Joan Crawford will always be remembered as a glamorous icon of the silver screen. Her career took off in the late 1920s, and her star never really dimmed until her death in 1977. Most remember Crawford as the picture of sophistication—her film costumes were designed by some of the most famous designers in history, and she was always pictured as immaculately dressed and tailored, with a cigarette or a drink in one gloved hand.
According to Rachel Shukert, a writer who extensively researched the private lives of old Hollywood stars for her book series Starstruck, Joan had a tawdry past that she was constantly trying to put behind her. The star wasn’t born into the Hollywood elite—her father was a common laborer from San Antonio, Texas and left the family shortly after Joan’s birth. Her mother then moved the family to Lawton, Oklahoma where she remarried a man who ran the local opera house. That man, Henry Cassin, is the subject of one of the Joan Crawford rumors: It’s alleged that Henry was sexually involved with Joan when she was only 11 years old. Once discovered, this led Joan’s mother to end the marriage.
A few years after the move to Oklahoma, the family relocated again to Kansas City, which is where the rumors get even dirtier. According to Shukert, Joan’s poor hygiene as a teenager resulted in her spreading crabs around Kansas City, which later led to her obsession with cleanliness once she reached Hollywood.
The final rumor about Crawford plagued the actress until her death. It was constantly rumored that Joan had worked as a call girl and starred in at least one porno before she got her big break at MGM—specifically, a 1918 film called The Casting Couch. If the actress had correctly stated her age during her first studio screen test, the film would have been made while Joan was still going to school in Kansas City, but some argue that Crawford lied about her age so frequently that it’s impossible to be sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment