[1] For a 33 year period beginning with the column's establishment in 1958,[1] it was written by Lloyd Shearer while he used the name Walter Scott.
[2] Elaine Woo of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "It may have been the most widely read column in the country" under Shearer and that under Klein it continued to be the "most popular feature" in the magazine.
[1] Lloyd Shearer's assistants sorted through reader mail to separate what Woo described as "those that were confusing or from crackpots, who were as legion as his legitimate and well-placed sources.
[2] During Shearer's rule, popular publications and political magazines analyzed "Personality Parade.
[2] In the foreword of the 1995 compilation Shearer wrote that in 1957 he gave Jess Gorkin, the editor of Parade, a suggestion arguing that the magazine should start a column that verified questions about public figures after he had received questions from readers in response to his profiles of celebrities.