View allAll Photos Tagged cleanliness
so this is old
but i really love it
even if it is a bit boring
i've been experimenting with processing
this is one of the products of that
and thank you for 40,000 photostream views :)
For NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its incredibly sensitive scientific instruments, cleanliness is critical. Contamination Control Engineers like Yingrui “Zao” Huang, who has been on the mission since 2013, play an important role in ensuring Webb’s hardware is in pristine condition during the testing and integration that lead up to launch.
Zao is pictured in Goddard's Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility, standing in front of the wall of filters that help keep the clean room clean.
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Not much time to post -- so:
a) This is a scrubby. Or whatever you call it. You know, to clean yourself. In the shower. Does it have a technical name? We'll call it a "Sponge Nexus."
b) Waterdrops!
c) Bokeh! HBW!
d) If you look real close, you can actually see a refraction in one of the drops -- it's the Declaration of Independence.
e) I'm lying about d).
f) Bye!
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media
without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Thank you very much, for all your much appreciated comments and invites!
Have a nice day everyone!
Vanguards of the Endor,imperial stormtroopers will always keep the cleanliness and orderliness of the Imperial base camp. They will always remember the good times in training, some night training, and those free times they had.
“Cleanliness of the mouth,” which means protecting your mouth from excessive verbosity and foul language.
Himba woman. Namibia.
The Himba are a semi-nomadic, pastoral people. Himba women in particular are famous for embellish their skin and smearing themselves with a fragrant paste made by crushing reddish stones with a ferric component. The fine ochre powder that is obtained is mixed with cow's fat, ash and aromatic herbs. The mixture is known as "otzije", a thick reddish cream that not only fulfills an aesthetic function dyeing their skin a burnt orange hue, but also provides an effective and natural protection against sun rays and insect bites. This is their only daily cleanliness and gives them their characteristic reddish color. In fact, these women never wash. As if this wasn't striking enough, they also use the mixture to cover their braided hair, which has an effect similar to deadlocking.
Hairstyle plays an important role for Himba people, assigning each one a recognizable social status. Woman until about ten years old uses two thick braids in front of her face. After puberty, it is combed with several thinner braids wrapped in ochre, hanging without order. When the girl approaches to marriage age, she ties her numerous braids back and leaves her face uncovered. The last change in hairstyle is when marrying: since then she carries an ornament on the top of her head (erembe) that is a piece of goat skin. Periodically the braids are undone to make them again. Her hair is not washed with water but with ash and wrap each tuft in the clay putty. Redoing a hairstyle usually lasts two days.
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.
©Mara de la Hoz, All Rights Reserved.
Mujer Himba. Namibia.
Los Himba son un pueblo seminómada, criadores de ganado.
Las mujeres Himba en particular son famosas por embellecer su piel y mancharse con una pasta olorosa que se hace triturando piedras rojizas con un componente férrico. El fino polvo de ocre que se obtiene es mezclado con manteca de vaca, ceniza y hierbas aromáticas. La mezcla se conoce como "otzije", una crema espesa de color rojizo que no sólo cumple una función estética tiñendo su piel de un tono anaranjado oscuro, sino que también proporciona una protección eficaz y natural contra los rayos del sol y las picaduras de insectos. Esta es su única limpieza diaria y les da su característico color rojizo. De hecho, estas mujeres nunca se lavan. Como si esto no fuera bastante llamativo, también utilizan la mezcla para cubrir su pelo trenzado, que tiene una tiene un forma similar a las rastas.
El peinado juega un importante papel, asignando a cada uno un estatus social reconocible. La mujer hasta los diez años aproximadamente usa dos trenzas gruesas frente al rostro. Pasada la pubertad, se peina con varias trenzas más delgadas envueltas en ocre, que cuelgan sin orden. A medida que la muchacha se acerca a la edad casamentera, se amarra sus numerosas trenzas hacia atrás y deja el rostro descubierto. El último cambio en el peinado es al casarse: desde entonces lleva en lo alto de la cabeza un adorno (erembe) que es una pieza de piel de cabra. Periódicamente se deshacen las trenzas para volver a hacerlas. El pelo no se lo lavan con agua sino con ceniza y envuelven cada mechón en la masilla arcillosa. Rehacer un peinado suele durar dos días.
