Joan Crawford Chronology: 1960s

January 10. Joan receives a "Golden Hat" award from the Millinery Institute of America.

January 31. Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Joan abruptly walks out of a party given in honor of Rossano and Lydia Brazzi's 20th wedding anniversary. The party was hosted by Earl Blackwell.

May 11. Joan in Austin, Texas, to receive Texas Goodwill Ambassador to Europe certificate from Texas governor Price Daniel.

June. Joan attends the twins' graduation from Marymount, a Catholic college prep school in New York. For a graduation gift, Joan takes the girls to South America aboard the S.S. Brasil.

October. Redbook magazine publishes interview with Christina, "The Revolt of Joan Crawford's Daughter," a prototype of the charges Christina would later reiterate and expand upon in her 1978 book Mommie Dearest.

October 10-14. Joan films Zane Grey Theater's "One Must Die" (which airs next January).

October 27. Joan flies to Honolulu for Pepsi business, returning around November 2.

November 16. Clark Gable dies shortly after filming The Misfits. A few months earlier, he had called Joan to complain that the movie was appropriately named, since most involved with the production were nuts.

February 2. It's announced that the estate of Alfred Steele (who died 4/19/59) is insolvent and unable to pay outstanding claims.

WASHINGTON (UPI) —The U.S. Tax Court ruled against movie star Joan Crawford Wednesday in a $30,561.60 tax case.

The court rejected her claim that in 1953 a story to which she had purchased movie rights became worthless. The court said the Internal Revenue Service was correct in disallowing a reduction of $5,954.82 Miss Crawford claimed on her 1953 income tax.

She said that was the sum she had paid Warner Bros. for the movie rights, and that she had suffered a total loss.

June. Joan opens three Pepsi bottling plants in Italy and Switzerland (she arrives back in NYC on June 15).

September 9. Joan is on the panel of judges at the televised Miss America Pageant.

September 21. Joan appears in TV's The Foxes, in a pilot episode for a show that was not picked up.

October 29. Joan hosts tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld in "The Ziegfeld Touch" episode of the DuPont Show of the Week.

November. Joan sees Bette Davis perform in the Broadway show "The Night of the Iguana." Joan goes backstage and mentions a book she's just read, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, that she thinks would be a good vehicle for them to co-star in.

[Norwegian television airs a program on Hollywood featuring Joan called Lykke og krone.]

May 9. Joan and Bette Davis sign contracts for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

May 19. Joan attends the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and presents trophy to jockey John Rotz.

July 6. Joan's Doubleday autobiography Portrait of Joan is officially released. Joan signs the book from 2:30 to 3:30pm at the May Company Wilshire in Los Angeles.

August 5. Marilyn Monroe dies. An upset and drunken Joan goes to director George Cukor's house and vents her anger at what she regards as Monroe's senseless death.

August 14. The LA Times reports that Joan's daughter-in-law Nancy (wife of Christopher) is hospitalized after a suicide attempt.

NEW YORK (UPI) – Nancy Crawford, 20, daughter-in-law- of actress Joan Crawford, was under psychiatric observation at Kings County Hospital Monday after she threatened suicide during a violent quarrel with her husband, police reported.

Police said Nancy, a Brooklyn housewife, who gave birth to a son a month ago, slashed her wrists during a quarrel with Christopher Crawford, 19, Sunday at their apartment.

Crawford is one of the four adopted children of Miss Crawford. The young Crawfords have another child about 18 months old.

October 1. Joan appears on the debut episode of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

February 11. Psycho writer Robert Bloch assigned to write Strait-Jacket. (Daily Variety)

March 17. The Car 54 Where Are You? TV show airs its "Joan Crawford Didn't Say No" episode. (Joan doesn't appear, but is mentioned throughout.)

March 22. Joan accepts award from Philadelphia Women's Advertising League and denies that she has plans to marry New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

April 1. Joan travels to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and stays at the Mayo Hotel through April 4.

April 4. Joan leaves Tulsa for Los Angeles. In LA, she stays at 8313 Fountain Avenue (Apt. D).

