Joan Crawford Was A DS fan?!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Or at least she was a Joan Bennett fan according to this blog: AND SHE WOULD WATCH 'DARK SHADOWS' TO CATCH A PERFORMANCE BY HER OLD FRIEND, THE OTHER JOAN , BENNETT THAT IS.
Posted by Toby's ramblings on Joan Crawford..... at 4:33 PM

[Janet the Wicked]

Yes, indeed. I heard about that some time ago.

[Gerard]

I remember hearing the urban legend that Curtis Productions was also taking a look at Joan Crawford for the role of Elizabeth, but decided not to because she was already well know for being rather - shall we say - "problematic" to work with.

Gerard

[ClaudeNorth]

As much as I like Joan Bennett as Elizabeth, I still think it would have been amazing to see Joan Crawford in the role.  Had she done the role, she would have loved all the attention from a new generation of fans, and if she lived long enough, she certainly would have appeared at the DS Festivals.  Can you imagine?

And then there's the idea of Crawford acting opposite The Divine Grayson.  I certainly would need one of Dr. Hoffman's famous sedatives to handle that!

[michael c]

for me joan crawford has a rather "hard" presence that would have made her too rigid in the role of liz.

bennett could be icy and imperious but also possessed a sense of vulnerability and warmth that made the character so complex and allowed the audience to care about her.

crawford would have been a great bit of stunt casting but i'm glad the part was cast the way that it was.

[Taeylor Collins]

Very interesting!  I cannot imagine anyone else as Elizabeth however it would have been interesting to see this! Perhaps in a PT somewhere she did place Elizabitch!

[Gerard]

How about a plot involving the appearance of Elizabeth's never-known-to-exist-except-to-Elizabeth step-sister, played by Miss Crawford?  She was the result of a little diddly-do Daddy Jamison had once had on the side and the family was able to cover it up.  And step-sister Joanie C. has returned for a very specific reason.......decades ago, again under the pressure of her ostracizing Collins family, had been forced to give up her newborn daughter, Victoria, who like Mommie Dearest was the result of a little diddly-do.  And the last Step-Sis heard from her own investigations into finding her kid was that House Momma Elizabeth had hired her.....Maybe they could've done this in 1971 if the series had continued and Miss Crawford, who was wrapping up her career, would've thought it would be fun to work with her long-time friend, Joan Bennett for a few months.  It would have been a much better swan song than Trog.

Gerard

[Gothick]

I'm afraid Joan Crawford (whose films I adore) would have been a disaster on DS.  If you've never seen it, catch the sequence in the Faye Dunaway classic Mommie Dearest in which they re-create Joan's attempt to replace daughter Christina on her own soap (can't recall which one it was at the moment) when Tina was sidelined due to an illness or surgery.  It's a hoot.

Apart from other considerations, "Miss C" always demanded that her sets be kept cold enough to double as meat lockers (apparently, she broke a sweat very easily when the temp rose, which wreaked havoc with all that makeup).  I doubt they would have been able to accommodate this, and her numerous other demands on DS.

G.

[bluefielder]

Gothick, it was The Secret Storm that JC appeared on briefly replacing Christina.

[Taeylor Collins]

Yes..I have this old book on Soap Opera's I got years ago!  I have never been able to find it!  The book has a whole secetion on Secret Storm and has pics of Joan.  Apparently she was often drunk!

[Joeytrom]

If they did cast Joan Crawford, they may have ended up recasting Liz eventually.  Joan Crawford may not have been able to handle the pressures of a daily soap opera.

[michael c]

Gothick, it was The Secret Storm that JC appeared on briefly replacing Christina.

i wish that "the secret storm" was available on dvd. the dark shadows connection runs deep.

joel crothers,clarice blackburn,diana millay,conard fowkes and james storm(perhaps others as well)were all castmembers.

[Charles_Ellis]

The main reason why there's such a connection is that Robert Costello produced the show right after leaving DS in late 1969!

[Janet the Wicked]

I hate to think of the girls and boys on DS having to spend any time with Joan Crawford.
At least Joan Bennett was a lady.

[Lydia]

Oh, I don't know, if Joan Crawford had been around, maybe the other actors could have had fun using her antics (whatever they might turn out to have been) to sharpen their performances a notch or two.