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Around 1972, Joan learned that the Imperial House was going co-op. For less than $100,000 she bought a two-bedroom apartment in the same building and moved from the nine-bedroom apartment she had happily occupied for several years. This move was not as traumatic as the one seven years earlier, as she would not be leaving the neighborhood or even the building, and for both economic and health reasons she was ready to simplify her life. She was surprised when, some months later, Architectural Digest expressed interest in photographing the "tiny" apartment , but her name still had a certain cachet that appealed to the publication's snobbish readers-not to mention its editors. A photographer named Richard Champion was originally assigned to take the pictures , but for one reason or another he couldn't make it on the appointed day; a woman named Bettina Cirone showed up instead. It has been erroneously reported that Joan was rude to Cirone because she was annoyed at Champion's not showing up and took it out on his replacement, but she was really reacting to Cirone's altogether negative aura and distinctly unpleasant personality. Joan didn't expect people to genuflect when they met her, but she did expect the respect and politeness that would be anyone's due in one's home. To say that Cirone was not a "people person "-at least as evidenced by her encounter with Joan-would be putting it mildly. Joan was always amazed at people she found totally devoid of graciousness-or even just basic politeness. "How do they expect to get along in life?" she would wonder. What some people found affected about Joan was often just good manners. The last five years of her life, Joan realized that for all intents and purposes her career was finished and her life as a Hollywood movie star was over. Lawrence Quirk sat in her apartment one afternoon as she attempted to enlist a Columbia Pictures executive into finding her "a strong picture." (Joan still received scripts for low-budget horror films, but she made a decision to refuse them outright. "I don't need the money that much," she said, "and why do what I know I wouldn't enjoy?") It was obvious that the executive, who liked Joan personally but thought that she was "through," was merely embarrassed by her efforts. It was difficult for her to deal with this and to get older at the same time, just as it is difficult for anyone to get older and realize that one's way of life is in the past. When you have reached the heights-and Joan had reached very high indeed-you only have that much farther to fall. Her situation was worsened when she learned that Pepsi-Cola was dumping her as their spokesperson when she hit 65 (she was actually 69). For this she blamed "Fang," her nickname-borrowed from Phyllis Diller-for PepsiCo (as the Pepsi-Cola Company was now known) executive Donald Kendall. Mitchell Cox, who'd appeared with Joan in Strait-Jacket, invited her to be guest of honor at their convention in San Francisco, but she refused. She and Kendall had never liked each other, primarily because Kendall disliked the way the press gravitated toward her instead of to him; in turn, Joan resented his resentment. A bright spot during this period was her appearance at Town Hall as part of the "Legendary Ladies" series put together by Don Koll and others. About 1500 fans gathered to honor Joan and watch clips from her movies. She had a little stage fright, and asked that instead of having questions called out from the audience they be read from slips of paper collected from the crowd earlier in the evening. She was also consulted as to which clips would be used. Don Koll, who worked with Joan on putting together the clips, found her rather difficult. "She could be very nice, sweet, and charming ," Koll recalled, "as long as you didn't cross her. She didn't take suggestions lightly or easily." Koll wanted to present clips from her silent period, but Joan would have none of it. "I think she wanted to give the impression she was a modern person," says Koll. "'Who gives a fuck about silent films?' she would say. 'Who cares about Harry Langdon?"' Joan got impatient with Koll when he tried to correct her on certain facts about her career. "Joan...

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