{"id":234861,"date":"2021-04-24T19:57:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T16:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/joan-crawford-made-boozy-oscars-history-in-bed-75-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2021-04-24T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T16:57:10","slug":"joan-crawford-made-boozy-oscars-history-in-bed-75-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/joan-crawford-made-boozy-oscars-history-in-bed-75-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"#Joan Crawford made boozy Oscars history in bed 75 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Joan Crawford made boozy Oscars history in bed 75 years ago<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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It was a performance worthy of an Academy Award.<\/p>\n

Smiling and radiant despite fighting the \u201cflu,\u201d Joan Crawford laid in bed \u2014 in full glam \u2014 as she accepted her 1946 Best Actress Oscar for \u201cMildred Pierce<\/a>,\u201d photographers popping bulbs to capture the charismatic screen queen\u2019s triumphant comeback moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the Academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for \u2018Mildred\u2019 or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it \u2014 I deserved it,\u201d she told reporters<\/a> 75 years ago from the plush confines of her Brentwood boudoir.<\/p>\n

The former flapp<\/a>er, thought to be 42 and already two decades deep into her career, huddled at home on the night of the 18th annual Academy Awards<\/a> rather than join fellow nominees at Grauman\u2019s Chinese Theatre for the first post-war ceremony<\/a> \u2014 a posh affair marking the lifting of wartime restrictions. Despite not being there in the flesh, Crawford, hair and makeup on point and tucked in a Helen Rose negligee, managed to steal the show with the ultimate diva moment oft-overlooked in Oscars retrospective and \u201cbest of\u201d lists.<\/p>\n

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\u2018She just seemed to have no shame \u2014 and no problem showing the industry how badly she wanted the attention.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dave Karger, host of Turner Classic Movies<\/a><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Joan \u201cpushed all the other winners off the front pages,\u201d raved legendary gossip monger Hedda Hopper of Crawford\u2019s publicity stunt seven years prior to the first televised ceremony in 1953 \u2014 long before remote attendance on Zoom was even a concept to ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure she relished it,\u201d Turner Classic Movies<\/a> host Dave Karger<\/a> told The Post ahead of Sunday\u2019s Oscars 2021 telecast. \u201cCan you imagine how Twitter<\/a> would react if someone attempted that today?\u201d<\/p>\n

Karger noted that \u201cthe majority of the talk was about her Best Actress win\u201d despite \u201cThe Lost Weekend\u201d winning the most awards that year.<\/p>\n

Hopping in bed with Oscar paid off in an era when shameless social media manufacturing wasn\u2019t even a twinkle in tinsel town\u2019s eye. <\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford famously accepted her award for \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d in bed rather than in person at the 1946 Oscars 75 years ago. The 2021 Oscars ceremony airs Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. TCM\u2019s \u201c31 Days of Oscar\u201d lineup<\/a> runs through May \u2014 with \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d screening at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 16.<\/figcaption>
Everett Collection; Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone who would have the guts, or maybe the lack of self-awareness, to try any of the stunts that Joan Crawford attempted over the years,\u201d Karger told The Post. \u201cShe just seemed to have no shame \u2014 and no problem showing the industry how badly she wanted the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

As legend goes, Crawford was ill March 7, 1946 \u2014 or as \u201cBette and Joan: The Divine Feud<\/a>\u201d writer Shaun Considine put it, she had \u201cthe flu and a bottle of Jack Daniels bourbon,\u201d otherwise known as \u201ca psychosomatic condition used by Crawford on her Oscar day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in her own words, influenza kept her bed-ridden \u2014 or so she said in her 1962 autobiography \u201cA Portrait of Joan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Director
\u201cMildred Pierce\u201d director Michael Curtiz, once a doubter, presented Joan Crawford\u2019s Oscar right in her bed.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn the night of the Awards, I was running a temperature of 104. I\u2019d been suffering with flu for the past week, filming \u2018Humoresque<\/a>\u2018 \u2026 Flu coupled with the nervous tension of being eligible for an Oscar had me shaking with chills and fever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford claimed she was all \u201cdressed to go,\u201d but her physician, Dr. Bill Branch, ordered bed rest. She also recalled cameramen arriving at her home \u2014 \u201cjust in case I won\u201d \u2014 as she listened to the ceremony on the radio. \u201cIt took so long to open that envelope. I was crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford claimed her doctor finally \u201crelented\u201d after her Oscar win, but she was only permitted to \u201cgo downstairs, in a flannel nightgown, heavy robe and with a scarf wrapped around my neck\u201d \u2014 a far cry from her glamorous nightgown.<\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford makes a telephone call \u2014 to her doctor perhaps? \u2014 from her bed while holding her Oscar.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe feasted on effervescence that night,\u201d she recalled, \u201cand I was so overheated, the fever broke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only many years later did Crawford cop to the full truth: She also was nervous 30-year-old screen goddess Ingrid Bergman, nominated for \u201cThe Bells of St. Mary\u2019s<\/a>,\u201d would snatch her golden glory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was afraid of losing,\u201d Crawford told Charlotte Chandler in candid chats that would later be published in the 2008 book, \u201cNot the Girl Next Door<\/a>.\u201d \u201cThe tension is so terrible when you\u2019re sitting there waiting. Waiting for best actress means sitting there almost the entire evening. You have to look composed and applaud at all the right moments \u2026 Then, when you lose, and I was certain I would, you have to sit there through the last awards wearing your best face \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t know what part to play after I heard the words that someone else had won, probably Ingrid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford played the titular role in \u201cMildred Pierce,\u201d a film noir about a mother who would do anything for her demanding daughter.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u2018I think she knew desperate times called for desperate measures, and this movie was her greatest shot at reclaiming her career.\u2019<\/p>\n

