As Cajun Man stated it really helps to be gay to “get” Joan Crawford. There are other big stars that aren’t pretty by barbie doll standards but Bette Davis doesn’t have eyebrows that give me the willies. <shudder> I guess I’m not into big scary drama queens. The only thing more frighening than her eyebrows is the thought of Joan and that Pepsi Guy she married.
Whoa, this is so weird… Padeye, I was just looking at that site about an hour ago! You’ve probably seen this, but here is another one of Ms. Crawford. Equally scary.
Okay, I’m throwing down on you two jokers. Joan Crawford happens a personal hero of mine, if you’ll allow a heterosexual male to have females among their heroes (my other heroes include Gen. Charles Gordon and Pope John XXIII, both celibates, Gore Vidal, “homosexualist,” and Pablo Picasso, who laid more pipe than Shell Oil. Sexual proclivty has nothing to do with admirability, and since, with the exception of Pope John, they were shitheels in their private lives, neither does private virtue.
But I’ll tell you this: If at least 1/4 of the people on this planet had a hardon for what they did for a living as Joan Craford did, this earth would be a paradise come true. The bitch never phoned it in! Even in her lousiest slasher movies from the 50’s you can see she’s giving it 110%, with total respect for the material, no matter how cheesy. And when a performer has resepect for the material, it can only mean that she has that same degree of respect for the audience. None of this post-modernist “wink-wink - I’m turning in a shitty performance just to let you folks out there know that I know thay you know that this movie is stupid.”
And a special shame on you Padeye! In my Navy, a man’s masculinity was measured by his capacity to fuck an ugly woman. If your dick was that limp you should have joined the Air Force instead of the airdales.
You’re all in big trouble once Eve gets in here.
Joan Crawford ugly? I think you guys have been looking at too much airbrushed porn.
Just curious, but have you read “Mommie Dearest” by Joan’s adopted daughter Christina? I agree that she (Joan) did give her work 110% but I have to admit I don’t find her actions “heroic” when they are at the expense of other people and relationships (specifically those of young, defenseless CHILDREN).
It’s OK, Sax, I’m here now. Thanks for watching the class while I was in the Teacher’s Lounge.
First off, I should be as “ugly” as Joan Crawford:
http://members.aol.com/harlowgold/joangal.html
Now, I can’t speak for why gay men might or might not like her (we have plenty of gay men here to come in on either side). But feminists should certainly admire Joan! She clawed her way up from nothing, with nobody’s help, and never resorted to the casting couch. Of course she was called a “manipulating bitch,” all strong women are!
As for her acting, I’m with Tove. Joannie gave 110% even in the worst crap. And watch her in “Rain,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Possessed” or that last TV spot she did on “Night Gallery” if you think she couldn’t act.
Now. “Mommie Dearest.” I’ve been through this before, but it’s a VERY old thread. “M.D.” started out as a typical star’s-daughter memoir. It was combined with a fictional novel called “The Hype,” from which all the famous scenes were taken (the wire hangers, the rose bush, etc.). Joan’s other children have said time and time again that NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED, but no one wants to hear that. Yes, Joan was a too-strict mother and yes, she had a drinking problem in the 1940s and '50s—she herself readily admitted all of this. But Christina was a vengeful, unmanageable and emotionally disturbed girl who was simply getting back at Joan after she’d been cut out of the will.
Now, I have to go to lunch. Next class, Marlene Dietrich—and there WILL be a quiz.
Well, okay, but what does Kenneth Anger have to say on the subject? Wait, I’ll go get my copy of *Hollywood Babylon.
Don’t run, Ike—whoops, he slipped and fell in the lard and fractured his head-bone.
Another tragic Kenneth Anger-related death . . .
Well, yeah, Eve, but most of those pictures were taken when she was—what, twenty?