Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Page #8

She made them open their gifts

one at a time.

Then they had to go write it in a book.

What it was, what they got.

l mean, it was the most

unspontaneous thing l'd even seen.

We didn't get to keep the presents...

...and we got less and less

as the years went on.

I don 't let them have

all their presents at one time.

From tomorrow on,

they earn their gifts.

If they stay on good behavior,

they're given their choice...

...of what present they want next.

I always see to it that they give up

something they really love.

Otherwise, they don 't really

learn the value of giving.

Christmas was just total torture.

By 1951, Joan 's last few films at Warner

Bros. had failed at the box office.

As a result, the studio began

sending her substandard scripts...

...in an effort to force her out

for refusing work.

The whole country is gunning for you.

Such was the case with

This Woman ls Dangerous...

...a sordid melodrama,

which she accepted...

... while instructing her agent,

Lew Wasserman...

... to buy her out of her

Warner Bros. contract.

l came back.

And l'll never leave you again.

Crawford departed

Warner Bros. and joined...

...other former studio contract stars

who had gone independent.

Her first vehicle was

the suspense drama, Sudden Fear.

-It's the will.

-''Last will and testament...

...of Myra Hudson-Blaine. ''

Here it is. ''To my husband, Lester

Blaine, on my death, $ 10,000 a year. ''

-Is that all?

-Get a load of this.

''Until he remarries. '' If that dirty

double-crossing dame thinks that she-

Lester, she can 't sign it till Monday.

Suppose something happened to her

between now and Monday.

-Who 'd get her money?

-Lester Blaine. I'd get it all. Why not?

-I have a gun.

-Gun 's no good.

It'll have to look like an accident.

Joan wisely decided against

taking her usual salary...

...and instead took a 40 percent

profit participation in the film.

The decision paid handsomely

when the film became a hit...

...and she was nominated a third time

for a Best Actress Academy Award.

Joan Crawford was disturbed

by the changes going on in Hollywood...

... where she felt a new openness

about sexuality was running rampant.

lt was the Photoplay Awards dinner.

Marilyn Monroe came in an hour late...

...in this gold lame gown

that she had been sewn into.

The whole joint went mad.

For Joan to be upstaged like that...

...was unforgivable.

She said, ''l think she flaunts sex.

l've always been very subtle about that. ''

That created a front-page story.

And Joan went

to Louella Parsons and cried:

''Of course l said those things,

but l thought they were off the record. ''

When MGM beckoned Joan to return

in the Technicolor musical Torch Song...

...she was thrilled. The studio 's publicity

department treated Crawford's return...

...like a major event,

with a ''Welcome Back, Joan'' banner...

...and red carpet laid from the street

to Joan 's dressing room.

However, the film 's budget and shooting

schedule were less than stellar.

Torch Song was a B picture.

Yet it was a job. She could show off

her body, which was still pretty good.

lt was directed by Chuck Walters, and

he told me he went to Joan's house...

...and she was wearing a kimono.

And her first words were,

''This is what you're getting. ''

And she opened the kimono,

and she was stark naked.

That's our Joan.

Torch Song was a bomb

at the box office.

But Joan 's survival instincts

were relentless.

And she would try any genre possible

to refresh her public image...

...including a western, Johnny Guitar.

Someone described it as Beauty and the

Beast with Sterling Hayden as Beauty.

lt was interesting to watch Joan

and Mercedes McCambridge...

...who kind of had a rivalry going.

They had a big blowout.

lt was not a very pleasant set.

When one scene

involving McCambridge...

...elicited applause

from the cast and crew...

...director, Nicholas Ray,

gazed over his shoulder...

... to see Crawford shaking with fury.

She just snapped one day

and took Mercedes' costumes...

...and threw them out into the street.

-l'm going to kill you.

-lf l don't kill you first.

The director had to go

and fetch them back.

lt was one of the major feuds

in postwar Hollywood history.

Mercedes, many years later, discussed

the fact that she had been an alcoholic.

And l think maybe that might have

affected her attitude on the film.

By the mid '50s,

the Hollywood fan magazines...

... which had long been a haven for Joan,

gave way to scandal sheets...

... that exposed the sordid details

of movie stars ' personal lives.

l was being interviewed by the editor

of one of the fan magazines.

One of the assistant editors

came in and said:

''You wanted me to do that story

on Joan Crawford.

What do you want?

Nice girl or a b*tch?''

And he said, ''Make her a b*tch. ''

So later when l was visiting with Joan,

l told her about that.

And l said, ''How do you handle that?''

And she looked at me and smiled,

and she said ''Oh, my dear.

Suppose they never

wrote about me at all. ''

But it was Crawford's

relationship with her fans...

... that proved to be the most

enduring joy in her life.

She was always

so grateful to her fans.

She felt she owed them

to always look her best...

...and to be what

they wanted her to be.

She talked about fan mail as if it was

God. You had to answer your fan mail.

This woman would write letters...

...would go to luncheons

and parties and things...

...that her fan clubs would have.

lf we went to the theater,

she kept giving autographs...

...until she got the last one done.

She knew the public

created her as a star.

So she felt this great commitment

to them and to never disappoint them...

...to always be Joan Crawford

whenever she was seen in public.

The fans were more loyal to her

than any man would have been...

...or ultimately any child.

She loved publicity. She knew,

unlike most of today's stars...

...that publicity

was part of her career.

When you look into her upbringing

of the children...

...and the way

she used them for publicity...

...it was just another adjunct

of her career.

-Good night, Mother.

-Good night, Mother dearest.

Good night, darlings.

This is our best time.

The best time

for all mothers and children.

The moment of wonderful peace

and contentment...

...knowing your children

are all cozy in bed for the night.

When you're an actress,

there are all these women...

...who are lurking inside of you.

l'm sure they've carried over

into her private life.

For there are other mothers,

so terribly many...

... who no longer know such

moments of peace and happiness.

l feel sorry for any child that grows up

with a parent who is an actor.

We are strange.

We do come from another place.

As each of her roles became more

steely and harsh on-screen...

...so did her appearance

off the screen.

And Crawford detested this change.

lf you look at her face on the screen...

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