Louella Parsons

 Louella Parsons, born Louella Rose Oettinger (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972)

Parsons was the first American movie columnist and a screenwriter. She was retained by tycoon William Randolph Hearst. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 400 newspapers worldwide. She remained Queen of Hollywood until the arrival of flamboyant Hedda Hopper, who displayed similar talents, and with whom she feuded viciously for years. In her teens, Louella was already a smart and intelligent young woman, but there were few literary outlets for 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 a foretelling speech, entitled "Great Men," after which her principal announced that she would become a great writer. 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. She later became 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, 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. Her unofficial title ‘Queen of Hollywood’ was challenged in 1938 by newcomer Hedda Hopper, to whom she was initially friendly and helpful. But they became fierce rivals, Hopper being classed as the more vicious and unforgiving of the two.

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 her retirement, Parsons lived in a nursing home where she died of arteriosclerosis on December 9, 1972, age 91. She is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA.