Mommy Dearest is a Hoax, Christina now admits !!!

How sad is that?

Well that's a pretty crappy thing to do to your own mother, a year after her death.

That's not exactly what the article says, it says parts of the movie were fictionalized by the screenwriters- it doesn't say that the book was fictionalized. I'm not saying it wasn't, I'm just commenting on what the article reported.

Wow, that's really shocking. I saw parts of that film and I was shocked by it. I always disliked Joan afterwards and didn't want to see her films. How unfair is that? Maybe now there will be a run on Joan Crawford films, but too late for Joan. At least she didn't have to see the film.

The book goes over the deep end, too. Christina had herself nearly strangled to death in front of a reporter who later said she (forget the name of the reporter, off hand - a gossip reporter) who said she never saw any abuse in the house at all.

Joan's house in Brentwood was never very private. There was ALWAYS reporters over, fans even sleeping over, lovers, staff, and the other neighborhood children of Hollywood stars who played there with Joan's kids. Brentwood was the kind of close neighborhood where everybody usually knew what was going down (once Joan got in a loud fight with a lover and the neighbors called the fire department).

Mommy Dearest is a mean war between Joan and Christina that really makes no sense in the reality of the place and time, unless you think that going to expensive schools, wearing expensive clothes, and eating expensive food is abuse (like Christina tries to twist it).

Christopher was strapped to the bed because he slept walked and the doctor had Joan pick up the bed straps at a drug store.

And Joan wasn't fired from MGM. She paid A LOT of money to get herself out the contract to get out of doing Cry Havoc. Mommy Dearest is all trashy junk.

And, yes, Joan did spank if you did something bad, and slapped if you lipped off, but that was standard for the time. I was slapped and spanked as a kid but I don't think it warrants a book to trash my Mom.

As a child she might have been spoiled brat enough to not know better, but she wrote the book as an adult when she should have known Mom's side.

But she was bitter from her own career failing, when she wrote the book (it was all written before Joan's death), so she was hopeless.

That is so terrible

After Christina was fired from the stage play Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon (he said she wouldn't take direction - she just did her own thing - and she was awful) then Christina was finally totally blackballed from anymore acting work in Hollywood. Then she wrote Mommy Dearest as her next career move - where FAMOUS Joan gets ALL the blame for everything - all the time.

Joan knew about Christina writing the book (Joan had many devoted friends) and still Christina got an allowance from Mom (even as an adult, Joan sent Christina living money all the time).

Most of Joan's Will went to charity. Joan did a lot of charity work.

Things that make you say hmmm...

Bette Davis' daughter, B.D.Hyman, actually did something very similar to Bette with her book My Mother's Keeper and then again with a second book, Narrow Is the Way.

B.D. Hyman's book was so boring because she didn't know how to twist things like Christina did.

When the movie Mommy Dearest came out did Christina say to the press, "No, that's NOT quite how it went down?"

No ...

She turned the movie into a roadshow with Joan Crawford Drag Queen contests and everybody got a WIRE HANGER to wave around.

Hmm somebody exploiting a family member for money? Might be a good book

boy was she imaginative!
Low blow though.

Hey, isn't that what kids are for ???

have you heard or read anything about the coat hanger scene and what about where it says in the book she made Christina work at that boarding school and it also shows in the movie where she cut Christina's hair off.

very nice

Not all kids are bad, Peter.

It is kind of interesting that both of them were adopted though; B.D. Hyman was Bette's biological daughter, but she was adopted by Bette's fourth husband, Gary Merrill. I'm not saying adopted kids are bad! I'm just wondering if they both had abandonment issues of their own, and were adopted by film stars who probably had their own abandonment issues- Joan and Bette both had fathers who ran off and left their families, and they both had issues with their own mothers. Family dysfunction can really mess with future generations. It sounds like they all had personal relationship issues.

The hair cutting scene and coat hanger scene in the movie wasn't in the book.

Nor did Joan go at a tree with an axe, in a rage (the rose garden was gone by then, and Joan did her axe thing in the movie Straight Jacket - that Christina steals quite a few ideas from, like cutting people's faces out of photos).

Working at a boarding school wasn't abuse. And Joan was IN DEBT at the time and kept hoping her next picture would pay off all the old bills (I think she finally caught up with her debts with Johnny Guitar). Yes, Joan went through money - being a fabulous star is expensive. Joan didn't really get ahead of her bills until What Ever Happened to Baby Jane when she got involved in producing (that's where the real money is).

But Christina twists doing chores as, "Mom just wanted to humiliate me!!!"

What a brat.

Joan had issues, for sure. And she bent over backwards to make sure her kids would have the nice life she didn't (and the twin girls insist Mom was nice and all was nice - and they played with other kids on the lawn and had fun.)

