Joan Crawford Encyclopedia: C

Cagney, James. (7/17/1899 - 3/30/1986) This American film icon known primarily for his pugnacious roles was born on the Lower East Side and played vaudeville and Broadway (as a chorus boy) before being signed to Warners in 1930. He's probably best known for his parts in Public Enemy (1931), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)---the latter in which Joan was offered a role and said: "I'm too old. Give it to Joan Leslie."

Joan and Cagney were friends. The picture to the right, given to Joan in the early '30s, was inscribed with: "This, Joan, is the Westmore version. If it bothers or begins to pale after a time, let me know and I'll send along something closer to the original. In any case, my very best to you, Jim Cagney."

Click here to read a March 1972 letter from Joan to Cagney, expressing appreciation for a recent Cagney-week on TV.

Cain, James M. (7/1/1892 - 10/27/77) Author of the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce, upon which the 1945 Joan-film of the same name was based. He also wrote such noir classics as The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. More Cain info.

Campbell's Funeral Home. Located on Madison Avenue in NYC, Joan's funeral was held here on Friday, May 13, 1977, at 10am. (LY) Around 75 people attended this service for close friends and family, including Joan's four kids and brother Hal's daughter Joan Crawford Lowe Fuller.

Caniff, Milton. (2/28/1907 - 4/3/1988) Friend of Joan and author of the comic strip "Terry and the Pirates," which ran from 1934 to 1946. This strip's character "The Dragon Lady" was based on Joan. Caniff explained in 1973 that Joan had been the model "In appearance only, not personality. I saw her in some movie [Chained, 1934] in which she played a siren. She had her hair parted in the middle and wore a high-collared cape. And that became The Dragon Lady."

See this site's Caniff Art page for two personal sketches Caniff did for Joan in the 1960s (including a full-length "Dragon Lady" sketch).

Caretakers, The. United Artists, 1963. Directed by Hall Bartlett, 97 minutes. Joan plays "Lucretia Terry," a stern head nurse at a mental hospital who butts heads with doctor Robert Stack and his newfangled ideas about how to treat patients.

Carmel (California). Joan often took her children for weekend vacations there. (MD)

Carroll, Mildred. Dubbed Joan's voice in the "Rhythm of the Day" number in '33's Dancing Lady.

Carson, Jack. (10/27/10 - 1/2/63) An actor who had a 25-year career, Carson played the greedy Wally Fay in Mildred Pierce and also co-starred with Dennis Morgan and Doris Day in 1949's It's a Great Feeling, in which Joan made a cameo appearance. IMDb info.

Cassin, Billie. Joan was born "Lucille LeSueur," but her childhood nickname was "Billie" and she used her stepfather's last name "Cassin" after her mother's remarriage. (See Henry Cassin info below.)

Cassin, Henry. (c. 1867 - 10/25/22) Joan's stepfather, whom her mother met (and married circa 1908) after moving her family to Lawton, Oklahoma, when Joan's father, Thomas LeSueur, abandoned them.

Cassin was a small man of Irish descent who dressed flamboyantly and operated Lawton's "Ramsey Opera House" and "Air Dome Theater," home to travelling vaudeville shows and such. Joan thought he was her real father (she was known then as "Billie Cassin") until about age 11, when brother Hal informed her otherwise. Cassin encouraged Joan's dancing, even paying for lessons, and let her hang around his theaters and the show people. Said Joan in CWJC: "If I could really give credit to the people who helped me the most, I guess he'd top the list, even after all these years...."

