Early Life
Paulette Goddard was born Pauline Goddard Levy in 1910 in Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York, the only child of Joseph Russell Levy, who was Jewish, and Alta Mae (née Goddard) Levy, who was Episcopalian and of English heritage. Her parents divorced while she was young, and she was raised by her mother. Her father virtually vanished from her life, only to resurface later in the 1930s after she became a star. At first, their newfound relationship seemed genial and they attended film premières together, but later he sued her over a magazine article in which she purportedly claimed he abandoned her when she was young. They never reconciled. On his death, he left her one dollar in his will. She remained very close to her mother, however, as both had struggled through those early years, with her great uncle, Charles Goddard (her grandfather's brother) assisting. He helped his great-niece find jobs as a fashion model, and with the Ziegfeld Follies as one of the heavily decorated Ziegfeld Girls from 1924 to 1928. She reportedly attended Washington Irving High School in Manhattan at the same time as fellow future film star Claire Trevor.
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