Famed author John O’Dowd penned a bestseller several years ago, about the life and death of 50s movie icon Barbara Payton.  “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” is a Bear Manor publication and John O’Dowd is one of the most respected Hollywood historians in the country.  His book is being considered as a movie of the week, a documentary or a feature film by some of entertainment’s most respected producers and filmmakers.

 What makes John’s book so exceptional is the fact that the author exhaustively investigated everything about the life and career of Payton, who at Warner Bros. showed great promise, being cast opposite some of the studio’s most prominent and popular leading men.  Another thing that stands out is John’s ability to tell a historical story in the present tense. Whether because he’s just enormously talented or he empathized with the star, it’s shocking to see such detail in a book about a woman who although was far from perfect, was also lied and slandered about before and after her death. John spoke with the beauty’s only living son, who gave this book his seal of approval for its accuracy and notably its ability to show respect to a woman, who lacked much self respect, but deserved to be treated a lot better than she was ultimately treated.

The one thing that comes across in this amazing biography is that Payton herself found loyalty to her friends to be of utmost importance, while many of her so-called friends and associates sold her out to the biggest tabloids of her time.  Well, in death John O’Dowd offers Barbara Payton the truth, justice and respect she so deserved, like all humans.  His book is so well researched, written and documented that you can’t put the tome down until you’ve completed every chapter, every page and the final words; a cautionary tale to those such as Lindsay Lohan and other starlets in Hollywood who are wrecking their health and beauty, not to mention their career and their very future to live healthy and respectable lives.

By the time Barbara Payton died, she was on skid row in the seedy side of Tinseltown, and no one dared even whisper her name.  It was scandalous in the time that the tarnish was being worn off the Golden Age of Hollywood.  But Payton’s life and death put a pall over the city that had once celebrated her as an up and coming superstar, only needed the perfect roles to showcase her beauty and charisma.

This is definitely a book for the ages. Whether you ever knew the infamous star or not, whether you understand Hollywood cast system or even respect it for what it has been to most of us in an industry that chews people up and spits them out, this is definitely a cautionary story written with aplomb by one of the best authors of the 20th and 21st centuries.  The book is available at Amazon.com and at Bear Manor’s website. 

Written By: Tommy Lightfoot Garrett