Joan Crawford

Fred Lawrence Guiles

Description

Celebrity Biographer: New York Times bestselling author Fred Lawrence Guiles is considered the premier biographer of hollywood movie stars.

Old Hollywood Charm: Lovers of classic movies and the golden age of cinema will rush to get their hands on the definitive biographies of these universally loved celebrities.

Repackaged Glam: The coordinating modern covers breathe life into these classic figures and will be a stunning addition to any hollywood-lover’s bookshelf.

Exclusive Pictures and Interviews: Each biography contain previously unpublished photographs and interviews that enhance the fascinating and nuanced lives of these famous celebrities.

Sujets

• Performing Arts
• Biography
• Entertainment
• Autobiography
• Joan Crawford

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 28 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781684424825
• Langue: English

Extrait

JOAN C RA WFORD
THE LAST WORD
A LSO BY F RED L AWRENCE G UILES
Norma Jean: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe Marion Davies
Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel
Jane Fonda: The Actress in her Time Tyrone Power Hanging On in Paradise
Andy Warhol: Loner at the Ball
JOAN CRAWFORD THE LAST WORD
Fred Lawrence Guiles
Turner Publishing Company
Turner Publishing Company
Nashville, Tennessee
www.turnerpublishing.com
Copyright 1995 by Fred Lawrence Guiles All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Turner Publishing Company, 4507 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville, Tennessee, [phone], fax [phone], E-mail: [e-mail] .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages
Manufactured in the United States of America 10 987654321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Guiles, Fred Lawrence.
Joan Crawford : the last word / by Fred Lawrence Guiles, p. cm.
A Birch Lane Press book.
ISBN 1-55972-269-X 1. Crawford, Joan, 1908-1977. 2. Motion picture
actors and actresses-United States-Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.C67G85 1995 791.43 028 092-dc20 [B] 94-42058
CIP
Dedicated to
M AX G ARTENBERG , S UZANNE H OLETON , J EFFREY S IMMONS and H IRAM W ILLIAMS
CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1 B ILLIE THE T OILER
2 A LMOST P RESENT AT THE C REATION
3 T HE R IVALS
4 N OT A S IMPLE A FFAIR
5 B REAKING A WAY
6 A N E RA P ASSES
7 M OMMIE D EAREST
8 S ALVAGING THE F UTURE
9 E MBATTLED L OVERS AND THE S ECRET T WINS
10 T HE Q UIET R EVOLUTION
11 I NDEPENDENT OR A DRIFT ?
12 J OAN AND P EPSI
13 H ORROR Q UEEN AND A L IVING L EGEND
E PILOGUE
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
I LLUSTRATIONS
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: page 3 (bottom right)
Author s collection: pages 3 (bottom left), 5, 6 (bottom), 7, 8, 12 (bottom right), 13 (top), 16 (bottom)
Joseph Yranski collection: pages 1, 2 (top), 3 (top), 4, 6, (top), 9, 10 (top), 12 (top)
Kobal Collection: pages 2 (bottom), 10 (bottom), 11, 12 (bottom left), 13 (bottom), 14, 15, 16 (top)
J. Watson Webb, Jr Collection: page 16 (bottom)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am especially grateful to Joan Crawford s private secretary, Betty Barker, to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, and to Cindy Crawford Jordan, for sharing their memories of her with me.
Over the years of my research, I have become indebted to the following persons, who were friends or colleagues of Miss Crawford, for their time and memories:

Beatrice Ames*
Eleanor Boardman d Arrast*
Joseph J. Cohn (Vice Pres., Metro, 20s and 30s)
Matthew Curran
Milton Feitelson
Francis Goodrich and
Albert Hackett
William Haines*
Anne Power Hardenbergh
Helen Hayes (MacArthur)*
Joan Feldman Porter Hollander
Leo Jaffe
Bethel Leslie
Anita Loos*
George Oppenheimer*
Henry C. Rogers
Cesar Romero*
John Springer
J. Watson Webb, Jr
Ken Young
* Deceased
This book has been much enriched by the photographs, many never published before, from the collections of J. Watson Webb, Jr, Joseph Yranski, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, and I thank them most sincerely.
I am also in the debt of the following persons whose support and hospitality allowed me to continue with my research on Miss Crawford in New York and Los Angeles:

