# Joan Collins: Hitler's girlfriend **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205 "2017-09-24T19:50:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/1 "2017-09-24T19:50:10Z")
Harlan Ellison said that Joan Collins said of her role on the _Star Trek_ episode ‘The City On The Edge Of Forever’: > [@Harlan Ellison](#): > > Joan Collins. Not one of my favourite people…The first time I heard it I said, ‘What the f\*ck, you dumb bitch?’ and > [@Harlan Ellison](#): > > Joan Collins could never get her head around the fact that she was not Hitler’s girlfriend, and now she’s a withered old crone. But did she really say that? I’ve heard Harlan Ellison making the claim (in a falsetto voice to mock Joan Collins), but I don’t recall a citation for the claim. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/2 "2017-09-24T20:11:56Z")
Wait, what part of this was Collins herself supposed to have said? Nothing in either of those quotes by Ellison looks like it’s a quote of Collins. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/3 "2017-09-24T20:18:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, what part of this was Collins herself supposed to have said? Nothing in either of those quotes by Ellison looks like it’s a quote of Collins. Sorry, it was too late to edit. According to Harlan Ellison, Joan Collins said her ‘Edith Keeler’ character on ‘The City On The Edge Of Forever’ was Hitler’s girlfriend. My question is whether she actually said that. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/4 "2017-09-24T20:21:10Z")
I’ve seen quotes supposedly from Collins describing Edith Keeler as having been a “Nazi sympathizer,” but can’t find a cite at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/5 "2017-09-24T20:24:13Z")
From Memory Alpha "Ms. Collins’ memory of her Trek experience seems hazy, however. In her 1985 autobiography, Past Imperfect (p. 248) she makes a few errors regarding the episode: for example, in addition to the common mistake of referring to Mr. Spock as Dr. Spock, she identifies her character as Edith Cleaver instead of Edith Keeler, and she also claims that Spock, not Kirk, allowed her character to be killed – a plot point that was not in the version of the script that was actually shot. Most significantly, she claims Edith tried to\*\* “prove to the world that Hitler was a nice guy.\*\*” " [The City on the Edge of Forever (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode)) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/6 "2017-09-24T22:15:32Z")
I haven’t seen the episode in ages, but as I recall, Edith Keeler was supposed to be a genuinely good, kind woman driven by the noblest of ideals. She wasn’t pro-Hitler, just pro-peace, at a time when pacifism would have effectively played into Hitler’s hands. Edith Keeler probably didn’t have a hateful or antisemitic bone in her body, but if she’d led a successful isolationist, pacifist movement, Hitler might have won. She didn’t have to be a Nazi to serve the Nazis’ interests. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/7 "2017-09-24T22:26:02Z")
That’s true. I was wondering about the claim that Collins said Edith Keeler was Hitler’s girlfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/8 "2017-09-24T22:35:17Z")
It would not be surprising if Ellison’s memories of what Collins said thirty years ago are just as hazy as Collins’ memories of a role she played twenty years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/9 "2017-09-24T22:46:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It would not be surprising if Ellison’s memories of what Collins said thirty years ago are just as hazy as Collins’ memories of a role she played twenty years earlier. I mentioned in 2001 that I had a tape of Ellison’s comment(s). If it was a tape, I must have recorded it a long time before 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/10 "2017-09-24T23:51:27Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It would not be surprising if Ellison’s memories of what Collins said thirty years ago are just as hazy as Collins’ memories of a role she played twenty years earlier. Or that “Hitler’s girlfriend” was a bit of intentional hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/11 "2017-09-25T00:04:35Z")
More like “Lindbergh’s girlfriend.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/12 "2017-09-25T00:20:50Z")
This is the only role that I actually liked Joan Collins. She played it to perfection. Trivia alert, Kirk and Edith stroll down the the street of Mayberry. You can see Floyd’s Barber shop. [https://goo.gl/images/KJ2zRM](https://goo.gl/images/KJ2zRM) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/13 "2017-09-25T00:53:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > This is the only role that I actually liked Joan Collins. She played it to perfection. I enjoyed her performance in the (otherwise abysmal) cult film LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, because her bottom got a whuppin’. She played it to perfection. > **[Land of the Pharaohs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Pharaohs)** > > Land of the Pharaohs is a 1955 American epic historical drama film in CinemaScope and WarnerColor from Warner Brothers, produced and directed by Howard Hawks. The cast was headed by Jack Hawkins as Pharaoh Khufu and Joan Collins as one of his wives, Nellifer. The film is a fictional account of the building of the Great Pyramid. Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Faulkner was one of the film's three credited screenwriters. > Land of the Pharaohs had a cast of thousands – Warners' press office cla... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/14 "2017-09-25T01:18:03Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I enjoyed her performance in the (otherwise abysmal) cult film LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, because her bottom got a whuppin’. She played it to perfection. > > [Land of the Pharaohs - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Pharaohs) **INSIDE A PYRAMID:** \*\* YOUNG HERO DUDE: \*\*What are **those**? **HIGH PRIEST:** (_Gesticulating grandly_) These are the great **solar boats** in which our dear beloved pharaoh shall travel across the sky with the Sun god **Ra** during the day, and return to his tomb at \*\*night \*\*on the river which runs under the world. **YOUNG HERO DUDE:** (_Trying hard not to laugh_) I **see**. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/15 "2017-09-25T11:00:31Z")
For a woman born in 1933, Joan Collins is looking pretty good for “a withered old crone”. She must have good plastic surgeons. As far as mis remembering old roles, is that really uncommon? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/16 "2017-09-25T12:05:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > This is the only role that I actually liked Joan Collins. She played it to perfection. > > Trivia alert, Kirk and Edith stroll down the the street of Mayberry. You can see Floyd’s Barber shop. > > [https://goo.gl/images/KJ2zRM](https://goo.gl/images/KJ2zRM) There’s a mash-up on MeTV in which Kirk and Spock step through the Guardian and onto the streets of Mayberry. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfeenAf5phc/hqdefault.jpg "Star Trek / Andy Griffith Show - Mash-Up - MeTV") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfeenAf5phc) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/17 "2017-09-25T12:10:03Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > From Memory Alpha > > "Ms. Collins’ memory of her Trek experience seems hazy, however. In her 1985 autobiography, Past Imperfect (p. 248) she makes a few errors regarding the episode: for example, in addition to the common mistake of referring to Mr. Spock as Dr. Spock, she identifies her character as Edith Cleaver instead of Edith Keeler, and she also claims that Spock, not Kirk, allowed her character to be killed – a plot point that was not in the version of the script that was actually shot. Most significantly, she claims Edith tried to\*\* “prove to the world that Hitler was a nice guy.\*\*” " [The City on the Edge of Forever (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode)) Your link is broken. I fixed it for you. [The City on the Edge of Forever (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode))) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/18 "2017-09-25T17:45:24Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I enjoyed her performance in the (otherwise abysmal) cult film LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, because her bottom got a whuppin’. She played it to perfection. > > [Land of the Pharaohs - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Pharaohs) In the old days the NY Times published one or two line reviews of movies being shown on TV that day. My favorite was for this movie: “It Sphinx.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/19 "2017-09-25T17:48:37Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Your link is broken. I fixed it for you. > > [The City on the Edge of Forever (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode))) Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205/20 "2017-09-25T19:03:06Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > For a woman born in 1933, Joan Collins is looking pretty good for “a withered old crone”. She must have good plastic surgeons. When she posed nude for \*\*\*Playboy \*\*\*back around 1984, her boobs were pretty saggy. ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joan-collins-hitlers-girlfriend/797205.md?page=2)