I love "Perry Mason", both the books and the original TV show (although I did enjoy the recent HBO series, but it wasn't what I was hoping for). I love Paul Drake in the books and of course, Bill Hopper did an excellent job playing him on the show. Bill Hopper is Hedda Hopper's only son. She was DeWolf Hopper's fifth wife and he was quite a bit older than her (Bill was born in 1915 and he had an older half-brother through his dad who was born in the 1880s so...). DeWolf died while Bill was fairly young. Hedda was an actor, as was DeWolf, and Bill became an actor to make his mother happy. She described him in her book as shy, reaching his final height of 6'4" at the age of 15. Bill also refused all help from his actor turned Hollywood gossip mother, so she never wrote about him in her columns.
I read an interview with Bill online in which he said while he loved his mother he wished she wouldn't pry into people's personal lives so much. And that is why I read this book. Curiosity. Although, to be fair, I'm sure that's why I read most books.
At any rate. Bill was not wrong about his mother. Hedda had a very high opinion of herself. According to her, she was best friends with everyone in Hollywood from James Dean to Elizabeth Taylor to John Wayne and gave them invaluable advice on their careers. Everyone was terrified of her saying something negative about them so they fawned over her and invited her to their parties and gave her expensive gifts.
Now, you would think this kind of thing would be annoying to read, but I had to admit, I kind of enjoyed it. You know she's utterly ridiculous, but it was funny all the same. The woman knew how to tell a story.
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