Hedda Hopper

Actress Joan Bennett once sent Hedda Hopper a $435 valentine. The $35 went for a skunk which carried a note, “Won’t you be my valentine? Nobody else will. I stink and so do you.” That is just an example of the type of relationships she had with the stars of the day.

Blair County native Hopper was born Elda Furry on May 2, 1885 in Hollidaysburg. Her family moved to Altoona when she was three. According to Linda Barnes, a distant cousin of Hopper’s, Hopper also had ties to the Curryville/Woodbury area near the Blair and Bedford County line, when she was growing up.

Elda Furry ran off to New York...