Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Page #2

in Mayer's office.

She was one of his greatest discoveries,

and was rewarded in kind...

... with a down payment

for her first home, in Beverly Hills.

She was even given a new car

by the studio...

...but not all was going well

for Crawford, whose reckless drinking...

...led to her involvement as the driver

in a hit-and-run accident.

A matter which was silenced

by the studio.

Joan 's friend William Haines advised

discretion to protect her public image.

As a gay leading man,

he knew the price of fame.

Crawford and Haines remained the best

of friends for the rest of their lives.

MGM cashed in on their

much publicized friendship...

...by teaming them romantically

in two films.

He was already playing leads

at that point.

He kind of let her in

on the rules of the game.

The two of them were just friends.

They could be comfortable

with each other.

They'd share a lot of intimacies,

as far as their little secrets.

Actually, it was when she was back

in New York doing West Point...

...with Billy Haines that she got into

probably her first trouble...

...with the studio, because a cadet

actually got kicked out of West Point...

...for going on a date with her.

Shortly after that,

she and Billy got into a car crash.

The studio wasn't too happy about this

when they got back to Hollywood.

Joan Crawford made the,

l thought, rather impudent remark:

''How can you get a decent part

in a picture...

...when Norma Shearer

sleeps with the boss?''

Joan could be very aggressive

in defense of her career.

She'd go up to the bosses,

including lrving Thalberg, and complain:

''Norma gets everything,

and l just get the other stuff. ''

lrving was very protective of Norma

and he bristled at this...

...and he put her in a Western

with Tim McCoy.

Joan served her time.

She learned a lesson:

Don't mess with lrving Thalberg.

Next, Joan was given a starring role

in a film that would cement her fame:

Our Dancing Daughters.

In the movie, Crawford came through

as her own unique creation...

... which MGM had been avoiding

from the beginning.

This was the Joan that had been

in the nightclubs...

... the Joan that had been impressing

everybody else.

She was finally allowed to be free,

and the public reaction was monumental.

Our Dancing Daughters. Oh, l love it.

Those pictures made us famous.

Crawford was supposed to be the one

that did all the dancing and everything...

...but was pure, and l was the one that

was supposed to be sweet but wasn't...

...and got the wealthy man

and it didn't work.

lt went over so well,

we made two more.

You see some of those pictures today

and they're really laughable...

...because she is so fluttery and dances

up a storm and plays very coy.

F. Scott Fitzgerald noted:

''Joan Crawford is doubtless

the best example of the flapper.

The girl you see in smart nightclubs

gowned to the apex of sophistication.

Toying iced glasses with a remote,

faintly bitter expression.

Dancing deliciously. Laughing

a great deal with wide, hurt eyes.

Young things with a talent for living. ''

Filmdom had a new star...

...and hers was the ultimate

Cinderella story.

That of a flapper who had made it

through the ranks...

... to become a credible actress

and a genuine box-office movie star.

Crawford's salary had slowly increased

to $ 250 a week.

But after the success of Our Dancing

Daughters, MGM doubled her income.

Her prosperity paid for a new house...

...in the fashionable

Brentwood neighborhood.

She hosted glittering parties,

attended premieres...

...and answered a flood of fan mail.

Joan had it all.

She was the hottest commodity

at the biggest film studio in Hollywood.

But she lacked the social standing...

...befitting her position

in the film community.

She met Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

in the fall of 1927.

He was performing in Hollywood

in a play called Young Woodley.

She sent him a note telling him...

...how impressed she had been

by his performance.

The movie magazines

rumored of the budding romance...

...between Metro 's box office star

and the son...

...of one of the 10 most famous

men on earth.

Pickfair was the piece de resistance

of all actors.

To be invited to Pickfair, that was-

You'd made it in Hollywood.

But the word from Pickfair

was negative toward Crawford...

... whose wild nightlife provoked the

disparagement of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr...

...and his wife, Mary Pickford.

Once again, Joan was found

unsuitable...

... to sit at the table

with the privileged class.

lt's funny how Hollywood royalty

were all sort of...

...waitresses and vaudevillians...

...and how quickly they became

the heirs of aristocracy...

...because, actually, Mary Pickford

was just a poor dame from Canada.

In May 1929, Joan Crawford

was immortalized...

...in the forecourt

at Grauman 's Chinese Theatre.

The following month,

the couple married in New York...

... where the absence

of Mary and Doug, Sr...

... was not looked upon

unfavorably by the press.

When they got married,

it was like a fairy tale.

They were Hollywood royalty.

The press just went crazy.

Tremendous amount of publicity, and

for obvious reasons, inspired by MGM...

...to whom she was under contract.

But it was overblown in the press.

lt was just almost silly

to just sit aside...

...and see how much attention

was paid to it.

We made a trip to Europe

as a delayed honeymoon...

...but she was really unhappy

during the whole trip...

...and couldn't wait to get back

to Culver City, get back to Hollywood.

Joan Crawford was most at home

in Hollywood.

A place where she could enjoy her

new marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr...

...and her newfound stardom.

Her box-office receipts rivaled those

of Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer...

...and ultimately, her financial success

earned the good graces...

...of production chief Irving Thalberg.

MGM fashioned something

of a sequel to Our Dancing Daughters...

...entitled Our Modern Maidens...

...awarding Fairbanks a costarring role.

The talkies came to Hollywood,

and some of the greatest stars...

...of the silent era came to perish

in risky projects.

By yonder blessed moon l swear, which

tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops-

MGM put forth a great effort

in selling their stable of stars...

...in the all-talking,

all-singing Hollywood Revue of 1929.

And audiences heard Crawford

for the first time.

At MGM,

they had some voice coaches.

lf you look at the old films,

everybody has this coached voice.

Nobody sounds like a real American,

except some of the men.

l've sat here for 15 minutes listening,

seeing how far you would go.

While l give you the right

to tell me what to wear...

...when to get up, go to bed, what to

eat, there's one right l haven't let go of.

And that's the right to love

whom l darn please, and l love Andy.

When she'd meet important people,

she always played the lady elegant.

We used to sometimes kid

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