Bette Davis Bette Davis Joan Crawford Baby Jane
The premise backside FX and Ryan Murphy'south latest anthology series, Feud, is so deceptively simple that information technology's hard to believe it hasn't already been done. Each season will see Murphy and his co-producers focus on a different famous feud—much as each season of American Crime Story tackles a real-life offense—and information technology's already clear that the beginning set of eight episodes, subtitled Bette and Joan, will be a very tough human activity to follow.
The rivalry betwixt silver-screen icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford is the stuff of legend, a decades-long battle sparked by both professional and personal resentments and fueled by an industry that loved nothing more than than to see its women tear each other apart. Much of their fighting played out equally back-and-forth sniping in the tabloids, though Crawford was always less openly hostile than Davis, whose iconic burns include the classic: "[Crawford] slept with every male star at MGM—except Lassie."
Hither'due south a full timeline of what really happened during Davis and Crawford's four-decade feud.
1933: The Origin
Joan's divorce overshadows Bette's starring part.
Crawford began her on-screen career at a younger historic period than Davis (Crawford made her outset onscreen advent in 1925) and was already an established star by the time Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930. The commencement public incident of tension between the pair came out of Crawford upstaging Davis, in what would become a recurring theme.
In 1933, Davis had reached a pivotal moment in her yet-nascent career—the comedy Ex-Lady would exist the start to feature her proper name to a higher place the title. Warner Bros. had planned an elaborate publicity entrada announcing Davis's new phase of stardom—until Crawford announced that she was divorcing her first husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., on the same solar day. According to celebrity biographer David Bret, The New York Times relegated Davis's movie to a pocket-sized paragraph in the Review department, while devoting several pages to Crawford's news, and other papers followed accommodate. Ex-Lady was dropped from theaters after a calendar week thanks to poor ticket sales, and Davis'southward beef was supposedly born.
1935: The Man
Joan marries the player Bette loves.
"I accept never forgiven her for that, and never will." And so said Davis in a 1987 interview with journalist Michael Thorton, fifty-two years later on the defining incident in her lifelong hatred of Crawford. In 1935, Davis starred in the drama Dangerous and fell hard for her co-star Franchot Tone. "I brutal in love with Franchot, professionally and privately," she said. "Everything nearly him reflected his elegance, from his name to his manners."
Unfortunately, Crawford got to Tone first, and the couple would announce their appointment during the filming of Dangerous. "He was madly in love with her," Davis said. "They met each twenty-four hour period for lunch… he would return to the set, his confront covered in lipstick. He was honored this not bad star was in dear with him. I was jealous, of class." Crawford, meanwhile, is quoted every bit proverb that Tone, "thought Bette was a proficient actress, merely he never idea of her as a adult female." There's no shade like Old Hollywood shade.
"She took him from me," Davis allegedly told Thorton in that 1987 interview. "She did it coldly, deliberately and with complete ruthlessness." Davis would go on to win an Oscar for her performance in Dangerous—and yet Crawford had even so managed to upstage her.
1936: The Dress
Joan is unimpressed with Bette's Oscar win.
At that very Oscars ceremony, Davis didn't imagine she would win, then wore a apparently navy dress (an old costume, actually) to the ceremony to slight Jack Warner, who forced her to nourish to protestation the formation of the Screen Actors Society. When her proper name was read out, legend has it that Tone got upward and embraced her, while his now-wife Crawford refused to budge and kept her dorsum to Davis. Afterward Tone chosen her out for being rude, Crawford supposedly turned to Davis and said, with a sneer, "Dear Bette! What a lovely frock." Simply imagine the GIFs if this all went down today.
1943: The Move
Joan unsuccessfully attempts a truce.
This was the year that Crawford made her movement to Warner Bros. from rival studio MGM and demanded the dressing room adjacent to Davis, who had been at Warner Bros for a decade. Crawford reportedly sent numerous gifts and flowers side by side door in a bid to win Davis over—all of which were returned.
1945: The Roles
Joan takes Bette's leftovers—and wins the Oscar.
Crawford had her center set on the title role in the film noir Mildred Pierce and got her wish when Davis—the studio'southward kickoff choice—turned information technology down. Director Michael Curtiz was very reluctant to bandage Crawford, but finally relented afterwards seeing her screen test. Crawford went on to win her first and simply Oscar (which she famously accepted in her bed) for Mildred Pierce.
Two years subsequently, Crawford would have another lead role originally intended for Davis, in the offense drama Possessed, and win another Oscar nomination for information technology. Despite Davis'south oftentimes-quoted line "Miss Crawford is a moving picture star, and I am an actress," it had become clear that the industry saw more mutual footing between them than Davis would like to admit.
1950: The Rumor
Bette thinks Joan is in dear with her—and might exist correct.
Given the comparisons, it's no surprise that some producers were keen to become Davis and Crawford on screen together. The women-in-prison house drama Caged was intended past Warner Bros. as a joint Davis/Crawford vehicle, only Davis supposedly refused to sign on opposite Crawford, calling the film "a dyke movie." Which leads into some other intriguing contraction of this feud...
Crawford, who had relationships with both men and women throughout her life, was suspected by some to have harbored a sexual curiosity about Davis. "Franchot isn't interested in Bette, simply I wouldn't mind giving her a poke if I was in the right mood," Crawford is quoted as saying by her friend and confidante Jerry Asher. "Wouldn't that exist funny?" Asher adds that he was never sure whether Crawford was serious, but felt that she was "attracted to Bette'southward vitality and free energy... Bette was always convinced, due to her ego, that Joan had the hots for her and that's i reason why she was e'er then antagonistic and called her a phony."
