Trivia of Hedda Hopper

 Trivia of Hedda Hopper (2 May 1885 - 1 February 1966)

*Hopper made her debut in the chorus of an opera company on ‘Broadway.’ However, she did not achieve much success. Broadway Impresario, Florenz Ziegfeld called her a "clumsy cow" and brushed off her pleas for a slot in his lavish Follies. Later, she joined the musical theater company of actor-singer and theatrical producer William DeWolf Hopper Sr. She toured with the company and appeared in the chorus.

*In 1913, she married DeWolf Hopper and became his fifth wife. To avoid being mistaken for his previous wives, Hopper consulted a numerologist and changed her name to “Hedda.”

*Her motion picture debut was in The Battle of Hearts (1916). In those days, actors were supposed to buy or wear their own costumes. For her 1918 movie ‘Virtuous Wives,’ she spent her entire paycheck of $5,000 on her costumes for the film. This was done to attract attention and to steal the show from the lead, and she succeeded in doing so.

*Hopper was known for her collection of flamboyant hats. She enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle and called her mansion “the house that fear built.”

*In 1937, she got an offer for writing a gossip column. She made her debut with the column ‘Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood’ in the ‘Los Angeles Times’ on February 14, 1938.Her gossip column had a rich assortment of attacks on several film stars of the day. In particular, actress Joan Bennett was Hopper's No. 1 subject of disdain. In response, Bennett mailed Hopper a skunk as a Valentine's Day gift in 1950 with a note that read, "You Stink!".

*Hopper was a conservationist and openly opposed communists, people who sympathized with communists, homosexuals, and people who (according to her) led self-indulgent and immoral lives. She was among those who created the ‘Hollywood Blacklist.’ She made use of her vast readership to manipulate the public outlook for or against any person related to the film industry. Those who faced her criticism included screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, Charlie Chaplin, Ingrid Bergman, and Joan Bennett. Hopper also disapproved of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton for their dissolute lifestyles.

*Hopper was an advocate for actress Joan Crawford, whose career suffered in the early 1940s after she was labelled "Box-Office Poison" and forced to resign from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1945, Hopper reprinted a press release for Mildred Pierce in her column, which described Crawford as a leading contender for the Best Actress Oscar. Such was Hopper's influence that she was credited with swinging the decision in Crawford's favor when she won the award. Hopper's support has been described as the first instance of lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to favor a certain nominee.

*In her late acting career, she made appearance as herself in some movies, such : Sunset Boulevard (1950), Pepe (1960), The Patsy (1964), The Oscar (1966).