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Joan Crawford & Bette Davis feud sparked by sexual tension

May 15th, 2008 by Scott Marks

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?

While out promoting Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Bette Davis told one interviewer that when Robert Aldrich suggested that she and Joan Crawford co-star in the film, Warner Bros. studio head Jack L. Warner replied: “If you get rid of those two old broads and sign some real box office names, we’ll give you the money.” (Surely Warner was joking, for the teaming of these two hated rivals meant instant box office gold.) Davis took great delight in retelling the story, but she reportedly received a follow-up telegram from Crawford that cautioned: “In future, please do not refer to me as an old broad!”

It was the last salvo the stars unleashed during the making of Baby Jane, a film that united the bitter actresses who had waged a personal war that both continued fighting to the grave.

Much has been written about the making of the film including juicy stories about its spiteful stars. Crawford was then on the board of Pepsi-Cola so Davis had a Coke machine installed on the set. Bette soon discovered that Joan’s personal Pepsi-bottle was always spiked with vodka. “That bitch is loaded half the time!” raged Bette. “How dare she pull this crap on a picture with me? I’ll kill her!”

In one scene, Crawford falls out of her wheelchair and a maniacal Davis begins kicking her. Davis claimed that her shoe coming in contact with Crawford’s scalp was quite unintentional. It took three stitches for the “accident” to heal.

Even though both actresses publicly denied that there was any personal animosity between them, for over thirty years their rivalry continued to grab headlines. The feud has pretty much been written off as professional jealousy until now. The Daily Mail’s Michael Thornton writes that two years before Ms. Davis died (and ten years after Crawford’s death) she confided that the love of her life was Crawford’s second husband Franchot Tone.

Bette told Thornton, “She took him from me. She did it coldly, deliberately and with complete ruthlessness. I have never forgiven her for that and never will.”

“On both sides, it was highly personal and sensitive,” Thornton writes, “and was a case of unrequited love. Crawford, a promiscuous bisexual, was in love with Davis but was rebuffed. Her co-star was firmly heterosexual.”

In 1935, the 27-year-old Davis took home her first Academy Award starring opposite Tone in Dangerous. At the time Davis was married to her high school sweetheart, the musician Harmon Oscar (”Ham”) Nelson. Ham spent a lot of time on the road and years later Davis confessed: “I fell in love with Franchot, professionally and privately. Everything about him reflected his elegance, from his name to his manners.”

The bad news was Crawford got there first. “She slept with every star at MGM”, Davis later alleged, “of both sexes.” Crawford had a reputation of bedding not only her leading men, but her directors as well. Well…maybe not George Cukor.

“Franchot isn’t interested in Bette,” Crawford reportedly said, “but I wouldn’t mind giving her a poke if I was in the right mood. Wouldn’t that be funny?”

During the filming of Dangerous, Crawford and Tone announced that they were going to tie the knot. Imagine Davis’s fury when the couple married in New Jersey soon after the film wrapped.

Both actresses shared a fortune when Baby Jane opened, but it wasn’t enough to heel the wounds.

In 1968, the feud re-surfaced when Davis learned that Tone was dying from lung cancer. Crawford encased her ex in a nine-room New York flat and nursed him until his death, even going so far as supervising the scattering of his ashes.

“Even when the poor bastard was dying, that bitch wouldn’t let him go,” raged Davis.

Thornton closes his piece with a hilarious anecdote that must have slipped by me. While filming her final feature The Whales of August, Davis decided to entertain the crew with some Crawford horror stories.

Director Lindsay Anderson, a friend of Crawford, slammed his hand on the table and told Davis he wasn’t going to listen to any more.

Davis brought her fist down even harder, raised her voice and told Anderson, “Just because a person’s dead doesn’t mean they’ve changed.”

Links:
Joan Crawford’s unreleased scenes from “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” to be included in new DVD
Unretouched Before & After Photos of Joan Crawford
Bette Davis for Lustre Creme
Joan Crawford & Larry Fine
Mommie Dearest photos

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Bob Hope interfered with the thought patterns of millions of Americans

January 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

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In all honestly this should have been the very first post on Emulsion Compulsion. The facts were made known to me eighteen years ago by the brilliant Jennifer DeSplinter, a former student who, after reading the following letters, understood the root of my borderline unhealthy preoccupation with Bob Hope. For years I had misplaced the vital documents I am about to detail. I pray that it’s not too late to help others afflicted by the immeasurable mental anguish inflicted upon them by Bob Hope.

God bless Sally Fox. Were it not for her brave disclosures who knows how many others would never have been made aware of the true source of their recurring head trauma. Even to this day, years after his death, Bob Hope continues to interfere with the thought patterns of millions worldwide, myself included. A high level industry source confirms that all of the RH2 DVD releases of Hope’s film and television work are electronically encoded with telekinetic thought transponders. These invisible carriers not only assault the memories of those who purchase and watch the videos, but all who enter their domiciles as well.

The man is indeed more dangerous dead than he ever was alive. Mr. Hope was set to leave us in January of 2001 after helping to inaugurate the second reign of the anti-Christ, but was kept alive until after war was waged against Iraq. (President Bush declared war on Iraq on March 18, 2003 and Mr. Hope was finally taken from us on July 23, 2003.) Am I the only one that finds it odd that “Hope” and “Atta” have 4 letters in their last names and both Bob and Mohammad had secretaries with the surname Kennedy? Coincidence? I think not.

The following correspondence was first brought to light by Harper’s Magazine in December of 1991. They detail the ignoble humiliation and cerebral decimation Ms. Fox underwent after seven years’ exposure to Bob Hope TV specials. Some may ask, why not just watch something else or leave the TV off altogether? We can’t. The power of Hope compels us.

Ms. Fox’s first plea for help was addressed to the investigative reporting staff of CBS News, NBC news, ABC News, CNN, 60 Minutes, United Press International and The National Enquirer, which shockingly failed to run with it.

June 17, 1988

Gentlemen,

I am involved in a phenomenal situation which I believe merits investigation.

The whole thing started about seven years ago when I began to “see” Bob Hope (the comedian) when I would close my eyes and concentrate. Through study, I learned that the reason I could “see” Bob Hope was because he is violently insane and uses abnormal thinking processes which introject and project others’ egos.

When this problem began, besides worrying about my mental health, I also felt that my civil rights were being violated by an other person’s insanity, so I began to write letters to the FBI. At first, the FBI thought I was crazy, but a year or so later, the FBI told me that they had been getting 800 to 900 complaints a day from people all around the country saying the same thing I was: Bob Hope is crazy and interferes with their normal thinking. The FBI told me they were investigating.

I told the FBI agent, and I am telling the press, that I believe, as a victim of this situation, that nothing will ever come of the investigation because Bob Hope is Ronald Reagan’s friend, and should it ever be proven that Bob Hope is insane, the President’s reputation would be at stake.

Because the FBI seems to be participating in a cover-up, I am begging the press to get involved.
Thousands of people are suffering, and we need help.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sally Fox

Continue reading Bob Hope interfered with the thought patterns of millions of Americans

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