Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Page #6

with B-movie actor Phillip Terry.

On July the 21st, 1942,

they were married...

...and soon adopted a son,

naming him Phillip, Jr.

He was the only father

that l knew when l was a little girl.

l did not meet him

until they were married.

Joan was cast in When Ladies Meet,

a film so inauspicious...

... that she saw the writing on the wall.

The studio was beginning to gently

nudge her out...

...as it had with her female

contemporaries...

...Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo.

Joan Crawford's days

at MGM were numbered.

l think that Joan felt this coming on.

The pictures they were throwing at her

were not up to her standard.

She wasn't getting the top

leading men that she used to get.

She must have known that they

weren't gonna keep her much longer.

But that wouldn't stop Joan.

She was career-driven.

After 18 years at the studio...

...Joan Crawford asked L. B. Mayer

to release her from her MGM contract.

And to her dismay, he accepted.

That was a very sad experience

in Joan's life.

l mean, this had been her home

her whole life.

And then to drive out of the studio

on her last day...

...with nobody but the gate man saying

goodbye, that was a terrific blow.

She was devastated

losing the MGM contract.

The house had to be closed up.

She didn't work for almost three years.

And it was during

the Second World War...

...so she went to the Hollywood Canteen

every week to entertain the troops...

...pour coffee, do autographs.

We cooked off a Sterno stove

in the basement.

There were no people

to come and help.

That must have been very strange

for this workaholic actress...

...just being a war wife to Phillip Terry.

Even in those days,

she didn't scrub the floor...

...no matter how many

publicity stories they did on it.

She had all of us scrub the floors.

We were never comfortable or relaxed,

except when she wasn't there.

''Mommie Dearest'' was supposed

to be a term of maximum endearment...

...but it ended up being

the terminology of our enslavement.

We very often said,

''Yes, Mommie Dearest''...

...instead of, ''Yes, Mommie Dearest. ''

Me particularly, l got in trouble

for the tone of my voice.

Jack Warner saw that there was

some life left in Joan Crawford's career.

He had another motive too.

Bette Davis was a pain

in the Warner butt.

He thought Crawford would

be an ideal opponent...

...with whom he could work

one against the other.

But the studio chief encountered

headaches with Crawford as well...

... who stalled for two years, knowing

a flop could end her career in pictures.

Joan had turned down

dozens of films...

... when she discovered a studio property

that had been in development for years...

...entitled Mildred Pierce.

Bette Davis turned it down

and Rosalind Russell too.

But Crawford felt it was

the perfect vehicle for her.

Warner Bros. assigned director

Michael Curtiz to the project...

...although he was

skeptical about Crawford.

-My third no is final.

-Yes, sir.

But after Joan submitted

to a screen test...

... the director was won over.

First time l visited her

on a set was Mildred Pierce.

She didn't know how

her public would react.

She was more mature now than when

she was playing romantic leads at MGM.

So it was a real change for her, and she

didn't know what was gonna happen.

l took that job so you and your sister

could eat, sleep and have clothes.

Aren't the pies bad enough?

Did you have to degrade us?

-Don't talk like that!

-l'm not surprised.

You've never spoken of your people,

who you came from...

...so perhaps it's natural.

Maybe that's why Father-

l'm sorry l did that.

l'd have rather cut off my hand.

When the picture opened,

it was a huge hit...

...both critically

and with the audience.

We weren't expecting you, Mildred,

obviously.

lt's just as well you know.

How long has this been going on?

Since l came home and even before.

He never loved you. lt's always been me.

l've got what l wanted. Monte's going

to divorce you and marry me.

No, Veda!

There's nothing you can do about it.

Oscar night was

a well-rehearsed drama.

She wants desperately to win the award

and doesn't know what to do.

So she takes to her bed

and says she has pneumonia.

She got the telephone call

that she got the award...

...and a miraculous and spontaneous

remission took place.

Suddenly, she brushed her hair.

She put makeup on...

...and scrambled back to bed,

waiting for the press...

...and the director

and the Oscar to arrive.

The next day there was the picture

in the newspaper...

...of her receiving the Oscar in bed.

Phil Terry was kind of a hiccup

in Joan Crawford's life.

There wasn't much there that was

really very substantial, and it ended.

She ripped out all

the photographs with him.

So there were photographs

that had big tears in them.

Or in some cases,

she just ripped off his head.

Crawford seemed very, very smart

about shaping a career.

She knew it would serve her well

to be seen with Garfield...

...who was at the peak

of his success then.

l'm a very difficult person

to insult, Mr....

You do have a name, don't you?

Mrs. Wright,

this is my friend, Paul Boray.

And l'm sure that any friend

of mine is not welcome here.

Bad manners, Mr. Boray.

The infallible sign of talent.

Soon the world will

divide itself into two camps.

Pro-Boray and anti-Boray.

Which camp are you in,

Mrs. Wright? Pro or anti?

But like her character in the film...

...Joan 's drinking

was becoming unmanageable.

My mother and l used to go into

Chasen's Restaurant, and in walks...

...Miss Crawford with Christina.

Only that night, Miss Crawford

had a little too much to drink...

...and had to be assisted

out of the restaurant.

l think there's no doubt

that she was an alcoholic.

How much it impacted

her actual ability to work...

...l didn't see until later,

but the impact was at home.

They used to have

little harnesses for cribs...

...so that babies couldn't fall out.

She had them all modified

so that they were like torture devices.

lt was a means of saying,

''l am the one in control. ''

My poor brother was constrained

to that every single night.

Joan was a very tough taskmaster.

She was abused herself as a child.

And very often, abused children

turn out to be abusive parents.

Wire hangers, wire hangers,

wire hangers.

The actual incident

of the wire hangers was part...

...of a series of incidents

that we used to call ''night raids. ''

Because in the middle of the night...

...she would come out

of her bedroom already in a rage.

She was screaming about,

''Wire hangers, wire hangers.

You know you're not supposed

to leave the clothes on wire hangers. ''

She hauled me out of bed,

hit me severely...

...took all the sheets, blankets

and everything off of my bed...

...and then bounced out of the room,

saying, ''Clean up your mess. ''

And that was the end of it.

Later on, l thought:

''What was it about those

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