"Joan Arden" was chosen as the young star's screen name after a write-in contest was held in the pages of "Movie Weekly" magazine, but a bit player came forward and said she was already using it. Mrs. Marie M. Tisdale, a crippled woman living in Albany, New York, won $500 for submitting the runner-up name "Joan Crawford".
Bette Davis had been nominated for Best Actress in her film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), also starring Joan Crawford. If Bette had won, it would have set a record number of wins for an actress. According to the book "Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud" by Shaun Considine, the two had a life long mutual hatred, and a jealous Joan Crawford actively campaigned against Bette Davis for winning Best Actress, and even told Anne Bancroft that if Anne won and was unable to accept the Award, Joan would be happy to accept it on her behalf. According to the book -- and this may or may not be 100% true, but it makes a good anecdote -- on Oscar night, Bette Davis was standing in the wings of the theatre waiting to hear the name of the winner. When it was announced that Anne Bancroft had won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (1962), Bette Davis felt an icy hand on her shoulder as Joan Crawford said "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept".
Blue Öyster Cult wrote a song about her, titled "Joan Crawford".
Adopted 4 children. her 2 oldest children, Christina Crawford and Chistopher were completely excluded from her will.
Adopted four children: Christina Crawford, Christopher Crawford, and twins Cindy Crawford and Cathy Crawford.
Adoptive mother of Christina Crawford.
Adoptive mother of twin sisters Cathy Crawford and Cindy Crawford, both of whom she adopted in 1947.
After hearing that a plumber had used a toilet after installing it in her Brentwood home, she immediately had the fixture and pipes ripped out and replaced.
After her friend Steven Spielberg hit it big, Joan sent him periodic notes of congratulations. The last one came two weeks before her death.
After her husband died, she still continued to set a place for him at the dinner table.
After joining Warner Bros., she was looking for her first role at the studio. Jack L. Warner had her in mind for the role of Kathryn Mason in _Conflict (1945)_ and sent the script for the film to her. However, after reading the script, she told her agent to tell Warner that "Joan Crawford never dies in her movies, and she never ever loses her man to anyone".
After she was signed to MGM, someone attempted to extort money from the studio by claiming they had a porn film that featured a young Crawford. The attempt failed when MGM pointed out they could not definitely prove the actress in the film was Crawford. The incident was mentioned in a couple of biographies.
Although Crawford claimed her youngest daughters Cathy and Cindy were twins, most sources, including her two older children, claim they were just two babies born about a month apart. Her two older children claimed they couldn't be twins because they looked nothing alike. In the early 1990s, Cathy found their birth certificate, which proved that they were indeed twins, born on January 13, 1947. The fact that they were fraternal twins, rather than identical, can account for the fact that they did not look alike. The twins eventually met their birth father and other biological relatives. They found out that their birth mother had died of kidney failure soon after birth and that their father, who had not been married to their mother, did not find out about them until after it was too late. They were sold illegally to Joan Crawford by Tennessee Children's Home Society director Georgia Tann.
Always slept in white pyjamas.
As a child, Joan was playing in the front yard of her home in Texas when she got a large piece of glass lodged in her foot. After it was removed, doctors told her she would likely never walk again without a limp. Joan was determined to be a dancer, so she practiced walking and dancing every day for over six months until she was able to walk without pain. Not only did she make a full recovery, she also fulfilled her dream of becoming a chorus dancer.
At the time of her death, the only photographs displayed in her apartment were of Barbara Stanwyck and President John F. Kennedy.
Because Joan was bullied and shunned at Stephens College by the other students due to her poor homelife, she answered every single piece of fanmail she received in her lifetime except those from former classmates at Stephens.
Born at 10:00 PM.
Cartoonist Milton Caniff claimed he created the character of "Dragon Lady" for his popular "Terry and the Pirates" comic strip, based on Joan Crawford.
Comedic actress Betty Hutton, who lived near Crawford for a time, stated that she had seen some of the abuse claimed by Joan's daughter Christina Crawford. Hutton would often encourage her own children to spend some time with "those poor children", as she felt they needed some fun in their lives.