Transforming Today's World Magazine - JAN 2014 Special Edition Vol 5 Issue 3 | Page 63

From San Antonio to
Hollywood:
The Amazing Story of

Joan Crawford
By: Beverly Prado

“Hollywood is like life, you face it with the sum total of your equipment.”
- Joan Crawford

From silent screen star to goddess of the silver screen, Joan Crawford’s film career is the embodiment of old Hollywood. A story
of survival and reinvention characterize the girl born in San Antonio, Texas around 1906. Her life story, filled with glory and
fame, but mixed with tragedy and hardship, tells the story of a real America, where dreams come true if one is steadfast and
ambitious. Often cited as one of the four most famous female movie stars of the 20th century (along with Katharine Hepburn,
Greta Garbo and Bette Davis), Joan Crawford personifies the ‘Golden Days’ of Hollywood. But how much is myth, how much
is legend and how much IS real?

“I was born running. I never walked.”
Lucille Fay Le Sueur’s life began as an abandoned infant. Thomas Le Sueur, a laborer of French descent, left the family in San
Antonio before Lucille was born. Later, her Irish/Swedish mother, Anna Bell, moved the family to Lawton, Oklahoma, where she
married the operator of the local ‘opera house’, Henry Cassin. The theater often employed traveling vaudeville acts. During her
early years, Joan was known as Billie Cassin. Her stepfather encouraged an interest in dancing and the stage. Although her foot was
severely cut in a fall when she was seven, by the age of ten, Billie was dancing again, making her own costumes and organizing
performances for neighborhood children. After moving to Kansas City, Missouri, Billie entered a boarding school while her mother
worked in a laundry. The family was poor (Anna and Henry had separated), so to afford tuition, an agreement was made for Billie
to work at the school. She was often taunted by classmates and teachers because of her status. Moving on to Rockingham Academy
in her teens, Billie cleaned and cooked to assist in her tuition. Bullied by others, she was intimidated, but not defeated. By the fall
of 1922, Billie entered Stephens College, again as a working student. When an academic life didn’t suit her, she spent time at
various jobs, finally auditioning for Katherine Emerine’s traveling dance revue.
“I wanted to be famous, just to make the kids who’d laughed at me feel foolish. I wanted to be
rich, so I’d never have to do the awful work my mother did and live at the bottom of the barrelever again. And I wanted to be a dancer because I loved to dance. Maybe the illusions, the
daydreams, made life more tolerable, but I always knew, whether I was in school or working
in some dime store, that I’d make it. (Funny, but I never had any ambition whatsoever to
become an actress.” Billie, who by now had claimed her showier birth name of Lucille LeSueur,
spent most of 1924 in New York until an agent from Hollywood saw her in a show. An initial
screen test was not impressive, but she managed to secure a second one. In 1925 she was on
her way west. She landed a six month contract at MGM, but was not noticed until she honed
her skills. Gathering acting and make up tips by observing those on the sets, she also entered
dancing contests at the Cocoanut Grove where she won dozens of trophies (and write-ups in
the local show-biz press). Executives at MGM began to find spots for her in their movies, all
silent at the time. In Pretty Ladies she appeared as a dancer and was a noticeable presence. The
studio began to foster the ingénue’s career with a magazine contest to ‘rename’ her. The name
‘Joan Arden’ was chosen, but was already claimed by another starlet.

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