Esta imagen no está disponible para su uso en páginas web, blogs o cualquier otro soporte sin mi autorización por escrito.
©Mara de la Hoz, Todos los derechos reservados.
The resident of White House Complex, Bengaluru celebrating Gandhi Jayanti by cleaning area around the complex.
The Washington Metro is legendary for its spaciousness and cleanliness, particularly when compared to London Underground or New Yorks subway for example. Some might say it lacks a bit of character.
Click here to see more of my favourite photos from my travels in the USA : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157623869746767
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© D.Godliman
Cleanliness is a virtue even for mallards. Ältasjön (Älta lake) in southern Stockholm. Mid August 2024.
Highly polished floor of sake brewery in Koroishi, north of Japan.
Entrance hall free of dust told of the quality of dry sake.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness - but when the only tool you own is a hammer - every problem looks like a nail.
"Security, cleanliness, can sleep well" it seems to be a concept to this hotel.
I do not know what "super" the common accommodations.
There seems to be this hotel in the whole country more than 100. I intend to stay next time.
If a window is opened by that height, it is splendid added value for me.
On July 11, 2014 in the Shin Marunouchi Building.
-----
「安全・清潔・ぐっすり眠れる」がコンセプトだそうです。
どこら辺が普通の宿泊施設を超越しているのかわかりませんが、
全国に100以上あるそうなので、今度泊まってみようかと思います。
あの高さで窓が開けられるなら、僕にとっては素晴らしい付加価値です。
2014年7月11日、新丸の内ビルディングにて。
The Rockot fairing being inspected for cleanliness in preparation for the installation of Sentinel-3B.
The satellite is being prepared for liftoff, scheduled for 25 April 2018. Its identical twin, Sentinel-3A, has been in orbit since February 2016. The two-satellite constellation offers optimum global coverage and data delivery for Europe’s Copernicus environment programme.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Whichever way you want to look at it, Manila is a fascinating city. In a very different fashion than anything I've experienced in Japan. There the very order and cleanliness is such that you're tempted to walk across a lawn, to drop a wrapper, to sneeze loudly in public, to go Habu-snake hunting, even though you can't read the signs that forbid such Gross Indecent Impoliteness and Danger. Here in Manila the utter clutter and the perpetual dirt is sense-boggling until you begin to find your way and become attuned to the great variety of smells both foul and sweet of a poverty-driven tropical Asian city and to the cacaphony of its traffic.
I chose to be near Rizal Park, devoted to the 'George Washington' of Philippine national independence, José Rizal. The park is overwhelmingly large with much nationalist statuary; rather crumbling, though, and falling apart, and also with many homeless people (generally with a smile for the Tourist with the Funny Japanese Hat). Whatever... I came here especially for the Japanese and Chinese Gardens and the Orchidarium. They'd been highly recommended. I was sorely disappointed. The Chinese and Japanese Gardens are scratchy affairs badly maintained, dry ponds, broken steps and paths. Plants not cultivated. Even the weeds - yes! those favorites of mine - seemed 'tired'. The Orchidarium is closed 'for renovation' and is - I was told by a 'street-person' - open only to wedding parties who want to pose prettily. She even made a joke of it, as you might expect.
Today I walked around the Old City, Intramuros, maybe five kilometers or so. At least as far as I was allowed. A large swathe of the beautiful lawns and greens are the very private Intramuros Golf Club. Fenced out are scores of derelicts who make themselves a home between the perimeter fence and the trees lining a major highway, and also anyone else who's not a member. Nowhere though did I have a sense of insecurity, and when I lost my way along the Pasig River - my presumed passageway has been blocked off by another grate - I was led back to a throughway by a pack of half-naked boys diving up from the incredibly dirty waters. Here, too, everything was 'broken' - even one or two of the lads -, but for the weeds!
