Cheryl Crane & Christina Crawford TOGETHER | Daughters of Lana Turner & Joan Crawford

friend of death we should say that you could hear from outside the door that he was knocking her around it was more than that until he was threatening her life and this wasn't the first episode of this no and there was no doubt in my mind that he was serious this man's voice and anger was so chilling was he threatening to do it herself or to hire something both he said when works with his hands I will cut off his hands you work with with your face and I will destroy your face and if I can't do it I have friends who will and your mother and your kid are next your mother uh you are you tell us uh she was the sweater girl she hated that yes she did but boy oh boy was she was on everybody's every Marine Locker had a picture of uh show I want you to see uh Miss Turner as she appeared on the Donahue show not long ago still a very beautiful woman and incidentally the relationship between her and her daughter is healthy yes amicable mutually satisfying here's Atlanta Turner on the Donahue show about five six years ago I got so sick of the word sex symbol yeah that in subconsciously it was a turn off now sensuous that I am I am a central woman and there's a great difference between a sexy hotsy-totsi and a deeply sensual Roman yeah that I am now celibate is thy own choice [Laughter] this is a classy woman who it clearly always wanted to be and always strove to be classy but in the process of her stardom an awful lot of men came into her life my mother was a romantic you know she fell in love totally today she would have lived with these men and not married him and had he has said that yes she wished she grew up in today's world rather than the 30s and 40s where if you were even dating someone you better marry them fast before you know got in the news uh so now you see uh uh I don't know how you rallied from this I mean stabbing to this day it's there's even a sense I I feel Cheryl you feel even today a need to sort of defend your your behavior that night well it's not something that one just closes a door on you know when when one is responsible for someone's life ending whether it's a justifiable act or not uh it stays with you you have to learn to cope with it you have to learn to accept it for what it was and that took me many years to do that uh hence the title detour I went off on a strange path for a while what was what were some of the strange paths you took well I became terribly rebellious which a lot of teenagers do but mine was more of a series of self-punishment because no one ever told me I we never discussed what had happened and so I had no idea what my own parents thought of me much less what the world thought of me so naturally as most children do who they think the worst of themselves and I I did that what were some of the what kind of destructive behaviors did you oh well fast cars sneaking out late at night I became a hot potato they didn't know quite what to do with me so they put me in a Reformatory and then that didn't work so they put me in a mental hospital and were you raped and sexually abused by Lex Barker the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan replacement yes who was who was married to your mother yes at the pool well it started there yes ten and a half and how long did this uh go on almost three years so we have a legacy here I mean how much therapy have you been in I've been in no therapy you've done this all by yourself when did you finally I think the first thing that happened that set me back on the road the right road again was when my father uh who was so proud of his business the restaurant business gave me a very highly visible job in the front door of a very famous restaurant the luau in Beverly Hills your father Stephen crane the restaurant tour yes and I worked with him for 15 years and that was the first time anything happened to me that I felt good about myself and that was a good start you started uh you're now a very wealthy woman you are very well invested I am told in real estate in Hawaii shouldn't we all have some real estate in Hawaii um and you're also very very uh uh out front I you are more than out of the closet uh you have a 20-year lesbian relationship almost 19. uh with with a a woman with whom you've been faithful now for almost two decades that's right and you're now happily living in San Francisco and you're I assume and you're you don't drink do you or do you well yeah all right alcohol has never been a problem for you it wasn't one of the roads you went unfortunately no that well yes as a teenager I did but again this was escaping this was uh what what is the moral of this story uh Cheryl uh you were certainly a candidate for turning up dead somewhere you had to be I think a lot of people were very surprised that I survived but to me the most important thing that I've learned is how important communication is and that it's never too late to talk to somebody and by that I mean my mother she and I are great friends because we finally talked about all the things we'd never talked about when did you do that was it last Thanksgiving uh no no it was a little a little before that when I started writing detour actually we finally sat down and talked to each other and we're good friends because of it you're very proud of your mother oh boy yes you understand what she was going through yes you used to go to the set to watch her make movies