Hedda Hopper, Hollywood Gossip, and World War II Isolationism
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Film History, Volume 22, pp. 170–181, 2010. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America Dissent and Consent in the “Good War”: Hedda Hopper, Hollywood Gossip, and World War II Isolationism Dissent and Consent in the Good War Jennifer Frost hile the common historical interpretation of highly partisan member of the Republican Party, she the American film industry during World War expressed strong animosity toward the Democratic WII is that “Hollywood went to war with gusto”, Party, labor unions, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights as Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black Movement, but was best known for her strident anti- succinctly put it, famed Hollywood gossip columnist communism. Hedda Hopper was a prominent exception.1 When Less known, but no less significant, was Hop- the Los Angeles Times picked up her fledgling movie per’s first opportunity as a new and rising Hollywood gossip column “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood”, in gossip columnist to take a major political stand: her 1938, the struggling, underemployed supporting ac- opposition to U.S. intervention in World War II. When tress became a powerful figure in the movie industry war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Hop- and a celebrity journalist rival to the “First Lady of per’s gossip career was only in its second year, but Hollywood”, Louella Parsons. Syndicated in eighty- she had a nationally syndicated column, a radio five metropolitan newspapers during the 1940s, as show and a large audience, and she fiercely em- well as weekly papers and small town dailies, Hop- braced isolationism. “Settle our home problems per’s column had an estimated daily readership of (which are great but overlooked these days)”, she 32 million by the mid-1950s (out of a national popu- urged in 1939, “and stop trying to run the rest of the lation of 160 million).2 Hopper, in her famous hats, world!”.4 Hopper’s vociferous stance against U.S. had become a Hollywood icon. intervention in World War II dovetailed with that of Yet Hopper also saw herself as a political figure other isolationists in journalism, such as William Ran- and activist. She used her journalistic platform to dolph Hearst. Like them, she used her column to express what she saw as proper political values, to promote her isolationist views and spur her readers advise and chastise members of the film industry in support. And like the vast majority of Americans, about their politics, and to mobilize her readers her isolationism can be viewed as an “intense antiwar around contemporary political issues. Letters from spirit” that was more a “mood that a political posi- readers throughout her career testified to their inter- tion”, in historian Michael S. Sherry’s words.5 Yet, est in politics as well. While it was not uncommon for gossip columnists to discuss politics – after all, Wal- ter Winchell “made the seemingly improbable leap Jennifer Frost is a Twentieth Century United States from gossipmonger to political commentator” in the social and cultural historian, and teaches in the De- 1930s, according to his biographer Neal Gabler – partment of History at the University of Auckland, New Hopper’s main competitor was Parsons, and Par- Zealand. Her book Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Ce- 3 lebrity Gossip and American Conservatism is forthcom- sons’s “heart was not in politics”. Hopper’s was. ing from New York University Press. Always a conservative, and a proud, active, and Correspondence to [email protected] FILM HISTORY: Volume 22, Number 2, 2010 – p. 170 Dissent and Consent in the “Good War” FILM HISTORY Vol. 22 Issue 2 (2010) 171 Fig. 1. Hedda Hopper broadcasts her radio gossip program on NBC, 1943. Photographed by Len Weissman. [Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.] even after Hopper officially fell in line and declared esses outside the immediate circles of filmmaking”, her patriotism following U.S. entry into the war, her the voices of the purveyors and participants in Holly- conservatism and lingering isolationism continued to wood gossip should be included in the “many shape and differentiate her wartime writings. voices” that contributed to the making – and mean- Hopper’s initial dissent (and eventual consent) ing-making – of movies and movie culture during regarding “the Good War”, as World War II has come World War II.6 As it turned out, not everyone in Hedda to be called, serves as a reminder that not all Ameri- Hopper’s Hollywood was wholly committed to pro- cans entered and fought the war in the same way. jecting World War II as “the Good War”. Moreover, Although the rhetoric and image of wartime unity