Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOAN CRAWFORD J. Eugene Chrisman speaks to Joan on behalf of her fans! Watch for her reply next month jOecA.Qoao^t The Gossips are at it again. They just won't let you alone, will they Joan? I remember when they were calling you a hey-hey girl whose only ambition was to make whoopee and win dancing cups. They said that you couldn't go far on the screen because you were too flighty and too intent on having fun. But you fooled them. I also remember what they said when you married Douglas. You were a social climber then, an obscure girl who had tossed your loop around the neck of the Crown Prince of Picturedom to advance your own social position and your career. Then again, when you divorced Douglas, the harpies of the press pounced upon you again. They have always pounced upon you Joan and now they are descending again. They are printing stories that you have gone arty. They are saying that you are no longer the old down-toearth Joan and that you want to be another Duse. They are saying that you have gone high-brow and that Franchot Tone, Frances Lederer and others are a bad influence in your life. They are laughing at your ambitions for the stage and tossing brickbats through the windows of your Little Theatre. They are saying that you are foolishly jealous of Franchot, that you deeply resented his love scenes with Jean Harlow and with Madeleine Carroll. They have criticized the manner in which you have been using your lip stick and all in all Joan, they have been picking you pretty well to pieces. All of which wouldn't matter, Joan SEPTEMBER, 1934 dear, except that your fans are beginning to wonder if these things are true. Letters by the hundreds are coming to my desk. They ask me to tell them the truth. They can't believe these things but they want to know. I'm writing this to ask you if you won't tell them. • You and I have been friends for a long, long time, Joan. I knew you when you were Lucille LeSeur. I've watched your progress through the years, admired you and respected you more than any other woman I have known. Once you did me a favor about which only you and I and one or two others know for you were never one to make your good deeds public. A great critic recently said, after praising your work in Sadie McKee, that you could become the foremost lady of the screen. I agree with him Joan and that's another reason why I'm writing this letter. I don't want you to fail to do it. But Joan I must scold you a little bit. Recently while talking to a publicity man on the set, you went into a tantrum about these things which the gossips are printing about you. You said that because you study music they charge that you are forsaking the common things. Because you read good books they scream that you are taking on culture and because you built a Little Theatre that you are going in for long-haired theatricalism. You resented their criticisms of your make-up and the way you outline your lips, saying that it is your face Please turn to page flft.v CLARK GABLE REPLIES TO J. EUGENE CHRISMAN To tell him he'll always be a mulligan eater at heart! iie&u^ct., What A Pal you are! Anyhow, thanks for the kick in the pants. Perhaps I needed it. I just finished reading your open letter to me, in the August issue of hollywood and if talk like that is going around, you can tell the world I want to answer it. You ask if I'm going high-hat. My answer is, No! You ask if I'm going social, if I've traded my turtle-neck sweaters for a tuxedo. No again! I'd rather climb into a leather jacket and a pair of hiking boots and tear out to Arizona in my Ford after deer or cougar than to go to a Mayfair ball any day. Stiff collars hurt my adam's apple and always did. You've written a lot of stories about me, Gene, and they were good stories, too. Even I have enjoyed reading them and that's something. I'm not responsible for the parts I play but you riea.se turn to puge fl£ty-Mlx 37