book review!

Not the Girl Next Door, the biography of joan crawford by charlotte chandler is our topic

right off the bat i'll say i liked this book, though i just read the reviews at amazon and am uncertain what to make of them. ms. chandler had extensive interviews with all the major players of the biography: joan, her husbands, friends, studio executives and contemporary actors and actresses. what came from that obviously put her in a rather flattering light, but then other than the 2003 bio about martha stewart and major war crimes offenders, i think most of them are like that.


joan, originally lucille "billie" lesueur, came from a nothing town in texas with a father who walked out when she was young. she was very bright, driven and a talented dancer who believed in discipline.


figure 2 and 3: lucille lesueur (striking resemblance to madonna, no?), pre-joan crawford


her image as The Joan Crawford (figure 4 below) was carefully cultivated and polished from the early stages of her career which began in 1925.
as a late teen, she married the actor douglas fairbanks jr, whose stepmother was the silent film star mary pickford. joan related in interviews that she learned table etiquette from observing mary at dinners and parties. she worked steadily from 1925-1942, appearing in 2-4 movies a year, a pace which slowed as movie production slowed in the mid 40s.


the height of her career was the movie mildred pierce (1945), for which she won the academy award.
figure 5: classic joan



i have to admit, i've only seen one of her 71 movies, whatever happened to baby jane (1962) with bette davis. that particular film was made near the end of her career and established both ladies as contenders in the gothic horror genre.


figure 6: bette davis left, joan right
from there she made the caretakers, strait-jacket and i know what you did and berserk! in that vein (note to self, netflix immediately!!). by the 1970s she went into self imposed isolation to "protect" the image of joan crawford. over the course of her life, she adopted four children: christina, christopher, cindy and cathy, donated money to countless charities and starred in film, tv and radio appearances. sadly the last chapter is devoted to reversing the damage done by the "other book" written by christina and published after joan's death. ironically, that's why i read the book. i've seen the mommie dearest movie (with faye dunaway as joan) and love the movie baby jane. i wanted to know more.

now i do.

somewhere between the two polar portrayals is the truth. i think it's located closer to the contents of this book as many other actors have denounced christina for writing the hateful tome.

it doesn't change the fact that joan was driven, gorgeous, smart, and very much the portrait of a lady in front of the camera and off (for the most part, she wasn't a saint. most people aren't.)

ps. there are movie synopsis for all her films included.