Jon Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520284319
- eISBN:
- 9780520959910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284319.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The gossip industry underwent a fundamental transition after the war, from the gawking clatter of the classical era fan magazines to the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons and scandal ...
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The gossip industry underwent a fundamental transition after the war, from the gawking clatter of the classical era fan magazines to the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons and scandal sheets that so successfully harried the Hollywood community after the war. Movie stars were lucky and pretty, rich and famous. But they were as well political neophytes and their everyday lives were, thanks to the columnists after the war, lumbered with undue consequence. It was one thing for the columnists to bemoan the unearned privileges of celebrity, and then to cut folks so lucky and full of themselves down to size. But it was quite another to cast the private and personal lives of these celebrities as fundamentally anti-social and un-American, to subject the lives and loves of movie stars to a narrow and frankly unrelated notion of patriotism, one that asked movie stars to behave, or at least pretend to behave, like the rest of us.Less
The gossip industry underwent a fundamental transition after the war, from the gawking clatter of the classical era fan magazines to the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons and scandal sheets that so successfully harried the Hollywood community after the war. Movie stars were lucky and pretty, rich and famous. But they were as well political neophytes and their everyday lives were, thanks to the columnists after the war, lumbered with undue consequence. It was one thing for the columnists to bemoan the unearned privileges of celebrity, and then to cut folks so lucky and full of themselves down to size. But it was quite another to cast the private and personal lives of these celebrities as fundamentally anti-social and un-American, to subject the lives and loves of movie stars to a narrow and frankly unrelated notion of patriotism, one that asked movie stars to behave, or at least pretend to behave, like the rest of us.
Jennifer Frost
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814728239
- eISBN:
- 9780814728482
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814728239.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
In 1938, Hedda Hopper (a 52-year-old struggling actress) rose to fame and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood,” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other ...
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In 1938, Hedda Hopper (a 52-year-old struggling actress) rose to fame and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood,” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers throughout Hollywood's golden age. Often eviscerating moviemakers and stars, her column earned her a nasty reputation in the film industry while winning a legion of some 32 million fans, whose avid support established her as the voice of small-town America. Yet Hopper sought not only to build her career as a gossip columnist but also to push her agenda of staunch moral and political conservatism, using her column to argue against U.S. entry into World War II, uphold traditional views of sex and marriage, defend racist roles for African Americans, and enthusiastically support the Hollywood blacklist. While usually dismissed as an eccentric crank, this book argues that Hopper has had a profound and lasting influence on popular and political culture and should be viewed as a pivotal popularizer of conservatism. The first book to explore Hopper's gossip career and the public's response to her column and her politics, the book illustrates how the conservative gossip maven contributed mightily to the public understanding of film, while providing a platform for women to voice political views within a traditionally masculine public realm. It builds the case that, as practiced by Hopper and her readers, Hollywood gossip shaped key developments in American movies and movie culture, newspaper journalism and conservative politics, along with the culture of gossip itself, all of which continue to play out today.Less
In 1938, Hedda Hopper (a 52-year-old struggling actress) rose to fame and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood,” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers throughout Hollywood's golden age. Often eviscerating moviemakers and stars, her column earned her a nasty reputation in the film industry while winning a legion of some 32 million fans, whose avid support established her as the voice of small-town America. Yet Hopper sought not only to build her career as a gossip columnist but also to push her agenda of staunch moral and political conservatism, using her column to argue against U.S. entry into World War II, uphold traditional views of sex and marriage, defend racist roles for African Americans, and enthusiastically support the Hollywood blacklist. While usually dismissed as an eccentric crank, this book argues that Hopper has had a profound and lasting influence on popular and political culture and should be viewed as a pivotal popularizer of conservatism. The first book to explore Hopper's gossip career and the public's response to her column and her politics, the book illustrates how the conservative gossip maven contributed mightily to the public understanding of film, while providing a platform for women to voice political views within a traditionally masculine public realm. It builds the case that, as practiced by Hopper and her readers, Hollywood gossip shaped key developments in American movies and movie culture, newspaper journalism and conservative politics, along with the culture of gossip itself, all of which continue to play out today.
Jennifer Frost
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814728239
- eISBN:
- 9780814728482
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814728239.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This introductory chapter discusses Hedda Hopper's career. Hopper rose to fame as a nationally syndicated Hollywood gossip columnist. Published in eighty-five metropolitan newspapers as well as ...
More
This introductory chapter discusses Hedda Hopper's career. Hopper rose to fame as a nationally syndicated Hollywood gossip columnist. Published in eighty-five metropolitan newspapers as well as small-town dailies and weeklies in the 1940s, she had an estimated daily readership of 32 million (out of a national population of 160 million) in the mid-1950s and remained influential into the next decade. Her nasty reputation dominated her career and overshadows her historical significance. Industry participants attributed Hopper's malicious gossip to her jealousy as a failed actress toward others' success; to her strident conservatism that propelled her on political witch hunts; and to her bitter rivalry with Louella Parsons, who preceded and competed with her in the movie gossip business. The remainder of the chapter describes Hopper's determination, starting at a young age, to leave the town where she had been raised, Altoona, Pennsylvania; her theatrical and early motion picture work; and beginnings of her gossip career.Less
This introductory chapter discusses Hedda Hopper's career. Hopper rose to fame as a nationally syndicated Hollywood gossip columnist. Published in eighty-five metropolitan newspapers as well as small-town dailies and weeklies in the 1940s, she had an estimated daily readership of 32 million (out of a national population of 160 million) in the mid-1950s and remained influential into the next decade. Her nasty reputation dominated her career and overshadows her historical significance. Industry participants attributed Hopper's malicious gossip to her jealousy as a failed actress toward others' success; to her strident conservatism that propelled her on political witch hunts; and to her bitter rivalry with Louella Parsons, who preceded and competed with her in the movie gossip business. The remainder of the chapter describes Hopper's determination, starting at a young age, to leave the town where she had been raised, Altoona, Pennsylvania; her theatrical and early motion picture work; and beginnings of her gossip career.
