As a worshiper at the shrine of Joan Crawford, I am plotzing. I can’t afford to bid on anything (you know the “estimated prices” are one-tenth of what they will go for), but I will be there in my best fuck-me pumps and shoulder pads.
A Pepsi-bottle brooch! * *swoons **
First - if I had that ebony mink coat I’d wear it every single day, Alabama summers be damned. Second - I’d still trade it for a rose bush choppin’ axe.
I am going to the exhibit after work and at *least *getting a catalog. I wonder how much the padded hangers will go for, maybe I can afford that. But oh! that Pepsi brooch . . .
(She was right, by the way–wire hangers *do *ruin your clothes)
I want that “Mildred Pierce” album. The movie came out the day I was born.
Was this in the possession of one of her children? Or her richest fan’s private collection?
If I had a spare thousand I would totally put a bid on the ostrich and coq feather boa. Partly because I like Joan Crawford of course, mostly because it would give me far more excuses to organically work “ostrich and coq” into a conversation than I’d ever have otherwise. (Ostrich and Coq- say it loud and there’s music playing- it sounds like either a law firm in a Neil Gaiman novel, a kind of British breakfast mush, or a drag club in Manchester.)
Off topic, but I’m curious as to how Debbie Reynolds is feeling post-auction. On the one hand she’s lost the bulk of her collection, decades and decades of her life’s work, and the dream of seeing it all in a great single museum. On the other hand, she no longer has to work 50 weeks a year to pay for its upkeep and still continually dodge bill collectors- in fact she should be wealthier (in terms of cash) than she’s ever been. I wonder which outweighs the other.
My goodness, that woman sure loved furs. I love the ones with all the little tails on.
Those Margaret Keane paintings are as creepy as all get-out, though.
Did you notice they’re expected to go for several times the amount of the furs? I’m predicting an upset.
It’s from the family–she has two surviving daughters (the crazy one and the non-crazy one) and several grandchildren.
Every queen in New York and I will be lusting after that Pepsi-bottle brooch.
Oh to have the fake eyebrow concession for NYC on the days before that auction.
I saw an interview with Christina a few years ago, when her book was re-released after years out of print, in which she didn’t so much say as imply that she exaggerated some of the claims in the book, or that she was influenced partly by editors wanting great sales and a manic episode or two. I don’t think she ever denied that bitterness at being largely disinherited was a major factor. To this day she loathes the movie, saying that the hair and makeup were good and that was about it.
Two daughters? I thought Joan Crawford had a daughter and a son, both adopted.
~VOW
She adopted four children: the older two, Christina and Christopher, were the ones with all the child-abuse claims. The younger two, Cindy and Cathy, always got along great with Joan and said “Christina was a bitter frustrated actress with issues and made most of that crap up,” but no one wants to hear that.
Joan herself admitted in later years that she was too strict and had a drinking problem (she stopped drinking in the late '60s). She knew Christina was working on a book and that the minute she was dead her reputation was going to be ripped to shreds. Thank goodness her films are so available and people can see again what a *really *talented actress she was.
None of this is provable, but my late friend Michael worked for the company that published Mommie Dearest and told me a lot of it was lifted from an unpublished novel about a monster movie-star mother, with the permission of both authors.
Joan’s *Mildred Pierce *Oscar sold for more than $600,000 back in the 1990s. (Her daughter, who inherited it, had the legal right to do that; Oscars won after 1950 cannot legally be sold for an amount exceeding $1 due to an ironclad contract the recipients have to sign if they want the statue.)
Now she just needs to take the Pledge…no, not the Temperance Pledge. The Chastity Pledge. Her history of picking losers and con artists as husbands and lovers and watching her wealth run off with them has to at least have taught her that much. It might be easier this time, at almost 80.
Johnny Guitar.
I just took a better look at the “Brown Mink Stole.” It not only has mink tails, but faces as well (with button eyes). And the damn thing is almost 8 feet long! I’d love to see a photo of Joan wearing it.
And that Pepsi brooch would look dazzling on the lapel of my tux.
But I’m sticking with the *Mildred Pierce *album. Hope the bidding doesn’t get too high.
I want that silver fox rectangular stole. WANT. And I don’t even like fur coats/stuff.
Oh, and the silver fox boa.
That brooch is phenomenal.
Girlfriend had STYLE, that’s for sure.
Those FURS, OMG. I can’t stand the one with the entire mink bodies sewn together, but every other fur is incredible. I guess the prices are expected to be low because of the scandalous nature of fur these days. Plus they might be rather ratty from age. I would imagine the original prices for the pieces were in the thousands.
You guys can fight over the Pepsi brooch. I drink Coke.
But I’d love one of those coats…
~VOW
I will fight every queen in New York for that brooch.
Eve, darling, if I had the money, I would BUY that brooch just to watch that fight. 