I'm Just Sayin'! by Kim Zimmer

I'm Just Sayin'!  Kim Zimmer.  Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. August 2012. paperback. 320 pp. ISBN #: 9780451234902.

Kim Zimmer, famous star of Guiding Light, the well-known soap opera of afternoon television for decades, tells her engaging story as an actress.  Whether you are a die-hard fan of this eminent TV show or just interested in what makes actresses tick, this is a very readable and interesting look at the personal and professional life of an actress.  Sometimes actresses and their world get a bum rap, and this book is probably more about the norms of such a life than the seedy, outrageous reports that the media often choose to focus on! It's much more enjoyable herein!

Kim Zimmer describes how she was bitten by the "acting" bug at a very early age.  Her family always supported her, albeit somewhat worried about the erratic nature of the acting profession.  Her years in Chicago are carefully described, a choice of location that she deems truly shaped her skills as an actress in a more positive way than would have been possible in New York or Los Angeles.  During that time, she describes the famous actors and actresses she got to work with who helped shape and mentor her acting skills.  

First, after many, many jobs as an actress in plays, she landed a job with the TV show, The Doctors, which was short-lived but taught her that she could indeed do this type of work  Then we learn of her marriage to A. C. Weary, fellow actor, which led eventually to the birth of her three children.  A. C. is a stay-at-home Dad for quite a while in order to support Kim in her evolving career. Their deep love and respect for each other is obvious.  

Finally, Kim tracks the history, development and eventual demise of The Guiding Light, the show on which she spent so many years acting as the character Reva Shayne in multiple plots and counter-plots.  This is the most fascinating part of this memoir as Zimmer describes the role that actors, actresses, producers, directors, make-up artists, agents and more play in making a show run smoothly, addressing the needs of all.  It's also the world where the viewer or reader begins to see the role of advertisers and sponsors in not only financially supporting a show but in calling the shots in areas such as wardrobes, number of actors and actresses, and much more.

Even aside from the above synopsis, there is so much more in this funny, intimate, passionate, and dynamic memoir.  Kim Zimmer has penned a book that will do much for the profession of acting and opened a world to readers of all types, one that is guaranteed to rivet and perhaps even motivate readers galore!  Very, very nicely done, Kim Zimmer!