There is no known official Birth Certificate for Joan Crawford, however we do know that she was born in San Antonio with the name of Lucille Fay LeSueur. Also, there has always been differing opinions as to her birth year. Throughout her life, she maintained she was born on March 23rd 1908, and this was the date given when she applied for a Social Security card in California.
However many biographers have disputed that, and the consensus is that she was born in 1906.
Photo: TV Tropes
This birth year has been concluded by examining other known records, mainly those of her older brother Hal, who was born in 1903, and then comparing their ages with photos taken of them as children.
Photo: The Concluding Chapter of Crawford
Photo: Legendary Joan Crawford
With all of that being said, the plate on her crypt at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in New York shows her birth year as 1908, which coincides with her Government documentation.
Photo; Youtube
Her father, Tom, was a French Canadian laborer, and her mother, Anna, of Irish and Scandinavian descent. She was the youngest of three children in the family, and they lived in a small house on South Cherry, near where the Alamodrome now sits. According to Joan, it was “ a drab little rented house on the wrong side of the tracks”
Her father left the family when Lucille was about ten months old, and moved to Abeline, Texas. There are those that claim that her biological parents were never actually married.
It is not certain as to how long her mother remained in the Alamo city with her three small children, but shortly after her father left, Lucille’s mother made the decision to move to Lawton, Oklahoma.
There she met, and eventually married, Henry Cassin, who owned a local opera house and an open air theater. Lucille’s name was changed around this time, and she remembered being called Billie Cassin.
Photo: Good Housekeeping
She also recalled being fascinated by her stepfather’s theater, however, when she was six, she badly injured her foot on some broken glass, which threatened her hopes of becoming a dancer. By 1915, the Cassins relocated to Kansas after Henry Cassin escaped conviction on an embezzlement charge. Once there, he operated a “shabby hotel” until he too abandoned them, forcing Anna to find employment as a laundress. Young Billie Cassin left home in her teens and took dancing jobs, reverting to her original name Lucille LeSueur.
Photo: You Must Remember This
After moving to both Chicago and Detroit, she was discovered by talent scouts, and secured a screen test with Metro Goldwyn-Mayer. She was still getting credited as “Lucille LuSuer” in her first films alongside stars like Lon Chaney and Jackie Coogan ( later remembered as Uncle Fester in “The Addams Family” TV show ), but producers detested that name, with MGM publicity executive Pete Smith even saying it reminded him of a sewer. Instead, Smith came up with a plan.
Smith put out a “Name the Star” contest in the paper, where readers chose the up and coming starlet’s new stage name. Their first choice was not “Joan Crawford.” The name “Joan Arden” originally won, until the studio realized there was already a working actress with that last name ( we got to know her as Eve Arden ). “Crawford” was just a backup last name, and the actress reportedly always despised it.
Marie Tisdale, a disabled woman living in Albany NY, won $500 in the studio competition for submitting the name Joan Crawford to rename Lucille LeSueur.
We’ve apparently been calling Joan Crawford “Joan Crawford” for nearly 100 years now…but apparently we’re wrong. She intended the pronunciation of her stage name to be “Jo-Anne” when she first signed up for it, however, in her private life, she often went by her childhood nickname of “Billie,” at least with those who she loved most.
By 1932, she was the third most profitable star in Hollywood and had starred in a string of talkie hits
Yet when discussing her brand of allure, Crawford only quipped, “If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.”
Very organized and determined, Joan Crawford became notorious around Hollywood for always, always responding to the letters her adoring fans sent her, every single one. She would dutifully type up her responses on blue paper and then personally autograph each letter. No wonder the other stars were jealous of her.
