Emotional Tears, Hollywood Hotel

A recent study "The gender‑specific impact of emotional tears", published in the Motivation and Emotion Journal published by Springer Science (Volume 47, Issue 4, August 2023) was funded by Marie-Curie Actions (Grant Number FP7). The authors of the study: Marie Stadel, Judith K. Daniels, Matthijs J. Warrens, and Bertus F. Jeronimus build their research on previous work of Vingerhoets et al. (2016).  New to the literature were tests of gender differences among the observers (the subjects were all western Psychology students). Additionally, perceived connectedness with the depicted individual only mediated willingness to help in female participants. In males, the willingness to help was significantly lower for a crying male than a crying female. Also, men benefited more from crying when observed by a woman than by a man. Consequently, the preregistered hypothesis that men will display more willingness to help tear-displaying women than men was supported. These results could be interpreted in line with the research by Goodey (1997) that men are traditionally more discouraged from emotional display and especially crying due to cultural norms of hegemonic masculinity. The two-way interaction between displayed gender and participant gender proved significant (F(1, 138) =7.12; p = .009; η2G =0.004). The plot of this interaction revealed that male participants report a significantly lower willingness to help males depicted with tears than females (Fig. 1). 

In the same vein, it has been suggested that men learn to use help-seeking displays such as crying less frequently as it results in less received support (Addis and Mahalik 2003) and, depending on the context, comes with negative appraisals regarding the subject’s competence (Fischer et al. 2013). A refining interpretation given by Reigeluth et al. (2016) posits that men tend to be emotionally expressive only in close relationships but not with strangers, since the latter situation might pose a threat to their reputation. Moreover, research shows that heterosexual men usually form such emotionally close ties in cross-sex friendships and romantic relationships (Coombs 1991), thus always in interaction with a female counterpart. One way to explain the current findings might be that this male support-seeking pattern is also mirrored in their willingness to give support, which would mean that men more readily turn to women for emotional support. Source: https://link.springer.com

Hedda Hopper strongly supported the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, and was a speaker of the Women's Division at the 1956 Republican National Convention held in San Francisco to renominate the Eisenhower–Nixon ticket. She was so well known for her conservatism that rumor had it she planned to stand up, unfurl an American flag, and walk out of the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony in March 1951 if Jose Ferrer, who was known to be a socialist, should win Best Actor. Screenwriter Jay Bernstein related that when he told Hopper that many people in Hollywood privately called her a Nazi because of her extreme conservatism, the gossip columnist began to cry and replied: "Jay, all I've ever tried to be is a good American." Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons had a combined readership, they claimed, of 75 million in a nation of 160 million. Actually, the heads of the studios had all the real power, but they were nervous too, so they all—stars and bosses—handed the two women heapings of power on a silver platter.  During the Second World War, the Nazis used photographs of Hopper in her extravagant hats for propaganda, as a symbol of "American decadence". 

Her annual income was $250,000, enabling her to live an luxurious lifestyle and maintain a mansion in Beverly Hills, which she described as "the house that fear built." Hedda decried racial intermixing, was a feverish Commie hunter and led the attack that drove Chaplin to Europe. Hopper’s mean-and-nasty take on Hollywood gossip immediately siphoned readers away from Louella Parsons. Some Hollywood insiders speculated that Hopper had been set up with the column thanks to her old friend, mega-producer Louis B. Mayer, who decided Louella Parsons was getting to be too influential for her own good. She was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame thanks to her contributions to the motion picture industry. Many would argue she robbed from them, but one thing is for sure—she left an indelible mark on Old Hollywood. In Hollywood, musicals, comedies, and war films reigned: Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, The Seven Year Itch, Battle Cry. As film attendance continued to decline—figures had dropped by 50 percent since 1946—studios developed new gimmicks like 3-D movies and widescreen film to lure audiences back to the big screen. Top stars included Grace Kelly, June Allyson, John Wayne, William Holden, Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, Marlon Brando, and Clark Gable—all victims of Confidential magazine. Confidential went through like a wrecking ball, smashing idols, tearing down reputations, and devastating egos with too revealing articles.

By the end of 1955, Confidential was selling more copies at newsstands than any other magazine in American history. That summer 1955, Confidential also exposed June Allyson, voted by fans as the nation’s most popular actress. To the public, Allyson was the embodiment of cuteness, perkiness, and spunk. MGM had carefully crafted her screen image as a loyal, steadfast girlfriend and wife with a pageboy haircut and cute dresses with Peter Pan collars. In 1945 she'd wed actor Dick Powell, thirteen years her senior. Their marriage was celebrated as ideal, but it was fraught with conflict. Hollywood had buzzed with whispers about their marital troubles. Some said Allyson was having an affair with Alan Ladd and linked her to the breakup of Ladd’s marriage. “In the last few weeks,” wrote one columnist in February 1955. “It's been rumored a reported split between Alan Ladd and his wife Sue, and there are also whispers of a reported tiff between Dick Powell and his wife June Allyson.” But by the middle of the month, columnists were reporting that Powell and Allyson had “ironed out their difficulties and are off to Sun Valley for a second honeymoon.”

