Your Questions
| The Best of Everything: A Joan Crawford Encyclopedia |
|
|
Welcome
to
The
Best of Everything
which
debuted online
March
23, 2004
|
To find information:
• Browse one of the main categories to the right of the picture above. • Click on a letter or the index link below to find a particular entry in the Encyclopedia. • Use the handy Google box below to search the entire site by key word. • See the Latest Site Updates and Joan Crawford Events sections below. |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
All original Encyclopedia text, from A to Z, is copyright © 2004 - 2008 by Stephanie Jones
|
5/14/08
FILMS: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) -- Added a vintage New York Times review. Winners of the Wilderness (1927) -- Added a vintage Motion Picture News review and some Trivia Notes. The Taxi Dancer (1927) -- Added a vintage New York Times review.
TV SCHEDULE: Updated Joan's movies through August (thanks, Mike!): August 4 The Hollywood Revue. 6am. TCM. August 7 Grand Hotel. 12am. TCM. August 14 August 15
5/10/08 In Memory. Joan Crawford died May 10, 1977.
5/07/08
I'm not a huge Madonna fan, but Simon Robinson just persuaded me to give her some props! I just created a Madonna entry in the Encyclopedia thanks to the links Simon provided comparing Madge's 1998 "Power of Good-Bye" video to Joan's 1946 film Humoresque. See the entry for (1) comparative screen shots; (2) the Wikipedia link for the song, which mentions Humoresque's influence; (3) the YouTube video of the song. (We Joan fans are still, however, peeved that Madonna's 1990 single "Vogue" didn't mention her!) :)
EVENTS: The 13th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival will feature The Unknown (1927) on July 12 at 10:45pm. From their press release: To kick-start our new Director’s Pick series we welcome Guy Maddin, director of Brand Upon the Brain! to introduce Tod Browning’s horror-ode to unrequited love. Lon Chaney stars as Alonzo the Armless and Joan Crawford is Nanon, who has a pathological fear of being touched by a man. It’s one of most brazenly bizarre films ever made – hands down! (Thanks, Scott!)
TV: Updated the TV Schedule page to include Joan's films for July: The Women (July 1, 10pm) and Susan and God (July 17, 8pm). (Thanks, Mike!)
5/01/08
BOOKS: Added a long excerpt about Joan from columnist Liz Smith's book "Natural Blonde," in which she talks about Joan's lesbian secretary, airbrushing Big Al out of pictures, and Joan's favorite dessert.
PHOTOS: Added 8 new photos to the 1959 page:
ENCYCLOPEDIA: T Added an entry for TWA airlines, primarily so I could include a link to this TWA flight attendants' site with anecdotes about flying with Joan. (She wore gingham, asked attendants to play cards with her, AND cleaned the lavatory!)
4/28/08
October '26 MGM publicity shot.
Dancing the Charleston on a block of ice at the MGM pool. From Spring Fever, with William Haines: one, two, three, and four. From The Taxi Dancer: one, two, three, and four.
4/26/08
PHOTOS: 1926 By unknown photographers: one (dancing the Black Bottom) and two (autographed). More iconic shots of Joan by Ruth Harriet Louise: one, two, three, and four.
NYC's Chelsea Cinema will be featuring 4 Joan films in May: May 1: Mildred Pierce May 3: Baby Jane May 8: Queen Bee May 22: The Women
4/20/08
Youth (pre-1925): Added a Stephens College yearbook photo of Joan, from her freshman year in the fall of 1922.
1925: Added... A "Miss July" calendar photo. A still of Joan as an extra in William Haines' film "The Midshipman." A still of Joan as Norma Shearer's double in "Lady of the Night." Stills one and two of Joan in "Old Clothes." MGM publicity shots one and two of Joan on the beach with Dorothy Sebastian. A publicity photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull.
4/18/08
LETTERS: Added an August 1962 letter from Joan to a fan written during the filming of Baby Jane, saying what a pleasure Bette Davis is to work with! (Thanks, Russell!)
