Christina Crawford, 23, was on sound stage 11 at MGM Studios this week working in a “Dr. Kildare” television segment.
A veteran crewman approached her: “Do you know that more than 30 years ago I watched another young lady become a star overnight on this very same stage?”
That long-ago Cinderella was Joan Crawford, mother of Christina, and the picture was “Our Dancing Daughters.”
Christina is a hard-working actress who admits – like Gary Crosby – that it is very difficult at times to be the child – even adopted – of a living legend.
“I want to make it on my own. I have supported myself since I was 19. I seldom see my mother but that doesn't mean I don’t love her or respect her. I do tremendously,” says Christina.
There have been reports that Joan and the eldest of her four adopted children have been feuding for years. Not so, says Christina.
“We have had crises as all daughters do with their mothers but mine have been complicated because I have decided to make it in my mother’s own profession.
For instance, when I was studying at Westport Country Playhouse, an item appeared in a New York gossip column that I was seen in a night club with some boyfriend I had never heard of. I hadn't even heard of the club. And I don’t know where the item came from.
Mother was hurt that I didn't call her and that I was flitting around some night club then I should have been studying. I told her that I was in Connecticut all the time. I even offered to have the director of the play call her. Then there were other items all of them just as mysteriously planted as the first. I couldn't explain them to mother.” Christina later found out press agents for restaurants planted phony items about herself or any other actress in the business but it’s different when it involves your own daughter. “That’s what complicated our relationship but there is no feud. I have great love and admiration for my other, both as a mother and as a great talent. I hope I can achieve even a fraction of that she has in this business.”