Besides her lifelong devotion to her fans, to whom she attributed all her stardom, she also insisted on remembering the names of every crew member on the set of her films. Joan was many things, and she alway gave credit where it was due. No wonder the other stars were jealous of her. She would dutifully type up her responses on blue paper and then personally autograph each letter. Very organized and determined, Joan Crawford became notorious around Hollywood for always, always responding to the letters her adoring fans sent her, every single one. Yet when discussing her brand of allure, Crawford only quipped, “If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.” She intended the pronunciation of her stage name to be “Jo-Anne” when she first signed up for it, however, in her private life, she often went by her childhood nickname of “Billie,” at least with those who she loved most.īy 1932, she was the third most profitable star in Hollywood and had starred in a string of talkie hits We’ve apparently been calling Joan Crawford “Joan Crawford” for nearly 100 years now…but apparently we’re wrong. Marie Tisdale, a disabled woman living in Albany NY, won $500 in the studio competition for submitting the name Joan Crawford to rename Lucille LeSueur. “Crawford” was just a backup last name, and the actress reportedly always despised it. Their first choice was not “Joan Crawford.” The name “Joan Arden” originally won, until the studio realized there was already a working actress with that last name ( we got to know her as Eve Arden ). Smith put out a “Name the Star” contest in the paper, where readers chose the up and coming starlet’s new stage name.
#JOAN CRAWFORD HOUSE AFTER ALFRED STEELE TV#
She was still getting credited as “Lucille LuSuer” in her first films alongside stars like Lon Chaney and Jackie Coogan ( later remembered as Uncle Fester in “The Addams Family” TV show ), but producers detested that name, with MGM publicity executive Pete Smith even saying it reminded him of a sewer. Young Billie Cassin left home in her teens and took dancing jobs, reverting to her original name Lucille LeSueur.Īfter moving to both Chicago and Detroit, she was discovered by talent scouts, and secured a screen test with Metro Goldwyn-Mayer. Once there, he operated a “shabby hotel” until he too abandoned them, forcing Anna to find employment as a laundress. By 1915, the Cassins relocated to Kansas after Henry Cassin escaped conviction on an embezzlement charge. She also recalled being fascinated by her stepfather’s theater, however, when she was six, she badly injured her foot on some broken glass, which threatened her hopes of becoming a dancer. Lucille’s name was changed around this time, and she remembered being called Billie Cassin. There she met, and eventually married, Henry Cassin, who owned a local opera house and an open air theater. It is not certain as to how long her mother remained in the Alamo city with her three small children, but shortly after her father left, Lucille’s mother made the decision to move to Lawton, Oklahoma. There are those that claim that her biological parents were never actually married. Her father left the family when Lucille was about ten months old, and moved to Abeline, Texas. According to Joan, it was “ a drab little rented house on the wrong side of the tracks” She was the youngest of three children in the family, and they lived in a small house on South Cherry, near where the Alamodrome now sits. Her father, Tom, was a French Canadian laborer, and her mother, Anna, of Irish and Scandinavian descent. With all of that being said, the plate on her crypt at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in New York shows her birth year as 1908, which coincides with her Government documentation. Photo: The Concluding Chapter of Crawford This birth year has been concluded by examining other known records, mainly those of her older brother Hal, who was born in 1903, and then comparing their ages with photos taken of them as children. However many biographers have disputed that, and the consensus is that she was born in 1906. Throughout her life, she maintained she was born on March 23rd 1908, and this was the date given when she applied for a Social Security card in California. Also, there has always been differing opinions as to her birth year. There is no known official Birth Certificate for Joan Crawford, however we do know that she was born in San Antonio with the name of Lucille Fay LeSueur.
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