Evening star., 1943-05-16
By Harold Hefernan.
HOLLYWOOD

HOLLYWOOD.
Career girls abound in Hollywood.
The town is cluttered with ambi-
tlous young women desperately
striving to carve out fame for them
selves in the picture armament.
The comparatively few who do are
the intelligent ones They're the
ones who not only have what it
takes" but can take it" as we'll.
These are the girls who know all
the answers, all the angles and they
know them instinctively.
To our notion the one HOLLYWOOD
actress who perhaps more than any
other fits most neatly into the latter
sphere is the beauteous and per-
sonable Paulette Goddard. Miss
Goddard is Hollywood's No. color"
bet of the modern era. And not
necessarily Technicolor, either. She
Is to the movies what Pola Negri
and Gloria Swanson were to them
20 years ago-their greatest source
Of headline news
Week after week, from the time
she first set foot in Hollywood.
Paulette has been the source of
color. She is talked about as easily
as war and the weather. The things
other screen ladies do as a matter of
course turn out to be genuine ad-
ventures with Paulette. Fame fits
her like silk stockings do a chorus
girl-which is how she got her start.
On the surface Paulette is just a
pretty girl who wears clothes we'll,
Is attractive in any makeup and
hair-do and with a figure that
sparkles In bathing suit Or sweater
But those who have worked with her
know that underneath is a shrewd-
ness which makes her do the right
thing at the right time to stay in
the limehght.
1t looked like certain doom for
Paulette a few months ago when
she accepted a secondary role to
Claudette Colbert in so Proudly
We Hail" But Paulette knew what
she was doing. She knew her role
had possibilities. So she marched
into the front Office and sold the
brass hats on that idea. She
emerged with rewritten role, one
that gave her many key scene in
which to scintillate. She II take sec
ond billing, to be sure, but techni-
cality like that doesn't mean a
thing. The fans are the ones who
do the billing And Paulette is smart
enough to realize that.
Chlorine With Confidence.
Undoubtedly her confidence. in
what she has to sell to the public.
has put her on top in the movies
and made her the headline she is
today. After all, she started as
Ziegfeld chlorine who had only to
sit on a cardboard moon and be
sung to.
Many another girl has started as
a chlorine, but they don't all boom
to fame and then find the spotlight
so becoming. Paulette took her
fame smartly, without faltering.
She can hobnob with intellects like
Somerset Vaughan and Aldous
Huxley, whom she met through
Charlie Chaplin. She can sponsor
Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist
and portrait painter, and under
stand the meanings of his paintings.
And she can chat just as freely
with the hair dresser, makeup man,
prop boy or script clerk.
Whether Paulette knows what
makes news or why she is always
newsworthy is something only she
can tell Actually, few persons
know her we'll The studio publicity
boys and girls can't tell you what
makes Paulette tick in rhythm to
headlines. They only know she is
one of the easiest stars in town to
contact for a stunt, to pose for a
pictorial layout or to make a public
appearance when it's a sure-fire
space-getter. Early in her career
Paulette said she would never refuse
to do anything that would help her
to become a star.
Since remaining in public atten-
ton constitutes one of the requisites
for retaining stardom, Paulette can
be said to be very successful. Much
of the headline news concerning her
has been romantic, and she has
handled all Of this comment about
the affairs of her heart by the simple
expedient of saying little and per-
mitting folks to conjecture to their
hearts content.
This has happened with Anatole