Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story [Hardcover]

Eric Redding (Author), D'Eva Redding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

She was the Guess! Girl. She was Playboy's Playmate of the Year. She is Anna Nicole Smith and this is the story of her meteoric rise to fame and her astonishing marriage to one of the richest men in America.

This intimate biography tells the whole story behind this newest blonde bombshell, beginning with her childhood in tiny Mexia, Texas, and ending with today's headlines.

Great Big Beautiful Doll contains sixteen pages of photographs, many never seen before, from her "audition" pictures for Playboy to intimate portraits taken as a gift for her elderly husband.

Eric and D'Eva Redding used court documents, recollections from friends, family, and coworkers, and their own experience as Ann Nicole Smith's personal managers to write this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books; First Edition edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569800790
• ISBN-13: 978-1569800799
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,043,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( S ) > Smith, Anna Nicole

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not too flattering bio on last decades blonde, January 17, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Hardcover)

... Eric and D'Eva Redding's Great Big Beautiful Doll exposes the dark side of the playmate, from her humble beginnings as Vickie Lynn Hogan of Mexia, Texas to Vickie Lynn Smith, to Anna Nicole Smith, the latter name she got from Guess? Jeans president Paul Marciano. From there, Redding details someone who vulgarly flaunted sex, who was under a cloud of booze and drugs, and who wasn't above having sex with other women in front of the authors and even her own son.

Yet there is an incident in which both sides of the story are told. It involves Maria Ceratto, a former Honduran housekeeper who claims Anna Nicole forced her to have sex with her and basically held her captive by changing the phone number and not telling her. Anna Nicole on the other hand claims it was Maria who was doing the harassing.

There's even an entire chapter dedicated to Jay Leno's punches on her in his monologue, mainly concerning her marriage to Marshall. Two of the funniest: "I don't want to say he's old, but yesterday she told him to act his age--and he died." "She said they're two peas in a pod. ... It's more like two cantaloupes and a prune." Ouch and double ouch!

There are photos in the book, pictures as a child, nude ones, and a not-so-flattering police mug shot for a DWI.

So is this book credible? Well, let's see, Redding took the Polaroids that led to Anna Nicole's jump to fame. Both he and his wife were around her during that time, plus Anna-Nicole hasn't sued the Reddings. And Reddings portray themselves as being simultaneously disillusioned and feeling sorry at what she's become. To quote from the intro: "It would be easy to make fun of Anna, but we can't. Maybe it's a case of 'we knew her when,' but we did--and we liked her then." Yet at the same time, the bio comes off as being sensationalistic and somewhat exploitative.

For Anna-Nicole Smith sycophants, this book truly trashes their idol, so don't bother. If you totally loathe Anna Nicole, this book is ammunition for you. If you're ambivalent about her, well, maybe it's worth a read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and a little startling, December 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Hardcover)

I was a big Anna Nicole fan before reading this book. I had heard a few stories about her darker side and bad judgment before reading this book, but I was shocked by how she was described by the author Eric Redding. Redding describes her life and personality in a very unflattering way. (...)I felt very bad for Anna Nicole from the moment I started reading to the end.
The book was written by the playboy scout Eric Redding, who discovered and represented her for a year. I think there are some bad feelings on behalf of the author. None the less, Anna has lead quite a life. The writing was OK. The imformation was interesting and some of it down right amazing. Just a little gritty for me. My impression of the sweet small town Texas girl was smashed in the first few pages. I read the whole book in 2 days. I would recomend it. Just be warned it is a sad story of a girl who has lead a hard life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story, June 26, 2007

By 

Laura J. Stone "pet lover" (Anaconda, Montana USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Paperback)

I thought this book was well written but thought there were parts that didn't need to be in the book. I didn't think the nude pictures needed to be in the book to sell it.
The book gave a good sense of how Anna Nicole lived and what a weak person she was. She let herself be lead around by people just because she wasn't educated and she loved money and fame. It is worth reading if you were a Anna Nicole fan.