Mommie Dearest
“When Mommie Dearest first hit bookstores 20 years ago this month, its title instantly entered the American lexicon as a phrase that would be forever banned from Mother’s Day cards. Published just a year after Joan Crawford’s death on May 10, 1977, Christina Crawford’s poison-pen letter to the abusive, alcoholic actress who adopted her was shocking at a time when child abuse was rarely discussed in public. Though dismissed as a hatchet job by some critics, the book paved the way for other sharper-than-a-serpent’s-tooth biographies that exposed the seamy side of Hollywood glamour, from Gary Crosby’s Going My Own Way (1983), which revealed the savage beatings he endured at the hands of father Bing, to My Mother’s Keeper (1985), B.D. Hyman’s blistering attack on her mother, Bette Davis.”
For a generation of movie fans who have no clue who Joan Crawford was and can barely grasp who Faye Dunaway is—no disrespect to Ms. Dunaway—running into a DVD of Mommie Dearest might be a strange encounter. The film is based on, but substantially deviates, from Christina Crawford’s best-selling memoir of the same title about her love-hate relationship with adoptive mother, the 1930-40s movie star, Joan Crawford. Today’s association with the phrase did indeed spring up from the book and the movie—popular culture references are proof of its popularity and further spreads it: from a skit on Saturday Night Live; to a 1980s song from Blue Öyster Cult called “Joan Crawford;” to the mother-daughter hit show Gilmore Girls; to animated show which featured a robot metal detector stage mom saying “What did I tell you? No more hanging wires!” on Futurama; to the title of an episode of the popular Supernatural; these are but a few examples. Many may not know of the origin but most have had and encounter with the astrological compatibility phrase “mommie dearest.” The book was published in 1978, less than a year after Joan Crawford’s death. In it are tales of Christina Crawford’s life growing up as the child of the famous and hard to believe, less-than-perfect Joan Crawford. In her microdermabrasion machine reviews book, Christina recounts her and her brother Christopher’s experiences that range from painful to bizarre, humiliating childhood memories and later, fresher, wounds. Although she got some supporters to back her up, former neighbors and even old dog wheelchair friends of the Crawfords, not everyone corroborated her claims. Naturally, there were others who took the opposite side. The two younger Crawford children, Cindy and Cathy totally denied having witnessed or experienced events as described by Christina. Some of Joan Crawford’s friends came to her defense. After the book’s release, Joan’s friends repudiated many of Christina’s claims. Some acknowledged that while Joan was indeed ambitious and suffered from alcoholism, they felt that Christina embellished her stories. It’s almost an understatement to call Christina Crawford’s Mommie Dearest a scandal. As a “tell-all” book, it was a first. It was highly controversial for its time. Decades after the original publication of the book and the release of the film—which, by the way was a commercial success—although panned by the critics, it has become a cult classic. Christina Crawford has been asked a number of times why she is re-issuing the book. She and the other side of the family, Joan Crawford’s other adopted children, the twins, never did make peace about the book. So, why bring it up again now? When Christina first published, many thought it was a daughter’s poison pen letter to her dying mother who cut her and her brother Christopher, out of the will “for reasons which are well known to them.” Her answer today is a firm “The reason I am reissuing it is because it remains one of the only real, authentic stories of family abuse, and it is important it is continually available.”