you knew what that red light meant that yes you better be quiet stay on that door or don't open the door or open that door you could not kiss your mother while she was working because of the makeup problem right and the hair and I as a child took that to me and I was never to touch her you know it was off limits your mother was gone all week long when you were uh filming she was a working mother you know before you got those days you also tell your reader about the agony of having been sent consistently to bed early 6 30 yes for your beauty rest yes do you see that now as let's get rid of this no you don't no you know it was a different world then and my mother for all her faults and she admits them herself she did her best you know she really tried to do her best the year is 1958 and Cheryl's mother Lana Turner is on the stand I have no idea why this is on film when we consider the agony of trying to get filmed from inside a courtroom today uh this is 1958 this soundtrack is not the best in the world but consider this now I assume you were not in the courtroom for this you were 14 years old Lana Turner's lover is dead at the hand of Lana Turner's daughter and here is Lana explaining to a courtroom what happened roll that film [Music] Ed [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] blood [Music] until I ran over to him and I saw his sweater was cut and I lifted the sweater on and I saw this room I remember it was better hearing my daughter probably and here you are looking very well may we say after some kind of childhood your mother could have no idea about the truly complicated emotionally troubling nature of your childhood at the time that all this was happening is that so that's true in fact she only found out about many things in reading the book and it was difficult for her you remember the limousines and the riots yes and people trying to break through the window to touch us and having my clothes torn they were reaching up grabbing at me it was very frightening now this this uh you have memories of this do you not yes Christina New York actually here yeah yeah in New York as a child you're looking at looks like a riot outside your car it did it was outside the 21 club and they had to get the police and the um the woman that took care of us got hurt and had to be taken to the hospital and I was absolutely terrified I had a hold of my little brother's hand he was about four and the two of us just held on to each other and this sea of humanity almost stampeded us it was a very very frightening uh experience for a child you had a stroke after you wrote your book yes I did 1981. do you have any doubt that this was provoked by the kind of heat you took for what you talked I think it was probably the the end result of it but it'd been building for a long time it was a complete blockage of the last carotid artery and uh so that had been damaged when I was a child unfortunately yes you told stories about being you weren't you weren't con confined to your crib were you or no I wasn't my brother was he was tied down to it but I was forced to watch when he was beaten and uh so I I ended up feeling responsible because there was too little I couldn't help him I couldn't do anything about him do you remember having to smile for the cameras and the publicity since the time I was a baby of course I was part of the the entire publicity and you hated it well it isn't that I hated it no it's that I became a managed person and I didn't what was real for us was fantasy and the reality was treated as though it never existed so as Cheryl mentioned there was no communication and and so my mother was an alcoholic at the time and she would go on Rampages but the next morning it was never discussed so what I knew to be reality was treated as though it didn't exist we have you on the Donahue show yes 11 years ago you knew this it's in my new book too I hope so I read all the books I'm in um uh Christina uh you knew this Mommy Dearest was not your basic uh when I was a kid in Hollywood this was rough I mean this was something new Americans had never seen well I've lived with it all my life uh so it was not anything new to me but it was the first time we'd ever talked about violence when within the home so we didn't have a context in which to discuss it did you expect the heat you took for it nobody did I couldn't have I mean there was no way to it was the very first time this has ever been discussed we didn't know what was out there waiting for us but the but the other side of it is we didn't know how many people were all so affected millions and millions and millions of people had similar experiences in their homes there's something I mean a stroke is serious stuff it was I'm not sure I understand you to your answer you're saying this may or may not have been related to the stress you felt you took after Mommy Dearest it was partly that I think that was the the final uh result of it but it had been building since I was a kid um my mother had tried to kill me and she tried to choke me and uh it uh damaged the artery in my neck but it took many many many years a lifetime of stress and chaos to have a break what do you understand to have been your mother's problem and I mean that in no derogatory way it had to be here was a woman who's smiling camera who just was elegant and inside she had to be well she was an abused child and I think that's really important to understand that she grew up as an abused