One of the best things that ever happened to me during my curious stint as editor-in-chief of Quest in New York was having the opportunity to commission a piece on one of my favorite writers, Patrick Dennis, by author Eric Myers. The article, entitled Whatever Happened to Patrick Dennis?, generated a great deal of buzz and led soon after to a book deal for Eric. His biography, Uncle Mame, came out in November 2000 from St. Martin’s Press. Reading Eric’s scrupulously researched story, I found out that the life of a writer, even one as enormously successful and popular as Patrick Dennis, is not always as predictable as the clever blurbs on the dustjackets might indicate. Patrick Dennis was a phenomenon who churned out several incredibly funny and innovative works that went on to have additional lives in theatre and film, and influenced future generations of writers, artists and comedians. Charles Busch recently revived the play Auntie Mame in a hilarious drag performance.

But despite the pinnacles of fame that Patrick Dennis reached, his internal life was a mystery wrapped in an enigma — and his inner demons led him to transform himself into an eccentric character that like his most famous creation was decidedly larger than life.

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(The following article of mine appeared shortly after the death of Paulette Goddard. At the time it was written, not much was known about her final years. Originally the piece was commissioned by Connoisseur magazine but the magazine folded before the piece was finished. I eventually placed it (in this rather truncated version) in Quest. Since the article came out, a biography of Goddard and Erich Maria Remarque has been written and her films have gained new popularity on TCM.)

The Life of Paulette Goddard

On April 23, 1990, a crowd gathered at Sotheby’s to bid on a collection of jewelry belonging to Paulette Goddard, a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl who had overcome childhood poverty to become one of Hollywood’s wealthiest and most glamorous stars.

The collection included Paulette’s famous diamond necklace composed of 570 stones (that she said she accumulated “by getting engaged so often. I never give anything back.”), a bombe emerald and diamond bracelet her former husband Charlie Chaplin gave her as a consolation prize when she lost the part of Scarlett O’Hara to Vivien Leigh, and a two-foot string of rubies and diamonds that was so heavy, Paulette used to brag, that she “could only wear it a few minutes at a time.”

But just when the first selection came up for sale, the auctioneer made a startling announcement. “The catalogue should no longer read, ‘Property of Paulette Goddard,’ he stated solemnly. “But ‘From the estate of…’” A gasp was heard throughout the room. Few knew that Paulette Goddard had died earlier that morning at her villa in Ascona, Switzerland.

To those who knew the actress well, the strange coincidence did not come as a surprise. “She saw herself as these things,” says her old friend actress Evelyn Keyes who remembers the time the two of them went swimming off Goddard’s yacht near Catalina. Keyes was startled to see Paulette dive in the ocean with her diamond necklace on. When suitors such as Clark Gable, Howard Hughes and President Camacho of Mexico courted her, Paulette always insisted on receiving jewels intead of flowers as gifts. “I can get flowers from my garden,” she would say.

Two weeks after the auction, people were again stunned when it was announced that Paulette had left $20 million to NYU. A school dorm was named in her honor. Added to the bequest was Paulette’s property in Switzerland valued at $3 million and her suite at the Ritz Towers in New York worth about a quarter of a million. It was an ironic gesture from a woman who boasted “I never give anything back,” especially since Paulette never attended college. In fact, the actress Michael Arlen once dubbed “Hollywood’s most civilized woman” had never even finished junior high school.

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