YOUTH (PRE-1925) PHOTOS: Added a photo of Joan, age 9, with her mom, sent out as a publicity postcard in 1928. Also added a photo of Joan with doll, around age 11, from the recent Chandler bio. And a circa-1923 semi-nude art shot from her showgirl days, signed "Lucille."
4/11/08
ENCYCLOPEDIA: C Up 'til now it's been reported in various Joan bios that Joan's stepfather Henry J. Cassin disappeared from her life soon after the family moved from Lawton, Oklahoma, to Kansas City in 1916 and Cassin and Anna Bell divorced. It was guessed that he had died in 1919, shortly after the last time Joan saw him.
In fact, after the divorce, Cassin moved from Kansas City to Nashville, where he died of a heart attack on October 25, 1922. He is buried in Lawton's Highland Cemetery, alongside other of his family members.
Click here to read Cassin's Lawton Constitution obituary and to learn much more about his family and origins.
Thanks to Katie for sharing her in-depth Cassin research with this website.
TV SCHEDULE UPDATE: Joan movies on TV in June (thanks, Mike!): The Women. June 12. 3:30am. TCM. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. June 23. 2:15am. TCM. Rain. June 29. 4:30am. TCM.
4/10/08
ENCYCLOPEDIA: M Added an entry and photo for Rita Moreno. Click on the link to read about her encounter with Joan on Oscar Night, 1962. (From her recent interview in "Gay City News." Thanks, Mr. Pierce!)
PRESS: For reaction to the Moreno interview, see Michael Musto's April 9 Village Voice column, in which he and his responsive readers wax poetic about said encounter...
For political junkies following this year's presidential race, see the April 8 editorial on the Huffington Post, by Shaun Jacob Halper, which begins, "Hillary Clinton is possessed by the spirit of Joan Crawford..." (While the majority of the essay might initially seem purely derisive, read on until the end... The author makes his real, complicated psychological point in the last two paragraphs.)
4/8/08
PHOTOS: 1933 Added one Hurrell glamour shot, a November 1933 shot of Joan and Franchot at the train station, and a December 1933 shot of Joan and Franchot at the Cocoanut Grove.
ADS: Added a 1928 Lux Soap ad that appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal.
MAGAZINES: Added a 1928 "Das Theater" cover from Germany.
4/5/08
OBIT: Jules Dassin, who directed Joan in Reunion in France, but was better known for films such as "Rififi," "Never on Sunday," and "Night and the City," died in his adopted country of Greece on Monday. He was 96. New York Times obit.
To read a funny 2002 interview with Dassin about working with Joan on "Reunion," see this site's Dassin entry. ("Which one is your car?" and "New York gangster" indeed!) :)
Added 2 sketches of Joan by cartoonist Milton Caniff. (Joan was the inspiration for the "Dragon Lady" character in Caniff's "Terry and the Pirates" strip. One of these sketches is Caniff's 1964 birthday greeting to Joan, with her in full-length "Dragon Lady" regalia. The other is a 1965 drawing, signed with love.)
Also added an original 1930s artwork that eventually appeared on the cover of a screen magazine. (Artist and magazine, unknown. Please e-mail me if you have any info.)
LETTERS: Added a February 1928 poem that Joan sent to longtime early penpal Dan Mahony. ("I'm condemned for everything I do...")
Added an October 1966 letter to a friend mentioning Christina's marriage. And a June 1967 letter to actress Agnes Moorehead, with congrats on her Emmy win.
PHOTOS: Added a 1968 shot of Joan on-set with Lucy during filming of "The Lucy Show." Added a 1971 "My Way of Life" book-signing photo.
EVENTS: New York City's Chelsea Cinema will screen two Joan films in coming weeks. Trog shows Thursday, April 24, at 7 and 9:30pm. And What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? shows Saturday, May 3, at 10pm. All showings are hosted by Hedda Lettuce.
