Starring Joan Crawford: The Films, the Fantasy, and the Modern Relevance of a Silver Screen Icon
Joan Crawford: the name has an enduring fascination. Forty-five years after her death, Crawford remains a familiar icon in pop culture and the entertainment world. Certainly the camp bathos of Mommie Dearest has played a part in her continued relevance. But it is ultimately her work and career themselves that account for her remarkable longevity in the culture. From her first film in 1925, to her rise to stardom in 1928, and on to the hit films she appeared in through the 1960s, she continually molded and remolded herself, crafting an indelible image and ensuring her place in the American pantheon.
STARRING JOAN CRAWFORD is a rollicking exploration of the powerful women Joan Crawford vividly brought to life in her films--and the lasting, ever-evolving impact she has had on popular culture.Having carved out a revolutionary path through the entertainment industry while relying on men as little as possible--whether her studio bosses or her many husbands--she created a gallery of strong, assertive women who outsmarted men and refused to conform to gender expectations. In movies like Mildred Pierce, The Damned Don't Cry, Johnny Guitar, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, among many others, she played to win, becoming a lodestar to LGBT audiences, a model of feminist self-determination for women, and an unforgettable icon for everyone.
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Stonewall Book Award-winning writer Samuel Garza Bernstein is an author, screenwriter, and playwright whose work often reflects the wild intersections of modern life. He was born to an undocumented Mexican mother who passed as white (using a fake name) and a Jewish father who passionately defended the Palestinians when they lived in Cairo while Israel and Egypt were still at war. In his own telling, Garza Bernstein was a gay, Jewish six-year-old, living in his head, and spinning stories. His family was nomadic and he grew up all over the world. He, husband Ronald Shore, and their pack of incorrigible dachshunds split their time between Porto, Portugal and Los Angeles, California.
"Gorgeously written and meticulously researched, Starring Joan Crawford is a delicious melange of biographical details, cultural criticism, and fanboy fantasia that brings the most vivacious actress of the twentieth century screamingly to life. Freed by the author's sharp eye from the wire-hanger-wielding monstrosity she has become in the collective mind of popular American culture, Miss Crawford becomes flesh and blood once more. In Samuel Garza Bernstein's unputdownable book, her meaning and import are illuminated in the most up-to-date Britney-Xtina-Gaga terms. The superstar is young again, and so is Hollywood, and maybe even the reader, too."--Frank DeCaro, author of Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business.
"Samuel Garza Bernstein brilliantly titles his new book Starring Joan Crawford, but in keeping with the religious thrust, it could just as aptly be called Joan: The Bible. Because it IS the Bible on Joan Crawford. Garza Bernstein brings the real Joan to vivid life, in a style that's both dishy and intimate, but also as erudite and thoroughly researched as a PhD thesis. The men, the movies, the moxie, it's all here."―Kim Powers, author of Rules for Being Dead and The History of Swimming
"Samuel Garza Bernstein's book Starring Joan Crawford is a bold and complex amalgam of biography, critical analysis, Hollywood gossip, and fantasy. Garza Bernstein successfully balances the apocryphal with scholarly truth, camp with sober insight. It's a satisfying, hearty stew spiced with wit and a genuine love and respect for its eternally fascinating subject."--Charles Busch, American actor, playwright, screenwriter
"Samuel Garza Bernstein writes about a woman we all wish we knew because she sounds like a f―king hoot! And he does a great job of telling you why we should all wish she was in our circle of friends if we got to dip back in time."―Karen McCullah, screenwriter, Legally Blonde and author, The Bachelorette Party
"A spirited portrait of a Hollywood legend."
-- "Publisher's Weekly"
