Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Page #4

which capitalized on the success...

...of the Busby Berkeley musicals

at Warner Bros.

The plot accented a love triangle

between Joan 's plucky hoofer...

... who wins the hearts

of Broadway producer Clark Gable...

...and wealthy playboy Franchot Tone.

Franchot Tone was a gentleman

of the Eastern school.

He was a very charming person

who came from money in the East.

She had never known

anybody like that intimately.

So l think she became

enamored with him.

Tabloids hinted that Crawford

was dating her handsome costar, Tone.

But her joy was circumvented

by family problems.

She didn't get along with her mother.

Also she had a brother that she didn't

care for, who gave her a lot of trouble.

lt's par for the course that when

one of the family gets to be a star...

...sibling rivalry makes their lives

pretty miserable.

Strangely enough, Bette Davis had

a sister who gave her a lot of trouble.

While filming Chained with Clark Gable,

Joan finally met her biological father.

She later recounted:

''Both of us were trying

to make a relationship...

... that never quite succeeded.

On his last day in town,

I looked across the sound stage...

...and saw his eyes filled with tears.

He waved goodbye and blew me a kiss,

and I never saw him again. ''

Crawford had become

a creature of extremes.

She knitted furiously,

complaining of having nervous hands.

She maintained an exhaustive

exercise regimen.

She had a pretty body

and always carried clothes very well.

She became bewitched by gardenias,

and every day for nearly four years...

...she wore or held the flower

almost every waking moment.

She was a Christian Scientist...

...and she believed that God is love,

and she was devout.

She was notoriously controlling

in her friendships.

She was very possessive

of her friends.

When she couldn't touch base,

she would have a fit.

Crawford was slavishly devoted

to corresponding with her fans...

...and contended that they were

solely responsible for her stardom.

More than any actress

that l ever worked with...

...she was aware of the public.

She knew how to get in the paper.

But her greatest obsession

had become one with cleanliness.

Everything was perfect in her house,

up to Emily Post.

She cleaned out all the ashtrays.

She was on her hands and knees...

...going around the sofa,

where people had dropped things.

She just wanted to make sure it was

right in the morning when she got up.

Crawford began

a successful collaboration...

... with writer-producer

Joseph Mankiewicz...

...in which her person on-screen...

... was developing a more

independent and commanding air.

lt's my life

and l'll live it the way l want.

Upside down, catty-corner

or sliding down a pole.

She portrayed a woman that was

becoming the American woman.

The woman that didn't have

a father, husband, brother...

...or lover to take care of

and protect her.

MGM had signed her to play

a number of sophisticates..

...and feather light comedies, as well,

with Franchot Tone...

... whom she lobbied to be her costar.

Tone had begun to propose marriage

to Joan, who once told a reporter:

''If anyone ever catches me

marrying again...

...I hope they give me

a good sock in the jaw. ''

Tone encouraged her

to spread her wings artistically...

...by performing the classics on the

radio, such as Ibsen 's A Doll's House.

I've been your doll-wife,

just as I used to be Father's doll-child...

...and in the same way,

my children have been my dolls.

That's what our marriage

has been, Torvald.

Before one such radio performance,

on October 11 th, 1935...

...Joan Crawford married

Franchot Tone.

He was educated, cultured.

She had great ambitions

to be educated and cultured.

At home, Joan and Franchot

spent quiet evenings together.

He introduced her to the works of

Chekhov, Shaw and Shakespeare.

For Crawford, it was a new

and exhilarating world of ideas.

Ironically, with Crawford's cultural

awakening both on-screen and off...

... there came a downturn

in her public appeal.

So MGM teamed Crawford with Gable

in Love on the Run.

But their famed chemistry...

... which always meant box-office returns

in their previous five films, dissolved.

As Gable's movies with other stars

were well received...

...it was becoming clear that

it was Crawford who was slipping.

In another attempt

to boost her public appeal...

...MGM starred her opposite her

real-life husband, Franchot Tone...

...in The Bride Wore Red,

where they played faithful lovers...

... though their actual marriage

was an open one.

l was about 14.

He was very much a ladies' man.

And he would keep getting

telephone calls...

...on Crawford's telephone

in her dressing room...

...from ladies that he was going with.

She apparently permitted this...

...and he would pick up the phone

and have his conversation.

She would read whatever

she was reading or talk to me.

He would finish. They would nod again,

and he'd go back to his dressing room.

l didn't really know what was going on,

so l didn't know how funny it was.

Though her second marriage

was on shaky ground...

... Crawford's relationship

with the technical crew at MGM...

... was one of her most cherished.

The grips, the electricians, all of them,

she knew them by name.

And when Christmas came along,

she had a gift for everyone...

...and not just a cheap old gift either.

She knew that these people sustained

her career and made her look good.

A gaffer, he fell and the spotlight fell

on top of him. Like, you know, 30 feet.

And he was rushed to the hospital

and she immediately stopped shooting.

Every day that l was on the set...

...she was phoning

or sending someone with gifts...

...and making certain

that he was provided for.

Mannequin was Crawford's next

and last picture for Joe Mankiewicz.

But their shop-girl-who-makes-good

formula had lost its audience appeal.

The film 's highlight would be

her work with costar Spencer Tracy.

Like Gable, Tracy was a man 's man.

He enjoyed playing the sport of polo,

a staple for the male elite in Hollywood.

Joan took a sudden interest in polo,

although terrified of horses.

Tracy helped her overcome her fears,

and an affair began.

But the actor was bound

to a Catholic marriage...

...and wanted no complications

in his turbulent life.

She couldn't control him,

and he was very obstreperous.

Their affair ended

with principal photography...

...and Mannequin flopped

at the box office.

In 1938, a trade paper ran an article

entitled ''Box-Office Poison. ''

It claimed theater owners were losing

money with films starring Greta Garbo...

...Joan Crawford,

Marlene Dietrich and others.

Crawford did not

take the attack lightly.

In only a year, she had fallen from being

Hollywood's ''Queen of the Movies''...

... to ''Box-Office Poison''...

...and the term of her seven-year

contract at Metro was soon to expire.

Louis B. Mayer was grooming

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