#Joan crawford house after alfred steele movie#
#Joan crawford house after alfred steele series#

Joan Crawford was also active in community and business worlds and she was made a Brandeis University Fellow in 1968.įrom the description of Joan Crawford Awards, 1948-1965 (Brandeis University Library).

#Joan crawford house after alfred steele movie#

Joan Crawford starred in a total of 81 films during her movie career she won the best actress award in 1945 for the film Mildred Pierce. When Joan Crawford died in 1977 her age was given as 69, but she may have been in her early to mid 70s.įrom the guide to the Letters to Joan Crawford, 1972-1976, (The New York Public Library.

#Joan crawford house after alfred steele series#

Later roles brought diminishing returns, until a comeback performance in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? in 1962 led to a series of horror films. A mid-career switch to Warner Brothers brought Crawford a Best Actress Academy Award for MILDRED PIERCE in 1945. Her films include OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928), RAIN (1932), GRAND HOTEL (1932), DANCING LADY (1933) with Clark Gable and Fred Astaire, and THE WOMEN (1939). Entering films in 1925, Lucille was signed by MGM Studios where her name was changed. While there is some question as to the year of her birth, the actress who became known as Joan Crawford was unquestionably born under the name Lucille Le Sueur in San Antonio, Texas. Joan Crawford was a film star whose career spanned five decades, from silent films onward, and who worked in many genres including drama, musicals, comedy, Westerns, and horror films, and who appeared on television as well. WorldCat record id: 122517687įrom the guide to the Joan Crawford scrapbooks,, 1925-1960, (The New York Public Library. “I’ll always treasure our brief time together.From the description of Joan Crawford scrapbooks, 1925-1960, microform. And I did - for a little while - with Alfred,” said the star, who was interred with her last husband. “I thought I could be different, that I could have it all. Joan never married again, but she remained involved with Pepsi until her death from a heart attack in 1977. “Al Steele had been the company’s showman who traveled the world promoting Pepsi,” said Andrew Barnet, son of Pepsi president Herbert Barnet. Within weeks, a heartbroken Joan returned to making films, reasoning that “work is the best alleviator of sorrow.” She also was elected the first woman director of Pepsi’s board just days after her husband’s passing.

On April 19, 1959, just a few days shy of her husband’s 58th birthday, Joan went to rouse Alfred for breakfast and discovered him dead from an apparent heart attack. I entertain the bottlers and their wives, whether they come from Africa, London, Switzerland or Kansas,” she said. After they wed, Joan starred in fewer movies and traveled with Alfred, too. Alfred, meanwhile, had quadrupled Pepsi’s sales during his tenure by visiting bottlers and attending plant openings around the world. In addition to cultivating relationships with Hollywood dealmakers, she grew her fan club by writing personal letters and sending little gifts to admirers. From the moment of her big break dancing the Charleston in 1928’s Our Dancing Daughters, Joan became a tireless self-promoter. “We were so happy,” she gushed.Īlfred and Joan were well matched in that they were both smart about business. They wed, sealing their vows with a borrowed ring, on May 9, 1955, when Joan was 47 and Alfred 54. However, three months after Alfred received his divorce, he eloped to Las Vegas with the film star. “To me death, yes death, is preferable to breaking up a home,” she dramatically claimed. I am a woman with a woman’s need, a husband.”Īlfred didn’t initially seem like a candidate because he was still married to his second wife and Joan insisted she didn’t chase married men. “I can’t tell you how many nights after I put the children to bed I’ve stayed up alone, all alone. “I was utterly lonely,” admitted Joan, who was raising the four children she adopted as a single mother. “A career, particularly if you are a star, demands your time, your energy, everything.”Īfter almost a decade on her own, the Mildred Pierce Oscar winner met Alfred Steele at a party in 1954. “It is very difficult for an actress, a busy one, to have a happy marriage,” said the silver screen icon, who had more than 100 credits to her name before her retirement in the early 1970s. And I was sure I could have it, too,” she said.Īfter her third marriage ended in 1946, Joan never expected to wed again. “I wanted everything - stardom, happiness in marriage and children. The renovation combined two apartments on the top floors at 2 East 70th Street into one expansive family home with seven large, sun-drenched rooms and views of Central Park.

In 1956, construction began on the New York apartment of Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi executive Alfred Steele.