She changed her name from Lucille LeSueur (rather pleasant sounding, one would think, even if it does make some folks think of canned peas) to Joan Crawford (which is not pleasant at all, hinting of a matronly official who is not pleased about anything). Then she posed for this publicity still, where it was obvious that she was prepared to take her own life if she didn’t get her way. And, lest we forget, she apparently had a string of lovers longer than the line at the opening night of “Gone with the Wind”.
But despite these clear signs of her lackluster nurturing skills, the adoption agencies in California still arranged for children to be delivered to her door along with the milk and the newspaper. How was anyone surprised when one of those product-placement urchins, aka Christina Crawford, eventually published a tell-all book about what it was like to grow up with a spiteful woman who eventually had eyebrows with their own zip code?
Categories: Past Imperfect
Bonnywood Manor 
Looks like Mommie Dearest is trying to strangle herself.
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Now that you mention it, that’s a very good observation. I initially thought she was just trying to restrain herself from attacking the photographer for asking if she had perhaps gone a bit too far with the mascara…
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Lol. The subtle self strangulation pose, a forgotten classic.
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Now, that’s TWO of you mentioning self-strangulation. Is this really a thing? Apparently I haven’t been paying enough attention to pop culture and I need to do some research on the internet… 😉
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It was big in 2014….lol
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Gosh – she has a face like a hand grenade about to go off – not an attractive look at all.
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Exactly. I would not want this person having any say in my upbringing. I would be running back to the adoption agency with extreme urgency… 😉
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Someone must have given her wire hangers and caused her to gag.
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That’s it! She’s having an allergic reaction to implements used by the common people… 😉
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I still love her performances in “Mildred Pierce,” “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” and the lesser-known, B-movie from the late 60s / early 70s, “Trog” – but I shudder to think what growing up in her house must have been like. Truth is stranger than fiction, and “Mommie Dearest” only peeled back a very small layer, I would imagine…
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Yes, she’s great in all three of those films, in her unique way. (And I should add the somewhat-surreal “Johnny Guitar”, a movie that confused EVERYBODY, including Joan. What the hell were they trying to say with that mess?) And I agree that Christina Crawford (or her editor) held back with some of the more outlandish incidents. Still, there’s the movie version of “Mommie Dearest”, which allowed Faye Dunaway to chew up the scenery with her crazy eyes, and that was a delicious treat all by itself… 😉
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I would never have recognized her if you hadn’t pointed it out! Must have been taken very early in her career?
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Very early. I’m still digging for the details, but my guess is mid-to-late 1920s…
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