1952: The Roman à clef
Bette plays Joan onscreen.
The romantic drama The Star was written by Crawford'southward longtime friend Katherine Albert, supposedly as retaliation after a falling-out. Davis was cast in the lead role of a done-up actress clinging desperately to her fading star power—a thinly veiled, deeply unflattering depiction of Crawford. Davis presumably didn't have much convincing to sign on.
1962: The Movie
Bette and Joan unite—and fight—in their first and merely film together.
As depicted in Feud, it was Crawford who persuaded Davis to sign onto What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, the psychological horror story about a bedridden old actress (Crawford) who is terrorized by her deranged sister (Davis) in their Hollywood home. Though the moving picture was an unexpected box part success, and did to some extent represent the improvement that both actresses desperately needed, it became remembered well-nigh powerfully as a public document of their real-life rivalry.
Davis agreed to sign onto Baby Jane on 2 conditions: that she play the title role of Jane, and that the film's director Robert Aldrich assure her he was not sleeping with Crawford: "It wasn't that I cared about his individual life, or hers either," Davis reportedly said. "I didn't want him favoring her with more than close-ups."
It was on the set of Infant Jane that the most legendary episodes in Davis and Crawford's feud took place. Crawford was on Pepsi's board of directors at the time (her tardily married man, Alfred Steele, was a Pepsi executive), then Davis had a Coke machine installed in her dressing room simply to spite her. In i scene where Jane beats Crawford's character Blanche, Crawford requested a body double because she didn't trust Davis not to hurt her for real. She was reportedly proved correct during a close-up in which a body double could not exist used, where Davis hit her hard in the caput—some reports merits difficult plenty to require stitches, though Davis insisted that she "barely touched her."
Crawford got her payback during the filming of another scene, where Jane drags Blanche out of bed and across the room. Knowing that Davis had back problems, Crawford made herself every bit heavy as possible—either past filling her pockets with rocks, wearing a weightlifter'due south chugalug or only making herself deadweight, depending on which report you believe—and deliberately ruined several takes, forcing Davis to drag her effectually over again and once more until she was in agony.
1963: The Oscar
Bette gets the nomination, but Joan takes the stage.
Even when filming had wrapped on Infant Jane, the tension kept simmering, helped along by the Academy, which opted to give Davis an Oscar nod for her performance—forth with supporting player Victor Buono—while overlooking Crawford.
Not merely did Crawford campaign difficult against Davis, who was the favorite for that year'due south Best Actress prize, but she made arrangements to get up onstage herself at any cost. Noting that several of that year'southward nominees were unable to attend the ceremony, Crawford offered to collect the All-time Extra award on their behalf. And and so, when the absent Anne Bancroft's name was read out, Crawford went upward to accept the Oscar on her behalf as Davis watched in shock, and posed happily with Bancroft'due south award alongside the night'south actual winners backstage.
1964: The Sequel
Joan ditches her next project with Bette.
Hoping to replicate the success of What Ever Happened To Infant Jane?, Warner Bros. deputed a spiritual sequel of sorts called Hush... Hush, Sugariness Charlotte. Information technology was based on a curt story past Henry Farrell, who wrote the novel that Babe Jane was based on, and would see Davis and Crawford reunite on screen every bit a different pair of women locked in psychological warfare, again directed by Aldrich. Crawford dropped out after a calendar week and a half of filming, challenge that she was unwell—only she was in fact still reeling from the indignities of Baby Jane, and felt at take a chance of being upstaged past Davis again.
Though Aldrich hired a private detective to rail Crawford'due south movements, he wasn't able to get her dorsum to set, and finally the choice came down to recasting her role or canceling the motion picture altogether. After several actresses turned down the function, Olivia de Havilland was finally hired in Crawford'south place.
1977: The Terminate
Bette gets snarky after Joan'due south death.
Following Crawford'due south decease in May, Davis is often quoted as having said the following: "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good." But it's about impossible to notice an actual source for this infamous ill burn, so take information technology with a pinch of salt.
1978: The Legacy
Joan and Bette actually had a lot in common—including ungrateful daughters.
Whether or not Davis actually delivered that brutal, brief eulogy, she would ultimately soften towards Crawford, even coming to her old enemy's defence force following the publication of Mommie Beloved, a damning memoir past Crawford'due south adoptive girl Christina that chronicled the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother.
"I was non Miss Crawford's biggest fan," Davis acknowledged, "but, wisecracks to the contrary, I did and withal do respect her talent. What she did not deserve was that detestable book written by her daughter… To practice something similar that to someone who saved you from the orphanage, foster homes, who knows what. If she didn't similar the person who chose to be her mother, she was grown up and could choose her ain life."
Davis went on to admit that she "felt very sorry for Joan Crawford, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate my pity, considering that'southward the terminal thing she would have wanted, anyone being sorry for her, especially me. I can understand how hurt Miss Crawford had to be. Well, no I can't. It's similar trying to imagine how I would feel if my own dear, wonderful daughter, B.D., were to write a bad book about me. Unimaginable."
That last part would soon go bitterly ironic, to a degree that would seem heavy-handed if you wrote it in a screenplay. In 1985, B.D. Hyman would indeed follow in Christina's footsteps, and publish a volume entitled My Mother'south Keeper, in which she described Davis as a selfish, emotionally abusive alcoholic. For what it's worth, this account of Davis is much more than contested than the business relationship of Crawford in Mommie Dearest, and public reaction was largely sympathetic towards Davis. Hyman'southward adopted blood brother disagreed so strongly with the book's publication that he disowned her.
Source: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a20666/feud-bette-davis-joan-crawford-timeline/
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