Hedda Hopper column, entitled "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood", debuted on February 14 (St. Valentine's Day), 1938. Hopper could not type, or spell very well, so she dictated her column to a typist over the phone. Initially facing stiff competition against Louella Parsons, who had a monopoly on Hollywood gossip, Hopper used her extensive contacts forged during her acting days to gather material for her column. Her first major scoop had national implications: in 1939 Hopper printed that President Franklin Roosevelt's son James Roosevelt was divorcing his wife Betsey after being caught in an affair with a nurse at the Mayo Clinic. Part of
Richard Johnson (columnist) Richard Johnson (columnist) Richard Johnson is an American gossip columnist with the "New York Post"s Page Six column, which he edited for 25 years. Described by the "New York Times" as "a journalistic descendant of Walter Winchell", in 1994 he was ranked the #1 New York City gossip columnist by "New York" magazine in a list that also included Liz Smith, Michael Musto, and Cindy Adams. Johnson was raised in Greenwich Village, New York, the son of a magazine editor father and a mother who worked in public relations. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, and later Empire State