April 8. At the Oscar ceremony at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Joan accepts the Best Actress Oscar for the absent Anne Bancroft (for The Miracle Worker), brushing by Baby Jane co-star and Best Actress nominee Bette Davis. Joan also presents the Best Director award this evening.

April 14. Joan leaves LA for San Francisco, where she stays at the Fairmont Hotel through April 16.

April 16. Joan leaves SF for Honolulu, where she stays at the Hilton Hawaiian Village through April 24.

April 24. Joan leaves Honolulu for San Diego, where she stays at the Hotel Del Coronado through April 26.

May 3. Joan's brother Hal LeSueur dies. Joan meets with President Kennedy at the White House.

May 5. Joan's lawyers contact Baby Jane director Robert Aldrich's lawyers with word that Aldrich et al will be held accountable for damage to Joan's reputation sustained by Aldrich's attempts to keep her from attending the Cannes Film Festival earlier that year in support of Baby Jane.

Joan and producer Castle host a wrap party for Strait-Jacket crew. (Daily Variety)

October 4. Joan appears in TV show Route 66's episode "Same Picture, Different Frame."

October 7. A clip of Joan is shown in the "Sirens, Symbols, and Glamour Girls" episode of the Hollywood and the Stars TV program.

November 20. The Wednesday two days before Kennedy's assassination, Joan, along with then-Pepsi legal counsel Richard Nixon, flies to Dallas and checks into the city's downtown Baker Hotel.

November 21. Joan and Nixon attend a Pepsi bottlers' function at the Empire Room of Dallas's Statler Hilton.

December 28. It's announced in the New York Times that Joan and Bette Davis will re-team in What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?--later retitled Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

[Joan begins working with the United Service Organization (USO) and becomes Vice President of the New York branch.]

January. As Joan begins a 14-day 7-city publicity tour for Strait-Jacket, Columbia representatives in the cities receive a highly detailed list of expectations for Joan's visits, including items to be present in each hotel suite and the exhortation "Miss Crawford is a star in every sense of the word; and everyone knows she's a star....You do not have to make empty gestures to prove to Miss Crawford or anyone else that she is a star of the first magnitude." Life magazine acquires a copy of the list and publishes it, to great public amusement.

March 30. A clip of Joan is shown in the "Oscars--Moments of Greatness: Part 1" episode of the Hollywood and the Stars TV program.

April 26. Joan appears at the Nashville Beaman Pepsi bottling plant from 1 to 5pm.

May 14. Twentieth-Century Fox hosts a party for the Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte stars Joan and Davis and director Aldrich.

June 1. Production officially begins on Hush. (Joan not due to arrive until June 3.)

June 12. On the last day of Louisiana shooting, the rest of the cast/crew packs up and leaves the set--and town--with no word to Joan, who's finished her scenes and fallen asleep in her trailer while waiting to see if she's needed for additional shooting. She's left without transportation back to her motel. An outraged Joan calls her agent to see if she can quit the picture and is told there is no legal way out. Joan flies home to Los Angeles and has her driver take her directly to Cedars Sinai Hospital.

June 16 - 19. Aldrich reschedules scenes and shoots around Joan while she's in the hospital.

June 30. After her suggestions for her character in Hush are rejected, it's announced that Joan has developed pneumonia and will have to prolong her stay in the hospital.

July 2. Aldrich informs the cast and crew of Hush that production is temporarily shutting down.

July 24. Joan leaves the set at 12:15pm. Aldrich hires a private detective to follow her for two days over the weekend. The detective spots her leaving her apartment and follows her car, but Joan gives him the slip.

July 27. Joan reports back for work and leaves the set at 12:55pm. That day Aldrich, lawyers, and insurers meet and call Joan's lawyer Leonard Rosen to explain the seriousness of the situation.

July 28. Joan and Aldrich meet to discuss the situation. Joan explains that her energy level is low after lunch; Aldrich offers her a long lunch. She works 5 hours, 25 minutes that day.

July 29. Joan works until 1:30pm, then tells Aldrich she has over-exerted herself. Aldrich demands that she be seen by the company's insurance doctor. She angrily retreats to her dressing room and refuses to speak to Aldrich further. That day Aldrich and Fox exec Richard Zanuck agree to shut down film production until August 3 to give Joan a chance to recover.

