The Golden Age of Hollywood Was Not So Golden
The golden age of Hollywood was not so golden. Some of Crawford's friends disputed Christina's book. In particular, Myrna Loy, Joan's friend since 1925, became one of her staunchest defenders in the aftermath of the book. Other stars such as Helen Hayes, June Allyson, Bette Davis, and Betty Hutton have verified some of the stories in Christina's book. Hutton had previously lived near Joan Crawford's Brentwood, California, home and has stated that she saw the children during or after various moments of abuse. Crawford's best friend, actress Eve Arden, ( Ida, Mildred Pierce ) even sided with Christina about Crawford's abilities of being a parent, saying that Crawford was Bipolar; a good woman in many ways but, as an alcoholic with a violent temper, was simply unfit to be a mother.. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Crawford's first husband, describing the book by stating, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in Mommie Dearest is not the Joan Crawford I knew back when." The two younger Crawford children, Cindy and Cathy, born 1947, have stated categorically many times that they did not witness any events as described in the book (they were not there yet). When the twins were growing up, Christina and her brother had already been sent away to a boarding school; therefore, they were obviously not aware of the majority of abuse the book recounts. On the internet there are many pictures of Joan and Christina and they seem friendly. I believe like many abusive parents she mellowed with age. This book is a horrible indictment of the old Studio System. Louis B. Mayer and the blue suits in the Thalberg bldg at MGM knew the children's plight but hushed it up.
Christina is the most disgusting person I have ever seen in my life
I completely understand why Joan cut Christina off. Where would Christina be if Joan did not adopt her? Did she forget that her birth parents were low class clowns without any sense of shame and she was just a by-products of those two clowns pleasure. Can she still make money by spitting on someone who had to work very hard to put her in school and to give her a decent life if Joan was her adopted mother? For me, Christina is nothing but a ungrateful, resentful, and disgusting person.
I have been working so hard to put myself through my Ph.D. program and to raise my son at the same time. I understand why Joan was so disappointed to see how Christina turned out. When my son showed no respect to some of very expensive toys I bought for him out my hard-working earned money, I felt very mad and told my son that I would never get him any toy if he does not take good care of the things that I got for him from my hard work. What would be your response if someone spent your money and showed absolutely no-respect for what you have to work so hard for?
Christina's best place where she can go is hell!
True or not
Their is a lot of controversy around this book. Honestly after reading this book, I felt that it was true, but now I watched the movie, I felt that I don't think so anymore. I believe that Christina was angry that she was disinheired and she wanted to get the last word.
This book was very well written with alot of good stories. If those stories are true.
Joan Crawford's daughter dearest!
I don't know much except for the film version featuring Faye Dunaway who played Joan Crawford and Diana Scarwid as Christina Crawford. Joan Crawford may have been difficult but she was a movie star and they don't make them like they used too. Regardless, she adopted four children. Christina recalls Mommie Dearest with both love and hate. I believe Joan wanted a mini version of herself. The mother and daugher had a complicated and stormy relationship to say the least. Joan was abusive but rereading the book did shed light on how Joan became Joan Crawford. She was Lucille LeSeur before the Hollywood System changed the name to Joan Crawford which sounded like Crawfish. Much like her rival, Bette Davis, which I doubt that Joan went after her and was rejected. They were much more alike in reality. They couldn't stand not being the star and disliked sharing the spotlight. In the first chapter, it details how the stars of Crawford and Davis' generation were worked like horses for the studio system which has long dismantled. Joan had a drinking problem and she was pressured to maintain her figure, her image which was important to her, and her obsession with being loved by her fans, her children, her colleagues, and lovers (many male lovers, they say)which was legendary. I don't know much about her childhood but it wasn't very happy. Crawford might have become as well-known as Davis if it had not been for this scathing book which paints such a negative portrait of Crawford as an abusive, angry, vengeful, mother. Maybe because she and her brother Christopher were disinherited from their mother's estate. We'll never know. I feel sorry the legendary Joan Crawford who besides being devoted to her fans is painted so negatively here.
The price says it all...
If it were possible to give negative stars I would have.
The adopted daughter of Joan Crawford, a movie actress from the 20's to the 70's, Christina Crawford clings to her desperation to ride her mother's coat tails into fame and fortune. The book chronicles the authors childhood and ends with a bitter will reading where Chirstina and her adopted brother Christopher were left nothing while their two adopted sisters (Cathy and Cindy) made out well. Enraged by her failure to inherit her mother's estate, Christina ruins forever the reputation her mother built, by writing this tell-all book; having it printed after her mother's death.
The story line is shallow at best and sadly, too many people read this book and gulp down every word. Pooooor Chirstina. If the reader is smart enough to realize, the "abuse" Christina, a lazy child furious at not being handed everything in life on a golden platter, was commonplace punishment methods used by parents of the time. Joan Crawford busted her hump working and was understandibly stressed at being a single mother of four adopted children in a time where a single woman adopting was unheard of.
While child abuse is a real problem and by no means excusable, this book fails miserably to paint a story of a long undeserved suffering of a child. Was Joan Crawford perfect? Were her parenting techniques always right? Of course not, she was human. If you want to compare this waste of paper to a REAL story of child abuse; I suggest reading A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive or House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying (St. Martin's True Crime Library). If the people involved in the book were not famous, this book would not get the hype that it does. Mommie Dearest is nothing more than a gossip rag trashing a mother who refused to let her privileged children grown up spoilt rotten.
