Joan Crawford a Hollywood trouper (though some might say storm trooper) she dragged herself up from nothing and by sheer willpower and determination she made herself a star. A star whos name appeared above the title for more than 40 years, she clung to her hard gotten stardom like like a limpett and along the way dessimated daughters and rivals alike.
All of her films followed a formula (hey if it aint broke dont try and fix it!)
In the 30's she was the shop girl made good, in the 40's she was the suffering housewife/mother. Then came the 50's and the start of a long career in camp as the tortured or terrorised older woman, from there she sallied forth into the sixties as the horror scream queen supreme.
A major force in hollywood she barged through four decades with hollywoods biggest hair, eyebrows,lips and shoulder pads all piled into her trademark fuck me shoes as a woman she was diminutive but as a star she was huge.
Joans films up untill the fifties were pure hollywood class fantastic oscar worthy performances but in the 50's she married Alfred Steele (chairman of the board of Pepsi) and obviously the the pop bubbles (and the 100% proof vodka she was so fond of) went to her head and the camp diva emerged. Regardless of the tosh they gave her for scripts she tackled every role with a relish bordering on the salacious, and thereby earned her place at the Queens of Camp
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