August 5. Aldrich and Zanuck begin search to replace Joan, considering Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia DeHavilland. (Vivien Leigh, when called in London regarding the part, said, "No, thank you. I can just about stand looking at Joan Crawford's face at six o'clock in the morning, but not Bette Davis.")

August 25. Joan is replaced on Hush by Olivia DeHavilland. Production on the film resumes on September 9.

September 29. Joan meets with director William Castle to sign contract for I Saw What You Did.

October 5. Joan chairs an honorary dinner in New York City for the induction of Columbia Pictures head Leo Jaffe as a Fellow at Brandeis University.

October 21. Joan attends the film premiere of My Fair Lady at the Criterion Theater in NYC.

March 2. Joan is named the USO's first honorary "Woman of the Year" in an event at the Grand Ballroom of Manhattan's Plaza Hotel.

April 5. Joan presents the Best Director award to George Cukor (for "My Fair Lady") at the Academy Awards show.

May 14. Joan appears on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. This same day, she also appears on the TV talk show Girl Talk.

May 22. Joan appears on The Tonight Show. (OK, 2 times in 2 weeks, 3 times in 3 months seems odd. The IMDb says it's so...)

September 12. Joan accepts awards for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at the Emmy Awards show.

September 22-24. Rehearsals for Hollywood Palace. (The show is pre-recorded on 9/24.)

September 27. Sheilah Graham reports that Joan will star in London for British producer Sidney Box in "The Lonely," in which Joan will portray a "very rich American woman."

October 12. Joan attends opening of the Joan Crawford Dance Studio at the Spingold Theatre Arts Center at Brandeis University.

October 30. Joan attends opening of Pepsi bottling plant in Rochester, New York.

November. Joan meets designer Carleton Varney for the first time, during "Hotel Show Week" at the opening of The Drummer's Inn restaurant, which Varney had decorated, at the New York Coliseum. That day, Joan gives luncheon keynote speech at the Commodore ballroom.

November 10. Joan appears on To Tell the Truth. This same day, she also appears on the Merv Griffin Show.

November 14. A "USO A-GO-GO" performance by various celebrities (Johnny Carson, Beach Boys, Henry Fonda, etc.) is held at Madison Square Garden. Joan helped to organize the event.

February 11. Joan flies to vacation at the Palm Springs home of friend Frances Spingold. (National Airlines Flight #51, 4pm)

March 3. Joan appears on the Merv Griffin Show. (Griffin special: 44th Annual Photoplay Gold Medal Awards.)

April 16 -- April 22. Joan stays at London's Savoy Hotel, in town for a Variety Club International appearance.

April. Christina announces her engagement to director Harvey Medlinsky. Joan involves herself in planning for the wedding, including announcements, dress, gift registration, and arranging for a New York Supreme Court judge to perform the civil ceremony.

May 20. Christina and Medlinsky are married, with Joan among the guests. Joan gives her daughter a pearl necklace that Al Steele had once given Joan.

May 25. Morning press conference in Turin with Fiat reps (hand-marked "IMPORTANT"). Travels by car to Milan in evening. Flight from Milan to Venice at 9:05pm, then "TV coverage at airport and parade up the river."

May 26. In Venice, stays at Royal Danieli Hotel. Cocktails and press conference at Industrial Club at 4pm. President's Dinner Party at 9pm.

May 27. Venice Pepsi plant opening ("Cardinal present"). Leaves Venice via car, arrives in Trieste late afternoon. Stays at Excelsior Hotel.

May 29. From Trieste to Venice by car at 10:30am. From Venice to Rome by plane at 1:45pm. In Rome, again stays at Excelsior Hotel ("Evening free").

June 2. Leaves Rome 1:30pm for Madrid, Spain: "TV interview upon arrival." Then another TV appearance at 10:45pm.

June 3. In Madrid: "Private bull fight by top Matadors - bull will not be killed. Flamenco Party after the bullfight."

June 5. Leaves Madrid for Barcelona. Stays at Barcelona's Ritz Hotel. Late afternoon press conference at Pepsi plant.
June 6. Leaves Barcelona for NYC (Pan Am).

September 10. Joan serves as one of eleven judges for the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This is the first year the pageant is telecast in color on NBC.

