@article{1479617,
      recid = {1479617},
      author = {Frost, Jennifer, },
      title = {Hedda Hopper's Hollywood : Celebrity Gossip and American  Conservatism /},
      pages = {1 online resource},
      abstract = {Before Liz Smith and Perez Hilton became household names  in the world of celebrity gossip, before Rush Limbaugh  became the voice of conservatism, there was Hedda Hopper.  In 1938, this 52-year-old struggling actress rose to fame  and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, "Hedda  Hopper's Hollywood," that appeared in the Los Angeles Times  and other newspapers throughout Hollywood's golden age.  Often eviscerating moviemakers and stars, her column earned  her a nasty reputation in the film industry while winning a  legion of some 32 million fans, whose avid support  established her as the voice of small-town America. Yet  Hopper sought not only to build her career as a gossip  columnist but also to push her agenda of staunch moral and  political conservatism, using her column to argue against  U.S. entry into World War II, uphold traditional views of  sex and marriage, defend racist roles for African  Americans, and enthusiastically support the Hollywood  blacklist.While usually dismissed as an eccentric crank,  Jennifer Frost argues that Hopper has had a profound and  lasting influence on popular and political culture and  should be viewed as a pivotal popularizer of conservatism.  The first book to explore Hopper's gossip career and the  public's response to both her column and her politics,  Hedda Hopper's Hollywood illustrates how the conservative  gossip maven contributed mightily to the public  understanding of film, while providing a platform for women  to voice political views within a traditionally masculine  public realm. Jennifer Frost builds the case that, as  practiced by Hopper and her readers, Hollywood gossip  shaped key developments in American movies and movie  culture, newspaper journalism and conservative politics,  along with the culture of gossip itself, all of which  continue to play out today.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1479617},
}