child she was probably although she never said it specifically from what I can gather because she was very reluctant to talk about her past she was probably sexually abused also she did not let our her mother in our house she never had a meal with us there were no photographs of her she we were not allowed to visit her during the whole time that I grew up so I grew up in a very dysfunctional atmosphere where there was no normality of any kind I think my mother was a very insecure lonely person you know did you get depressed after all this he choose to bet after Mommy Dearest that's very depressing yeah well but she certainly knew this wasn't did you think you'd get a standing ovation for saying something about America's sweetheart know I was in America's sweetheart let's be serious about that but um what was she there I mean Mildred Pierce was not America's sweetheart come on that's true yes well she was America she was certainly in the Betty Davis category well that's not America's Sweden no it isn't so um uh but it isn't it isn't so much my understanding of her as my understanding of what happens to human beings when they are put through that and I think that's where you know my learning experience has come and that's where I tried to you know to share she writes Mommy Dearest goes on the road 1978 goes on the Donahue show here's the first call watch this 11 years ago is the car that there yes I am go right ahead well first of all I'd like to say that I'm deeply Disturbed and unhappy about this book millions of hand this book is I just don't know what to say about it I would like to know why the book wasn't written before her mother died first of all and um why did she put the title of the book Mommy Dearest there's a great deal of animosity in the title of this book why not Mother Dearest you were a fan of Miss Crawford yes I am and I'm very upset can I just may I ask you just a few couple of questions uh why should the LIE be perpetuated what do you mean well why should why should we be deceived into the truth Miss Crawford isn't here no any longer to deny any of this oh so you don't think it's true no I don't you don't think that her daughter was hit over the head with a can of bonami that that sprayed all over her well that's a possibility mothers do get mad I mean her mother could have done something like that once and regretted it all her life you know uh there's a passage in the book where in uh Jones that'll just give you that's a sense of it but I think what is important to see is that um today right here in New York there's a trial going on that wouldn't have happened talk about the Steinberg years ago we didn't understand that children have rights and that there is a Continuum and that as as survivors you know that um we have problems that are not going to go away just because the abuse stops I agree I agree aren't you afraid of passing down this terrible treatment to your own children I would have been if I'd had children of my own when I was real young and that's exactly why I didn't have children when I was in my 20s because I was afraid of it because my life was not straightened out enough yes although I think the story was really sad I think it was wonderful that you came out with it and a lot of people are going to help be helped because of that thank you very much yes hi I was wondering how you felt about the movie when it came out I didn't write the movie and it didn't get terribly good reviews I think it would have been fabulous if they'd stuck with Anne Bancroft who was their original choice I just want to know if Cheryl ever contemplated suicide when she was because I did in fact I attempted it I'm sorry Christina was writing Mommie Dearest a type of revenge on your mother no it wasn't it was an attempt to tell the truth about what was uh true for me I had been in the public eye basically all my life and most of what had been written about me was sheer fantasy how much input did your mother Cheryl have into the content of your book uh she helped me greatly in putting together dates and times and places but it was my is there anyone else besides you to corroborate about what your mother to whom are you speaking you're still yeah you're a little upset are you yeah is there anyone tell me why you're upset she's not there any longer to take her own part well is there anyone else's recent one I believe is Kirk Douglas in his book that has just come out June Allison um you know Betty Davis Helen Hayes almost everybody that was in Hollywood at the time yes they have not been given equal time maybe but they definitely have corroborated there I asked my mother when your book came out because Christina and I were in school together as children and I asked mother I said did you know this was going on and she said yes we all knew and I said why didn't you do something she said darling in this town we rally behind each other we protect each other we do not admit to to false no you know that wasn't exclusive to Hollywood no no that's the way it was all over nobody talked about child abuse to some degree that's the way it was when the book was originally published did you grow up with Liza and um didn't one of you wanted to have Judy Garland oh that was me yes Eliza and I were next door neighbors and we traded mothers because we were at that age where the grass was greener on the across the fence you know and we did trade mothers it helped the mother and Judy were best friends so