03422nam 2200661Ia 450 991081977030332120200520144314.01-282-35871-597866123587150-520-94024-51-59875-587-010.1525/9780520940246(CKB)1000000000030764(EBL)236966(OCoLC)475945542(SSID)ssj0000155528(PQKBManifestationID)11161049(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000155528(PQKBWorkID)10100123(PQKB)11595274(MiAaPQ)EBC236966(OCoLC)61160173(MdBmJHUP)muse30655(DE-B1597)520576(DE-B1597)9780520940246(Au-PeEL)EBL236966(CaPaEBR)ebr10084607(CaONFJC)MIL235871(OCoLC)936907499(EXLCZ)99100000000003076420050325d2005 ub 0engurnn#---|u||utxtccrThe first lady of Hollywood a biography of Louella Parsons /Samantha Barbas1st ed.Berkeley University of California Pressc20051 online resource (442 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-520-24985-2 0-520-24213-0 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --Contents --Acknowledgments --Prologue --PART I --PART II --PART III --NOTES --BIBLIOGRAPHY --INDEXHollywood celebrities feared her. William Randolph Hearst adored her. Between 1915 and 1960, Louella Parsons was America's premier movie gossip columnist and in her heyday commanded a following of more than forty million readers. This first full-length biography of Parsons tells the story of her reign over Hollywood during the studio era, her lifelong alliance with her employer, William Randolph Hearst, and her complex and turbulent relationships with such noted stars, directors, and studio executives as Orson Welles, Joan Crawford, Louis B. Mayer, Ronald Reagan, and Frank Sinatra-as well as her rival columnists Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Loved by fans for her "just folks," small-town image, Parsons became notorious within the film industry for her involvement in the suppression of the 1941 film Citizen Kane and her use of blackmail in the service of Hearst's political and personal agendas. As she traces Parsons's life and career, Samantha Barbas situates Parsons's experiences in the broader trajectory of Hollywood history, charting the rise of the star system and the complex interactions of publicity, journalism, and movie-making. Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, The First Lady of Hollywood is both an engrossing chronicle of one of the most powerful women in American journalism and film and a penetrating analysis of celebrity culture and Hollywood power politics.Gossip columnistsUnited StatesBiographyGossip columnists070.4/4979143/092BBarbas Samantha1094093MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910819770303321The first lady of Hollywood4026166UNINA