What Ever Happened To Mommie Dearest

With the 50th anniversary of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? comes a new look behind the legendary film and Joan Crawford's foray into the horror genre that would make up the bulk of her later work. After the death of her husband Joan Crawford found herself in debt and needing to work. The success of Baby Jane would launch a series of films like Strait-Jacket, I Saw What You Did, Berserk and Trog. Now, take a look back at the final act of Joan Crawford's magnificent career and at the films and TV work most biographers skim over. Filled with photos and rare details from behind the screen, What Ever Happened to Mommie Dearest? offers a look at Joan Crawford's evolution from movie star to horror queen and literary monster and back to Hollywood icon.

The story of the tormented and glamorous star, Joan Crawford, struggling to survive in a cutthroat world, succumbing to a rage leading to alcoholism and child abuse.

A fragmented, lyrical essay on memory, identity, mourning, and the mother. Writing is how I attempt to repair myself, stitching back former selves, sentences. When I am brave enough I am never brave enough I unravel the tapestry of my life, my childhood. —from Book of Mutter Composed over thirteen years, Kate Zambreno's Book of Mutter is a tender and disquieting meditation on the ability of writing, photography, and memory to embrace shadows while in the throes—and dead calm—of grief. Book of Mutter is both primal and sculpted, shaped by the author's searching, indexical impulse to inventory family apocrypha in the wake of her mother's death. The text spirals out into a fractured anatomy of melancholy that includes critical reflections on the likes of Roland Barthes, Louise Bourgeois, Henry Darger, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Peter Handke, and others. Zambreno has modeled the book's formless form on Bourgeois's Cells sculptures—at once channeling the volatility of autobiography, pain, and childhood, yet hemmed by a solemn sense of entering ritualistic or sacred space. Neither memoir, essay, nor poetry, Book of Mutter is an uncategorizable text that draws upon a repertoire of genres to write into and against silence. It is a haunted text, an accumulative archive of myth and memory that seeks its own undoing, driven by crossed desires to resurrect and exorcise the past. Zambreno weaves a complex web of associations, relics, and references, elevating the prosaic scrapbook into a strange and intimate postmortem/postmodern theater.

From “Grand Hotel” to “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?,” Joan Crawford played some of the finest parts Hollywood had to offer, establishing a reputation as the most spectacular diva on the silver screen. Even when the cameras quit rolling, her life never stopped being over-the-top. In My Way of Life, a cult classic since it was first published in the early 1970’s, Crawford shares her secrets. Part memoir, part self-help book, part guide to being fabulous, My Way of Life advises the reader on everything from throwing a small dinner party for eighteen to getting the most out of a marriage. Featuring tips on fashion, makeup, etiquette and everything in between, it is an irresistible look at a bygone era, when movie stars were pure class, and Crawford was at the top of the heap.

Beyond Mommie Dearest—the inspiring and shattering sequel to the groundbreaking #1 New York Times bestseller. At publication the world as I knew it blew up in my face. Christina Crawford’s Mommie Dearest cast a spotlight on the unspoken horrors of family violence and exorcised the demons of her childhood. But in the years following the controversial bestseller’s publication, the author’s resilience was tested in ways she never expected. Crawford was forced to brave a stunning backlash intended to shame her, a film adaptation that bastardized her story and compounded the trauma, a descent into alcoholism, a divorce that ruined her financially, and a massive stroke that left her paralyzed. Staying true to her fighting spirit, she made a remarkable comeback. More than a personal memoir of triumph over tragedy, Survivor—now with a new preface for its 30th anniversary—is an enlightening spiritual roadmap to recovery for anyone who has suffered the ordeals of physical and emotional abuse, devastating illness, or seemingly insurmountable despair. Crawford’s story is not just about the will to survive; it is about the unparalleled joy of coming out on the other side, finding calm, and celebrating a fulfilling life. “The author of Mommie Dearest . . . hits her stride with this strong account of her simultaneous tragedies. . . . One closes this fine, moving read with great respect for Christina Crawford.” —Kirkus Reviews

Together in one volume for the first time: The harrowing #1 New York Times bestseller with a new introduction, and its triumphant sequel. This volume includes two memoirs by Christina Crawford, recounting the abuse she endured as a child and her journey to recovery as an adult. Mommie Dearest: An unprecedented memoir of child abuse, Mommie Dearest also chipped away at the façade of Christina Crawford’s alcoholic abuser: her adoptive mother, movie star Joan Crawford. What transpired between a seemingly fortunate child of Hollywood and a controlling and desperate woman was an escalating nightmare and, for Christina, a fierce struggle for independence. This ebook features an exclusive new introduction by the author, plus rare photographs from her personal collection and a revealing one hundred pages of material not found in the original manuscript. “A horror story that goes beyond showbiz scandal-mongering . . . Delivers an unexpected charge.” —The New York Times “Probably the most chilling account of a mother-daughter relationship ever to be put on paper.” —Los Angeles Times Survivor: Mommie Dearest cast a spotlight on the unspoken horrors of family violence, but the years following its publication tested Christina Crawford’s resilience in unexpected ways: a backlash intended to shame her, a film adaptation that compounded the trauma, alcoholism, divorce, and a stroke that left her paralyzed. Staying true to her fighting spirit, the author made a remarkable comeback. Survivor is more than a memoir of triumph over tragedy. For anyone who has suffered challenging despair, it is a spiritual roadmap to recovery, finding peace, and celebrating a fulfilling life. “One closes this fine, moving read with great respect for Christina Crawford.” —Kirkus Reviews

In Mildred Pierce, noir master James M. Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devasting emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable. Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter.

In the first biography of Joan Crawford to give the full, uncensored story, bestselling author David Bret tells Crawford's rags to riches climb, from working in a Kansas City laundry to collecting an Oscar for her defining role in Mildred Pierce, and on to her devotion to Christian Science and reliance on vodka. He discusses the star's legendary relationship with Clark Gable, her countless love affairs, her marriages -- three of them to gay men -- and her obsession with rough sex. Bret divulges what really happened that led her to disinherit two of her four children, earning her the nickname "Mommie Dearest," as well as how her loathed mother forced Crawford to work as a prostitute, appear in pornographic films, and sleep her way to the top. Bret analyzes Crawford's films, many of which were constructed purely as vehicles where actress and character were often indistinguishable. Overtly generous towards her coterie of gay friends, she was heartless towards her enemies, particularly Bette Davis, her co-star in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, with whom she shared a lifelong feud. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished material and interviews, David Bret presents a unique, fascinating portrait of a single-minded, uncompromising woman.