Nostalgia: Eddie & Esther

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT (St. Martin’s) “I had more consecutive hit records than the Beatles or Elvis Presley,” crows Eddie Fisher in his new memoir, co-written with David Fisher (no relation). “I had 65,000 fan clubs and the most widely broadcast program on television and radio.” Still, Fisher is most remembered as a husband–first to Debbie Reynolds, then to Elizabeth Taylor, then to Connie Stevens. When he left Reynolds for Taylor, it was a national scandal; when Liz left him for Richard Burton, it was an international ruckus. Yet Fisher, now on his fourth marriage, never left the mating game. “Until my marriage to Elizabeth, my singing career was more important than the pursuit of romance. But after that, women became my addiction,” he admits. Like any addiction, it ended up tearing Fisher down. His book is a cautionary tale about life in the fast lane; he goes from the top of the heap, hobnobbing with Presidents, to the bottom, hooked on drugs and broke. Along the way, Fisher, who swings from appealing swagger to appalling hubris, never fails to entertain.

THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (Simon & Schuster) When Esther Williams was 17, she was taught to “swim pretty,” with her head and shoulders above the water so people could see her. She proceeded to do just that, through innumerable hydro-musicals in the ’40s and ’50s as well as in her personal life, where she seemed to have a knack for choosing the wrong man. Now, in her engaging memoir, co-written with Digby Diehl, she recalls her life as a star at MGM alongside such legends as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. Williams, always sassy, proves herself to be a daring memoirist. She tells of being raped repeatedly by a foster brother, being pawed by half the men in Hollywood, taking LSD and almost marrying actor Jeff Chandler; at the last minute she found out that he was a cross-dresser. During her four marriages, the third one to Latin lover Fernando Lamas, it’s a wonder that she made any movies at all. But Williams, the consummate professional, kept swimming pretty. “I knew what the audience expected from me,” she says. “I had to be in a swimsuit and in the water.”

–By Andrea Sachs