In 1916 or so, he was accused of embezzling and the family moved to Kansas City, where they briefly operated the rather seedy Midland Hotel. (In the Essential Biography, author Quirk says that Joan told him that she and Cassin had had sex when she was 11 and that this is what prompted the family upheaval at that time.) In Kansas City, Cassin enrolled Billie in the St. Agnes convent school and initially paid her tuition, but when he left the family soon afterwards, she was forced to work for her keep. (CWJC) Months after Cassin left her mother, Billie would roam downtown KC looking for him; she found him once and he took her for an ice-cream. She never saw him again. (JCB)

While various Joan bios speculate that Cassin seems to have disappeared completely after this time and possibly died in 1919, in fact his actual whereabouts and death and burial are a matter of public record. Specifically (according to Cassin researcher Katie Soto): He died on October 25, 1922, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was a resident businessman, and was buried October 31 in Lawton, Oklahoma's Highland Cemetery. (His mother, Mary Lyden Cassin Delehanty, is also buried in Highland Cemetery, as are his half-sisters Katherine and Mary Delehanty, and his brother William, who died in a car accident near Lawton in 1918.)

HENRY CASSIN TO BE BURIED HERE

Former Lawton Citizen Dies Suddenly In Nashville of Heart Attack.

Funeral Services for Henry Cassin, former Lawton citizen who died Thursday in Nashville Tenn., will be held at 9 o'clock Tuesday morning at the Catholic church. [The service was given by Father Lamp.] Mr. Cassin died suddenly of heart trouble while on a business trip to Tennessee.

The body arrived in Lawton today noon accompanied by the two sisters of Mr. Cassin, Miss Mary and Miss Katherine Delehanty. St. Clair's have charge of the body.

Mr. Cassin will be remembered by many Lawton people. For years he was engaged in the abstract business here later going in the oil business which took him away from Lawton.

Mr. Cassin was 48 years old. [This age is disputed. Census records show he was more likely born around 1867, which would have made him around 55.] He was born in Davenport, Iowa.

He is survived by his mother, Mrs Delehanty, two sisters, Miss Katherine and Miss Mary Delehanty, and one brother Michael F. Delehanty, who resides in Washington. He will be unable to come to the funeral.

Pallbearers will be Ray Keegan, Dick Jones, Bob Landers, J. H. Mullins, Charles Graybill and E. G. Warren.

Henry Cassin's mother, Mary Lyden, was born in Galway County, Ireland about 1849. Her brother, Patrick Lyden, was also born in Galway County, and their parents John and Julia Henry Lyden came to the United States in 1855 to Davenport, Iowa. Mary married her first husband, Cassin, around 1865; she had three sons--Henry J., William, and James--with him. Her first husband passed away, and she then married Michael Delehanty. Census records indicate Henry was born around 1867. The 1900 Census for Iowa shows Henry living with his mother Mary and her husband Michael Delehanty and their children. The entire family moved to Lawton, Oklahoma, a few years later (where, according to the RootsWeb site, Henry Cassin married Joan's mother Anna Belle Johnson around 1908).

Many thanks to researcher Katie Soto for providing the until-now-unknown above information on Cassin.

See Cassin's entry on RootsWeb.com for more information on his family background.

Casting Couch, The. I remember finding a Joan quote online that said something like "I'd rather sleep on a casting couch than on a cold hard floor." (If you know the exact line and in what context she spoke it, please e-mail me.) This was also one of the supposed names of the supposed porn film she made prior to coming to Hollywood. (LY says it was also known as "The Plumber"--See also X-rated Movie.) In CWJC, Joan says of the figurative "casting couch":

...Louis B. didn't approve very much of the casting couch, so that wasn't a very big thing at Metro. A lot of actresses, however, could be intimidated, and were. They were not only vulnerable, they were willing to do damned near anything to "make it" in Hollywood and not go back to St. Paul, Minnesota, to spend the rest of their lives up to the ass in kids and snow. God only knows how many times the casting couch was used to get a part or a contract, and how many tears were shed when that little fling on the couch didn't turn into anything.

