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I can’t get past her hat. And what the hell is he lecturing her on? The Secret Recipe?
hahaha I know!!!!
It’s just so beautifully RANDOM.
“Well, sugah, ahm thinkin’ two youngins’ will fit in uh pot tha size of that ther bonnet on your head.”
I’M DYING, BINGLEY … hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
oh, bwah ha ha hah hah…I can’t even imagine how those two were introduced to each other. It’s like one of the insane dreams I have at night…it’s so random that you just stare at it and go “wtf???”
She was married to the head of PepsiCo. and they may have had some deal with Kentucky Fried Chicken or something…
Emily – that’s right!!
Maybe Colonel Sanders was enumerating the many ways their companies could work together.
Speaking of Pepsi and Joan Crawford:
Alex made me watch one of Joan’s later movies called Straitjacket – which is one of the funniest most insanely bad movies I have EVER seen – you would LOVE it, emily. Joan was trying to resurrect her career, the way Bette Davis was doing – and the results were just not as profitable for her – but there’s a scene in a kitchen – Joan and some other character are talking, having some big intense campy scene – and sitting RIGHT on the counter between them, taking over the entire scene is a HUGE BOX that says: PEPSI.
Like – there was no other decoration in the kitchen, it was so obviously a low-budget set – white cupboards, white table, fridge – nothing to make it seem like a real house – and then, front and center:
PEPSI.
Obviously product placement was in its infancy at that time. hahahahaha
“So, mah dear, explain again how you can use hangers to tenderize meat?”
The secret recipe was the first thing I thought of also Bingley.
“The first herb is…”
“Ah said, ‘NO WIRE CAGES!”
“Look sister, is any of this filtering through that little blue bonnet of yours?”
In the early 70’s Joan was on a crusade. She was Pepsi’s National spokeswoman and toured around the country several times over.
KFC sells Pepsi….not Coke.
SOOooo…Crawford was prolly making a deal with The Colonel about pofits and losses and colors and lights…and I’m assuming, her hat.
This is the best picture I’ve ever seen in my life.
Ever.
Sheila, I’m just guessing, but I think you may be the first person in the history of the planet to utter, “speaking of Colonel Sanders and Joan Crawford…”
Never mind – obviously I can’t read. You said, speaking of “Pepsi and Joan Crawford.” I doubt many people have said that, either.
Jeff – ha!! But the caption to that photo kinda says the unspeakable: Colonel Sanders and Joan Crawford.
WHAT???
Alex – HA! I was hoping you’d show up to give some background information.
Look at her purse. And her gloves. And her smile. I am in also in awe of her neck and its preternatural slimness.
and really now, is she doing BUSINESS or what????
You know, the really funy thing is, that when Crawford took over Pepsi, they were floudnering. They weren’t showing a profit. Then, after her involvement, the company boomed. Joan was HUGE star, and people bought that product simply because of her.
The Mommie Dearest thingy really isn’t true at all concerning Pepsi. They begged her to stay on as a National Ambassador, and she brought that company back from the dead.
Oh God.
The hat.
That damn hat.
Alex – I’m sure the strategic placement of the Pepsi box in her masterwork Straitjacket had a lot to do with the company’s renaissance.
hahahaha
She was obviously a very good businesswoman, at any rate – I mean, even her career as an actress showed that. She managed HERSELF – she wasn’t MANAGED. Huge difference.
Alex, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think KFC sold Pepsi before PepsiCo bought them in the mid 80s… (Or am thinking of one of the other brands now part of YUM; e.g. Pizza Hut)
OMG. I feel awesome after seeing that picture.
JFH
You may be EXACTLY right. I was really just guessing. It was really the only reason I could think of that she and the Colonel would have a picture taken together. I can find out though.
And quite frankly, after seeing that picture, I HAVE to find out.
Also- Sheila, I don’t know if I showed you this or not, but in “Bersek!”, the manic, insane, murder-slasher-circus film she did in the early ’70’s, there’s a scene where Joan is talking to her crazy assed daughter, and as they pass through the hay stacks and Ape cages, there’s a massive shot of a Pepsi machine. This isn’t just a liter of Pepsi, or a 6 pack of Pepsi, this is a Pepsi MACHINE that has the word:
“PEPSI!”
emblazoned accross it in big, blue capital letters.
