The First Time

by Karl Fleming, Anne Taylor Fleming

Book by Karl Fleming, Anne Taylor Fleming

319 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 15, 1975

About the author

Karl Fleming was an American journalist who made a significant contribution to the Civil Rights Movement through his work for Newsweek magazine in the 1960s.

Reviews

[Annabelle]

For a topic which could have easily ended up as sleazy reportage, this was handled well. Celebrities of the era (early to mid-seventies) wax nostalgic about their first time. For some, especially the ageing and aged interviewees, it was to wax nostalgic about their sex lives, and as an afterthought, their first time.

But this is a dated book, published in 1975. Oh-so sexist. Liberace coming off as a desirable straight guy? Then again, par for the course, for 1975. What irked me were the interviewees who did not quite it make it beyond their allotted era of fame. Liberace, at least, will always be remembered (if not for his piano playing, then surely for his flamboyance and showmanship). Irrelevant and completely who-the-f-cares uninteresting to me were the soliloquies from the likes of Dyan Cannon (irony-deficient, this), Bernard Cornfeld, Charles Garry, Al Capp, Florynce Kennedy, Grace Slick, and Rudy Vallee. I could fathom the brash sexism of Bob Guiccone because I expected no less from the founder of Penthouse, but I did not expect Jack Lemmon to be that potty-mouthed. I was impressed with the eloquence and narratives of Joseph Cotten, Artie Shaw, and Benjamin Spock. The most sensitive, moving stories came from Loretta Lynn, Maya Angelou, Debbie Reynolds, and Victoria Principal.

Two and a half stars for the whole book, but 5 stars for the coal miner's daughter's story.