Making my way to Fort Santiago and yet another shrine to José Rizal (1861-1896), I climbed onto the Bulwarks. Weeds, again, of course. Among them this pretty Desmodium paniculatum.
Great Carolus Linnaeus on the authority of Johannes Fredericus Gronovius (1686-1772) calls it Hedysarum paniculatum. But it received its Desmodian name from Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841) in 1825. It is said to grow in dry woods and fields from New York southwards to Virginia. Since then - and perhaps earlier even if botanists didn't notice - it's been naturalised all over the world. Also on the dry grounds of the stony Ramparts of Intramuros, Manila, where I could greet it as an Old Friend.
The flower of this member of the bean family measures about 10 by 6-7 mm.
Spotless ACD6055 and less-than-spotless ACD6050 twist into the locality of Fish River, just east of Gunning, working 4MS1 to Glenlee.
2024-9-19 Aurizon ACD6055-ACD6050 Fish River 4MS1
All of my stuff downstairs! It took AGES!!! And this is only a little bit of it!!! The rest is my upstairs spring clean!!
Note the cleanliness difference between the buses parked in the (paved) Putnam Valley yard and the (unpaved) Verplanck yard
Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56546 Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Photo: MGM. Caption: Gibson Gowland & Joan Crawford, USA, 1927. Gibson Gowland and Joan Crawford in Rose-Marie (Lucien Hubbard, 1928).
American film star Joan Crawford (1904-1977) had a career that would span many decades, studios, and controversies. In her silent films, she made an impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper and later she matured into a star of psychological melodramas.
Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1904, in San Antonio, Texas. Her parents were Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry labourer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated. The young Lucille was bullied and shunned at Scaritt Elementary School in Kansas City by the other students due to her poor home life. She worked with her mother in a laundry and felt that her classmates could smell the chemicals and cleaners on her. She said that her love of taking showers and being obsessed with cleanliness had begun early in life as an attempt to wash off the smell of the laundry. Her stepfather Henry Cassin allegedly began sexually abusing her when she was eleven years old, and the abuse continued until she was sent to St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic girls' school. By the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. Lucille LeSueur worked a variety of menial jobs. She was a good dancer, though, and she entered several contests, one of which landed her a spot in a chorus line. Before long, she was dancing in the choruses of travelling revues in big Midwestern and East Coast cities. She was spotted dancing in Detroit by famous New York producer Jacob J. Shubert. Shubert put her in the chorus line for his show 'Innocent Eyes'(1924) at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Then followed another Schubert production, 'The Passing Show of 1924'. After-hours, she danced for pay in the town it-spot, Club Richman, which was run by the 'Passing Show' stage manager Nils Granlund and popular local personality Harry Richman. In December 1924, Granlund called Lucille to tell her that Al Altman, a NYC-based talent scout from MGM had caught her in 'The Passing Show of 1924' and wanted her to do a screen test. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) offered Crawford a contract at $75 a week. On New Year's Day 1925 she boarded the train for Culver City. Credited as Lucille LeSueur, her first film part was as a showgirl in Lady of the Night (Monta Bell, 1925), starring MGM's most popular female star, Norma Shearer. Crawford was determined to succeed, and shortly after she also appeared in The Circle (Frank Borzage, 1925) and Pretty Ladies (Monta Bell, 1925), starring comedian ZaSu Pitts. She also appeared in a small role Erich von Stroheim's classic The Merry Widow (1925) with Mae Murray and John Gilbert. MGM publicity head Pete Smith