All About Joan Crawford
by Bette Davis
Nobody liked Joan.. especially her boss
Mayer was head of MGM in the "golden years"
"I have great admiration for Joan Crawford as an actress, but she's a slut. Her whole life is an act. She is what she is, a cheap flapper who likes to get laid" - Louis B. Mayer
Someone once asked Bette Davis in an interview why she thought Joan Crawford's four marriages had not worked out. Bette replied:
" She was a rotten mother, so she's a rotten wife. Mommie Dearest is her best picture.."
Joan pretends to do Christina's hair, but really, she flew into a rage and chopped it all off
After this famous fake photo taken on Christina's birthday, Joan insisted she give all her presents to charity
Joan adored her dogs, and herself, and had huge portraits of herself on all her walls
Bette Davis avoided Joan Crawford at all Hollywood functions. When asked why Bette stated:
"You hang around that woman long enough and you'll pick up all kinds of useless shit."
In the book, "Bette Davis Speaks" by Boze Hadley, he asked Miss Davis if it was true that she said: "There may be a heaven, but if Joan Crawford is there, I'm not going." Bette's reply:
"Would you?"
"Joan Crawford hates all women except for those who can help her. If I ever see her again I'll probably strike her in the face." - Mrs. Sterling Hayden
About the death of Joan Crawford:
"There is no need to hole up in an apartment and die alone. No. None. Poor Joan. I wish I could have liked her more." - Bette Davis
Bette Davis Quotes:
"Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me".
"Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism".
"I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears."
One of Bette's finest performances was in the horror movie Burnt Offerings, where she played the very sweet Aunt Elizabeth
"I survived because I was tougher than anybody else."
"I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries".
"I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair".
"I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year."
"I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived".
"I've always liked men better than women".
"If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent".
To copy Christina Crawford, Bette's daughter, B.D. Hyman, wrote a stupid book about Bette, and it backfired. The worst she had to say was that Bette was loud, drank alot, and fought with her husband, Gary Merrill, B.D.'s dad. Big deal! Also, Christina wrote the book after Joan died, and B.D. wrote hers while Bette was very much alive. Bette called B.D. an ungrateful bitch, and the world sided with Bette. Bette said it was a cheap shot, and never spoke to her again. B.D. has her own ministry now.
"In this business, until you're known as a monster you're not a star."
Bette and Joan with the child actors who play the as young girls in Baby Jane
"It is my last wish to be buried sitting up. Why should I pretend I like getting old? My body is decaying, and I can't remember anything".
"Old age is no place for sissies."
"Sex is God's joke on human beings".
"The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"
Blanche and Baby Jane's mansion where the movie was filmed. I don't believe in recommending movies to people, but I make an exception with this one. If you haven't seen it, it is the one old movie you must see.
"When a man gives his opinion he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion she's a bitch."
"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies".
On October 6, 1989 Bette died of cancer. She said:
"I don't want anyone sending money to any little charity instead of flowers. I want millions of flowers…I want everyone to weep... hysterically." She was 81.
All About Bette Davis
By Joan Crawford:
"So I had no great beginnings in legitimate theater, but what the hell had she become if not a movie star? With all her little gestures with the cigarette, the clipped speech, the big eyes, the deadpan? I was just as much an actress as she was, even though I wasn't trained for the stage." - Joan Crawford
Joan was a slut
Joan always had an overinflated opinion of herself, and had no friends in Hollywood
Regarding her being replaced for the film Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, Joan Crawford stated: "I looked forward to working with Bette again." "I had no idea of the extent of her hate, and that she planned to destroy me...I still get chills when I think of the treachery that Miss Davis indulged in on that movie."Bette in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
Joan never was much to look at, but years of drinking and whoring around really did damage to her already homely looks
In 1973 Joan talked about the makeup the two actresses used in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? " I am aware of how Miss Davis felt about my makeup in Baby Jane, but my reasons for appearing somewhat glamorous were just as valid as hers, with all those layers of Rice powder she wore and that ghastly lipstick. But Miss Davis was always partial to covering up her face in motion pictures. She called it 'Art.' Others might call it camouflage- a cover-up for the absence of any real beauty. "
In an interview after "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" was released, Bette referred to Joan and herself as "we two old broads." Joan sent Bette a note on her traditional blue stationery: "Dear Miss Davis. Please do not continue to refer to me as an old broad. Sincerely, Joan Crawford."
