I think Christina's story checks out. And there is proof.
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lupitag-11852 — 10 years ago(January 18, 2016 06:39 PM)
I, too, have always believed Christina.
It's very telling to go and read biographies of Joan's life AFTER one reads Mommie Dearest. Certain things just jump off the page that didn't before, even in biographies written by authors who worship Joan and discount any abuse.
Examples: In interviews, Joan admits her children call her "Mommie, dearest" and that she is elated with joy when she hears it, but the problem is she makes it sound like this was something Christina came up with spontaneously on her own, not something she was forced to say. I find it hard to believe a child growing up in the 1940s would adopt such antiquated speaking mannerisms for their mother, which sound like something out of a 19th century novel.
Speaking of old fashioned, other people in the film industry found Joan's insistence that Christina curtsy while Christopher bowed for every guest ridiculously antiquated and not something children in that era did. One of her directors was actually embarrassed for her that she made her children do this, but the point is, it backs up Christina's story about Joan's obsessiveness with appearances. If the woman made her children address her as "Mommie, dearest" and actually curtsy and bow in the 1940s, it already paints a picture of an out-of-touch mother, and there's no denying her children were forced to adopt these behaviors, as well as call Joan's lovers "uncle", as one of Joan's directors (who actually speaks very highly of her) attests to, since they were asked to call him that at her house when Joan basically had him over for sex. He is even quoted as saying he wonders how many "uncles" the children knew. It sheds light on the passages in Christina's book where she mentions having to make cocktails for her "uncles."
Joan also backs up Christina's tale about her 5th birthday party and how pretentiously fake it all was. Joan said she never had birthday parties growing up, so she wanted her daughter to have the finest ones "like all the other children" of actors and actresses. She goes into detail about how expensive the gifts were and, so as not to seem ungrateful, she made Christina carefully unwrap each gift and fold up the paper before parading the gift around the room for all to see before moving on to another. The problem is Joan herself admits there were literally dozens of gifts and, at some point, Christina, being five, become cranky and sullen during the gifting process and Joan admits she had to assist her in getting the rest open. Okay, what five year old girl wants to sit there the center of attention for dozens of people and be expected to have the patience to carefully unwrap every gift, fold up the paper, and then present the gift to the room? Most children simply want to tear into them, and we all know the patience of a five year oldexpecting them to go through all of that is a bit much, but the point is it speaks volumes about how Joan required Christina to behave, already at such a young age. If this is how Joan had her behaving at five, it lends tremendous credence to how strict she was on her two oldest children and all of Christina's other incidences of exaggerated "proper" behavior instantly become more believable. I also highly doubt Christina was "friends" with anyone at that party, which is exactly what she claims in Mommie Dearest (that she didn't know any of the children). The party was obviously more for Joan's benefit than Christina's, and this is yet another account where the two narratives match up, the only difference being Joan vs. Christina's interpretation of it.
It's also notable that Joan, who prides herself on her compliments, spares no mercy for her children in her own talks with the press. You think Christina bad-mouthed Joan, as if the whole situation is one-sided? One should be directed to the quotes Joan herself made about her own children during her lifetime, printed in her biographies. If anything, Christina was just giving back to her what she had been dishing out for decadesI can't even begin to type all of the back-stabbing, bitchy quotes Joan herself had to share about her two oldest children for the entire world. She was particularly good at portraying the two as little conniving devils who conspired against Joan to make her life miserable for apparently no reason. She mentions Christina and Christopher whispering together as children and how it was something malicious about her, as if the two were somehow spawns of Satan who got it into their heads to make their mother's life hell. It does wonders to paint Joan as paranoid and somewhat out of her mind, as she seemed convinced her children had, for no apparent reason, made a pact to mentally torture her. She's prone to making public statements about how misbehaved and horrible the two were, and how they seemed to "live for trouble", all the while painting herself as the put-out mother trying to handle two demon children constantly thwarting her every move. She made one quote saying the ONLY atte -
shopguyperry — 9 years ago(June 08, 2016 10:29 AM)
May 9 1977: While helping Joan to the toilet, the woman looking after her (Darinka Papich) says to Joan "I think I said something like, 'I want to pray for you', and Joan said 'Oh, Darinka, don't do that."
According to Carleton Varney (a friend of Joan's) not only was he told this information but Christina was as well yet she claims in her book (and the 2002 TCM Joan documentary) that her mother's last words were "Dammit, don't you dare ask God to help me." -
dan-h868 — 9 years ago(September 14, 2016 10:47 PM)
Christopher Crawford was interviewed in 1978 and he seems to corroborate his sister Christina's account that Joan was a stone cold monster to them.
The quote from Christina sounds more like the real Joan Crawford and not the glossed over one that personal friends will tell to the press as to not speak ill of the dead.
Other people who knew Joan throughout the years have also come forward and stated Joan was an abusive, troubled person.
Don't base everything on the movie as even Christina has said it went overboard at times and Faye played Joan like a complete psycho. -
mcdaniels-84888 — 9 years ago(September 21, 2016 04:05 PM)
Christina Crawford is the only person to ever come forward to cite abuse by Joan. No one else has ever publicly corroborated Christina's allegations (in her book). Even nearly 40 years since the publication of "Mommie Dearest" that remains to be seen.