recognised her ability to become a major star but felt her name sounded fake. He told studio head , Louis B. Mayer, that her last name, LeSueur, reminded him of a sewer. Smith organised a contest called 'Name the Star' in Movie Weekly to allow readers to select her new stage name. The initial choice was 'Joan Arden', but after another actress was found to have prior claim to that name, the alternate surname 'Crawford' became the choice. She first made an impression on audiences in Edmund Goulding's showgirl tale Sally, Irene and Mary (1925). The film, which co-starred Constance Bennett and Sally O'Neil, was a hit. Joan's popularity grew so quickly afterwards that two films in which she was still billed as Lucille Le Sueur: Old Clothes (Edward F. Cline, 1925) with Jackie Coogan, and The Only Thing (Jack Conway, 1925) were recalled, and her name on the billings was changed to Joan Crawford. In 1926, Crawford was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, and she starred opposite Charles Ray in Paris (Edmund Goulding, 1926). Within a few years, she became the romantic female lead to many of MGM's top male stars, including Ramón Novarro, John Gilbert, and action star Tim McCoy. She appeared alongside her close friend, William Haines in the comedy Spring Fever (Edward Sedgwick, 1927). It was the second film starring Haines and Crawford (the first had been Sally, Irene and Mary (1925)), and their first onscreen romantic teaming. Then, Crawford appeared in the silent horror film The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927), starring Lon Chaney, Sr., who played Alonzo the Armless, a circus freak who uses his feet to toss knives. Crawford played his skimpily-clad young carnival assistant whom he hopes to marry. She stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. Her role of Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont, 1928) elevated her to star status. Joan co-starred with Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian, and her spunky wild-but-moral flapper character struck a chord with the public and zeitgeist. Wikipedia: "The role established her as a symbol of modern 1920s-style femininity which rivaled Clara Bow, the original It girl, then Hollywood's foremost flapper. A stream of hits followed Our Dancing Daughters, including two more flapper-themed movies, in which Crawford embodied for her legion of fans (many of whom were women) an idealized vision of the free-spirited, all-American girl." The fan mail began pouring in and from that point on Joan was a bonafide star. Crawford had cleared the first big hurdle; now came the second, in the form of talkies. But Crawford wasn't felled by sound. Her first talkie, the romantic drama Untamed (Jack Conway, 1929) with Robert Montgomery, was a success. Michael Eliott at IMDb: "It's rather amazing to see how well she transformed into a sound star and you have to think that she was among the best to do so."
In the early 1930s, tired of playing fun-loving flappers, Joan Crawford wanted to change her image. Thin lips would not do for her; she wanted big lips. Ignoring her natural lip contours, Max Factor ran a smear of colour across her upper and lower lips. It was just what she wanted. To Max, the Crawford look, which became her trademark, was always 'the smear'.
As the 1930s progressed, Joan Crawford became one of the biggest stars at MGM. She developed a glamorous screen image, appearing often as a sumptuously gowned, fur-draped, successful career woman. She was in top form in films such as Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932), Sadie McKee (Clarence Brown, 1934), No More Ladies (Edward H. Griffith, 1935), and Love on the Run (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936) with Clark Gable.
Crawford often played hard-working young women who found romance and success. Movie patrons were enthralled, and studio executives were satisfied. Her fame rivalled, and later outlasted, that of MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Among her early successes as a dramatic actress were The Women (George Cukor, 1939), Susan and God (1940), Strange Cargo (1940), and A Woman’s Face (1941).