Genius.
I never thought I would actually Google the words “Colonel Sanders and Joan Crawford,” but I did and the only thing I could drag up besides that picture was they were both apparently honorary “Kentucky colonels.” So maybe all their fellow honorees had a brunch or something.
Alex –
ah, the good old murder-slasher-circus genre.
Honorary Kentucky colonel? Joan feckin’ Crawford was an “honorary Kentucky colonel”? WTF????
Alex – do you have any idea why this would be the case?
Wait – was she from Kentucky??
Nope – just looked it up. Not from Kentucky.
Perhaps that was the day when they were knighted together. Coloneled?
Alex – I have been reading the trivia about Joan on IMDB – and this quote from her really struck me:
“I realized one morning that Trog (1970) was going to be my last picture. I had to be up early for the shoot and when I looked outside at the beautiful morning sky I felt that it was time to say goodbye. I think that may have been a prophetic thought because when I arrived on the set that morning the director told me that due to budget cuts we would wrap up filming today. The last shot of that film was a one-take and it was a very emotional moment for me. When I was walking up that hill towards the sunset I was flooded with memories of the last 50 years, and when the director yelled cut I just kept on walking. That for me was the perfect way to end my film career, however the audiences who had to sit through that picture may feel differently.”
Makes me wish she had written a book, actually. Or did she write a book, o Crawford Scholar??
I am just wondering, the way she is slightly leaning back, and he’s leaning into her, do you think her hat brim started out that way? (Cartoon image of hat going ‘whoosh’)
Is she thinking, “I thought it was a secret recipe, not a secret sauce….hmmm sauce…..I would love to get my hands on some secret sauce right now….where’s the waiter when you need him?”
Is it sad that I was weirded out by the picture and MUCH more by the fact that Col Sanders has a first name… “Hm, that was an odd picture, holy SHIT sanders is’t his whole name?”
hahahahahahaha
Sheila
You know one of my best pals is Jim Brochu, who was practically Crawford’s Godson. He literally lives 10 minutes away from me, so I have so much Joan trivia, it’s stupid.
You have to meet him.
Anywho, the story of Joan walking up the hill and not stopping is absolutely true. She did just that. The director was moritified because she never came back. Her driver was waiting on the other side and she got in the car and never made another film again. Not ever.
She was nobody’s fool. She knew a crappy picture from a good one. She knew Straight Jacket was garbage, but she needed money and no one was hiring middle aged actresses. And let’s face it, Bete Davis made a career on being avle to slip in and out of many different characters. Joan didn’t. That’s not what she did. So, when she got older, her choices were much more imited.
And…..she drank. A lot.
She did write a book, but it has very little to do with her life. Which is a shame. It’s called:
“My Way Of Life.”
And it’s really more about helpful household hints. It’s unintentionaly HILARIOUS! In fact, in Chicago, “Hell In A Handbag productions” did a live stage show with a brilliant actor playing Joan and reading from the book. It was genius.
It has chapters like:
How To Fold Your Clothing For A Long Trip
Never Using Soap On Linoleum
Scratching The Surface Of Comet
I’m not kidding.
Crawford was as an enigma. A brilliant actress, and then a literal Camp Machine.
But Jim has wonderful, lovely stories about truly what a generous and kind woman she was and how Mommie Dearest ruined her life and tore her apart. He said he’d been around her for many, many years and he never once experienced any of the stories Christina claims are true. And neither did her other 4 children. They ALL denounce Christina as a liar and a money hungry, vindictive louse.
But yes, Joan wrote a book. I’ll read you some when you get here.
As Joan.
Never Using Soap on Linoleum
I am seriously dying here. You MUST do dramatic readings of this material for me! I would so benjoy it.
I read Mommie Dearest and sorry- the thing reeked of jealousy. It seemed VERY unreliable to me. That “prologue” was transparent. She was setting out to do a hatchet job. I mean, Joan was obviously wacky – and the cleanliness thing she had must have been difficult for others to live with – but something was OFF about Christina and the way she told that story.
Not only was the story “off,” but the things that Christina considered abuse were absurd. I’ve only seen the movie, haven’t read the book, but I’m with you, Sheila. It just seemed like jealousy and bitchy payback.
Poor Faye Dunaway. What the hell happened to her?
