Ferocious Ambition: Joan Crawford’s March to Stardom
Robert Dance
University Press of Mississippi, 2023
Joan Crawford was born Lucile Fay LeSueur in 1905*, in San Antonio, Texas. Her father left immediately. She went to boarding school, but had to cook and clean in lieu of tuition. She lasted one semester at Stephens College in Missouri. Her passion was dancing, but she was never trained.
How, one might wonder, did Crawford become a movie star? Answering that question is the most interesting part of Robert Dance's biography. I think her formula was something like
1. Make friends with as many people in filmmaking as possible.
2. Study what they do and absorb knowledge like a sponge.
3. Cultivate a relationship with moviegoers.
To accomplish 3, Crawford made herself extremely available to photographers and journalists. She also answered much of her fan mail personally, nearly until her death. It took her years to work her way up from extra (and Norma Shearer's body double) to star. (In contrast, Greta Garbo arrived at MGM the same year Crawford did and was immediately given a well-paying contract and starring roles.)
My impression is that Crawford was very likable for much of her life, and she did have lifelong friends who had nothing but praise for her. Sometime in her mid-forties, though, she seems to have become anxious about her status. She started drinking 100-proof vodka regularly as a crutch. She was still capable of being friendly, but she also began to hold grudges. (Okay, she disliked Norma Shearer before then.)
Robert Dance gives his readers the full tour of Crawford's life, with an emphasis on her career. It's an excellent guide to her movies, with some behind-the-scenes stories. The book is also packed with beautiful black-and-white photographs. Unlike many celebrity biographers, Dance makes an effort to be objective about his subject. If he had a bias, it was slightly anti-Crawford; he never missed an opportunity to denigrate her dancing skills, and I think he was too credulous about Christina Crawford's memoir. But overall, it's a high-quality biography that I recommend.
* Crawford insisted she was born in 1908, but this was a lie.
#bookstr #biography #filmstr #JoanCrawford
https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Ferocious-Ambition
graycat /
npub1g0…puvzk
2024-03-08 22:23:34
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npub1g0wmxtcsjnnmq7x2vdpymczss47ch5gzuwfkw47s22lehvklxa2scpuvzkPublished at
2024-03-08 22:23:34Event JSON
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"content": "Ferocious Ambition: Joan Crawford’s March to Stardom\nRobert Dance\nUniversity Press of Mississippi, 2023\n\nJoan Crawford was born Lucile Fay LeSueur in 1905*, in San Antonio, Texas. Her father left immediately. She went to boarding school, but had to cook and clean in lieu of tuition. She lasted one semester at Stephens College in Missouri. Her passion was dancing, but she was never trained.\n\nHow, one might wonder, did Crawford become a movie star? Answering that question is the most interesting part of Robert Dance's biography. I think her formula was something like\n\n1. Make friends with as many people in filmmaking as possible.\n2. Study what they do and absorb knowledge like a sponge.\n3. Cultivate a relationship with moviegoers.\n\nTo accomplish 3, Crawford made herself extremely available to photographers and journalists. She also answered much of her fan mail personally, nearly until her death. It took her years to work her way up from extra (and Norma Shearer's body double) to star. (In contrast, Greta Garbo arrived at MGM the same year Crawford did and was immediately given a well-paying contract and starring roles.)\n\nMy impression is that Crawford was very likable for much of her life, and she did have lifelong friends who had nothing but praise for her. Sometime in her mid-forties, though, she seems to have become anxious about her status. She started drinking 100-proof vodka regularly as a crutch. She was still capable of being friendly, but she also began to hold grudges. (Okay, she disliked Norma Shearer before then.)\n\nRobert Dance gives his readers the full tour of Crawford's life, with an emphasis on her career. It's an excellent guide to her movies, with some behind-the-scenes stories. The book is also packed with beautiful black-and-white photographs. Unlike many celebrity biographers, Dance makes an effort to be objective about his subject. If he had a bias, it was slightly anti-Crawford; he never missed an opportunity to denigrate her dancing skills, and I think he was too credulous about Christina Crawford's memoir. But overall, it's a high-quality biography that I recommend.\n\n* Crawford insisted she was born in 1908, but this was a lie.\n\n#bookstr #biography #filmstr #JoanCrawford\n\nhttps://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Ferocious-Ambition",
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