louella Parsons (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was the first American movie columnist. She was retained by William Randolph Hearst, possibly because she had praised Hearst's mistress Marion Davies, and her columns were read by 20 million people in 400 newspapers worldwide.

Parsons possessed an uncanny gift for sensing scandal, and her dramatic scoops could make or break an actor's career. She remained the unchallenged Queen of Hollywood until the arrival of Hedda Hopper, who displayed similar talents, and with whom she feuded viciously for years.

Early life

She was born Louella Rose Oettinger in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Joshua Oettinger and Helen Stein, both of German Jewish descent. She had two brothers, Edwin and Fred, and a sister, Rae. In 1890, her widowed mother married John H. Edwards. They lived in Dixon, Illinois, later hometown of Ronald Reagan.

As a teenager, Louella was a smart and intelligent young woman. She found little literary outlets to fuel her ambitions. It wasn't until high school that Louella decided to become a writer or a reporter. On June 4, 1901 at her high school graduation, Louella gave foretelling speech entitled “Great Men”. Afterwards her Principal announced that she would become a great writer.

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 the Dixon 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.

She and her first husband, John Parsons, moved to Burlington, Iowa. Her only child, Harriet (1906–1983), who grew up to become a film producer, was born there. While in Burlington, Parsons saw her first motion picture, The Great Train Robbery (1903).

When her marriage broke up, Parsons moved to Chicago. In 1912, she had her first taste of the movie industry by selling a script for $25 to the Essanay Company, once the home of Charlie Chaplin. Her small daughter, Harriet, was billed as "Baby Parsons" in several movies, which included The Magic Wand (1912), 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 States for the Chicago Record Herald. 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 the New York Morning Telegraph writing a similar movie column, which attracted the attention of Hearst. In 1923, after shrewd bargaining on both sides, she signed a contract and joined the Hearst newspaper the New York American.

In 1925, Parsons contracted tuberculosis and was told she had six months to live. She moved to Arizona for the dry climate, then to Los Angeles, where she decided to stay. With the disease in remission, she went back to work, becoming a syndicated Hollywood columnist for Hearst. As she and the publishing mogul had developed an ironclad relationship, her Los Angeles Examiner 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 protégé Marion Davies 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 radio program featuring movie star 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 many of the secrets of celebrities.^{[citation needed]} She was associated with various Hearst enterprises for the rest of her career. Parsons saw herself as the social and moral arbiter of Hollywood. Her judgments were considered the final word in many cases, and her disfavor was feared by many more than that of movie critics. Eventually, Parson's daily gossip column appeared in more than 400 newspapers, and read by 20 million people around the world.

Her formidable power remained unchallenged until February 14, 1937, when Hedda Hopper, a struggling character actress since the days of silent movies, 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 rivals.

Parsons also appeared in numerous cameo spots in movies, including Hollywood Hotel (1937), Without Reservations (1946), and Starlift (1951).

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.

After the 50's, Parsons's influence diminished. 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.

Personal life

Louella 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 named Harriet who was born on August 23, 1906, in Burlington City, Des Moines County, Iowa. Harriet would later follow her mother's passion for writing, and would find employment as a writer for a popular California magazine. Parsons divorced John in 1914. A year later, she married second husband John McCaffrey, Jr. in 1915. The couple later divorced. Her third marriage was with Los Angeles surgeon Henry "Harry" Watson Martin (whom she called "Docky") in 1926; Martin served in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. They remained married until Martin's death on June 24, 1951.

Later years and death

After her retirement, Parsons lived in a nursing home where she died of arteriosclerosis on December 9, 1972, age 91. A convert to Roman Catholicism,^{[citation needed]} her funeral Mass was attended by individuals from the movie industry with whom she had maintained genuine friendships. She was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery Culver City, California. Burial at this cemetery confirmed her conversion to Christianity before her death.

Louella Parsons has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, one for motion pictures at 6418 Hollywood Boulevard and one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard.

Portrayals in popular culture

• Parsons was caricatured in Frank Tashlin's cartoon The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (1937) as "Louella Possums".
• Elizabeth Taylor portrayed Parsons in the TV film Malice in Wonderland (1985) opposite Jane Alexander as Hedda Hopper.
• Brenda Blethyn portrayed Louella in RKO 281 aka Citizen Welles, a 2000 motion picture about the making of Citizen Kane and the relation between Orson Welles, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies.
• Jennifer Tilly portrayed Parsons in the feature film The Cat's Meow (2001) which was inspired by the mysterious death of film mogul Thomas H. Ince in 1924.
• She appears as a character in Ken Ludwig's play Shakespeare in Hollywood (2004).
• Natalie Pinot portrayed Parsons in the Monologue Louella Persons (2013) written by Secun de la Rosa and directed by Benjamin de la Rosa.

Listen to

• Louella Parsons at 1958 Masquers Club testimonial dinner for Judy Garland

Further reading

• Wagner, Rob Leicester (2000). Red Ink White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920-1962. Dragonflyer Press. ISBN 0-944933-80-7. 

External links

• Louella Parsons at the Internet Movie Database
• Interviews conducted by Louella Parsons with silent film Actors, Actresses, and Directors, reprinted in Taylorology
• Louella Parsons at Find a Grave
• Louella Parson at Virtual History