Hedda and Louella

1972, 1973 Warner edition
George Eells
Hedda and Louella
Original price $1.75, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback with stains
B-

Eells's "dual biography" of the sometimes duelling gossip columnists mostly alternates chapters on each woman, although he does address their feud and friendship.  Both lived very long lives, Hedda dying at about 80 in '66, and Louella hanging on into her early 90s, going at the end of the year this book was originally published.  In the early 1970s, "when many actors now consider marriage passé, when nude scenes are commonplace, when the star system is in disrepute," the two writers were definitely of another era, but there were still people who feared to talk about them.  On the other hand, Fabian couldn't even remember which one thought of herself as one of his biggest supporters.

Louella Parsons was stouter and more sentimental, although she could be cruel.  Hedda Hopper actually reminds me of Jennie Churchill, in that she looked eternally young and beautiful, and she could cry about her loneliness and then go to a swinging party.  (A similar anecdote appears in Jennie II.)  Hopper hid her kindnesses, but she was definitely vindictive, especially towards suspected Communists.  Parsons took pride in her errors and called one of her autobiographies The Gay Illiterate.  Hopper's last book accused Michael Wilding of being gay in the more modern sense, so he sued her for libel.

Eells does an OK job of pulling it all together, but at times keeping track of the in(s)anity of both women seems to overwhelm him.  The former Elda Furry went through a few name changes before settling on Hedda Hopper.  She was tired of DeWolf Hopper calling her by the names of his four previous wives-- Edna, Ida, Ella, and Nella.  Eells's footnote:  "So Hedda is also a two-syllable name ending in a?  Well, whoever accused the volatile Miss Hopper of being either logical or consistent?"