Mommie Dearest

Mommie Dearest is a memoir and exposé written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of Academy Award winning actress Joan Crawford. Published in 1978, it attracted much controversy for its portrayal of Joan Crawford as a cruel, unbalanced, and alcoholic mother, with Crawford's other twin daughters, household staff, and family friends denouncing it as sensationalized fiction. It was turned into a 1981 film of the same name starring Faye Dunaway. Synopsis In the book, Christina alleges that Joan Crawford placed far more importance on her cinematic career than her family life, and that Joan later was an alcoholic in the 1960s. She also claims that Joan had sexual affairs with various men, whom Christina was required to call "Uncle." Christina claimed that Joan's controlling behavior continued throughout Christina's adulthood, asserting that Joan was jealous of Christina's acting career in the 1960s, to the point of taking over Christina's role in the soap opera The Secret Storm while Christina was in the hospital recovering from an operation to remove an ovarian cyst. The book culminates with Christina learning that she and her brother, Christopher, were intentionally disinherited upon the death of their mother for reasons known to them. Reactions The book's publication in 1978 created an enormous amount of attention. Some of Crawford's friends disputed the version of events presented in Mommie Dearest. Among them were Van Johnson, Katharine Hepburn, Cesar Romero, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Sydney Guilaroff, Ann Blyth, Gary Gray, and Myrna Loy. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Crawford's first husband, stated, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in Mommie Dearest is not the Joan Crawford I knew back then." Crawford's other daughters, Cindy and Cathy, have stated many times that they did not witness or experience any of the events described in the book. Christopher Crawford, while never stating Joan outright abused him, did state, "I honestly to this day do not believe that she ever cared for me."