The Concluding Chapter of Crawford

January: Publicist John Springer and Australian producer Michael Edgley approach Joan with the offer of doing a "Legendary Ladies" show in Australia and New Zealand. The show would essentially be a touring edition of Joan's appearance at Town Hall in April 1973. Joan declines the offer. However, Bette Davis accepts Springer's offer and tours Australia and New Zealand with the stage show "An Evening With Bette Davis" in March 1975.

February 15: Joan undergoes a 3 1/2 hours dental surgery procedure to remove her first right and left molars due to periodontal disease.

February 22: Joan watches the ABC Saturday night movie "Hustling" starring Jill Clayburg and Lee Remick. The film's screenplay is written by Joan's friend Fay Kanin. Following the film Joan writes Kanin a letter of admiration for the film. Fay Kanin was the playwright of "Goodbye, My Fancy," which was adapted into the 1951 film starring Joan.

March 23: For her birthday, Joan has dinner at 21 in Manhattan, New York. She later tells a friend this birthday dinner was the first time in a year that she had been to the restaurant. For the occasion, she wears a short wig with white streaks in it over her own salt & pepper hair.

May: Joan is named "Mother of The Year" by the National Association of Greeting Card Publishers in recognition of the "love and understanding she showered" on her four adopted children. In accepting the honor, Joan says she is "delighted and honored to receive the association's special award."

Summer: Joan decides to begin weekly tutoring lessons in her apartment for reading and writing. Joan says she wants to advance her basic education beyond the limited education she received in her childhood. Joan asks her friend, Carl Johnes, to assist her with finding a tutor. Johnes recommends his own former teacher, John Mawson, and sets up a meeting between the two. According to Johnes, Joan is enthusiastic about Mr. Mawson, however, she begins postponing the start of the tutoring lessons until the idea is ultimately aborted. (Source: "Crawford: The Last Years")

Summer: Joan's weight begins to decline. She jokes with friends that she is getting down to "picture weight." (Source: Crawford: The Last Years")

Summer: Joan sees her primary physician, Nicholas Pace, for the final time for professional services. Joan tells Dr. Pace that she is converting to Christian Science.

June: Joan converts a life insurance policy she acquired on July 25th, 1932 with the Equitable Life Assurance Society into an income annuity, with a monthly dividend payment to be paid to her in the amount of $810.73. The annuity amount total is $100,214.09. Subsequently, over the course of the next five months, Joan converts three additional equitable life insurance policies.

July: Joan meets with Architectural Digest's editor in chief, Paige Rense. The meeting is regarding the photographing of Joan's apartment for the magazine.

July/August: Joan visits the Fingers Lakes area of New York State. According to Michael Sean O'Shea, this was to be Joan's last outing. (Source: An unpublished 10/13/1977 interview with Michael Sean O'Shea) Joan's close friends, Alice and Henry Dormann, had a home in the Finger Lakes where Joan would visit from time to time, and this is most probably who Joan was visiting during this trip.

September 1: Joan appears on Jerry Lewis' tenth annual Labor Day weekend Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. Joan appears on the telethon in a previously recorded speech, which she taped on the set of "Trog" in the summer of 1969.

September 16: Columnist Earl Wilson reports that Joan is undergoing intensive skin treatments and planning to return to films. (Webmaster's note: no corroboration is available to validate this report)

September 21: Joan hosts a small cocktail party in her apartment for her close friend Peter Rogers, and his friends Randy Miller and Bill Whiteside, who are visiting Manhattan from San Francisco, California.

Autumn: Joan states to friend Carl Johnes that she will never be photographed again. (Source: "Crawford: The Last Years")

Autumn: Following a year of attempts by Architectural Digest, Joan's Imperial House apartment is photographed for the magazine. The apartment is photographed twice because Joan is not happy with the first photographer's photos, and requests that the apartment be re-photographed by photographer Richard Champion. (Source: Carleton Varney)
Joan and her dog Princess Lotus Blossom are also photographed during the apartment's original photo shoot session with Bettina Cirone. (Source: Webmaster's interviews with photographer Bettina Cirone, March 2013)

October: Joan's secretary, Vivian E. Zeiger, leaves her employment.

October: Joan appears in a series of radio advertisements for the store "Apples and Things" on KYW-Radio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Joan's son-in-law, Jerome LaLonde, is the sales manager of the store which sales fresh fruits, cheeses and gifts on the Bethlehem Pike in Spring House, Pennsylvania.

October 20-24: A festival of Joan's films are shown on Channel 5 in New York. Joan appears before each film to introduce it. This is a repeat of Joan's recorded film introductions from June 1973. The films are shown each night at 11:30 pm. The films shown during the festival are: "Rain" (20th), "Mildred Pierce" (21st), "Humoresque" (22nd), "Possessed" (23rd) and "Flamingo Road" (24th).

November: Joan dismisses her houseman, Edwards. Edwards had been Joan's houseman for several years. His duties consisted of him arriving at Joan's apartment once per week to do some of the more heavy cleaning that involved moving furniture.

November 2: Joan watches television Channel 2 news coverage of a celebrity memorabilia auction held at the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.

The auction proceeds are to benefit the library's Performing Arts Research Center. The Channel 2 reporter covering the auction, Trish Reilly, mentions in her coverage that she would love to have Joan's mink coat and revolver from "Mildred Pierce." Joan writes to Reilly stating the mink coat and revolver is in storage at Warner Bros. studios. Therefore, Joan sends Reilly one of her own mink hats as a gift. From this interaction, the two form a friendship, with Reilly visiting Joan and speaking to her at night on the telephone.

November 10: It's reported Joan will appear in the cast of a "contemporary Hollywood epic", along with; Olivia de Havllland, Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert and Gloria Swanson.

The Joan Crawford Chronicle

1975

THE CONCLUDING CHAPTER OF CRAWFORD