December 14, 1966. Joan gives a press conference at Dublin's Gresham Hotel to discuss Pepsi expansion plans for the upcoming year.

[In a telethon aired this year, Joan speaks on behalf of the American Cancer Society and reads a poem.]

January 17. Joan dines at the White House. [Read the NY Daily News article on how Joan apparently snubbed U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas's 23-year-old wife at this event.]

February 17. Shooting begins on The Man from UNCLE episode, "The Five Daughters Affair." (Series website.)

March. Joan breaks her ankle at home after slipping on a sheet spread over the floor while her apartment was being painted. No cast or hospitalization was required.

March 12. Joan attends a fund-raising dinner at the Waldorf in New York City, sponsored by the New York Association for Brain-Injured Children. (Actress Patrica Neal, the parent of a brain-injured child, was the special guest of honor, her first public appearance since her hospitalization for a series of strokes. The benefit was also attended by Rock Hudson, Van Johnson, Leonard Bernstein, Otto Preminger, Paul Newman, Alistair Cooke, Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, and Henry Fonda, among others.)

March 31. Joan appears in Part One of NBC's The Man from UNCLE episode "The Five Daughters Affair."

April 7. Joan appears in Part Two of The Man from UNCLE episode "The Five Daughters Affair." On the same day, Joan appears on Girl Talk.

April 29. Joan receives the 1967 "City of Hope Woman of the Year" award from the City of Hope hospital. The "A Night of Stars" event is held at the Balboa Bay Club, Newport Beach, California.

May 27. Joan appears at opening of Pepsi bottling plant in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

June 29. The BBC airs A Film Profile, a Joan-interview with film clips interspersed.

August 3. The Karate Killers feature film opens in London. (Cobbled together from the March 31 and April 7 "Five Daughters Affair" episodes of The Man from UNCLE US NBC TV show.) (Series website.)

September. Joan appears on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, broadcast from Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria.

November 7. Joan leaves NYC's LaGuardia airport at 11am and arrives in Roanoke, Virginia, at 12:39pm. Joan arrives by car in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and checks into the Greenbrier Hotel.

November 8 - 10. In White Sulphur Springs, Joan attends a conference for the Savings Banks Association of New York State.

November 15. NYC, noon, Hotel Pierre Grand Ballroom. Joan makes presentation to Mrs. Winthrop Rockefeller at Childville Luncheon.

November 16. Joan travels to Chicago, checks into the Ambassador East Hotel.

November 17. Joan attends a black-tie "Celebrity Awards Dinner" given by the Mental Health Association at the Palmer House.

November 20. 12:15pm: In NYC's Chauveron restaurant, photo op with S.J. Wright and Naylor Fitzhugh while Joan presents check to "Negro Fund." 12:30pm: Joan lunches at Chauveron with "Sklar, Bell, Jaffe, Barnet, Dean Berger" to plan for dinner that will induct Joan as a Fellow of Brandeis University.

November 21. 9pm: Joan attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Costume Party of the Year."

November 26. Joan flies to Rio de Janeiro (Pan Am flight 201: Leaves JFK airport at 9pm, arrives in Rio at 10:40am on November 27th.)

November 27 - December 3. Joan a guest in a private home in Rio during this time. She also attends a Pepsi plant opening.

December 4. Joan leaves Rio at 12:30pm (Pan Am flight 202) and arrives at JFK at 9:15pm.

[Lawrence Quirk's book The Films of Joan Crawford released. Also this year, Joan's TV commercial for Mountain Dew, a PepsiCo soft drink, is aired. And at some point this year, Joan appears as Grand Marshall along with Leonard Nimoy for the Seattle Seafair parade.]

January 15 - 19. According to Joan's "estimated" itinerary sent to a friend in October 1967, she was in Los Angeles on these dates to tape a TV show.

February 11 - 12. Joan in Philadelphia to tape holiday messages for "King Family TV specials"---Delaware Valley Pepsi-Cola bottlers.

March 8. Joan receives a Katie award from the Press Club of Dallas. Click here or photo below to see 4 pages from the program. See also subsequent letters of March 12 and April 1 to Press Club General Chairman Red Webster re the event. (And see the Awards page for photos of Joan's personal Katie statuette.)

