Everyone knows her for those wire hangers. The Hollywood actress better known as Mommy Dearest. But her real name was Joan Crawford. Well, sort of. Truly, her birth name was Lucille Fay LeSueur. As it turns out, her birth name did not fit her Hollywood persona. But in truth, that person was often bitter, controversial, and dark. She led a complex life.
I’m talking about her today because she died on this date, May 10, 1977. She had a heart attack, and that did the trick. She was 72 years old at that moment.
But let’s start at the beginning as it might explain a few things. She was born on March 23, 1905, in San Antonio, Texas. Her early life was nothing like the glamor of her stardom. Dad and Mom were Thomas and Anna LeSueur, and they were pretty poor, always struggling to make ends meet.
Sadly, her father picked up and went when she was just a 10-month-old baby. Thomas abandoned his family entirely, moving far away from them to another city. Joan’s mother was strapped beyond belief. She eventually re-married an opera house manager named Henry J. Cassin, which became bad news.
To start off with, little Lucille Fay was abused physically and neglected emotionally by her mother. She was also forced into hard labor as a young girl. And to make matters horribly worse, she was sexually abused by her new stepfather, Henry Cassin. She thought he was her biological father for a long time.
So, if you ask me, all of this says a lot. No wonder she was cranky as an adult after coming through a childhood such as this. I’d say it is important when it comes to understanding Joan’s life and putting things in context.
But she kicked around a couple of names before she turned into Joan Crawford. After her mother married Cassin, Lucy changed her name to Billie Cassin, and by 1922, she was winning Charleston contests in Kansas City. From there, she headed to Chicago and then New York to dance on stage.
Lo and behold, “Billie” was spotted in the chorus of some show, by MGM producer Harry Rapf. He gave her a screen test and offered Billie a contract.
The MGM head honcho, named Louis B. Mayer, saw potential in her. But he couldn’t stand either one of her names. There would be no Lucille LeSueur or Billie Cassin.
He came up with a $1,000 public renaming contest. And Joan Crawford was born. Everyone liked the new name except for the person who owned it. She thought it sounded like “crawfish.”
As time went on, she would have four husbands — actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Franchot Tone, Phillip Terry, and Pepsi-Cola president Alfred Steele. And in addition to those guys, Joan had a whole slew of lovers.
But her kids. And those wire hangers. We’ve seen the horrors of Mommie Dearest, the movie. But many people around Joan say it just wasn’t true. The book was written by her daughter Christina, but two of her other kids, Catherine and Cynthia, have said they disagree with the portrayal. They claimed Christina “lived in her own reality” and that “Our Mommie was the best mother anyone ever had.”
So a blip of Joan’s complicated life. I didn’t even touch her ongoing feud with Bette Davis. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.
In all its various degrees, a story like this reminds me of how fortunate I was to have kind, loving, caring parents. My home was a safe place, and I was encouraged to think and grow. And the fried eggs were like magic, every single morning.
Life is filled with plenty of trials and challenges. But in those times, if we can figure out how, it does us well to remember our good fortunes, our luck, our blessings.
And always, to try to be our dearest selves.
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Not that anyone cares, but there’s a right and wrong way to clean a house.
— Joan Crawford
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think the most important thing a woman can have — next to talent, of course, is — her hairdresser.
— Joan Crawford
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I hate this f-king picture [“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”], but I need the money, and if it goes over I’ll get a nice percentage of the profits.
— Joan Crawford
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Mommies around the world. And this, dearest. Now that the day has passed.
