Joan Arden

[Admin]

Dec 9, 2021 16:13:25 GMT -6 tom said:

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From Myrna Loy's autobiography.

The above is abstracted from Just Joan: A Joan Crawford Appreciation
By Donna Marie Nowak.

See also the BOE Myrna Loy entry for a longer excerpt from Loy's book:

From Loy's autobiography Being and Becoming:

Bob McIntyre gave me a consolation prize, a job in Pretty Ladies. That’s when I met Joan Crawford. We were both chorus girls in this thing, which starred Zasu Pitts and Tom Moore and featured Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel, and a lot of people impersonating Ziegfeld Follies stars. It’s amazing to think that Norma, Joan, and I would all become rather important to MGM in later years. And here we were, Joan and I, these two little extras, as part of a human chandelier. They had us hanging on to this thing with our toes out, all these girls going in different directions. It was a riot.

Joan had been signed to a contract, and she was living on nothing but black coffee to slim down for the camera. She was still Lucille LeSueur then. They ran a contest after Pretty Ladies to find her a new name. Oh, she was wonderful! She was learning all the new dances, Black Bottom, Charleston, and urging me to go down to the Ambassador and do them with her. Being such a snob about dance, of course, I wouldn’t have any part of it. But that’s what made her a star, later on, in Our Dancing Daughters.

One day, Joan came into the dressing room looking very unhappy. She fell into my lap – we were snowflakes covered with marabou that kept getting into our mouths – and she began to cry. Joan always worried terribly. I did, too, but never showed it. Apparently, Harry Rapf, the producer who discovered her, had chased her around the desk the night before. She was having a terrible time. She had such a beautiful body that they were all after her. I didn’t have quite that much trouble – my sort of snooty attitude put them off a bit.

Joan and I became friends and stayed friends, which is the most that came out of my first MGM experience.

[tom]

From the BOE website and also from

moviemags.com/main_g.php?title=MOVIE%20WEEKLY&year=1925

Per the BOE site, these are the Joan naming contest relevant issues of Movie Weekly. It seems that the magazine went defunct @ the end of 1925.

3/28/1925 - contest announced
4/4/1925
4/11/1925
5/2/1925
9/19/25 - JC announced as winning name

For the above moviemags.com URL, some tidbits about the magazine.

Movie Weekly was
MOVIE WEEKLY
Fan! Magazine from United States
Ceased publication
- First and last issue: 1921/02/12-1925
- Early American 'fan Magazine'.
- Weekly.
- Published by MacFadden Publications Inc.


3/28/25
That sure looks like Adolphe Menjou to me on the cover.


Assume the gent is Milton Sills.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0798130/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Lloyd Hughes on cover.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0400763/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Interestingly, he was third billed to the aforementioned Milton Sills in The Sea Hawk (1924).

Mary Astor, well before she achieved film noir immortality as Brigid O’Shaughnessey in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

www.imdb.com/name/nm0000802/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Below is the cover of the issue announcing the winning name as Joan Crawford. From this URL…

www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/movie-weekly-1925-magazines-issues-1758030595

Presumably, they had to go through extra hurdles after the Joan Arden situation.


I think the top photo of the set of three below is the April 4, 1925 issue of Movie Weekly. Can’t see much.


They’re from this URL.

movieposters.ha.com/itm/movie-posters/miscellaneous/movie-weekly-movie-weekly-publishing-1924-and-1925-magazines-3-multiple-pages-925-x-125-miscellaneous-total-3-items-/a/161836-52278.s

[tom]

[tom]

Interesting artifacts re the Joan making contest posted above. The memo seems to confirm the issue regarding Joan Arden was having to pay off multiple winners.

Edit - forgot to add that the above are screen grabs from the TCM documentary on JC.

[tom]

Jan 5, 2022 8:53:37 GMT -6 tom said:

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Anyone ever run across the name Chas. Green (or Greene?) from the above pics. I'm guessing the Smith is Paul Smith from MGM publicity, who went on to fame making short films.

[tom]

archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald22unse/exhibitorsherald22unse_djvu.txt

July 25, 1925
EXHIBITORS HERALD
p. 65


Joan Arden Is Winning Name

Joan Arden is the new name of Lucille
Lesueur, playing in “I’ll Tell the World,”
following a contest in the East.


Note: I'll Tell The World is the working title of The Boob, which was made in 1925, but not released until 1926.

This is a month after the above scanned MGM document, which I'm guessing was a monthly periodical.

[tom]

From the Sept. 5, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review, the same day it was announced in the LA Times.

Exceedingly attractive young woman! 😃 
Was it Mae West who said - flattery will get you everywhere?!?

Attachments:

[davidmorrocco]

I read the same thing too. 

[davidmorrocco]

With response to Myrna Loy. I’m sure it’s true. 
Oh, how discussing. The old casting couch! We all know that it happened to some young girls trying to make their big break in Hollywood. It shouldn’t be an expectation of if you’re worthy of a chance to gain a career. Later in Joan’s prime Hollywood time. She turned the tables on her directors. She proved herself as a top star and set the record straight. No casting couch needed. 

[tom]

Could this be the mythical "Joan Arden" who threatened to sue MGM over the name?!?

It's closest I've been able to find with the right name and the right timing. From a late 1925 trade journal, Exhibitor's Trade Journal. Obvious link to JC and her first big movie part.

Still think the story about having to pay off multiple winners is more plausible. 

[tom]

From late 1925 edition of Motion Picture News.
Also, news about Lilyan Tashman, Joan's co-star in Pretty Ladies, 1925.