Legends and Lipstick: My Scandalous Stories of Hollywood's Golden Era Kindle Edition

This is a fascinating, unvarnished look at Hollywood in the ‘50s and ‘60s through the eyes of a (very) young woman as she rises through the ranks of pinup modeling and moviemaking while dating or simply going to bed with some of the most famous and famous-adjacent men of the age. But that’s only part of it. What sets this apart from your standard Hollywood memoir is Bacon’s writing – half-Edward Bunker/Ross MacDonald hardboiled crime-style whether animatedly relating the various cons and grifts her friends employ to get by (from crashing on sets to selling celebrity gossip to the highest bidder) to a grim retelling of encounters with and concerning the aftermath of the Manson killings.There’s a bittersweet quality, however, as time moves on and alcohol and drugs insinuate themselves into the narrative. A violent boyfriend given to humiliating Bacon is finally thrown over after beating her into the hospital one last time – an incident rendered with surprising gallows humor in a single paragraph that belies its real trauma. That the boyfriend is a semi-famous screenwriter whose gossip columns were often in later years written by an uncredited Bacon herself – which led to her own writing career - only adds to the books shades of gray. There are no heroes here – actors like Paul Newman now seen as pillars of moral rectitude are rendered as something much more human with all the failings that entails. Comedian Allan Sherman, a wildly successful entertainer in his day, is shown as helpless against an unending tide of self-loathing. When Robert Kennedy, another acquaintance of Bacon, is assassinated, it serves as a sort of historical punctuation mark that ends the party begun in chapter one and finds the survivors picking up the pieces through the seventies.There’s a unique coda to the edition I read. Bacon’s daughter from her marriage to Don Wilson of The Ventures, Staci Wilson, appears in brief throughout the narrative. There as a toddler following the RFK assassination then absent again when Bacon hits rock bottom following a nightmarish bout with breast cancer and addiction. But when Bacon’s account ends, there is included an excerpt from Staci’s own just-published memoir, “So L.A.” describing her childhood. The voices of mother and daughter are similar in surprising ways and it’s a wonderful way to end the book, Staci’s story just beginning to unfold after Bacon has decided where her own should end.

This is not a great piece of literature but well written for what it's worth. It could have been proof read better. I found some spelling mistakes which I always find unforgivable in a book that has been published. There is no doubt that Nancy Bacon's story is a page turner from the beginning to the very difficult end. She was incredibly beautiful, lived in a period when beauty was there for the mere taking by the male gender and given sometimes quite freely by women like Nancy. She has no regrets and should not have any. After all she met and slept with all the whos'' who in the world of entertainment and politics and that is not nothing to dismiss.Most people and that includes myself read the book to find out what really happened between her and Paul Newman and indeed something did happen. The question though in my mind is....did she really have to write about it? We all loved and love P.N and does every illusion in life have to be destroyed. So he drank his beer and scotch, so he had an affair (maybe more than one)....Yes, I too was curious but again I say, all of that could have been left unsaid and let the myth of his faithfulness and good qualities continue and be buried with the man. The book happily, did not change my mind about Newman. hE WAS AN EXCITING and unusual man. The last third of her book about her personal life is very sad and a total turnaround from how she began that same life.

However one looks at it, Nancy Bacon was a tart -- with a golden heart, it seems! I was amazed at her candid and honest descriptions of all her sex escapades ... of which love was seldom a part! I loved the gossip, because I was a girl growing up in small-town South Africa when those famous names she mentions were stars. I made scrapbooks, and believed in all innocence that they were all good, kind, sweet people ... Oh boy, how wrong I was! Nancy Bacon unfortunately drops names sometimes without explaining who they are, or she tells about a person and you have no idea why this person has suddenly appeared in her life. She really does spill the beans about her sex life! What I found strange was that she did not tell us about her short marriage and her pregnancy -- it's like a hole in the narrative. In the end she is nothing but a bloated alcoholic, this girl who attracted men like a flower attracts bees. So there is sadness and regrets, but a fairly good ending. There are more stars I would have liked to read about, but obviously she was not on intimate terms with the entire Hollywood of that time. The book has lots of tiny spelling/typing errors, a few wrong words, and sentences which run into one another. But I was still quite enchanted by it all. Although, if you do not recall the stars of the 50's and 60's it might not be that fascinating to you.

Hollywood never changes. An attractive girl and a little luck can give you a few years of relationships with stars but in many cases an unfulfilling ending to the joy years. Still, having Errol Flynn, Rod Taylor, Paul Newman and Hugh O'Brian on your lover list might be worth it for women of a certain age. But the later years of alcoholism at her level may ward off a few people. This book is a little "old" for me but still entertaining. Enjoy

I am assuming the author was in the middle of all this action though I profess she is not a familiar name to me and the only criticism I would make of the book is that it strives rather hard for effect in places making me wonder if there are quite a few exaggerated episodes here. The best parts are probably Bacon's assessment of people she did know well and and she is honest about most relationships if coy on as many more. It is a good read she doesn't quite out all the skeletons and that is what you expect in most Hollywood "memoirs" The era had passed when this was written so she is free to be a little more frank than more contemporary volumes. A good read for anyone into the old movie ways.

Arrived very quickly and in perfect condition. The book is a very entertaining one, a real page turner! I am still reading but had skipped to a few really interesting chapters. Lots of Hollywood gossip and information. Some may shock but I do believe it's true. The writer is never mean or nasty when disclosing info. A fun read for any Hollywood memoir fan.