they went along with it Atlanta Turner and Judy Garland were best friends yes yes now when you say you traded a childhood little game is that how I don't understand trading well we decided that we each wanted the other mother mother to be our mother so we decided between us we're going to trade mothers and we informed our mothers we had traded Judy was now my mother and my mother Lana was now Eliza's mother Liza loved your mother Atlanta and you love Judy well of course there was total opposites my mother was very glamorous woman still is Judy was a very comfortable get down on the floor um bare feet uh ponytail you know so they were total opposites yeah how you're you're recover well incidentally there was there any paralysis from your stroke yes I was um paralyzed on the right side I couldn't speak I couldn't walk I had to learn to do everything I couldn't read it took about four years in a rehab hospital and then with a series of physical therapy and and um uh gym and that kind of thing so it was a long time coming back and uh um I think that it it helped that I was an actress for 14 years because what I did was I I treated it as though uh it were speech therapy and and that kind of thing and I used my imagination mission to be able to visualize myself whole and well and and healthy before I actually could could be that way Survivor is the title of Christina Crawford's book this is the story of her follow-up to the whole storm that was created by Mommy Dearest and I'm pleased to tell you I'm in the book [Laughter] obviously I have less enthusiasm for this book which in which I do not appear uh no I am pleased to say that this is in paperback this isn't funny this is a very in my opinion honest recounting of a tornadic childhood with a mother who loves her and isn't this a good ending to this story Lana Turner and her beloved daughter Cheryl are best of friends California the zip is 91356 here's a very honest effort to uh involve other people who've had similar circumstances maybe not uh with uh parents who are famous but the pain is just as real incidentally show them show them John I just want to go down memory lane here here's a 1941 a woman's face is the title look at this screen presence here Joan Crawford as one of uh Hollywood's most powerful and sought after women and at home was uh little daughter Christina living quite another life indeed we should also make this point that since Mommy Dearest not a few celebrities kids have come out of the woodwork to name one Gary Crosby called me many times yeah but you know Phil one point is easier for all of us to take a look and honest look at well I think the other part of it is that the the book that I that I wrote mummy dearest um and to some extent Survivor because they're part of a Continuum has to do with how people get through the circumstances that are given to them at life and I think everybody has problems everybody has something that that hurts them everybody has something that they need to to overcome to survive but Christina had to write thank you notes for gifts and then after she wrote the thank you notes her mother gave the gifts to charity well I did not have I did not have the privilege uh that a lot of people fantasize because that was not part I saw the privilege but I didn't participate in it it was it was made quite clear that it wasn't mine but I did see it that's that's true Cheryl I like to ask you a question how did your mother feel when you came out of the closet I'm sorry that wasn't I wasn't going for a laugh you did not come out of the closet on that horrible night in which Johnny stampinato was killed you came into the room yes she wants to know about your lesbian relationship right I I first told my mother when I was about 13 years old and I said oh mother I'm in love and he said she said to me how cute what's his name I said it's not a he it's a she and instead of her going oh my God you know which a lot of parents would you she said oh darling don't worry about that she'll outgrow it and I didn't so in my family I guess with all the other traumas going on it was a very minor detail Christine did you always understand why your mother did the thing no I didn't always understand but that has been part of the the growing up process that I've had to go through yeah how are you treated by schoolmates and friends as you were growing up me I I was treated quite well because we formed almost like a fraternity uh commiserating with one another because we were the only people that we had to talk to that understood Mommy Dearest came out how did your brother react to the book my brother and I have always been very close and he was extremely supportive yes ma'am Christina have you forgiven your mother I've forgiven myself for whatever mistakes I made as a child and have some compassion for both of us now [Applause] life growing up with uh the most beautiful group of woman in Hollywood the most sought after the sexiest and all those other things that Miss Turner herself rather distance herself from when she was on our own program survival is the Christina Crawford's life since uh mommy dearest a very uh compelling tale of her own struggle with a life-threatening illness from which she has now distanced herself we're pleased to say whose hand did I say here yes

Channel: Policy & Politics

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Length: 25min 7sec (1507 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023