just as historian John Sbardellati found the FBI’s owed much to the efforts of Hopper’s Hollywood forays into wartime Hollywood prefiguring the post- colleagues, prodded and encouraged by U.S. gov- war Red Scare, Hopper’s conservative isolationism ernment officials in the Bureau of Motion Pictures in anticipated stances she later would take as a relent- the Office of War Information (hereafter OWI), she did less Cold Warrior.7 not always follow along. As a conservative isolation- ist, Hopper experienced and understood the war Hopper’s isolationism differently than many in the industry upon which she What Hopper sought as an isolationist was to main- depended, and she conveyed that to her millions of tain the U.S. at peace, independent, and free to act readers and listeners. Just as film historians have unilaterally in the world. To achieve this aim, she expanded their scholarly inquiry to “people and proc- believed in building a strong military defense for FILM HISTORY: Volume 22, Number 2, 2010 – p. 171 172 FILM HISTORY Vol. 22 Issue 2 (2010) Jennifer Frost “Fortress America” – something pacifists opposed – the mothers’ movement, a coalition of mothers’ and avoiding “entangling alliances” with a conflict- groups that worked to oppose U.S. intervention in ridden Europe.8 “Let’s stay home and prepare a World War II and involved about five to six million defense so strong no one will dare attack us”, she women. There was a possible overlap between these argued in September 1939 after war broke out in mothers’ groups and Hopper’s audience, as the first Europe, “so that when they’ve made another hash of mothers’ organization, the National Legion of Moth- Europe we can give what’s left of civilization a shelter ers of America, was founded in Los Angeles.11 Hop- and new hope.” This anti-European position re- per worked along similar lines and set out to mobilize flected Hopper’s strong belief that American partici- her millions of women readers into a strong isolation- pation in World War I had been a mistake, and she ist movement. pointed out “what we gained from the last war … “Up to Women to Avert War” headlined one of white crosses in No Man’s Land”. Hopper’s view Hopper’s columns in September 1939, the month “was not far from the mainstream of American opin- Germany invaded Poland, and England and France ion, which, as pollsters showed, overwhelmingly re- responded with declarations of war.12 “I’m firmly con- pudiated entry into the last war.” By the 1930s, vinced that the only way we’ll keep America out of prominent isolationists, such as Republican Senator war is through women”, she wrote. “And that can only Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, argued that U.S. be done if we organize at once.” Utilizing a phrase – participation in the “war for democracy” was a result “up to the women” – popular in women’s magazines not of principled action but of conspiracy and collu- and writings of the era, and drawing upon maternalist sion among greedy armament manufacturers, inter- rhetoric and stereotypes about the power of national bankers, and politicians. Moreover, the women’s nurturing care and moral superiority that dislocation and debt wrought by World War I were recalled that of the World War I women’s peace seen by many Americans as causes of the Great movement, Hopper called for action.13 “We’ve heard Depression. Hopper’s opposition to the Second that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, World War stemmed from her understanding of the she declared in late September. “All right, let’s use causes and results of the First, and she determined that slogan and see if we can make it come true.” “to stay out of the European mess and keep our boys “History records that there’s a woman behind every from marching ‘over there’”.9 great man”, Hopper added the next month. “Now Hopper’s isolationism was linked to a mother’s let’s get the men behind every woman, united in concern for her child. She feared her son, William minding our own business.” In response to critics (“Bill”) Hopper, would be drafted into the armed who believed foreign policy “has no place in a movie forces should the United States enter World War II, column”, she argued, “They are right, of course, but and she knew other women, including those in her I was a mother long before I was a columnist”.14 newspaper and radio audience, shared her fears. Hopper’s isolationism meant she took great “Let our sons know we don’t believe they’re cowards interest in the activities of likeminded members of the when they refuse to fight another’s battle”, Hopper U.S. Congress, yet she did not support Senator told her readers, and they responded affirmatively. “I Burton K. Wheeler’s 1941 hearings on “war-monger- am one of the ordinary sheltered home keepers”, ing” motion picture propaganda.