About Face

ABOUT FACE The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel: Make-up Artist to the Stars by Dorothy Ponedel, Meredith Ponedel, and Danny Miller

Dottie Ponedel knows how to amuse with rouge. Her autobiography, the story of a pioneering make-up woman in silent movies and early talkies, puts a new foundation on the stars from the Golden Age of movies.

Sinners and saints without greasepaint make for memorable close-ups. Enjoy Dottie’s confidential revelations about Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Joan Blondell, Paulette Goddard, Barbara Stanwyck, and others.

“No stranger is going to pat this puss,” Mae West once declared. Mae, and Dottie’s other clients, often demanded her services, but tomcats and contracts seldom blended. Dottie constantly fought all-male make-up departments at the studios to get the recognition she deserved. Amazing challenges facing a woman at the top of her craft play poignantly against her straight-talking, heartwarming, hilarious encounters with famous faces.  

Dotti Ponedel. The designer with eye liner.

Illustrated. Index.