cover image The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood, and Paris

The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood, and Paris

Betsy Blair. Alfred A. Knopf, $25 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-375-41299-8

Blair has unquestionably led an exciting life, but her autobiography is likely only to engage dedicated Hollywood historians. Now 79 and living in London, the author was on Broadway at 15, married to Gene Kelly at 17, a mother at 19, an actress and political activist throughout her 20s and a movie star by her early 30s. Aside from her famous husband, she's probably best known in America for starring opposite Ernest Borgnine in 1955's Marty, but after decamping to Paris she distinguished herself in a string of European films. She spends two-thirds of the book describing life in Hollywood with Kelly in terms of nearly constant delight. She meets everyone: Greta Garbo, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles and the pope. The result is a shopping list of fame, and Blair's paeans to all she encounters, from""the beautiful, the brilliant, the funny and charming Lenny Bernstein"" to Kelly's""gently spoken, loving, and loyal"" secretary are monotonous. She recounts movie gossip dutifully and the unpleasantness of McCarthyism righteously--a proud leftist, she found herself blacklisted--but the book becomes more compelling as she moves past Rodeo Drive.""I broke out of the cocoon,"" she writes, reflecting on escaping her marital idyll and feeling independent for the first time. Once this turmoil is over, the writing returns to list-making: Picasso makes a cameo; Blair hangs out with the Chaplins; and Marlene Dietrich lends her a lipstick. Blair's years in Paris come through most vividly; eventually, she settles down in London with director Karel Reisz. 96 photos.