The legends of Hollywood’s golden age appeared unreal by design, but when Christina Crawford, the oldest of Joan Crawford’s four adopted children, revealed the gruesome reality in her 1978 bombshell, Mommie Dearest, no amount of airbrushing would ever restore the George Hurrell–like veneer to the polished surface.
Three years later, when Paramount released the movie adaptation, they had every intention of securing a second best-actress Oscar for star Faye Dunaway. What they got instead was a misstep into camp, a prestige picture turned horror-movie howler, “the first drag queen role played by a woman,” according to filmmaker John Waters; it cemented Crawford’s legacy as a monster and derailed Dunaway’s career. The term “Mommie Dearest” became a catchall for parental abuse, and quotable lines such as “Tina! Bring me the axe!,” “No wire hangers ever!,” and “Don’t fuck with me, fellas! This ain’t my first time at the rodeo” entered the pop-culture lexicon.