“Do you think June Allyson is too nice to be naughty? Dick’s been hitched to her for 10 years but that doesn’t keep June from busting out all over,” wrote Confidential in Jay Breen’s article “How Long Can Dick Powell Take It?” Allyson was a “five-foot-one inch petite little blonde who looks nice enough for an angel award. But she is one little book that can’t be judged by its cover. June’s fans will howl their heads off at the charge that the cutie with the page boy bob and the Peter Pan collar could ever be a hubby-snatcher. Nor can they be blamed, after swallowing years of a publicity build-up typing her as the ‘girl next door,’ ‘cute as a button,’ and just too nice to be naughty.”

“The one-time Broadway chorus dolly is 31 years old now, a veteran of nearly 10 years of marriage with Powell, and has an uncontrollable itch to push the sugar bowl aside and reach for the spice shelf,” Confidential reported. “It long ago reached the stage where she was admitting it publicly—although off the record.” Every time the studio assigned her to a new leading man in a movie, “her flirtatious ways gave patient Dick Powell something new to sit up nights biting his nails about,” Confidential wrote. Her favorite “stunt” at Hollywood parties was to “latch onto some handsome actor”—usually years younger than Powell—and “duck into a corner until her glowering husband came to take her home.” Confidential described how she “cavorted” with Dean Martin and described her latest “caper” with Alan Ladd. “Alan Ladd and his wife separated—after 13 years of marriage, but both carefully refrained from naming the reason. Who was it? None other than that sweet little Allyson lass, who’d been assigned to make a movie with Ladd and—as usual—had gotten ideas that weren’t in the script.” 

Dick Powell and Allyson contemplated suing Confidential over the pungent article, but they were dissuaded by Hedda Hopper, who advised them to better ignore it altogether. In private, Hedda (not specially friendly towards June, yet sympathetic to her husband), said to Powell, presumably about Dean Martin (who was not her cup of tea): “When you meet him, you should punch him right in the nose.” As TV producer David Susskind would recall: “A good example of rumor-spreading has been in progress, sticking to easy targets in Hollywood, whose inhabitants are losing their patience."  

At the end of the Hollywood Hotel’s three-year radio program, approximately two million dollars worth of services had been extracted from actors for free. As a result, the entire program cost only between $12,500 and $15,000 a week to produce, a fraction of what it would have cost had the actors been paid. Looking back, many stars found it hard to believe that they had actually agreed to appear on the show. Recalled Myrna Loy, who read scenes from The Thin Man on the program, “We didn’t want to—those scenes don’t come across on radio—but the studio made you do it to keep in Louella’s good graces. Talk about blackmail!” The movie stars got points with Louella—and Campbell’s soup. At the end of the show the actors were given a free case, either tomato or chicken. At least that choice was theirs. Producer Bill Bacher was a notorious taskmaster, and rehearsals at times devolved into shouting matches between Louella, Bill Bacher, and the program’s emcee, actor Dick Powell (who defended Louella). 

Some speculation sprang from the fact Louella, being chummy with Powell, had overlooked his affair with Rosemary Lane. Louella knew Powell had avoided Marion Davies' advances to be in good graces with the powerful W.R. Hearst. Joan Blondell had been banned from the Hearst publications, which derived not only due to Davies' jealousy, but also probably due to Louella's trade mentality that considered it a fair swap. Apparently, Louella had minimized in her 1930s columns Blondell's wantonly conduct with some of her co-stars. This succession of complicated personal dynamics would soon reach its breaking point, eventually exploding in the divorce of Powell and Blondell.

When Bacher criticized any aspect of Louella's appearance in Hollywood Hotel (1937), starring Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane, she threw a tantrum. After Warner Brothers had put the project on hold for the winter of 1936, Louella told her readers in the spring of 1937 that Dick Powell, Hollywood Hotel’s emcee, and Ginger Rogers were slated to play the leads. But Rogers backed out of the film, as did Bette Davis, who had also been approached for the lead, and the film was stalled over the summer. Finally in September 1937, the film went into production with Powell and sisters Lola Lane and Rosemary Lane in the starring roles. In addition to Warner Brothers actors Ted Healy, Alan Mowbray, Glenda Farrell, and Hugh Herbert, the real-life Hollywood Hotel players Frances Langford, Ken Niles, and Raymond Paige would appear in the film, along with bandleader Benny Goodman. In the film, Ronnie Bowers, a young saxophonist played by Powell, comes to Hollywood on a short contract with the fictional All Star Pictures. All Star actress Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) reads in Louella’s column that she has been passed up for the starring role in an upcoming film; angry, Marshall refuses to attend a film premiere scheduled for that evening. All Star then finds a stand-in for Marshall to attend the premiere, an aspiring actress named Virginia Sanders (Rosemary Lane), and Bowers is asked to accompany her. 

Though W.R. Hearst was happy with the film, he was still upset with Warner Brothers, and shortly after Hollywood Hotel’s release, Hearst left the studio and went on to produce films at Twentieth Century Fox. In 1934 Louella celebrated her sixth anniversary on the radio with a special broadcast featuring Bing Crosby, Dick Powell, Marion Davies, Mary Pickford, Claudette Colbert, and Jack Benny. She ended the show with a tribute to William Randolph Hearst, who had made “it possible for me to be on the radio all these years.” —Sources: "The Whole Truth and Nothing But" (2017) by Hedda Hopper and "Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Notorious Scandal Magazine" (2018) by Samantha Barbas