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Movie Profiles & Premiums Volume 4, Number 10. October 15, 2006
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Cliff Aliperti
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Oct 17, 2006 13:43 PDT
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This is the plain text version of the newsletter. Read this online in
html format and loaded with pictures of movie collectibles at:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/issues/movie-newsletter-04-10.htm
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Back again, hope you had a great month! Came across something new
recently, and so created a Photo ID Guide featuring a set of 10 cards
issued around 1917 from the Theatrical Advertising Company. What I
found interesting about these cards was that despite the larger size
there were many similar poses if you're familiar with the various Kromo
Gravure sets of the same period.
1917 Theatrical Adv. Co. Photo ID Guide:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/trading-cards/1917-theatrical-advertising.htm
Kromo Gravure Photo ID Guide:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/trading-cards/1917-kromo-gravure.htm
I've added a list of the five most recent new and updated collectible
Photo ID Guides to the left column of home page, so if you're ever
looking for what's new in between issues that would be a good place to
start.
Another place, of course, is the blog attached to this site. I
mentioned over there recently the pleasant surprise I had while flipping
through my tv channels one night--finally Turner Classic Movies has been
added to my cable system! This could save me a fortune on DVDs, though
at the same time I've noticed they don't seem to replay movies very
often. You kind of have to catch it when it's on or you're out of luck.
So, I may still have to pick up the new Legends of Horror Collection,
because I had on a ballgame last Friday when they were playing a few of
those classics.
TCM Post: http://blog.things-and-other-stuff.com/?p=232
Legends of Horror: http://tinyurl.com/umehd
By the way, another new feature on the home page is a feed showing the
three latest postings to the Profiles & Premiums blog. This way you can
see the latest news right on the front page.
I'm very close to opening up the new store, in fact I really hope to be
live before the end of the month. I provided some screenshots of the
basic look in the last issue of my magazine collecting newsletter--since
this newsletter mails out in text rather than html I'll provide the link
to those screenshots here:
http://www.collecting-old-magazines.com/Random_Issues-Random-Issues-011.html#screenshots
I've addressed the SSL issue mentioned in that newsletter, and am pretty
much just tidying it up and adding products to the storefront at this
time. While the store will be located at old-magazines-for-sale.com, it
will contain a large and detailed movie collectibles section, where I
hope to be able to list a bunch of items that just weren't
cost-effective on eBay.
As promised last issue, Tammy Stone returns to us this issue, and once
again graciously took a request. I went a slightly unusual route this
time and asked her to cover Joan Crawford, a star far too huge to have
been missed for this long on the site, but to do so from her silent
perspective. I think this leads us to a little different look at
Crawford than most other sites afford. And so, here it is:
Joan Crawford in The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/joan-crawford.htm
and is also included at the bottom of this issue.
along with the
Joan Crawford Collectible Slide Show
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/collectibles-slide-shows/joan-crawford.htm
That's all for now. Besides adding stock to the new storefront I'm
going to be aggressively hunting down unusual movie collectibles to buy,
so expect some new offerings for sale very soon. I'll be back again
November 15 with a new issue of the Profiles & Premiums Newsletter, in
the meantime have a great month!
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Joan Crawford in The Silent Collection
By Tammy Stone
This is a somewhat unique entry for "The Silent Collection", given the
overwhelming presence Joan Crawford still has in the collective psyche
of the movie-going public from her years as the consummate movie star of
the sound era. But the woman we will always remember for dazzling us in
Mildred Pierce (for which she won an Oscar) and frightening us in
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane; the woman who notoriously detested the
day’s other major star, Bette Davis, couldn’t remain loyal to a
studio, and who’s adopted daughter wrote a book, “Mommie Dearest”,
to capture the horrors of growing up around this diva – this Joan
Crawford also had humble beginnings, and though her career began later
than some of the more famous silent stars, it was certainly no less
notorious.
Joan was born on March 23, 1905 in San Antonio, Texas with the name
Lucille Fay LeSueur. Her parents, Thomas and Anna Bell Johnson, were
already split by the time Joan was born, and her mother had many
boyfriends while she was growing up, marrying and divorcing no less than
three times. Largely ignored if not outright abused, Joan was largely
left to fend for herself. She was, meanwhile, was finding an interest
and aptitude for performance at an early age, particularly in the field
of dance. When Anna Bell moved the family to Oklahoma and married Henry
Cassin, opportunity knocked for Joan. Cassin ran the local Opera House
that featured the work of transient vaudeville performers. Joan entered
into the mix under the name Billie Cassin. Stepfather Henry was by all
accounts a kindly man and encouraged Joan in her aspirations to perform.
By 1916, the family moved to Kansas City, where Anna Bell’s marriage
started to dissolve. Still, they tried to start anew and ran a dump of a
hotel for awhile. Joan, still going by the name Billie, was sent off to
a boarding school and soon after, Anna Bell and Henry divorced.
