Silver Screen Legend and Actress Joan Crawford, People's Princess By Mary Mallory
Joan Crawford, People's Princess
By Mary Mallory
Fans make stars. Huge popularity and corresponding box office revenues are the bread and butter of celebrity success. No star better understood this concept than picture queen Joan Crawford. Owing both her fame and name to adoring movie audiences, Crawford courted the paying public her entire career.
Born March 23, 1906 in San Antonio, Texas as Lucille Le Sueur, Crawford endured a hardscrabble existence, working a series of menial jobs to help the family survive. Talented in dancing, the young girl entered a variety of contests, eventually winning a spot in a chorus line. Determined to succeed, her hard work led to jobs in larger cities before finally gaining her employment in Broadway musicals. Noticed by a MGM executive, Crawford dazzled in a screen test and secured a contract with the studio.
The eager actress appeared in small parts over the next few months at the studio. Crawford doubled for Norma Shearer in the film Lady of the Night and appeared as a glorified extra as she began her climb to the top. She co-starred in the film Sally, Irene, and Mary as Irene and starred opposite comedian Harry Langdon in the 1926 First National film Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.
Unimpressed with the sound of Lucille Le Sueur, MGM Studio head Louis B. Mayer pushed the publicity department to devise a new name for the aspiring starlet. Making her instantly famous, they arranged a savvy campaign with magazine for a naming contest for the ingenue, with the winning entry worth $500.
With her new name, Crawford styled herself the glamorous Jazz Age flapper, madly dancing up a storm. She appeared at restaurants around town courting the public and the press. The style queen eagerly participated in photo sessions, posing for hours for everything from cheesecake images to silly publicity shots to glamour stills, before the photos would be shipped off to virtually every magazine and newspaper across the country. Off-camera and at home, she autographed the photos while learning her lines.
Through determination and perseverance, Crawford rose through the ranks at the mighty MGM, most glamorous of the movie studios. A contract player when she arrived, by the early 1930s Crawford stood as one of the studio’s most bankable and most important female stars, second only to Norma Shearer, wife of MGM executive Irving Thalberg. The two often competed for the studio’s juiciest and most choice parts.
As every decade brought a change in fashion and social styles, Crawford herself evolved her acting and attitude to remain current with the times. Moving from energetic ingenue to comic vamp to world-weary shopgirl to sophisticated clotheshorse and eventually strong dramatic actress, Crawford tenaciously fought to stay relevant and vital at the box office. Disciplined and hard working, she remained one of Hollywood’s most major movie stars for decades, always seeking to improve, grow, and thrive.
Crawford enjoyed meeting fans, signing every autograph book put in front of her and talking with the public at appearances. If called from across the street, she would often saunter over to shake hands. The actress always dazzled at premieres, waving to fans in the stands, speaking over the radio to the American heartland at home, and answering reporters’ persistent questions.
Unlike many celebrities, Crawford eagerly participated in correspondence, interviews, and appearances with her fan club. She maintained relationships with those leading the club and cordially corresponded or chatted with others, always working to keep both her devotees and the public happy and appreciative, knowing they identified with her as an ordinary working person who had made good.
A quintessential star, Crawford recognized the public longed for glamour and fame themselves and she determined to make them happy. Whenever out in public, she dressed to enthrall and awe, displaying the immaculate fashion sense of a rich movie queen. The public wanted to see icon Joan Crawford, and she never disappointed.
While Crawford experienced career ups and downs, relationship struggles, and difficult friendships, she maintained her reputation as the people’s princess until her very end. As she once told a visiting publicist, “My audience always deserves the best I have to give, and I give them everything I have.”
Mary Mallory is a historian, archivist, and writer specializing in Los Angeles and Hollywood history. She serves as Secretary for Hollywood Heritage's Board of Directors and gives presentations to a variety of organizations and museums. Mary has written four books, including Hollywoodland, and blogs for the LA Daily Mirror.
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