Castle, Charles. British writer and TV producer, author of the 1977 Joan bio The Raging Star (which isn't, contrary to its claims, "authorised"). Castle had done a documentary on Noel Coward that aired on NYC TV in 1974. He expressed an interest in doing a similar show on Joan and the two met several times to discuss it; Joan didn't like how the Coward program turned out, though, so decided against working with Castle. (LY)

Castle, William. (4/24/14 - 5/31/77) Schlockmeister producer and director with a definite knack for promotion. He directed Joan in '64's Strait-Jacket and '65's I Saw What You Did. Other feats: He was the producer of '68's Rosemary's Baby and directed the '59 Vincent Price vehicle House on Haunted Hill.

Catlett, Walter. (2/4/1889 - 11/14/60) Blustery comic of the Ziegfeld Follies and Joan's co-star in Rain. During the welcome dinner for the Rain cast, Joan tried talking to Catlett about her interpretation of the Sadie Thompson character. Catlett responded: "Listen, fishcake, when Jeanne Eagels died, Rain died with her." (What a gent!) (JCB) IMDb info.

Chadwick School. Palos Verdes, California, school founded in 1935 by Margaret Chadwick. Each of Joan's children attended it (most famously Christina, as she recounts in her book Mommie Dearest), only to be withdrawn by Joan in November 1954 in a fit of pique. School link.

Chained. MGM, 1934. Directed by Clarence Brown, 74 minutes. Joan stars as "Diane Lovering" in a love triangle with an older married man and the available Clark Gable. It's her 5th film with Gable. Says Joan in CWJC: ...Clark and me together again, with all the overt and implied sexuality.

Chandler, Charlotte. Author of the 2008 Joan bio, Not the Girl Next Door. See the Books page for more information. Wikipedia entry.

Chandler, Jeff. (12/15/18 - 6/17/61) The top star at Universal at the time Joan specifically requested him as co-star in that company's 1955 film Female on the Beach. According to EB, the two had had an affair a few years prior to Female, when Chandler was a contract player and Joan interviewed him for her production company. Joan friend Jerry Asher said that Joan had broken off the fling, but the two remained friends and resumed sexual relations during the Female shoot. In 1973, 12 years after Chandler's death, Joan said, "I love him. He was such a good person, a really nice guy."

Chaney, Lon. (4/1/1883 - 8/26/1930) One of silent cinema's biggest stars, "The Man of a Thousand Faces" is perhaps best known for his work in horror films such as 1923's Hunchback of Notre Dame and '25's Phantom of the Opera. Joan co-starred with him in 1927's The Unknown, where he played the allegedly armless circus knife-thrower Alonzo. Joan later said of his influence:

[After observing Chaney] I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting. Until then I had been conscious only of myself. Lon Chaney was my introduction to acting. The concentration, the complete absorption he gave to his characterization filled me with such awe I could scarcely speak to him. He demanded a lot of me. A lot of times I was afraid I wasn't giving him what he wanted to play off, but I guess he thought I was okay. (EB)

Chanslor, Roy. (8/25/1899 - 7/16/1964) Screenwriter, novelist. Author of the 1953 novel Johnny Guitar, upon which the Joan-movie of the same name was based. Joan writes on the foreword page of the 1954 paperback edition of the book: When I read Roy Chanslor's turbulent drama of the legendary woman known as Vienna and her Johnny Guitar, I wanted to do it on the screen. For me there was a special excitement in the role of this fascinating woman and in the fast-paced drama of this story of the West...

Chelsea Cinema. This NYC theater (on West 23rd St., between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) features a "Thursday Classics" movie-night. In March 2004, their star of the month was Joan in Possessed ('47), Berserk!, Flamingo Road, and Strait-Jacket. (There have since been numerous Joan evenings; in March '06 I attended a screening of Berserk there; Harriet Craig and Baby Jane were on the spring '06 schedule; and Flamingo Road showed again in September 2006.) The evenings are hosted by drag diva Hedda Lettuce. Chelsea home page.