Joan knew how to raise kids (she did it growing up, taking care of the younger kids at the boarding schools she lived and worked at).

She finally sent Christina to a convent school because Joan didn't want her kid having sex at 13. That was certainly Joan projecting from her own life - her step father slept with her when Joan was even younger. Joan said her happiest childhood time was being at the convent school. Joan loved the nuns. Christina twists her convent school time into Mom trying to "break her spirit". By the time Christina wrote "Mommy Dearest"she should have know Mom's side - and Mom's fears for her. But there's no sympathy for Joan in that book at all. Mom is just a monster out to crush and destroy via a convent "prison".

I think Joan Crawford and Bette Davis both were amazing actresses and dedicated to their craft. I have enormous respect for their drive and talent.

I see many similarities in their upbringing and family situations; too many to be overlooked as contributing factors in their own children's upbringing.

That does not mean I condone the books or the spirit behind them- I'm sure they were very hurtful to both Bette and Joan.

Movies seldom dipict reality. As for the book never read it.

not very nice

I'm sure MOST parents came out of the Great Depression with many "issues" . Times were brutally hard. There was no welfare, no minimum wage, and a lot of people just dropped dead from hunger.

Joan came from a very brutal time in history and her kid pays that no mind.

You mean I can use wire hangers again without Joan's Ghost coming to get me?? I don't use them because of that movie. Well that, and they are bad for your clothes.

This is horrible. I have been pissed off at my parents for a number of things from my childhood, but I never let it out. I guess because they weren't famous, I wouldn't have been able to make tons of money out of it either. Too bad for her, I say with sniveling mirth.

It IS true that Joan expected her kids to take care of their clothes, and that included not letting heavy expensive satin 50s dresses stay on wire hangers.

Of course, Christina has to twist it so that Mom's common sense is turned into pure evil.

Ahh ... Greed. Lovely, isn't it?

Mankind can be an ugly, greedy, insolent beast.

BFD! Lucille LeSeur was just another Hollywood whore who slept her way to the top via every casting couch in town. She had no more acting talent than the thousands of other chorus girl wannabes who flocked to L.A. during the depression...she just had (and turned) more sexual tricks than most. Oh well, I never could understand the glorification and worship of dead movie stars, and still don't.
Whatever,
Thank you for posting to this group whose only purpose is to thank you for posting to this group.

That is terrible.

It's because of those dreadful eyebrows of hers!

I think bits and pieces of the book are reality, it all depends on that persons pov, sometimes it is carried away as memories do. I have seen a bio show about Crwford and not everyone had nice things to say about her, she was considered a diva before divas were around, and her home wasn't always opened to the public, just the one home in hollywood, she had two other private homes....who knows what really goes on behind closed doors. but she was still a great actress and always loved her movies.

I don't know, I think that she still keep flying monkeys in her closet!

Nellie, Joan only had one home at a time, and the one she had the longest was at Brentwood, where Christina grew up. That part is all very well documented, and Christina doesn't even question.

Dame Ruth, she was a super talented hard-working actress (and yeah she used sex to her advantage, life is hard). Her OLD OLD OLD movies still bring joy TODAY !!!

She should be spanked.

With a wire hanger

... yeah, so she knows what it actually feels like !!!

That's so horrible.

This was a true story. Scary, huh?

Well, Peter, you always said the book was a hoax.

Glad to see you're keeping an open mind, Pietro.

>:-)

I always thought Joan Crawford, and betty Davis were really talented. Yea, they had to do the couch thing, but it was required (unofficually) of women if they wanted to be able to do what they wanted in life. Some had the smarts and the talent to back it all up once they got some power into their own lives.

I don't hold it against any woman who succeeded in life after having to run the gaunlet, so to speak.

Also -- the pictures of her when she was very young -- How much different she looked, eh?

Peter -- How did you get looked on Joan Crawford?

I don't know why, but for some strange reason I always liked Bette Davis. Must have been those eyes.

Thank you, Peter for bringing out the truth about Christina Crawford. The more interesting story is Christopher Crawford, who has not had an easy life. Of course, it is not a reflection on Joan Crawford. I believe that Christiana had her differences with her mother over the years and they lasted well beyond childhood. Thus, the book was written. It made an interesting movie and I believe swayed many people against Joan. That is the sad part. Joan Crawford contributed much to the country. Her memory is rich.

Christopher didn't say anything about Mom at all. Now he's dead so maybe one of his kids will pass along something he had said. It's odd so little information has come from him.

Good grief!

I think when you read any biography, autobiography or history you have to keep a certain amount of skepticism. I know from my training in history that people like to think they are being totally objective (maybe Christina thought she was), but we are only human and we all have a POV. Thank you for sharing this @ All About Film, Movies And Actors!