Joan was many things, and she alway gave credit where it was due. Besides her lifelong devotion to her fans, to whom she attributed all her stardom, she also insisted on remembering the names of every crew member on the set of her films. As she once said, “It’s important to remember people”
Crawford’s love life spanned countless affairs and four marriages…or, was it five? According to one of her biographers, the star may have hid an enormous secret. In the very infancy of her career, Crawford took up with saxophone player James Welton, and there is some flimsy evidence that the pair married in 1924, making Welton her first husband, but she never spoke about this relationship in her later years.
Her “official” husbands were Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Franchot Tone, Phil Terry, and finally Pepsi Cola executive Alfred Steele. Along the way, she had a highly-publicized affair with Clark Gable, and other reported daliances with Spencer Tracy, Jackie Cooper and Kirk Douglas
It was well-known around Hollywood of the volatile relationship between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. On more than one occasion, they had eyes for the same man, and more than once, Joan Crawford won the affections of the shared attraction….including marrying Franchot Tone, who Bette Davis was madly in love with.
In 1963, they both starred in the movie “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”, and Crawford and Davis’s feud took center stage in the most hostile way imaginable. At that year’s Oscars, Davis received a nomination in the Best Actress category for that movie…and Crawford didn’t. Rather than sit back and dwell on the missed nomination, Joan Crawford decided to put all her cunning into total overdrive.
Before the ceremony, Crawford reached out to all the other Best Actress nominees, and knowing that many were on the East Coast, and may not be able to attend the ceremony,offered to accept any award on their behalf. They all agreed to accept the “offer” Crawford. Now, she just had to wait for Oscar night.
As it turned out, Bette Davis lost to Anne Bancroft in “The Miracle Worker”. Bancroft couldn’t attend the ceremony, so, as arranged, Joan Crawford took her place and accepted the “Best Actress” award, right in front of a seething Bette Davis.
She did win an Oscar for “Best Actress” for the film “Mildred Pierce” The role was originally offered to Bette Davis who turned it down, and then the next choice Barbara Stanwyck was passed over when Studio execs saw Joan Crawford’s screen test for the role.
Her Oscar for “Mildred Pierce” went on auction after her death and sold for $68,000. The auction house had predicted a top bid of $15,000.
Then, in 1970, Joan Crawford was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award by John Wayne at the Golden Globes.
Photo: Pinterest
When the end came, Crawford saw it coming. On May 6th, 1977, she gave away her Shih Tzu, the delightful “Princess Lotus Blossom,” because she was too weak to care for the dog anymore. Four days later, she passed away following a heart attack, although she was also reportedly suffering from pancreatic cancer. Only her housekeeper and a longtime fan were present. Joan Crawford was 73.
When Crawford passed, her adopted children seemed heartbroken—until the contents of her will were revealed. Though she left Cindy and Cathy a small sum of money, she notoriously shut out her two other children entirely from an inheritance. As she wrote, “It is my intention to make no provision herein for my son, Christopher, or my daughter, Christina, for reasons which are well known to them.”
In 1978, the year after her mother’s death, her daughter Christina got a long-awaited revenge, when she released her infamous tell-all book “Mommie Dearest”, later made into a movie starring Faye Dunaway. There were some controversial, and dramatic claims made. Although there were many who disputed the allegations, the book told a story that Crawford emotionally and physically mistreated Christina and her brother Christopher.
In one of Hollywood’s longest careers, Joan Crawford made over 80 movies.
Photo: Wikipedia
Some Joan Crawford Trivia:
Everytime she remarried, she would change the toilet seats in her Brentwood home at 426 North Bristol Ave.
She would only smoke cigarettes from a packet that she opened herself.
In 1960, she was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine St.
Photo: Pinterest
In 1929, she was invited to leave her hand and footprints in the wet cement out front of the Grauman Chinese Theater in Los Angeles
Photo: Pinterest
Some Joan Crawford quotes :
“ I think the most important thing a woman can have, next to talent, of course, is her hairdresser.”
“If you’re going to be a star, you have to look like a star, and I never go out unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star.”
Sources:
theconcludingchapterofcrawford.com
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Memories of San Antonio 