Portrait of Louella Parsons

Birthday profile

Louella Parsons

Louella Parsons, American journalist (died 1972)

Born
August 6, 1881
Died
December 9, 1972
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1881

About Louella Parsons

Louella Rose Oettinger Parsons (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972), was an American gossip columnist and screenwriter. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 700 newspapers worldwide. She was the first writer of a dedicated column on motion pictures in the United States, writing one in 1914 for the Chicago Record-Herald. She later started a similar column for the New York Morning Telegraph, being lured away by William Randolph Hearst's New York American in 1924 because she had championed Hearst's mistress Marion Davies. She subsequently became an influential figure in Hollywood and remained the unchallenged "Queen of Hollywood gossip" until the arrival of the flamboyant Hedda Hopper, with whom she feuded for years. While still in college, Parsons obtained her first newspaper job as a part-time writer for the Dixon Star. In 1902, she became the first female journalist in Dixon, where she gossiped about Dixon social circles, making a step towards her Hollywood career.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Louella Parsons timeline

  1. In 1902, she became the first female journalist in Dixon, where she gossiped about Dixon social circles, making a step towards her Hollywood career.
  2. She was the first writer of a dedicated column on motion pictures in the United States, writing one in 1914 for the Chicago Record-Herald.

The world when Louella Parsons was born

Louella Parsons was born in 1881. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlinePresident Garfield assassinated
  • Technology milestoneFirst electric power plant (Godalming, England)
  • World population~1.41B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames A. Garfield / Chester A. Arthur
  • U.S. population51.0M

1881 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Louella Parsons's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18812026
Population51.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.