About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars
17Richard, I so enjoyed talking with you about Dottie Ponedel, Judy, Marlene, and the other stars Dottie worked with. You're a fabulous interviewer who is so adept at putting people at ease and having real conversations. I love your show and will be watching!-Danny Miller
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.
Dottie Ponedel. The designer with eye liner.
Danny Miller is a freelance writer, book editor, and co-author of About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars. You can find his articles at Cinephiled and Classic Movie Hub.
Born within sight of the famed Hollywood sign, Meredith Ponedel grew up not only in its shadow but imbued by her family with a love of old Hollywood, the Hollywood of the Golden Era. Both her father and aunt were among Hollywood's elite "behind-the-scenes" crew; much sought after and highly respected makeup artists to many Hollywood stars from the 1930s through the 1970s.
Her father, Bernard Ponedel, started his makeup career in the 1930s, having been mentored by his formidable older sister, Dottie Ponedel, who had started as an actress and dancer in silent film. Dot quickly went from silent actress to not-so-silent makeup artist by virtue of offering her opinion on Nancy Carroll's makeup in a scene from "Follow Thru". After several years working with a variety of stars, Bernard was asked to work with Frank Sinatra - and stayed with him for more than twenty years. Meanwhile, Dot, who spent 10 years at Paramount working with the likes of Dietrich, Cooper, West, Raft, Lombard, Stanwyck, Blondell and many others, was asked to perform her makeup magic on Judy Garland - and ended up staying exclusively with Judy for almost an equal amount of time.
Meredith grew up in Dot's house with her father and thus was the very willing beneficiary of all the stories told to her by both of them as well as meeting and in some cases, getting to know well several of their friends, Judy Garland and Joan Blondell in particular.
When Judy died in 1969 and after hearing nothing but lies written about her, Dot decided to set the record straight about the Judy she knew and loved as a daughter. With Meredith's help, she started writing her story but was never able to see it through to publication.
Some fifty years year, and with the very capable help of Danny Miller, Meredith was able to put all Dot's notes into the shape of a memoir which was published by Bear Manor Media in 2018.
Meredith still lives in Los Angeles where she works and as a hobby, shows purebred collies (which she "blames" on her dad who worked on the Lassie tv series in the early 1960s).
https://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Dottie-Ponedel-Make-up/dp/1629332852