Parsons, Harriet (1906–1983)

American producer. Born in Burlington, Iowa, on August 23, 1906; only child of Louella Parsons (a Hollywood gossip columnist) and John Dement Parsons (a real-estate salesman); graduated from Horace Mann School for Girls, New York, 1924; Wellesley College, B.A., 1928; married King Kennedy (a writer and publicist), on September 28, 1939 (divorced April 1946).

Harriet Parsons was born in Burlington, Iowa, in 1906, the daughter of John Dement Parsons and the powerful Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons . At age six, Harriet appeared as "Baby Parsons" in two Essanay movies, Margaret's Awakening and The Magic Wand. Following graduation from Wellesley College, she wrote for Modern Screen, Movie Mirror, Silver Screen, and Photoplay, became a radio commentator ("Harriet Parsons' Hollywood Highlights" on NBC), and a columnist for Liberty and the Hearst Syndicate. In 1928, taking a job offered to her mother, Parsons produced a series of short subjects called Screen Snapshots for Columbia. From 1933 to 1940, she produced over 100 of them. She then produced another series, Meet the Stars, for Republic.

Harriet Parsons' first full-length film was Joan of the Ozarks (1942), starring Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown. She also produced many highly successful films, including The Enchanted Cottage (1945), starring Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young, Night Song (1947), with Merle Oberon, Ethel Barrymore , and Dana Andrews, I Remember Mama (1947), starring Irene Dunne , Never a Dull Moment (1950), starring Dunne and Fred MacMurray, Clash by Night (1951), with Barbara Stanwyck , and Susan Slept Here (1954), starring Debbie Reynolds . In 1953, Parsons was the only card-carrying woman member of the Screen Producers' Guild.