Childhood, Joan's. Says Joan in the intro to CWJC when asked about happy moments in her life:

Well, we can skip childhood because I didn't have any. Not one goddam moment on the Good Ship Lollipop. Boarding houses and hash joints and dime stores and chorus lines is about all I remember, but I'm not complaining because if it hadn't been for that sort of a beginning there'd have been no Joan Crawford. I agree with the English writer, whoever he was, who said that a miserable childhood is the ideal launching pad for success. I was sure as hell not going to repeat my mother's miserable life. No way.

I never had a chance to be part of a clique, something every little girl wants, and I never had any close chums. Instead of being pretty I was "different," and you know how damned cruel kids can be to anyone who's "different." I kept thinking I might be popular if I stood out more, so I did three things--I walked around looking as though I was self-assured, but I came off brassy. I did little things to mother's dresses to make me look different, but I came off a freak. And I worked my ass off learning how to dance, but I became an exhibitionist. If there was a laughing-stock, a class joke, it was little Lucille. Look, I'm not feeling sorry for myself. True, I was lonely at home (if you can call boarding houses and kitchenette apartments and a few sleazy rented houses home) and lonely at school, but a lot of it was sheer stubbornness and perverseness. I guess maybe I didn't want to conform, and I paid the price for that.

Christian Science. A spirituality and health movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy. (Eddy's ideas on the subject were first published in 1875, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; four years later her Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in Boston.) Joan became a follower of Eddy's teachings in the 1930s, and continued to be influenced by its practices until her 1977 death. Said Joan in CWJC:

I can't say that I'm [a] strict [follower]. I do things a really disciplined Scientist wouldn't do, but I firmly believe that the body can cure its ailments through faith instead of medication or surgery. I realize there are times when one must have a doctor, but we can take care of most things ourselves, with faith and prayer and patience. I think Science would be a wonderful answer to the drug and dope problems we have today. I think it would have been of great help to people like Tyrone Power, Marilyn Monroe, and Judy Garland, who made drugs a way of life. It also teaches you moderation. I should really practice more strictly...but I've done wonders, at least as far as a certain peace of mind is concerned, to carry it this far.

Chrysler, Jerry. A frequent dance partner of Joan's in her early days of Hollywood. The two won a cup at the Cocoanut Grove one chilly night, then went driving in his roadster while still damp with sweat... Chrysler came down with pneumonia and later died. Joan had a huge floral display of gardenias spelling "Jerry" made and created a bit of a scene at his funeral, causing his mother to be carried out. (JCB)

Cielito Lindo. Joan and Doug's name for the house they shared at 426 N. Bristol in Brentwood. The name is literally Spanish for "Beautiful LIttle Heaven," but is also used as a general term of endearment. Though I don't know whether this is where the couple got the name, it's also the title of a traditional Spanish song (used in '70s US TV commercials with new lyrics: "Ay ay ay ay, I am the Frito Bandito..."). See also El Jodo. Spanish/English song lyrics.

Cleanliness. In CWJC, interviewer Roy Newquist asks Joan about the plastic slipcovers on the furniture in her NYC apartment. Joan replies:

Look, they keep the upholstery clean, and I so seldom have guests these days, that I might as well be as orderly as possible. With all this crap in the air--nothing stays clean that isn't covered. We do not live in a hygienic age.

Maybe I've always been a nut when it comes to cleanliness. When I was a kid I'd scrub the hell out of the rooming houses and crummy apartments my mother and her husbands lived in...and even after I had the money to hire an army of housekeepers and maids I ended up doing the cleaning myself because they never got things really clean. It's just part of being civilized, that's all. And I'm not about to apologize for it.

I had one hell of a time with [second husband] Franchot. He found it amusing and irritating, both, and there were times I could have strangled him when he'd answer the phone and say, "Sorry, she can't speak to you right now; she's cleaning the toilets."

That's one thing I could never understand, out on the Coast. I'd go to a party at someone's house, more like a mansion, really, and I'd go to the bathroom and have to wipe the seat with wet toilet paper before I dared sit down, or I'd sit on a couch, wearing a white gown, and come away with a film of dust. Once I went into the kitchen for a glass of water, and when I turned on the light the cockroaches scattered like mad. I don't understand this sort of sloppiness, and I don't think I ever will.