March 28. Joan in New York City to attend dinner inducting her as a Brandeis University Fellow.

May 5 - 9. According to a tentative October 1967 itinerary, Joan in Honolulu for a Variety Club convention. (Though this conflicts with the May 6 Merv Griffin date.)

May 22. According to a tentative December 1967 itinerary for friend Frances Spingold, Joan leaves New York for Rome on Pan Am at 8:30pm. (Items from May 22 through June 6 all taken from this tentative itinerary.)

May 23. Joan arrives in Rome at 11:10am and checks into the Excelsior Hotel.

May 25. From 11:30am to 1pm, Joan holds Torino press conference that includes execs from Fiat. She leaves Torino by car at 4:30pm and arrives in Milano at 7:30pm. Leaves Milano by plane at 8:20pm, arrives in Venice at 9:05pm. Stays at the Royal Danieli Hotel in Venice.

May 26. At 4pm, Joan attends Industrial Club press conference and cocktail party. At 9pm, she attends the President's Dinner.

May 27. At 11am, Joan attends a Pepsi plant opening. At 1pm, she leaves Venice for Trieste by car (and has lunch en route). She arrives in Trieste at 5pm and checks into the Excelsior Hotel.

May 29. 10:30am: Joan leaves Trieste for Venice. Leaves Venice at 1:45pm by plane. Arrives in Rome at 3:05pm. Stays at Excelsior Hotel.

June 2. Joan leaves Rome at 1:30 pm. Arrives in Madrid at 3:30pm and holds press conference upon arrival. Makes TV appearance at 10:45pm. Stays at the Castellano Hilton in Madrid.

June 3. Joan attends "Private bull fight by top Matadors -- bull will not be killed." She attends a flamenco party after the fight.

June 5. Joan leaves Madrid at 11am. She arrives in Barcelona and holds late afternoon press conference at Pepsi plant there.

July 6. Joan represents Pepsi at the 14th Annual Newport Jazz Festival (Rhode Island), appearing onstage with Duke Ellington.

August 10. Joan's daughter Cathy is married to Jerome LaLonde in Alexandria Bay, New York.

September. Joan appears with Christina, and answers phones, on the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

September 23 - 27. Joan and Christina tape an appearance on the Mike Douglas Show together. The day of the taping, Joan finds out that ex-husband Franchot Tone has just died. Later, Joan is in charge of his cremation and according to his wishes has his ashes scattered over Canada's Lake Muskoka.

October 4 - 13. Joan appears at some point during this Madison, Wisconsin, World Food Expo.

October 23. The New York Times announces that Joan will take over for daughter Christina, who has fallen ill, on the CBS soap The Secret Storm for four appearances: Friday, October 25; Monday, October 28; Wednesday, October 30; and Thursday, October 31. (On Wednesday the 23rd, Joan had already taped two of her shows; she was scheduled to tape the other two on Sunday, October 27.)

February 21. Joan flies back to NYC from Milwaukee after a Pepsi business trip.

February 23. Joan flies to Philly for a week of shooting TV promos for local Pepsi bottlers.

March 23. Christina gives Joan a birthday party, inviting many of Joan's friends as well as sister Cathy and husband. (Joan insists on paying for most of it herself.)

mid-July. Joan becomes ill with a virus during the second week of filming Trog and reportedly loses five-and-a- half pounds as a result.

August. Author Alexander Walker interviews Joan at her rented apartment in Grosvenor House during Trog filming. He finds her busy ironing, wearing a terry-cloth robe and towel over her hair as she waits for Lebanese guests from the Beirut Pepsi plant to arrive.

September 20. Joan opens a Pepsi plant outside of Marion, Illinois. (Click here for a transcript and photos from a local paper.)

October 13. Joan travels to Baltimore, Maryland, to be the commentator for the Career World Fashion Show sponsored by the Women's Advertising Club of Baltimore.

October 19 - 24. Joan attends the North American Van Lines Convention at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, Florida.

November 8. Joan appears in the "Eyes" episode of Night Gallery. That night she also appears on PBS as narrator of a documentary on Greta Garbo.