Hedda Hopper: died Feb. 1, 1966 and her connection to BASEBALL

[James Moore]

Hedda's crusade against "Citizen Kane" was probably less out of any loyalty
to Hearst than hopes that she could cut the same sort of lucrative deal
bestowed on her rival Louella Parsons, after "Lolli" lied and said she was
in New York during the Tom Ince affair, and not a guest at the party held on
Hearst's yacht when Ince died. While Ince's death was officially from
"indigestion," a long standing legend has been that Ince in fact died from a
fatal shot fired by either Hearst or one of his henchmen and intended for
Charlie Chaplin, whom Hearst suspected of having an affair with Marion
Davies. Louella, the story goes, saw it all, and took advantage of the
situation. I'm sure many in Hollywood would have preferred for Lolli to get
offed as well, a la Salome Otterbourne in "Death on the Nile." ("And as I
came round the corner, I saw" - BLAM!)

--
Cheers,

James

http://outcyclopedia.0catch.com

[dgh]

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 00:50:55 GMT, "Rob Petrie" <r*@att.net> wrote:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394407/bio

Hedda Hopper, 80
(May 2, 1885 Hollidaysburg, PA - Feb. 1, 1966 Hollywood, CA)

"Mother of actor William Hopper"

"Hedda's husband, DeWolf Hopper Sr., was the one who made Ernest
Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat" famous, performing it over 10,000
times.

Comedian Red Skelton once painted a rather cartoonish portrait in oil
of Hedda and gave it to her. Her son William ("Perry Mason") Hopper
owned the work until his death. Today it is worth about $22,000.

Hedda's political allies/sources in the 40s and 50s included Joe
McCarthy, Howard Hughes, Ronald Reagan, J. Edgar Hoover and William
Randolph Hearst.

She had unlimited sources of "dirt" on the entertainment society
through her relationship with FBI Chief Hoover; she tried to topple
Citizen Kane because of her friendship with Hearst; aided McCarthy in
outing "leftist" actors; helped jumpstart Reagan into politics; and
refused to board a plane unless Howard Hughes personally inspected
it."

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394438/bio

William Hopper, 55 [Jan. 26, 1915 - Mar. 6, 1970]

"Originally designated to play the Perry Mason role on the classic
lawyer series with Raymond Burr as Paul Drake, the roles were switched
before shooting began."