Club Richman. Seeking to supplement her income while working on her 2nd musical with J.J. Shubert ("The Passing Show of 1924"), Joan begged Nils Granlund and Harry Richman (two bigtime NYC radio stars) in the fall of 1924 for a performing job at their new hotspot Club Richman (157 W. 56th St.). The club was considered one of the most lavish and popular of New York's 100,000 speakeasies and catered to the bigwigs, charging a $6 cover (today's equivalent of over $75). Granlund gave her a featured spot as a Charleston dancer and extra money for teaching the Charleston to his other dancers. (And, more importantly, introduced her to MGM's Marcus Loew, who set up a screen test for her.) (JB)

Cock 'n Bull. A frequent lunch spot in Hollywood for Joan (sometimes accompanied by daughter Christina). They also supplied secret spices for her famous coleslaw. See Recipes. (MD, MWOL)

Cocoanut Grove. Los Angeles nightclub, part of the Ambassador Hotel grounds. The club opened on April 21, 1921, and was a favorite Hollywood dance spot of Joan's in her early Hollywood years, where she won over 100 dance trophies. She had a special table there (under a palm tree close to the entrance) just for her and her circle of girlfriends (which included Loretta Young's older sisters, plus Dorothy Manners and Audrey Ferris) who'd meet weekly for "tea dances." Once an audacious upstart named Jane Peters took over Joan's table--Joan raised such a ruckus that the headwaiter never again dared to seat anyone else there. (Peters later became known as "Carole Lombard.") (JCB) The Ambassador and its grounds closed in 1989. See the Ambassador Hotel entry for info on 2004 plans for the Cocoanut Grove building--as a school auditorium. :(

Cohen, Herman. (8/27/25 - 6/2/2002) Producer of Joan's last two films, Berserk and Trog. During the filming of Berserk, he often escorted her to dinner or to the theater, and also politely insisted that she not start drinking on the set before noon. He got his start as an usher at a Detroit theater, eventually working his way to Columbia Pictures, where he produced early teen exploitation films such as '57's I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Cohn, Harry. (7/23/1891 - 2/27/1958) Head of Columbia Pictures. In CWJC, Joan says Cohn "loved to sample the goodies." IMDb info.

Collins, Joan. (5/23/33 - ) British sex-bomb and ageless diva. Collins made her film debut in 1951's Lady Godiva Rides Again and came to Hollywood in '55, after appearing in Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs. In 1956, she took on the Joan Crawford role in the Women remake, The Opposite Sex. Her film career faded after the '50s, and the next two decades were spent doing low-budget movies and TV appearances (including shows that Joan Crawford also appeared on: What's My Line, The Virginian, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.).

Collins' career rebounded mightily in 1981, when she made a very grand entrance on the 2nd season of the US TV series Dynasty as Queen Bee Alexis Carrington. Ratings for the show soared, and Collins remained a regular on the show until its demise in 1989. Since then, Collins has remained an international glamour-girl---writing novels, making guest appearances on TV, marrying much-younger pretty boys, and most recently co-starring on Broadway with her former Dynasty nemesis Linda Evans.

In Collins' 1997 St. Martin's Press autobiography, Second Act, she wrote about meeting Joan Crawford in July 1956:

In spite of Maxwell Reed’s [Collins' first husband] cynical advice, I always tried to get on with everyone on the set and it was only when I met Joan Crawford, some months later, that I discovered what he meant when he had said, “A star should pull rank. A star must be bigger than life.” I’d been invited to a ‘Welcome to London’ party at my favorite haunt, Les Ambassadeurs, for Miss Crawford, then married to Alfred Steele, chief executive officer and president of the Pepsi-Cola company. The newspapers had been full of her starry arrival at London Airport: a huge black limo was followed by three white Pepsi vans, on top of which was stacked Joan’s massive amount of luggage, each piece emblazoned with a large J.C. The star took over the Oliver Messel suite at the Dorchester for The Story of Esther Costello, which she was making for my friend the producer James Woolf. Joan Crawford was also an executive producer of Esther Costello and, ever mindful of costs, Jimmy told me that she had reviewed her wardrobe budget and had lopped off thirty thousand dollars from the original seventy thousand by such drastic measures as leaving the sable and mink trims off the hem and sleeves of several dresses, and having a coat lined with velvet instead of seal. The ultimate sacrifice had been for her to wear the same pair of shoes several times in the movie.

I went to the Esther Costello party with Gordon White, a theatrical agent, popular man-about-London and, since I was now separated, an occasional date. Miss Crawford had wanted all the women attending the party to wear either ballerina length or long gowns, so I put on my best bib and tucker to mingle with such august persons as Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, John Gielgud, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Evans, Rita Hayworth and, of course, Laurence Harvey, who was starring opposite Joan in Esther Costello. Joan Crawford was ensconced like an empress on a tall chair at one end of the triple banqueting rooms of Les Ambassadeurs. A middle-aged, regal, but not terribly attractive woman in a sea-green silk dress embroidered with sequins in the fashionable ‘short in front and long in back’ style. With eyebrows as thick and dark as Groucho’s, lipstick and matching nail varnish obviously ‘Jungle Red’, and hair done in a curiously old-fashioned forties’ style, which was echoed in her ankle-strapped, platform-soled stilettos, she was a formidable sight. When each guest was brought over to greet her, she extended her hand graciously, giving a more than passable imitation of our own dear queen. When Jimmy introduced me as ‘one of England’s newest and brightest young stars’, Miss Crawford didn’t take my outstretched hand. Her eyes swept me dismissively from top to toe, her lip curling disdainfully at my low-cut white organza top and full black and white tulle skirt. She obviously didn’t like what she saw so she didn’t deign to speak to me, but chatted animatedly to Jimmy. I wanted to tell her that my mother, a great Crawford fan, had named me after her, but I didn’t think she would have the stomach for such trivia.

At the National Film Theatre Q & A session in London in 1956, Joan Crawford mentioned Collins briefly: You know, our, um, my director on this picture Esther Costello [David Miller] has just done The Women, or redone it as The Opposite Sex, with a great cast and I think he had twelve women, they all got along beautifully. And he didn’t know who to cast in my part and, uh, I said why don’t you look at this one and that one. So he got Joan Collins and I said ‘you stuck with J.C., didn’t you?’

(Thanks to James for contributing the Collins book excerpt and Crawford interview excerpt.)

Contracts. As I find them, I'll be posting links here that lead to pages where you can read some of Joan's actual business contracts.

Conway, Tim. Joan appeared on two of this "Carol Burnett Show" alumnus's CBS programs: "The Tim Conway Show" (1/30/70) and "The Tim Conway Comedy Hour" (9/30/70). See the '70s TV page for more info.

Coogan, Jackie, Jr. (10/26/14 - 3/1/84) Child star of Joan's 1925 silent film Old Clothes, he perhaps most famously appeared with Chaplin in '21's The Kid and later went on to play "Uncle Fester" in the '60s TV series "The Addams Family." Said Joan of his TV work: "You know, I wouldn't have recognized him, except he's still got that certain look on his face. The big, wide eyes, the same expression. It's old and wrinkled but it's the same face." (EB)