NOTE: The items in the Art, Letters, and Photos additions above are courtesy of a Joan fan who chooses to remain publicly anonymous. She always says, "No thanks are necessary," but I DO have to say a HUGE THANKS to this tireless Joan researcher. This site is so much better because of her constant, ongoing efforts and devotion to her favorite star.
4/2/08
FILM REVIEWS:
Daisy Kenyon: Thanks to Norman for his new review. I also added a vintage New York Times review from December 25, 1947, by "T.M.P."
Goodbye, My Fancy: Added a vintage NYTimes review by Bosley Crowther from May 30, 1951.
PHOTOS: Added a 2004 photo of Joan's Hollywood secretary Betty Barker. (Courtesy of Steve Schalchlin's blog.)
EVENTS: Friday, April 4: The Florida Film Festival in Orlando will present Strait-Jacket at precisely 11:59pm. (Thanks, Walter, for the info.) Wednesday, June 4: The Los Angeles Conservancy will present Mildred Pierce at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown LA.
DVD REVIEWS: Check out the review of the new JC box set, by Barrie Maxwell of the Digital Bits site.
3/27/08
FANS: Thanks to Kevin and Doug for sharing a photo that they took at Joan's grave this past Sunday. They brought gardenias (and birthday wishes on the "Crawford Blue" stationery) to pay homage.
3/25/08
PHOTOS: See the photos I took on Joan's birthday (Easter Sunday) at her Ferncliff crypt. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the flower fund from this website, and to the other fans who had flowers delivered there! As fan Greg Rak said..."Memory Eternal!"
3/23/08
Happy Birthday, Joan!
Visit the TCM site to read an essay in honor of her official Centennial. And tune in to TCM to watch 13 Joan films in a row, starting at 8pm Sunday with the "Ultimate Star" doc. That's 24 hours of Joan! (Check out especially "Spring Fever," the 1927 silent film co-starring William Haines--it's never been shown before.)
The Ultimate Star. 8pm Mildred Pierce. 9:30pm Torch Song. 11:30pm Spring Fever. 1:15am Grand Hotel. 2:30am Dancing Lady. 4:45am Sadie McKee. 6:30am The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. 8:15am The Women. 10am A Woman's Face. 12:15pm They All Kissed the Bride. 2:15pm Humoresque. 3:45pm Harriet Craig. 6pm
VIDEO: For historical purposes, you might want to watch this painfully sluggish ABC interview of March 16 with Joan daughter Cathy LaLonde, her daughter Carla, and the great-granddaughter, Olivia. And an ABC interview on the same date with Joan-bio author Charlotte Chandler. |
|
If
your city, group, or self is presenting a Joan Crawford-related
event in the
London February 14 - May 26 Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 (featuring a 1929 iconic shot of Joan with husband Doug Fairbanks, Jr., at the beach)
New York City The Chelsea Cinema presents
THE WOMEN Thursday, May 22 7 and 9:30pm
Los Angeles The LA Conservancy presents
Mildred Pierce Wednesday, June 4, at 8pm at the Million Dollar Theatre (downtown LA)
San Francisco The 13th Annual SF Silent Film Festival presents
The Unknown July 12 at 10:45pm 10:45pm THE UNKNOWN (1927, Tod Browning)
February 5. Charlotte Chandler's Joan bio "Not the Girl Next Door." February 12. DVD set: The Joan Crawford Collection, Volume 2. (Featuring "A Woman's Face," "Flamingo Road," "Sadie McKee," "Strange Cargo," and "Torch Song.") March 11. DVD: Daisy Kenyon |
March 2006: Ferncliff Mausoleum and Flower Photos July 2006: Ann Blyth at the Castro May 2007: Ferncliff Mausoleum and Flower Photos March 2008: Ferncliff Mausoleum and Flower Photos
|
Visitors to this page since March 23, 2004:
