John Ireland unpublished autobio excerpt re "Queen Bee"

[Admin]

www.joancrawfordbest.com/scarletstreet04.htm

Originally appeared in Scarlet Street, Issue 50, Spring 2004


Let me just say that the article begins with a "poem" by Ireland:

The fire was soon kindled, the room really hot.

Slowly I turned, never wished I had not.

Naked and stark, she stood framed by the door,

for a moment I stared, then…

Her ass hit the floor, her legs all awry —

then slowly with practice they reached for the sky.

Comments?

[davidmorrocco]

I always love the behind the scenes stories that no one knows about during the making of a movie. Then when you do watch the movie you remember what was going on at the time in real life with the actors. Were they happily married or sleeping with a person that was also in that movie? It’s juicy stuff like that that makes you feel like telling the person that you’re watching the film with, “Did you know when they we’re making this movie...” it gives you an edge up on your movie knowledge. The other night I was watching 1949 “It’s a Great Feeling.” starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, and Dennis Morgan. I didn’t know that Jack Carson had a romantic relationship with Doris Day in 1950–51, but she left him for Marty Melcher.
Variety commented: "Joan Crawford (as herself) does a pip of a bit in a swank gown shop with the three principals, rating plenty of howls. In his book on Doris Day's career, author Tom Santopietro writes that the Crawford's self-parody of her "notoriously dramatic" screen image is the funniest bit in the film. Crawford supposedly overhears Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan discussing Doris Day and thinks they are taking advantage of her. She automatically launches into a clichéd, melodramatic speech typical of her screen persona (in this case, from Mildred Pierce) and furiously slaps both Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan. Carson asks "What's that for?" and Crawford smiles, shrugs and says: "I do that in all my pictures!"  I also believe that Joan  is wearing her own clothes for this movie. The green-and-black striped gown Day wears in the scene where she poses as a French starlet recently signed by Warners had previously been worn by Janis Paige in Hollywood Canteen when she danced with Dane Clark, and by Eve Arden at Ann Blyth's birthday party in Mildred Pierce. Who knew? I love to know the juicy details like that.