CBC Archives

You must sign in to leave a comment on this clip.

Joan Crawford keeps things tidy

Broadcast Date: Feb. 14, 1964

How does Joan Crawford keep her youthful looks? She drinks Pepsi, of course! One of the biggest names in Hollywood in the '30s and '40s, Crawford won the Oscar for her performance in 1945's Mildred Pierce. In 1964 she's still hard at work, both in movies (her latest is Strait-Jacket) and as a board member for the Pepsi-Cola Company. In this lively interview from CBC Radio's Assignment, Crawford discusses Hollywood past and present, and describes how tidy closets help her prepare for a trip.

Joan Crawford keeps things tidy

• Joan Crawford was born Lucille LaSueur in 1905 or 1906 in Texas. She began appearing in Hollywood movies in the 1920s, launching a show-business career that would last until 1972, five years before her death.

• Crawford came to be a board member at Pepsi through her fourth husband, Alfred Steele, who was CEO of the company. After his death in 1959 Crawford joined the board and would travel the world to open new plants and carry out other duties.

• In a January 1964 interview with the Globe and Mail, Crawford described her role in Strait-Jacket: "I play a woman who finds her husband in bed with another woman, and it's my bed, too, and an axe is handy, and I let them both have it. I go to jail for 20 years and I pay my debt to society."

• Crawford died in 1977. Less than two years later, her daughter Christina released Mommie Dearest, a tell-all book that alleged Crawford had been an emotionally and physically abusive parent. The book was adapted into a 1981 movie of the same name.

Joan Crawford keeps things tidy

Medium: Radio

Program: Assignment

Broadcast Date: Feb. 14, 1964

Guest(s): Joan Crawford

Host: Bill McNeil

Duration: 8:18

Photo: Photo by Yousuf Karsh/Library and Archives Canada/PA-212246

Last updated:
June 17, 2009