Born into a working-class family, Lucille Fay le Sueur won a Charleston contest and began a dance career that resulted in a Hollywood contract with MGM in 1925. The studio changed her name to the movie theater marquee-friendly Joan Crawford and showcased her flapper energy in "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928). HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano devote this podcast episode to an iron-willed actor who achieved major stardom in the 1930s with movies including "The Women" (1939). ...
Born into a working-class family, Lucille Fay le Sueur won a Charleston contest and began a dance career that resulted in a Hollywood contract with MGM in 1925. The studio changed her name to the movie theater marquee-friendly Joan Crawford and showcased her flapper energy in "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928). HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano devote this podcast episode to an iron-willed actor who achieved major stardom in the 1930s with movies including "The Women" (1939). When her MGM roles in the early 1940s were less well received by critics and audiences, Crawford displayed her impressive survival skills by signing with Warner Bros. and making the film that finally won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, "Mildred Pierce" (1945). A compelling fusion of maternal melodrama and film noir, "Mildred Pierce" is essential viewing. Crawford went on to make some of her best melodramas in the 1940s and 1950s. As for her later career, the must-see film is "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?"(1962), in which Joan Crawford and Bette Davis play sisters who hate each other. Come to think of it, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis hated each other
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