Comments on: Happy Birthday, Joan

By: Colorado Adoption

Colorado Adoption — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:01:41 +0000

Nice story, it caught my attention. It makes me say go and watch the movie..

By: Self Styled Siren

Self Styled Siren — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:03:27 +0000

Dan, if you go over to The Ballerina Gallery, which is a fantastic site, you can see what ballerinas looked like in the 1930s by looking at someone like Ulanova. In a nutshell: not the teensy sylphs of Balanchine’s NYCB, but not Garbo either. And it’s more than physical typing, there’s a very peculiar gait and rhythm to the way a classical ballerina moves that Garbo just doesn’t have. But she’s Garbo, and that ain’t hay.

MaryC, I had drinks last night with a friend who reacted the same way you did to the excerpt, but for a slightly different reason. She thought Cathy’s emphasis on how wonderful everything was became just a leetle too repetitious. I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure what childhood was like chez Crawford, but I don’t have much trouble saying I am glad she wasn’t MY mother. But I did lose patience with Christina when she suggested a few years ago that Joan might have murdered one of her husbands. It was like, enough already. And over the years it’s become plain that a lot of stars were probably dreadful parents–Bing Crosby comes to mind–but that isn’t ALL the general public knows about them. I’d just like to see the good Joan work come more to the forefront.

By: MaryC

MaryC — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:18:30 +0000

Reading the Vanity Fair excerpt, I feel more sympathetic to Christina. What comes across in everyoneÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s comments from Bette Davis to Douglas Fairbanks to little sister Cathy to Miss Crawford herself is that Christina and Christopher werenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t grateful enough. They didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t express their gratitude as they should have to generous Joan who kind-heartedly rescued them from a life of, as Miss Davis put it, orphanages and foster homes and who knows what. Why, she did a noble deed and those little ingrates didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t appreciate it.

By: Dan Leo

Dan Leo — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:10:55 +0000

I plan on watching Grand Hotel tonight!

Oh, and so true about Garbo not looking like a ballerina — unless ballerinas looked like Garbo back in the old days…

By: Self Styled Siren

Self Styled Siren — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:03:27 +0000

Dan, there were a good many straight men who loved her a lot, including Gable and Tracy as well as Mankiewicz, so you have very good company.

As for Grand Hotel, I always find it fabulous. Garbo strikes some people as too dramatic but she’s playing a very self-dramatizing part. The one thing the movie can’t do is make her LOOK like a ballerina, though.

By: Dan Leo

Dan Leo — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:55:28 +0000

As usual after reading the fabulous Siren I now have the urge to re-watch a movie I haven’t seen in ages, in this case Grand Hotel. Maybe there’s something wrong with me as a supposedly straight male, but I also love Joan Crawford. Her vitality just surges through even the most absurd and obscure 4:15 AM Turner Classic Insomniac Specials.

By: Self Styled Siren

Self Styled Siren — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:32:52 +0000

Thanks for the kind words. She was definitely a star who required a good director but in the right hands she could be quite a presence.

As for the language, yes, it’s something isn’t it? but the “rode through the studio” remark was too fabulous not to repeat.

By: oakling

oakling — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:25:33 +0000

Wonderful tribute! I started out knowing so little that I was shocked to hear her birthdate, and now I feel like I understand her and her career and need to go grab some DVDs to watch right away. And I love learning what salty language people used in real life, in comparison to the stuff Hollywood was showing us at the time….