Legends and Lipstick

Listener Reviews

1. 1.0(1)

   The title

   This book, while i’m sure this is what the author thought happened, is a grossly look at me book, look how many people I slept with. No matter how beautiful she was, i’m sure not every man that she can in contact with wanted to sleep with her. This book made her incredibly UGLY. What an ego this chick has 🙄

   Vivian Hampton · December 16, 2024

2. 4.0(1)

   very good

   Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

   Chelsie Hill · October 22, 2022

3. 1.0(1)

   Ugh.

   What a colossal mess. I don't believe a word of it. This woman supposedly remembers every detail of things that happened 60 plus years ago? Sure, Nancy. Sure. The person reading the book has a very flat tone to her voice , which makes believing Nancy's stories even harder. Plus the narrator's attempts at imitating a man's voice bordered on ridiculous . What a waste of a credit.

   Esperanza Dawson · April 12, 2020

4. 1.0(1)

   What a colossal, tacky waste of time

   Five points to ponder before you commit to this tripe:

   1. Trust your instincts when selecting a book. Love a good Hollywood gossip tale as much as the next person, but THIS...no. Just no. I learned a good lesson.

   2. How easy would it be to claim that a famous dead person was a "friend." Just parrot what you've read in a few bios or saw on A&E's Biography, personalize it a bit and voila...you, too, can be a BFF and confidant of Marilyn, Judy or ElizabethTaylor. What a slap in the face to these women.

   3. I know this woman was a Grade D actress, but had to check IMBD and she wasn't even listed in the credits of the movies she claimed she was in. Plus the writer she claims to have had an European adventure with told Nancy he was still married to Gwen Verdon in 1960 and couldn't get a divorce. Verdon divorced him in the late 40s and was married to Bob Fosse in 1960. Might have been smartest lie that guy ever told a gal. Sheesh.

   4. I'm so not a prude, but seriously. So smarmy. I take the lurid descriptions of her liaisons with the now demised male celebrities with whom she allegedly had relationships with a large grain of salt and a great amount of tequila.

   5. Best laugh in the book was when the narrator mispronounced the word "coiff." She pronounced it as "coyff." "Oy"as in "Oy vey." Indeed.

   Didn't finish this one. Yuck.

   Mr. Perkins · September 20, 2019

5. 3.0(1)

   Interesting Hollywood gossip, lousy narration.

   A fun, largely light-weight read for lovers of 1960s Hollywood lore. Loads of sex & drug experiences described by the delightfully uninhibited author, who must have been a real man-killer. The narration leaves something to be desired- occasional mispronunciations & an insistence on a comical imitation of the male voice achieved by speaking in a low-register.

   Candace A. · July 19, 2019

6. 3.0(1)

   Some Do Not Go Quitely Into The Night

   There seems to be a glut on the market of aging and elderly women and former B-C actress', models, groupies working hard to supplement their social security with "Tell All" of other people's indiscretions. Desperate "journalists" that have been unemployed for years printing "secrets and slander" while they can still self-publish. The sadistic disregard for other people's spouses, children, grandchildren is flagrant and ruthless. I made it through chapter 26 and felt guilty reading that much. This memoir is basically a name-dropping journal of men she slept with. Nobody was spared. Possibly some stories I would have been curious about at around age 12. But even then the ruthless and coy degradation of others would have made me very squeamish.

   Katharine Burkett · November 13, 2018

7. 3.0(1)

   Certainly has a high opinion of herself~

   Had never heard of this person previously. Found it incredibly sad that she spoke more fondly of her breasts than her child.

   Juliette Miranda · October 25, 2018

8. 5.0(1)

   Heart and Humor in Hollywood

   There are many remarkable attributes of Nancy Bacon. To start with, her warm, inviting personality shines throughout this memoir. She’s also insightful, nonjudgmental and funny! I wasn’t expecting to laugh as much as I did, but she’s humorous in an oftentimes unexpected way. Her natural optimism shines throughout, and it’s certainly admirable that she can laugh through adversity. Her ‘boob history’ (boob her-story? ) recounting is hilarious—joking through the real life horror is quite praiseworthy. Wordplay abounds and her descriptions are delightfully detailed. Hollywood’s Golden Era is palpable as is her heartbreaking struggle with alcoholism.

   She did more than merely rub elbows with some movie idols in Hollywood’s Golden Era. Yet, she was discreet, and it’s readily apparent that she deeply cared for them. But, this is no book of Hollywood fluff, for there are some stories which are somewhat scarring to hear (I listened to this memoir via raksBooks’s raksBooks). A major female Hollywood star of the Golden Era who was into brutality comes to mind first, and one of Ms. Bacon’s abusive boyfriends next. Yikes! However, these examples aren’t in the same ballpark with the light BDSM that she experienced later on (but long before E.L. James’s “50 Shades of Grey” made BDSM more mainstream) with a love interest. Ms. Bacon was ahead of her time in some respects, yet she also had a finger on the pulse of the times she experienced. Plus, her life wasn’t filled with just movie stars, as she also spent time with famous men in politics. Impressive is an understatement!

   In closing, the expression to ‘pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps’ comes to mind as her beginnings were modest, yet she achieved so much by her own ingenuity and positive outlook. In fact, she was also a magazine editor, co-author of “Whitney Houston: Good Girl/Bad Girl,” and she wrote 10 romance and adventure novels.

   Highly recommended!

   G.L. Giles

   Timothy P. Hilliard · September 27, 2018