Cook, Lucille and Nellie. A sister singing act in Kansas City in the early 1920s. One night when Joan (then "Billie Cassin") was locked out of her house by her wicked stepfather Harry Hough after coming home too late, the two found her sobbing in a hotel bathroom and took her home with them. A week or so later, the sisters took Billie along when they performed at the Ivanhoe Hotel; a booking agent interested in them also noticed Billie dancing and arranged for an audition as a chorus girl in Katharine Emerine's Springfield, Missouri, show. Billie got the job... and promptly took off with all of the Cooks' costumes! Said Nellie later: "We forgave her, in a way. Billie had such determination and drive, and she was so frightened of failure. She did what she felt she had to do. It's true we were placed in a terrible spot, but it worked out all right." The Cooks later traveled the Orpheum circuit, did national radio shows from New York and Chicago, and even had small roles in Hal Roach comedies in Hollywood. (JB)

Cooper, Gary. (5/7/01 - 5/13/61) Joan's only film with this legend was 1933's Today We Live; Cooper played an American pilot to Joan's English heiress. IMDb info. Wikipedia page.

Cooper, Jackie. (9/15/22 - ) In his autobiography Please Don't Shoot My Dog (William Morrow, 1981), former child star Cooper tells of his affair with Joan when he was a teen:

I was seventeen, and I began to go over to Joan Crawford’s house to play badminton. She was a friend of my mother’s and, over the years, had offered me the use of her court. She didn’t have room for a tennis court, so had put in a badminton court, and I had learned to enjoy playing the game.

The court was right off the pool house, and one day, sweaty from an hour of exertions, I went into the pool house with Joan. I was thirsty, and she poured me a Coke. As she bent over, I looked down her dress.

I was brash, fresh from some romantic triumph, I suppose, and I made some remark which I assumed was sophisticated, witty, and very sexually provocative.

But I didn’t go. Instead, I made a move toward here, and she stood up, looked at me appraisingly, and then closed the drapes. And I made love to Joan Crawford. Or, rather, she made love to me.

Over the next six months or so the performance was repeated eight or nine times. After the first time, however, it was always late at night. I would set a date with her, then manage to sneak out of the house after my mother and stepfather had gone to sleep. I would roll my car down the street until I was far enough away so I could start the engine without waking them. And I would drive to Joan’s house.

She was a very erudite professor of love. At the time I suppose she was in her early thirties. I was seventeen. She was a wild woman. She would bathe me, powder me, cologne me. Then she would do it over again. She would put on high heels, a garter belt, and a large hat and pose in front of the mirror, turning this way and that way.

“Look,” she would say. I was already looking. But that sort of thing didn’t particularly excite me. I kept thinking: The lady is crazy.

But I recognized she was an extraordinary performer, that I was learning things most men don’t learn until they are much older – if at all. There was never any drinking or drugs with her. It was all business. She was very organized. When I left, she would put me on her calendar for the next visit. I could hardly wait.

One night, after one of our sessions, she said that was the last time. She said I should never call her again.

And then she gave me one last kiss and added, “But we’ll always be friends.”

I was floating during that period. Fortunately, I had enough sense not to blab my conquest all over town, but it was a magnificent secret to have. My friends might brag about some pimply-faced teenager or gawky sixteen-year old they had had, and I would nod my congratulations. And I would think to myself: But I have been with one of the Love Goddesses of the Screen. Maybe I didn’t say anything because I had enough sense not to. But maybe it was because I knew they wouldn’t have believed me.

The last time I saw Joan Crawford was when I was doing a guest shot in Peter Falk’s Columbo series. She was on the Universal lot at the same time, doing something, and the studio was buzzing with the news that Crawford was around. By accident, I happened to run into her, and she took my hand, looked into my eyes, and, I think, remembered.

Corby, Ellen. (6/3/1911 - 4/14/1999) This durable character actress made her film debut in 1933 and went on to appear in hundreds of movies and TV shows. Her most famous role is that of "Grandma Walton" on the long-running TV series (for which she won Emmys in 1973, '74, and '75). She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1948's I Remember Mama and co-starred with Joan in Harriet Craig, Goodbye My Fancy, and The Caretakers. IMDb info.

Cortez, Ricardo. (9/19/1899 - 4/28/77) Plays a playboy in Joan's 1930 film Montana Moon.<