Past Imperfect

1978, 1983 Coronet edition
Joan Collins
Past Imperfect
Original price £1.95, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback with one photo-page loose
B-

In a way, it's odd that I got this book, because I've seen even fewer of Collins's movies than I have of Lauren Bacall's.  And I can't say I particularly like her after reading her autobiography, although I don't really dislike her either.  But she's a fairly good storyteller, and it is interesting to see what film-making in the 1950s and '60s was like.  She doesn't say terribly much about the '70s, which means that not only don't we hear about Empire of the Ants (which I actually have seen), but also her earlier unhappy marriages, to actors Maxwell Reed and Anthony Newley, get much more attention than her time with businessman Ron Kass.  That marriage broke up the same year this edition came out, and she's currently with Husband #5.

She also talks about her romance with Warren Beatty, including the pregnancy she ended in the early 1960s, making her the first non-anonymous woman in any of my nonfiction to talk about undergoing an abortion.  She seems to sympathise with feminism, and it is admirable that she never wanted to be financially dependent on a man.  She has often been overly dependent emotionally on men, but that's understandable given the times and places she lived in.

Considering that this is Joan's first of many books, it's notable that she doesn't say much about sister Jackie during their childhood, although she does mention appearing in the movie version of Jackie's novel The Stud.  (And there's a very racy still among the photos.)