Hedda and Louella

by George Eells

Hedda and A Dual Biography of Hedda Hopper & Louella Parsons Hardcover

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Film

382 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Anne Cupero]

I have always enjoyed books about 30s and 40s times in Hollywood but this book, even though it had some interesting parts, did not fully cover either of the columnists. Writing biographies is a true art, and I would have liked to have felt that I had gotten to know either of these ladies by their portrayal, but I did not. Name-dropping is fine, after all, it is Hollywood, but when that is the focus, the result is not good.

[Steve]

I'm endlessly fascinated by the ways in which old Hollywood worked, and these two gossip columnists - Louella Parsons, the first queen of the game, and Hedda Hopper, who caught up to her as an equal during the 40s - played integral roles in the process. Hard as it is for us to imagine, their daily columns provided keys to success and sometimes failure for hundreds of actors, directors, producers, and screen writers. Eells does a good job of chronologically telling the life stories of each - I was particularly surprised to learn just how many films Hopper made during her acting days before she aged into her more famous career. He's not particularly great at analysis, and I would have enjoyed more examples of the columns' effects, but this was a well researched, entertaining look at a side of the motion picture biz that I had only been aware of peripherally.

[Graceann]

Please see my detailed review at Amazon.co.uk Graceann's "Hedda and Louella" Review"

Please click that the review was helpful to you at Amazon so that my rating continues to climb!

Sassy overview of the lives of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the two ladies who could kill a career if they so chose. It's only 341 pages, so it couldn't be comprehensive, but it sure was a fun read. So many anecdotes - I read quite a few out loud to my husband as I was making my way through the book.