When Christina Crawford published her tell-all autobiography Mommie Dearest in 1978, the revelations about her adoptive mother Joan Crawford’s cruelty caused a sensation. The book was one of the first ever to dish behind-the-scenes dirt about a celebrity. It contained one of the rawest depictions of child abuse in the popular media at the time and I can still remember trembling as I read it. Mommie Dearest was made into a film in 1981 with Faye Dunaway playing the part of Joan – a role which Dunaway is rumoured to have later regretted, feeling that it ruined her career in Hollywood. That Joan was one scary mo. She makes my occasional blue- faced Banshee screams of “I’m leaving home” seem like the sweet ikkle noise kittens make when they jump up.
Classic quote:
“No… wire… hangers. What’s wire hangers doing in this closet when I told you: no wire hangers EVER? I work and work ’till I’m half-dead, and I hear people saying, “She’s getting old.” And what do I get? A daughter… who cares as much about the beautiful dresses I give her… as she cares about me…” Joan Crawford in ‘Mommie Dearest’