Louella Parsons

Louella Parsons was born on August 6, 1881 in Freeport, Illinois, USA as Louella Rose Oettinger.

She falsified her year of birth to 1893. But that would have been impossible, as her father died in 1890.

She had one child, Harriet Parsons (August 23, 1906-January 2, 1983) who grew up to be one of Hollywood's first woman film producers.

After the death of her first husband in 1911, she moved to Chicago and got a job as a script reader for Essanay Studios. She later created the first movie column for The Chicago Herald, before moving on to The New York Morning Telegram, where she remained until joining William Randolph Hearst's organization in 1922.

Became a syndicated Hollywood columnist for William Randolph Hearst, so her "Los Angeles Examiner" column appeared in over six hundred newspapers the world over and made her one of the most powerful voices in the movie business (1925).

She was an actress and writer, known for Hollywood Hotel (1937), Without Reservations (1946) and Starlift (1951). She was married to Dr. Henry Watson Martin, John McCaffrey Jr. and John Demont Parsons.

Her memoir, "The Gay Illiterate", published in 1944, became a bestseller and was followed by "Tell It to Louella" in 1961.

A dual biography of Hedda Hopper and Parsons, "Hedda and Louella" by George Eells, was published in paperback by Warner Books in 1972.

Played by Elizabeth Taylor in Malice in Wonderland (1985), Brenda Blethyn in RKO 281 (1999) and Jennifer Tilly in Cat's Meow (2001).

Her longtime residence on North Maple Dr. in Beverly Hills is shown in Hollywood Mouth 2 (2014).