Joan Crawford

Bob Thomas biography on Joan Crawford was very insightful as well as very well written. The author unlocks the life of this highly sucesssful yet very misunderstood queen of the screen in a tasteful manner. Any Crawford fan would appreciate that he states facts and not tabloid gossip. Through reading this book I have become an even greater admirer of Miss Crawford. I highly recommend this book.

Reading this book some time ago, I was intrigued by the complexity that was Joan Crawford. The author details her very disturbing childhood, raised by a tyrant of a mother who whipped her causing bleeding welts across her legs, young "Joan's"(real name Lucille LeSuer) had father had abandoned the family. Her brother Hal showed no sympathy for her. Her mother's second husband Mr.Henry Cassin was kind to her, but he also left the family. Sent to a catholic boarding school, St. Agnes,she worked at waiting on tables, because her mother could not afford tuition. Finishing her curriculum at St Agnes, her mother found her Rockingham Academy, in Kansas, who took her on as a pupil in exchange for her cleaning fourteen rooms of the mansion, scrubbing toilets, bathing the young children and tucking them in bed. She got five hours sleep on average. Life was hard at the academy as the principal would also beat the child. She tried running away, but was returned and further beaten. Neither her home nor school allowed escape from beatings, while Joan was schooling, her mother had a new man installed at home and he too would beat Joan mercilessly. Boys began asking Joan out to dances in her last years at school. She was growing into a beautiful young lady and a great dancer.This was when she dreamed of becoming a professional dancer. She auditioned for the chorus of a traveling show and was hired. Beautiful, talented and very intelligent, Joan's most valuable trait was her determination. Severing a tendon and artery in her foot, she proved her doctor wrong in his prognosis that "she'd never walk again without a limp", Joan was dancing in just a few weeks. The book outlines her triumphant career where her professionalism and good instincts as an actress led her to notoriety. Unfortunately she too would abuse the four children she'd adopted, yet be affectionate and overwhelmingly kind to her fans. She adopted a pattern of putting her faith in strangers rather than in her family. She trusted strangers more than family. It is a rags to riches story. I'm not a fan and I've seen just only of her films and yet found this book interesting, sometimes fascinating and disturbing. Recommended as a look into a complex, often manic personality.

Bob Thomas did a good job on his biography of Joan Crawford. Biographies are hard to write, being dependent upon word-of-mouth and secondhand information, for the largest part, and many scenes recreated by biographers are fabricated since the writer wasn't present during the subject's intimate moments or private conversations with others. So evidently he or she is using either gossip, written or live sources, except when he actually meets the star and uses firsthand impressions. In any case, unlike many biographers, Thomas does a professional job, striving to be thorough, compassionate, and incisive. He paints a solid portrait of a woman who came from nothing and worked hard and relentlessly to rise from the ashes -- through continual setbacks, she rose like a phoenix again and again, achieving success, fame and fortune (although she would lose that fortune, due to ex-husbands), yet never quite finding the love she so sorely desired. Joan Crawford had a difficult life, a Dickensian childhood of abuse, child labor, neglect and -- most seriously -- lacking in love (as when I read Tatum O'Neal's "A Paper Life," I could only feel for her since it is impossible to come from such a childhood and survive without serious repercussions), yet she was also blessed with good looks, vivacity, tenacity, talent and spirit. Growing up in abject poverty, she was also a social outcast, except for her appeal to boys even in early years. She seemed to be a fundamentally decent person -- generous and loyal and a good friend to many, somewhat idealistic and romantic -- who had tragically been damaged. She approached her job in movies with, for the most part, a professional attitude and sense of commitment, although her alcoholism later in life and the traumas of failed marriages and a studio that was willing to cast her out after she made millions for it understandably led to less desirable behavior during some periods of her life. She was a star and temperamental. She also seemed very eager to please and be liked, certainly dedicated to her fans. I, for one, would never judge the lapses in judgment she may or may not have made with her children, since the worst can be brought out in the best of us at dark moments in our life, and her more troubled behavior was not the sum and total of who she was anymore than it is for anyone else. But in any case, whatever difficulties she might have had with her older children, she seemed to have achieved a good relationship with her two younger daughters, Cathy and Cheryl. I have a deep respect and admiration for Crawford and adore her screen persona and equally, from what I've read, the person she was -- even with her flaws. She was an amazing woman and her contributions and achievements remain impressive; she gave a lot and often elevated the mediocrity she was sometimes handed. She looked after many of the people who had been good to her along the way and seemed both determined and vulnerable as she appeared on f

My favorite will always be Christina's book "Mommie Dearest", but this book gave a much more detailed background of Joan's childhood and early years in Hollywood, as well as her last years. I am surprised that someone so famous would have nothing to do but sit in her apartment all day and answer letters. You'd think someone like that would have so many friends and always have something planned every night. I don't think someone that famous- and this refers to Joan in the 1950s and 60s- had to worry about being a "has-been". She already had an Oscar and everyone knew her name. She will ALWAYS be famous. A good comparison would probably be John Travolta. He has made some great classics ("Grease"), but his last couple of movies have been bombs. So what. He'll always be around. I think Joan was a great friend to her peers, there's no doubt. Her treatment towards her children was horrific. This was no secret in Hollywood, either. Christina was no crybaby who wrote her book because she was disinherited. If someone brought it up to Joan to lighten up, they were asked to leave the house or told to mind their own business. No wonder Christopher kept running away!! And where's the logic in punishment with physcial harm because he tried to run away? That would just make him want to leave MORE. I definitely recommend this, it's the best Joan biography to date.

I have been reading hollywood biographies for about 30 years, almost exclusively, and Joan is one of my favorites. This bio is the best I've ever read about her.