Everything about Hedda Hopper totally explained
Hedda Hopper (
May 2,
1885 –
February 1,
1966) was an
American actress and
gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival
Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.
Early life
She was born
Elda Furry in
Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania, the daughter of David and Margaret Furry, who were Quakers.
Her siblings included Dora Furry (born March 1880); Sherman Furry (born June 1882); Cameron Furry (born September 1887); Edgar Furry (April 20, 1889-November 1975); Frank M. Furry (born August 1891); and Margaret Furry (born July 1897).
The family moved to nearby
Altoona when Elda was three. Her father was a butcher who owned a shop. She eventually ran away to
New York and began her
career as a
chorus line dancer on the
Broadway stage. After a few years, she joined the theatre company of matinee idol
DeWolf Hopper, whom she called "Wolfie."
In her words, "Dancing came easy to me. And in singing, what my voice lacked in quality it made up for in volume." Thus, she remained in the chorus and they toured the country from one end to the other.
While in the Hopper company, she realized that chorus and
understudy jobs were not acting. She wanted to act, and she knew she'd have to prove herself before she could hope to get anywhere in the theatre. Hearing that Edgar Selwyn was casting his
play The Country Boy for a road tour, she went to his office and talked him into letting her audition for the lead. She was given the role and the show toured for thirty-five weeks through forty-eight states.
She studied singing during the summer and, in the fall, went out with
The Quaker Girl in the second lead, the
prima donna role. The show closed in
Albany.
On
May 8 1913 she married DeWolf Hopper in
New Jersey. They had one child, the actor
William Hopper, best known for playing
Paul Drake in the
Perry Mason series. They were divorced on
January 20 1924.
Elda Hopper paid a
numerologist $10 to tell her what name she should use, and the answer was Hedda.
Career
Hopper began acting in
silent movies in 1915. Her
motion picture debut was in
Battle of Hearts (1916). She appeared in more than 120 movies over the following twenty-three years, usually portraying distinguished-looking society women.
As her movie career waned in the mid-1930s, Hopper looked for other sources of income. In 1937, she was offered the chance of a lifetime and embarked on a career doing something she was quite adept at:
gossip. She began writing a
gossip column for a
Los Angeles newspaper.
After years of struggling as an actress, she'd finally found her niche. She christened the home she purchased in
Beverly Hills "The House That Fear Built." She then had a notorious feud with the long-established
Louella Parsons, who had been friendly to her in print and to whom she'd sometimes passed information. Hopper and Parsons became arch-rivals competing fiercely, and often nastily, for the title "Queen of Hollywood", although those who knew both declared that Hopper was the more sadistic, surprising given Hopper's Quaker background.
ZaSu Pitts compared Hopper to "a
ferret", and pointed out that she shouldn't have been surprised her (Hedda's) own movie career didn't pan out.
Known for her gossipy comments and
movie star interviews, Hopper debuted as host of her own
radio program,
The Hedda Hopper Show,
November 6,
1939. It was sponsored by
Sunkist on
CBS three times a week for fifteen minutes.
From
October 2,
1944 to
September 3,
1945,
Armour Treet sponsored the once a week program. On
September 10,
1945, it changed to
ABC, again sponsored by Armour once a week, and ran until
June 3,
1946.
Hopper moved back to CBS
October 5,
1946, with a once a week, fifteen minute program titled
This Is Hollywood, which was sponsored by
Procter & Gamble. It ran until
June 28,
1947. The last season on the air had a change to thirty minutes and also changed to
NBC.
From
October 14,
1950 to
November 11,
1950 on Saturdays, then from
November 19,
1950 to
May 20,
1951 on Sundays, she was heard hosting a program that contained music, talk, and dramatized excerpts from movies with a variety of the biggest names in the industry. She also did a
television spot.
She was noted for her hats, considered her trademark, mostly because of her unusual taste for large, flamboyant ones. She was known for hobnobbing with the biggest names in the industry, for getting a "scoop" before almost anyone else most of the time, and for being vicious in dealing with those who displeased her, whether intentionally or not. The columnist J.J. Hunsecker, played by
Burt Lancaster in the film
Sweet Smell of Success, is said to have been inspired partly by Hopper.
Hopper courted controversy as well for "naming names" of suspected or alleged Communists during the
Hollywood Blacklist.
She tried to "out"
Cary Grant and
Randolph Scott as
gay lovers, but Grant was too big a star even for her to touch. She also spread the gossip that
Michael Wilding and
Stewart Granger had been intimate.
Hopper also had several acting roles during the latter part of her career, including a brief
cameo appearance as herself in the movie
Sunset Boulevard (1950), and another on a
1955 episode of TV's
I Love Lucy. Also,
The Beverly Hillbillies(1964), where she played herself.
On
January 10,
1960, a TV special,
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood, aired on
NBC. Hosted by Hopper, guest interviews included an extremely eclectic mix of then-current and former stars:
Lucille Ball (a friend of Hopper),
Francis X. Bushman,
John Cassavetes,
Robert Cummings,
Marion Davies,
Walt Disney,
Janet Gaynor,
Bob Hope,
Hope Lange,
Anthony Perkins,
Debbie Reynolds,
James Stewart, and
Gloria Swanson.
Her
autobiography,
From Under My Hat, was published in 1952 by Doubleday & Company. It was followed with
The Whole Truth and Nothing But (1963), also published by Doubleday. In 1964, she played herself in the
Jerry Lewis comedy
The Patsy.
Hopper remained active as a
writer until her death, producing six daily columns and a Sunday column for the
Chicago Tribune syndicate, as well as writing countless articles for
celebrity magazines such as
Photoplay.
She died of double pneumonia at the age of 80 in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood. She is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery,
Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Hopper has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313 1/2 Hollywood Boulevard in
Hollywood.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hedda Hopper'.
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