Change Lobsters - and Dance: An Autobiography

Lilli Palmer, a highly acclaimed actress in the 40s and 50s, tells her story with great honesty and sincerity. From her childhood in Berlin, to her early acting training, to her having to leave Germany, because as a Jew the Nazis won't let her perform anymore, she takes you with her on her journey to Paris, Great Britain, Hollywood, and New York. Even if you don't know who she was, this will interest most people because she manages to make you feel that she is there with you, intimately speaking to you, as you turn the pages.

Few actors write as well as Lilli Palmer, and this engaging autobiography easily surpasses the usual series of loosely-connected anecdotes filling up such books. The ultimate 'displaced person', or 'DP' as she terms herself, Palmer's story moves back and forth across Europe and America; her escaping thirties Germany as a young Jewish actress, delivering her son even as her London hospital is bombed, struggling to survive as a family and keep a career at the very center of the biggest Hollywood scandal since Fatty Arbuckle, and overcoming the challenges of reinventing her life and career multiple times. The daughter of middle class Jewish parents in Berlin, Palmer and her two sisters grew up in a deeply happy family. Mad about becoming an actress, Palmer worked her way into the German theater just as restrictions against Jews forced her to flee to Paris where she and her sister started up a short-lived sister act in night clubs. A fortunate meeting with a major film producer allowed Palmer - a name she took from an English actress, her family name was Periser - began a ten year stay in England, where she starred in minor films and appeared on the stage. In 1943 she married up and coming star Rex Harrison, and in 1945 the couple moved to Hollywood. In Hollywood Palmer was given leading roles, but the suicide in 1948 of her husband's paramour, Carole Landis, herself a famous star, badly destroyed her and Harrison's Hollywood careers and they moved to New York, where they appeared in a series of very successful plays, notably Bell, Book, and Candle in 1950. By the mid-fifties Palmer had returned to Germany and developed as a major star in European films. Harrison's philandering continued unabated, and when he became flagrantly involved with Kay Kendall there was no longer any reason for Palmer to stay around, and she moved on, marrying a handsome South American co-star. Modern readers are most likely to know Palmer from "The Counterfeit Traitor" a touching World War II spy movie co-starring William Holden. Based on a true story, Palmer's reenactment of the heroine's death by firing squad against the very prison walls where her character was killed makes for a horrific scene. Palmer as author has a keen eye for human character, and, unlike many similar memoirs filled with catty private revelations, she is especially gracious without indulging in nastiness and getting even. She has every right the to rip to shreds her cheating two-timer of a husband, Rex Harrison, but, perhaps out of consideration for their son, she largely forgoes bitterness. Along the way we enjoy inside looks at such mythic figures as Greta Garbo, The Windsors, Gary Cooper, Bernard Shaw, and Noel Coward. Palmer's strong sense of fair play combined with an indisputable flair for reporting human interactions makes this one of the better autobiographies written by a film star. Lilly Palmer conveys an old fashioned and rare virtue - how to be of the world, and remain a lady.

This is a funny look at the 1970s, through the histrionic eyes of a has-been aging, practically unknown star. It's worth a quick read, and is written in her native accent.

What a wonderful autobiography! I have reread it many times over the years and delight in Lili Palmer's zest for living, her great beauty, and delicious wit. She was a great talent who led an extremely interesting and satisfying life.