TCM host Dave Karger<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019ll never know for sure what was really happening with her that night,\u201d Karger said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost unfathomable to me that she would even think of passing up the opportunity to give her own Oscar acceptance speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether fear or flu, the award-winning TCM host believes \u201cit\u2019s silly that Joan thought Ingrid Bergman would win Best Actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Bergman] had just won that same award the previous year for \u2018Gaslight,\u2019 so I would imagine voters wanted to spread the wealth a bit and honor someone else,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But the pressure was real for Crawford since \u201cMildred\u201d was her first A-list starring role for Warner Bros. after being kicked to the curb by MGM, where she was dubbed \u201cbox office poison\u201d in 1938 by the Independent Theatre Owners Association of America along with other starlets from Hollywood\u2019s golden age.<\/p>\n

\"Seen
Seen here in 1932, Joan Crawford\u2019s earliest film credit is in 1923.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI remember how I felt the night the Awards were presented,\u201d she recalled in Roy Newquist\u2019s 1980 book, \u201cConversations with Joan Crawford<\/a>,\u201d which was published three years after her death. \u201cHopeful, scared, apprehensive, so afraid I wouldn\u2019t remember what I wanted to say, terrified at the thought of looking at those people, almost hoping I wouldn\u2019t get it, but wanting it so badly \u2014 no wonder I didn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford also copped to boozing at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stayed home and fortified myself, probably a little too much, because when the announcement came, and then the press, and sort of a party, I didn\u2019t make much sense at all, even though I wanted to spill over,\u201d she told Newquist.<\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford starred in \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d alongside Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott and Jack Carson.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even getting the role in the film noir was a major hurdle for Crawford, who, despite having started her career in silent movies as early as 1923, was forced to take a screen test by director Michael Curtiz. He was famously unsure about casting her as Mildred \u2014 a hard-working single mama who sacrifices much while building a restaurant empire to support her spoiled brat daughter.<\/p>\n

Karger imagines it must have required \u201ca moment of humility\u201d for a fading superstar to be reduced to an audition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she knew desperate times called for desperate measures, and this movie was her greatest shot at reclaiming her career and trying to boost her popularity again. I\u2019m glad she didn\u2019t let pride get in the way, because otherwise we all would have been denied a wonderful performance,\u201d he said, noting that Crawford\u2019s \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d is \u201cgorgeous, complex, human performance in a film that is the height of classic melodrama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford in 1966. She was found dead in her NYC apartment in 1977.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe definitely deserved it,\u201d Karger added.<\/p>\n

But despite his early doubts, Curtiz sat in bed smiling alongside his leading lady on Oscar night to present her with the statuette as members of the media documented the spectacle \u2014 which reportedly began with a scream, per \u201cThe Divine Feud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJoan listened to the show over the radio then \u2018took a deep breath\u2019 when Charles Boyer read off the name of Best Actress nominees,\u201d Considine wrote. \u201cWhen he announced the winner \u2026 \u2018Joan Crawford,\u2019 she exhaled with a scream that alerted the news<\/a>men on the lawn below her window that she had won. Jumping out of bed, the ailing star then called for her hairdresser and makeup man, on call in the next room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joan
Joan Crawford accepts her Academy Award for Best Actress for the film \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d from the film\u2019s director Michael Curtiz.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crawford\u2019s daughter Christina remembered the night with slightly different details in her 1978 tell-all \u201cMommie Dearest<\/a>\u201d that became the basis for the Faye Dunaway-led 1981 film<\/a>. (As for what that \u201cno more wire hangers!\u201d camp classic got wrong, Christina Crawford told The Post: \u201cEverything.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was at home in bed with pneumonia,\u201d the now-81-year-old wrote. \u201cFriends called periodically to see if she was going to be well enough to attend that night, but she told everyone she was too ill. Late that night the all-important call came through: she had won the Oscar! Her health seemed to improve dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Years later, Crawford was nominated for \u201cPossessed\u201d in 1948 \u2014 she showed up in person<\/a> that year \u2014 and \u201cSudden Fear\u201d in 1953, but fell short at winning Oscar gold. (As for Crawford\u2019s Oscar, the gold statuette infamously sold at auction in 2012<\/a> for a record $426,732.)<\/p>\n

But ever the diva, she managed to get herself in the spotlight again in 1963 when she accepted Anne Bancroft\u2019s award for \u201cThe Miracle Worker,\u201d even posing for photos with winners Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren and Maximilian Schell and making a speech on her behalf<\/a> \u2014 a cringeworthy moment depicted in Ryan Murphy\u2019s FX miniseries \u201cFeud.\u201d<\/p>\n

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