What she did was unforgivable. She got old. :(
However: if you look at her IMDB page, the woman obviously doesn’t care that she’s old and can no longer play leading ladies – and she has continued to work like a maniac.
Dunaway gave a GREAT interview a couple of years ago about Mommie.
She said:
“That film ruined my career. And it’s some of the best work I’ve ever done.”
And she’s right.
Her performance is stunning. It’s so brave and so intense. It’s almost operatic in it’s scope. But true? No. And that’s the writer’s fault.
The only thing Christina ever talks about concerning the movie is the fact that it was portrayed as The Joan Crawford Stoy, and not hers. Ew.
Although, my pal Honey worked with Christina not too long ago, and said she was the nicest woman on the planet. Had a great sense of humor about the film and even came out on stage wielding a wire hanger.
Crawford has some severe problems, for one reason or another. Lots of things going on in her life. But she LOVED those kids. She wasn’t the greatest mother in the world, but think back to the time when she was parenting. Corporal punishment was paramount. That’s what everyone did. Hit the kids, spanked them,…there was never any evidence about the wire hangers…not ever. Nowadays, MY mother would have taken to court considering how we got wholloped.
But to be honest, kids nowadays get away with murder. And most parents have this philosphy about “chatting” with them, “reasoning” with them. Bullshit. Spank the little demons. When they need it and a “time out” isn’t working, a nice little pat on the butt sends a message.
Alex, I never really considered that it ruined Dunaway’s career. I guess that’s true, isn’t it?
When she came to my school she was quite eloquent about that as well. What she had HOPED for with that film, and what it ended up being.
She was a huge Crawford fan – which is not surprising. Their acting styles can be similar – I could so see Joan playing her part in network, for example.
And agreed about your assessment of raising kids at that time. She punished her kids. She was a disciplinarian. Big whup, Christina.
You NEVER told me she came to your school.
WHOA!
What else did she say?????
Mitchell has this theory that it was the director and the editor getting back at her for being so difficult. I dunno. What do you think?
I think he may be right. The director was clearly out of his mind. I mean, the film itself is kind of a disaster. What was he thinking? But why would he intentionally ruin his own film?
Weird.
Dunaway and Crawford. Absolutely. I could also see Crawford as a young actress playing Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde. Brilliant.
I definitely think the editor had it in for her. I mean, look at some of the shots they chose. It heightened the ridiculous nature of it – when what she was actually doing was quite frightening, real, and MARVELOUS.
Ill tell you more about what she said when I see you.
She was quite polite about her co-workers – she’s such a nice southern lady with impeccable manners – never had a bad word to say about anyone – she talked mostly about her process in creating THAT version of Joan Crawford – not THE Joan – but THAT Joan – and for her, the wardrobe, the shoes, the makeup, the hair – the entire thing was orchestrated and planned literally down to the tiniest detail. And that was ALL her. her goal was complete and utter transformation – not just from the outside, but from within. It was the role of a lifetime, she said.
I’d love to read a book, or a lengthy investigative article, about what went on on that set – or what happened during the filming of that movie. The battles, the eventual surrender – Faye Dunaway basically being treated like a hired hand (grrrrrrrrrrrrrr) – She deserved better.
I wish I had some background info on this picture. I don’t, I fear. I’m pretty sure it was some corporate soiree, probably involving any number of CEOs, they being just two.
By the way, they were both Honorary Colonels, only Harlan Sanders had the bad taste to go around calling himself Colonel (and insisting on being addressed as Colonel) for the rest of his life.
Anyway, thanks for linking to it! It’s the kind of image our operation thrives upon.
And I have to confess I love William Castle’s ‘Strait-Jacket’. That whole cycle of Grand Guignol shockers from the 60s (which Crawford helped pioneer by appearing in the first, ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’) was amazing stuff.
A story I’ve read is that, the same year she acted in ‘Strait-Jacket’, Crawford dropped out of Robert Aldrich’s ‘Baby Jane’ follow-up ‘Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte’, allegedly because she had no desire to be typecast in those roles . . . only to appear in the Castle film; one of the more loony exercises in that sub-genre (which is saying a lot).
The real reason she dumped out on Aldrich was probably that she didn’t want to work with Bette Davis again; the stories about their animosity towards one another on the earlier picture was already the stuff of legend.