Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2021 20:31:59 GMT -6
I'm having a hard time figuring out if Joan ever appeared on an October 27, 1936, radio program, "Elizabeth the Queen." Sources vary. Below is what I just wrote out for the "Elizabeth the Queen" entry on the BOE website (not yet live online). Does anyone have any hard information about the below alleged performance?
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Elizabeth the Queen. Alleged October, 27, 1936, radio show written by Maxwell Anderson and featuring Joan as Elizabeth and then-husband Franchot Tone as Essex. Said Joan of the alleged performance: (JC: A Biography)
With the above said: Both JC: A Biography and Ultimate Star say that "Elizabeth the Queen" was a Lux Radio Theatre production. But online logs of Lux radio programs don't indicate any such show in 1936 (or any other year) starring Joan Crawford. (Though there's a 1937 "Mary of Scotland" Lux program featuring Joan and Franchot.)
But one source that gives the above date (and very specific time: 9:30pm Eastern) is a vintage press blurb from the back of the pictured publicity photo for the "Elizabeth" program that was once for sale on eBay: The blurb cited the radio program name as "Rupert Hughes' Caravan" from the WABC-Columbia network. ("Columbia" was aka "CBS.") But a search for both "Rupert Hughes" and "CBS Caravan" turned up nothing. A French seller of the same publicity photo (artprecium.com) also named the source as a CBS radio publicity shot for "Elizabeth the Queen." (Though this site gave a completely erroneous date of "1956.") And the photo itself---sans the superimposed CBS microphones---is actually a 1934 publicity shot from Forsaking All Others.
In short: I can't find any corroborating evidence that Joan ever performed "Elizabeth the Queen" on the radio. If you have some specific information, please let me know.
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Elizabeth the Queen. Alleged October, 27, 1936, radio show written by Maxwell Anderson and featuring Joan as Elizabeth and then-husband Franchot Tone as Essex. Said Joan of the alleged performance:
"When I stepped onto the stage my knees and elbows were water. My voice was ebbing out of the soles of my feet. But when I began to read, I forgot myself. I felt very proud when I was told I had given a good performance. It represented a real conquest."
With the above said: Both JC: A Biography and Ultimate Star say that "Elizabeth the Queen" was a Lux Radio Theatre production. But online logs of Lux radio programs don't indicate any such show in 1936 (or any other year) starring Joan Crawford. (Though there's a 1937 "Mary of Scotland" Lux program featuring Joan and Franchot.)
But one source that gives the above date (and very specific time: 9:30pm Eastern) is a vintage press blurb from the back of the pictured publicity photo for the "Elizabeth" program that was once for sale on eBay: The blurb cited the radio program name as "Rupert Hughes' Caravan" from the WABC-Columbia network. ("Columbia" was aka "CBS.") But a search for both "Rupert Hughes" and "CBS Caravan" turned up nothing. A French seller of the same publicity photo (artprecium.com) also named the source as a CBS radio publicity shot for "Elizabeth the Queen." (Though this site gave a completely erroneous date of "1956.") And the photo itself---sans the superimposed CBS microphones---is actually a 1934 publicity shot from Forsaking All Others.
In short: I can't find any corroborating evidence that Joan ever performed "Elizabeth the Queen" on the radio. If you have some specific information, please let me know.