Why was Christopher not better taken care of financially from the proceeds from the "Mommie Dearest" book, if according to Christina, he received the same "abuse" as she did - and Christina has said several times that he had a harder time than she. It would seem fitting that she would have shared the proceeds with Christopher 50/50, and why was this not done, and/or why did she not feel the need to do this?
Also, consider Christina's allegation that she remained close to Christopher during his adulthood. According to Christopher's family, Christina wasn't close to Christopher, and didn't even attend his funeral when he passed away. -
XxXThePhantomsRoseXxX — 9 years ago(September 25, 2016 11:24 AM)
I have never seen the movies remade about the little girl who was tortured by her caretaker and the caretakers children in the 70s, but I have read up on the case. This woman beat, burned, and raped this little girl and encouraged other neighborhood kids to join in. None of the adults in the neighborhood reported any sort of abuse. The girl was seen with black eyes and bruises all over her body. One woman even asked how she got so badly hurt, and one of the girls proceeded to beat the girl to show her how.
No one reported anything bc the caretaker told everyone that this little girl was bad and deserved to be punished. Neighborhood kids later said after the girl ended up dying from her injuries that whenever they tried to tell their parents about the abuse, their parents would say "that's what happens to bad children."
Back in the day, child abuse didn't exist. If a child was beaten, the parent was in the right and the child must have done something deserving of said beating. No one questioned the parents or any one in authority over the children. So its not surprising to me that some people insist that if something was wrong, people would speak out as a claim to support Joan NOT being abusive. Just because no one said anything, just because no adults came forward, doesn't mean that the abuse didn't take place.
"Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling." -
Sultrysiren79 — 5 months ago(October 28, 2025 05:32 PM)
There are other people who witnessed Joan's mistreatment of her children and talked about it. Here's the only interview Christopher ever granted:
LIKE DAUGHTER, LIKE SON CHRIS
by Jerry Parker
Originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1978
GREENPORT, N.Y.– Christopher Crawford, unlike his sister, refers to their mother by her initials "J.C." and will use expletives in describing her. Otherwise, the siblings’ view of life with mother is very similar. "She was not a mother," said Christopher, 35. A lineman with Long Island Electric, his bitterness is apparent "She was not a family. I honestly to this day do not believe that she ever cared for me."
Crawford lives modestly with his second wife and daughter Chrystal in unposh Greenport, LI. His salary is $200 weekly, and he received $1,500 from his sister for any rights to his name for the book and movie of "Mommie Dearest.” Yet he and Tina remain close.
Chris Crawford has had his troubles before he left Brentwood and since. He ran away from home for the first time when he was 7. At 10 he stayed away for nearly a week, sleeping under the Santa Monica Pier and conning strangers out of money for food.
Crawford has never before talked for publication. "I want to tell this once, so people will get off my back and leave my family alone,” says the 6-foot-4 man whose hard life shows in his face. He needs dental work. There are small scars on his face and larger ones on his back from a mortar explosion in Vietnam.
Crawford, the father of three children (and one grand-child) from a first marriage, recalled his mother's "sleep safe,” the harness-like device used to keep infants securely in their beds. Chris was strapped into bed until the age of 12. Once caught playing with matches, his mother made him hold his hand in the fireplace. "I had blisters all over my hand; that day I ran away for the first time. I was 7."
Chris attended 10 schools before the age of 13, before the inevitable string of boarding schools. He married at 18, and saw his mother for the last time in Miami in 1961. A new father, Chris was working as a lifeguard. "J.C. was staying at the Fontainebleau. My daughter was six weeks old and I thought J.C. would like to see her granddaughter. She held Janet for about 10 seconds, I think. I said, 'Janet, that's your grandmother; she's a very famous lady.’ J.C. said, ‘I'm nobody's grandmother. I'm Aunt Joan.’ Then she handed her back to me and said, 'She doesn't look anything like you!'"
Though Chris attended his mother's funeral, his last phone encounter with J.C. was five years ago. His youngest child from his first marriage was born in Brooklyn, on welfare. "When Bonnie was born, she had a lot of trouble. She was just a tiny little mass of bones with some skin stretched over them. So I called J.C. and said, 'I need your help. Your granddaughter needs blood and she needs it now. She might die.’ J.C. said, 'She's not my granddaughter. You were adopted.’ I lost my temper and slammed down the phone so hard I broke the receiver. That was it between J.C. and me."
Now at Chris Crawford's Long Island house, no Pepsi-Cola is served. And when a Joan Crawford movie comes on the Late Show, the channel is changed.
As previously mentioned, the twins were eight years younger than Christina, and by the time they were old enough to remember anything, Joan was at a much more stable point in her career, and Christina and Christopher were away at boarding school. What kind of mother doesn't attend her daughter's high school graduation, much less send her to remote convent where she is virtually a prisoner for two years? -
agcaoili675 — 6 years ago(February 06, 2020 07:09 AM)
I'm confused because my gut feeling is that she's not lying, but facts dictate that some things clearly did not happen. IDK why I feel like this, maybe she was abused, but she made up some things for dramatic effect, or she flat-out lied.