The First Lady of Hollywood by Samantha Barbas

The First Lady of Hollywood by Samantha Barbas

Hollywood 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 biography of Parsons tells the story of her reign over Hollywood during the studio era.

"An absorbing book about celebrity culture and Hollywood power politics.. a pleasing amalgam of rigorous scholarship and popular history. It will appeal to a wide range of readers." - Sheldon Kirshner, Canadian Jewish News "Thoughtful, well-written." - Gregory, McNamee, Hollywood Reporter "The in-depth description of the power that Parsons wielded within the industry is especially illuminating, as is the chronicle of intense rivalries with other columnists-most notably, Hedda Hopper. Solid details of Parsons's life aid in presenting a three-dimensional portrait of both the woman and the public figure. This well-researched and finely written work will appeal to a wide readership." - Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal (Starred Review) "This is a terrific book about an unusual life, and the author has done a great service by documenting it so carefully, incidentally exposing all the falsehoods Parsons related in her own 1945 autobiography, The Gay Illiterate." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A thoughtful biography." - Mark Lewis, New York Times Book Review"

Samantha Barbas has a Ph.D. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity (2001).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780520249851
ISBN 10	0520249852
Title	The First Lady of Hollywood
Author	Samantha Barbas
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University of California Press
Year published	2005-10-24
Number of pages	426
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.