Customer Reviews

The Smiling Girl on the Cardboard Moon: The Saga of Paulette Goddard

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As a Goddard fan, I looked forward to some new insights into her life. But this book doesn't satisfy. It's mostly a rehash of the other information printed about her, with long, rambling paragraphs about people she associated with during her Hollywood days and after. The main problems with this book (besides the fact that it commits the unforgivable sin -- for a movie star bio, at least -- of not including one photograph! -- are the poor writing style and terrible production value. An example of the latter is that you encounter the first of many (many) typos in the fifth line on page one, where the authors recount how Goddard's grandparents moved to Salt Lady City. Later on we learn that Goddard's last husband "because a U.S. citizen" -- maybe he "became" one? The writing is fairly annoying too, with certain words being overused -- one of which is "unique." As well as being overused,the authors make the mistake of using modifiers for it, such as "most unique," "very unique," and "quite unique." Professional writers should know that something is either unique, or it is not. It cannot be a little unique, or a lot unique.

There are also many errors that any fan of Goddard notices right away: the name of Ray Milland's character in "Kitty" is given as "March," although it is "Marcy," actress Vera Zorina's first name is listed as "Zera," actress Eva Gabor's name is listed as "Ava," Goddard's 1940 film "The Ghost Breakers" is referenced as "The Ghost Catchers." You get the idea.

In the end, I enjoyed the book after I got out some paper and a pen to keep track of all these factual, grammatical and typographical errors. Thankfully, I was reading a library copy. You are warned.