Joan/Billie was now forced to work to be able to afford the tuition at
her school. Her next school, Rockingham Academy, was a similar
experience where she worked and studied and came home on weekends. Her
mother was now with a new man and Joan was also having a difficult time
at school under the auspices of her overly stern headmistress (she might
have been physically abused there as well). But this is also where young
Joan started being conscious of being a young woman, something the boys
noticed as well.
Her next school, which she entered in 1922, only worked out for a few
months due to her partying ways and inability to focus on school work;
she soon dropped out, left Missouri and returned to Kansas City. With
school officially done with in her mind, it was time to get working. She
did some part-time work in the retail industry, but began to get work
doing revues and vaudeville. There are seedier rumours about Joan’s
involvement in the “entertainment industry” at that time, including
that she was arrested for prostitution. Simultaneously, however, she was
catching the attention of some important people; by 1924, she had been
cast in the New York production of J.J. Schubert’s Innocent Eyes.
She did shows by day and clubs by night, and it went on like this until
her dreams of being in the movies took hold. She had by then reverted to
her birth name of Lucille LeSueur, and underwent a screen test for MGM,
which did not go at all well. She tried again, and while home for
Christmas in Kansas City, she received the news that she fared better
this time. Hollywood was beckoning.
But she found it very difficult to get a real foot in the door, despite
her contract, which she soon learned didn’t mean automatic work or
success. She decided to become a diligent – even vigilant – student
where she had never been one academically. While toiling away on lesser
film roles, she made a point of being around various crew members,
learning the tricks of the trade and also cultivating buzz around
herself as a girl about town. MGM soon noticed what the press already
had and a film career was born.
Strangely, for someone as original as Joan Crawford, her first
(uncredited) role as a twin double for huge silent star Norma Shearer.
One more uncredited role, soon she landed her first bit part, in
1925’s Pretty Ladies. With her charisma, and with the high demand for
showgirls at that time (mere years before sound would sweep the
industry), Joan found herself very busy. But the roles, at that time,
weren’t getting bigger or as prominent as Joan had initially hoped.
Much of her silent career was spent doing bit parts or larger roles in
films that never became huge hits. Among the films in which she
appeared: The Merry Widow (as an extra), The Circle, The Only Thing
(1925); The Boob, Paris (1926, a meagre year for her); The Unknown,
Twelve Miles Out (1927, also a slow year); and Tide of Empire, West
Point, Rose-Marie, Four Walls and Dream of Love (1928).
But MGM wanted her to be a star, and in 1925 they held a magazine
contest to introduce her as an ingénue and give her a new name: this is
when Joan Crawford came to be, in September of 1925. Her first film
under this name was The Old Clothes, featuring child star Jackie Coogan.
Note how fast films were made in this time; two months after getting
christened Joan Crawford, this tale was spun and ready to be revealed to
American audiences. As the years rolled on, MGM had Joan work with more
prolific and talented directors, and by 1927, her first starring role
came along, as a showgirl lost in the city in The Taxi Dancer. From
there a slate of romance films ensued, with co-stars like John Gilbert
and Tim McCoy. A highlight from this era was her role in The Unknown,
where she took an impressively dramatic turn and starred with the
incomparable Lon Chaney. She was starting to feel like the actress she
always wanted to be.
With 1928’s Diana, a star was truly born, and through the onset of the
sound era, her fan base and earning potential would rarely subside.
Still, it was never as easy for Joan as it was many of her
contemporaries. Despite the accolades she received, she found herself
continually struggling to get the roles she wanted and knew she deserved
as the years went on and she forged her career in the talkies.
Maybe this was because she was harder to classify than most. As we all
know from today, packaging is everything. The same goes for the silent
era, when most of the starlets had monikers attached to their names; the
more uniform the identity, the easier to sell. But Joan was different.
Dark and brooding, exciting and glamorous, Joan became an icon of the
modern woman, the flapper with the heart of gold – according to
legend, F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose novels all but defined the roaring
twenties, Joan came to stand for what the flapper was all about. She
also grew into the persona of the sassy working girl and society dame as
the depression of the thirties led to both social realism and sheer
escapism in film. And of course, as she got older, the roles changed
considerably, and Joan brought the wealth of her experience and range to
genres like film noir, horror films and domestic dramas.
It’s hard not to think of the movies, especially Hollywood’s Golden
years, without at once conjuring the intoxicating image of Joan
Crawford. Her invaluable contribution to the pantheon has immortalized
her, both in sound and in the most loaded, expressive kind of silence.
Joan died on May 10, 1977 in New York, of pancreatic cancer. She was 72.
#
Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch
for her regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen in each issue
of The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter. Tammy invites you to write
her at tammyst-@yahoo.ca with any questions or comments on her
column.
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