Hedda Hopper Hats - and the FBI Files

Ms. Hedda Hopper was a star of the B Movie in old Hollywood, making 120 films.

After that film-packed career, Ms. Hopper became an assistant customer designer in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her specialty was hats and she made them and wore them as well. Many were outrageous and she became famous for them. In fact, her name is synonomous with "hat" in Hollywood history.

Ms. Hopper's fashion style provided her with enough fame that it acted as a springboard toward securing her own Hollywood gossip column, Hedda Hopper's Hollywood. She and Louella Parsons, another gossip columnist, raised celebrity gossip to a science and art form that increased newspaper circulation and sales. This, in turn, fueled the film box office for greater success and even more gossip.

I wonder what they would think of Britney - and LADY GAGA - and the rest today?

Hedda's first syndicated column ran on February 14, 1938, followed by the addition of a national radio show.

Hedda Hopper had an FBI file 2 inches thick when it was delivered to her grandson. Hedda was so influential that she could make sure that a Hollywood actor lost his or her livelihood with just a few words.

Howard Hughes was a good friend and inspected every plane she rode. J. Edgar Hoover reportedly supplied her with gossip about Hollywood "communists." Unfortunately, some stars blacklisted by the 1950s government as communist and communist sympathizers, considered dangerous to the US, never worked again. Some died in poverty. Meanwhile, Hopper supposedly helped Ronald Reagan rise to the presidency of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and he became a Republican -- He had been a Democrat.

How much influence did Hedda Hopper have on the American Film Industry? Perhaps quite a lot.

I remember hearing some snippets of her presentations on the air, rebroadcast in the late1960s and I thought they were very incriminating, perhaps to extremes.

These are quotes Hedda made about Hollywood actors and actresses. She was sarcastic and biting in her criticism and may have targeted some for communist blacklisting.

She looks like she combs her hair with an egg beater.

At one time I thought he wanted to be an actor. He had certain qualifications, including no money and a total lack of responsibility.

Two of the cruelest, most primitive punishments our town deals out to those who fall from favor are the empty mailbox and the silent telephone