A drunken Joan replaced her daughter on the soap opera, The Secret Storm" when her daughter was home sick, humiliating them both. Her daughter's character was 22 years old, and Joan was an old looking 54
This is what Christina looked like on Secret Storm, and Joan playing her daughter's role
Marilyn Monroe had a one night lesbian affair with Joan. She said: (this is word for word, transcripted from tape recordings)
"Oh yes, Crawford. We went to her house from a cocktail party, feeling no pain. We went to the bedroom and went down on each other. Crawford had a gigantic orgasm and shrieked like a maniac. Next time I saw her she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't enjoy it much, doing it with a woman. After I turned her down she became spiteful."
Joan mocked Marilyn after that every chance she got. This story is from this tabloid of the day, Private Lives :
Forty-six years old, and as crusty as an East Side rye bread, Joan Crawford still rides high as Hollywood's most graveling personality.
What does the movie community think of this one-time glamour doll? Roby Heard in the New York Journal American gave some quotes recently:
A famous actor, who wishes to remain unnamed: "She's a bitch on wheels. And a slut! She'll take anybody to her bed, but only once."
A Director: "Joan Crawford's abuse of people who refuse to bow to her is the disgrace of Hollywood."
Mercedes McCambridge:
"I am ashamed of myself because I have lacked the courage to tell the world what Joan Crawford really is, what she does to people in the studios. But she destroys those who oppose her."
For years, Crawford has gotten away with her knife-in-the-back behavior because fellow stars and newspaper people were afraid to attack her.
Her hateful comments on Marilyn Monroe's skin-tight dress -- a real hot number which inspired whistles which could be heard the length of Wilshire Boulevard -- was typical of her jealous reaction to pretty young stars.
Marilyn showed up at a Beverly Hills hotel banquet to accept an award honoring her as an outstanding screen personality wearing an outfit which clearly showed why she got the award. Joan, according to those who sat near her, was raging with envy and jealousy. Later she told a newsman:
"Those of us in the industry were horrified at Marilyn's display.
"It was like a burlesque show. The audience yelled and shouted and Jerry Lewis, the funny guy, got up on a table and whistled. I shuddered.
"People don't like to have sex flaunted in their faces. It is bad for the kids. And women, who pick the pictures their families should see, aren't likely to take the gang to a Monroe picture."
But the old bitch couldn't have been more wrong. Marilyn became a bigger star than slutty Joan could have ever dreamed of being!
Joan was supposed to star opposite Bette in the horror movie Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, but had to be replaced when she pretended she was sick. The movie had a song my daughter (6 at the time she saw it) especially liked. It went:
"Chop chop, sweet Charlotte, Chop chop till he's dead, Chop chop, sweet Charlotte, Chop off his hand and head, To meet your lover you ran chop chop, Now everyone understands, Just why you went to meet your love chop chop, To chop off his head and hand."
Until his death in 1959, Joan Crawford had been married to Alfred Steele, the president of Pepsi-Cola. In an effort to spite her co-star, Bette Davis installed a Coca-Cola machine on the set.
When Joan lay dying, she overheard her nurses praying for her. Her last words were, "Damnit! Don't you dare ask God to help me!"
She died here, in this bed
Joan was on T.V's Night Gallery as a woman who buys a man's eyes just to have eye sight for one hour, only to have a power outage darken the city for that hour. It was Steven Spielberg's directorial debut, 1969