Bob Board
Gordon Herigstad
James B. Lahey
Others whose encouragement and backing allowed this project to continue were Harold Haskins, Leonard Kesl, Carlos MacMaster, Jeffrey Simmons, Avonell Williams, and Hiram Williams.
I wish to thank, too, the librarians at the Lawton Constitution, the director of Documents Section (FOIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Charles Feldman Collection at the American Film Institute, the Billy Rose Collection at the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts, and the Alachua County Library in Gainesville, Florida Lastly, I would like to thank Douglas Fairbanks, Jr for taking the time to correct those sections of the book in which he was involved.
F RED L AWRENCE G UILES , 1995
C HRISTOPHER C RAWFORD : As usual, she has the last word.

C HRISTINA C RAWFORD : Does she?
Closing lines from the film Mommie Dearest , based on the book by Christina Crawford.
PREFACE
A s I write this in the winter of 1993, Joan Crawford s memory lies in tatters - her punishment for being a bad mother. Her posthumous reputation is similar to that of the celebrated torch singer, Libby Holman, who introduced the song Moanin Low and a dozen other popular songs which have become standards in our time. Holman was a critic s darling and her male admirers were legion, but it was the scion of the Reynolds Tobacco Company who won her and persuaded her to retire to a magnificent estate in North Carolina. Once there, however, boredom set in and the Reynolds manse became a prison to Libby.
There were drunken brawls and jealousy was rife on both sides, and then one morning young Reynolds was found shot to death. As she had been on the premises, Libby was accused of murder, and her rambling account (as any alcoholic s would be) of the night before did nothing to give her an alibi. She was booked, freed on bail and then tried for the murder of Reynolds.
The jury was moved by Libby s tearful courtroom appearance in her widow s weeds, and she was acquitted. She picked up her career again, yet she could never quite live down the notoriety. When she died, Libby Holman was remembered mainly for the crime which she claimed she did not commit, and, in a similar way, Joan Crawford is remembered chiefly not for having had the longest career on the screen of anyone who ever worked before the camera but for being a monstrous mother. [Mary Astor made her screen d but in September 1921 and retired from the screen in March 1965 (ironically with Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte , the film in which Joan was to have starred with Bette Davis, but, because of their disagreements on the set, Joan left the production on the pretext of illness). She was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. Astor was therefore technically on the screen longer than Joan Crawford, but in roles of diminished importance.]
Film stars are traditionally thought of as poor mothers. Many have indulged in unmotherly behaviour - Judy Garland, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich and Lana Turner, to name but half a dozen - and few have evaded the relentless eye either of the gossip columns of the past, or the tabloids of today. The extraordinary lives which these women led, and the unique stresses placed upon them, makes it foolish to expect any of them to have behaved like normal human beings, yet many would argue that this remains a very poor excuse - or no excuse at all - for their treatment of their children.
Joan Crawford s posthumous reputation is the worst of any of them. Unfortunately for Joan, her transgressions as a mother were paraded before the world in a best-selling memoir called Mommie Dearest (subsequently made into a film) by an articulate adopted daughter, Christina. Fiercely disciplined and highly organized, Joan sought to impose that same discipline on her role as a mother. It worked with her youngest two children, her twins, because they never questioned her, fought back or rebelled in any way. It failed dramatically with the two oldest children, Christina and Christopher.
In the pages ahead we will see why it failed. If undue emphasis has been placed on putting her role as a mother in proper perspective, it was forced upon her biographer. Mommie Dearest has left in its wake a lot of tales which must be re-examined, some inventions and exaggerations and a great deal of truth, because film stars are by their very nature self-absorbed, vulnerable to criticism, and trying to cope - not always sensibly - in a pressure-cooker environment.
There is no earthly reason why Joan Crawford s life should be so tarnished by her daughter s writings that we should view her story only through the latter s eyes. Joan Crawford was simply the most successful American screen actress in the history of film. She was not the greatest actress, nor was she the most beautiful of the superstars, but she survived longer in the cinema than any other female star.
* * *
It may be true that Joan Crawford s memory lies in ruins, yet there are clues abounding that this ignominy is neither universal nor permanent. Much to the dismay of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, her Oscar went on auction after her death and sold for $68,000 w