By the early 1940s, MGM was no longer giving Joan Crawford plum roles. Newcomers had arrived in Hollywood, and the public wanted to see them. Crawford left MGM for rival Warner Bros. In 1945 she landed the role of a lifetime in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945). It is the story of an emotional and ambitious woman who rises from waitress to owner of a restaurant chain. The role gave her an opportunity to show her range as an actress, and her performance as a woman driven to give her daughter (Ann Blyth) everything garnered Crawford her first, and only, Oscar for Best Actress. The following year she appeared with John Garfield in the well-received Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946). In 1947, she appeared as Louise Graham in Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947) with Van Heflin. Again she was nominated for a Best Actress from the Academy, but she lost to Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter (H.C. Potter, 1947). Crawford continued to choose her roles carefully, and in 1952 she was nominated for a third time, for her depiction of Myra Hudson in Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952) opposite Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame. This time the coveted Oscar went to Shirley Booth, for Come Back, Little Sheba (Daniel Mann, 1952). In 1955, Crawford became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company through her marriage to company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Steele. Crawford married four times. Her first three marriages to the actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1929–1933), Franchot Tone (1935–1939), and Phillip Terry (1942–1946) all had ended in divorce. After his death in 1959 she became a director of the company and in that role hired her friend Dorothy Arzner to film several Pepsi commercials. Crawford's film career slowed and she appeared in minor roles until 1962. Then she and Bette Davis co-starred in Whatever happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962). Their longstanding rivalry may have helped fuel their phenomenally vitriolic and well-received performances. Crawford's final appearance on the silver screen was in the bad monster movie Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970). It is said Bette Davis commented that if she had found herself starring in Trog, she'd commit suicide. Anyway, Joan Crawford retired from the screen, and following a public appearance in 1974 withdrew from public life. Turning to vodka more and more, she became increasingly reclusive. In 1977, Joan Crawford died of a heart attack in New York City. She was 72 years old. She had disinherited her adopted daughter Christina and son Christopher; the former wrote the controversial memoir 'Mommie Dearest' (1978). In 1981, Faye Dunaway starred in the film adaptation Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981) which did well at the box office. Joan Crawford is interred in a mausoleum in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Sources: Stephanie Jones (The Best of Everything), Michael Elliott (IMDb), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
This is more or less a reverse angle view of this photo. I got the idea to come to this side of the building on day three, after noticing what's become a regular afternoon vehicle now (cool parent or guardian taking their kids to see the action!) move over here. Glad I moved, since we can see here one of the interior walls of the women's (thanks Retail Retell for the confirmation!) restroom, still reasonably intact. The ceiling overhead is obviously quite a different story, and amazing to see the equipment and rolled-up runs of wiring that were over the false ceiling, possibly since the very early days of the store being in operation, if not from the initial construction back in 2001! Bewildering also is the vast volume of space that was up over that false ceiling!
_________________________________________________
Kroger, 2001 built (demolished October 2016), Commerce St. at Mt. Pleasant Rd., Hernando, MS
Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56554. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Photo: MGM.
American film star Joan Crawford (1904-1977) had a career that would span many decades, studios, and controversies. In her silent films, she made an impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper and later she matured into a star of psychological melodramas.
Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1904, in San Antonio, Texas. Her parents were Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry labourer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated. The young Lucille was bullied and shunned at Scaritt Elementary School in Kansas City by the other students due to her poor home life. She worked with her mother in a laundry and felt that her classmates could smell the chemicals and cleaners on her. She said that her love of taking showers and being obsessed with cleanliness had begun early in life as an attempt to wash off the smell of the laundry. Her stepfather Henry Cassin allegedly began sexually abusing her when she was eleven years old, and the abuse continued until she was sent to St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic girls' school. By the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. Lucille LeSueur worked a variety of menial jobs. She was a good dancer, though, and she entered several contests, one of which landed her a spot in a chorus line. Before long, she was dancing in the choruses of travelling revues in big Midwestern and East Coast cities. She was spotted dancing in Detroit by famous New York producer Jacob J. Shubert. Shubert put her in the chorus line for his show 'Innocent Eyes'(1924) at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Then followed another Schubert production, 'The Passing Show of 1924'. After hours, she danced for pay in the town it-spot, Club Richman, which was run by the 'Passing Show' stage manager Nils Granlund and popular local personality Harry Richman. In December 1924, Granlund called Lucille to tell her that Al Altman, a NYC-based talent scout from MGM had caught her in 'The Passing Show of 1924' and wanted her to do a screen test. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) offered Crawford a contract at $75 a week. On New Year's Day 1925 she boarded the train for Culver City. Credited as Lucille LeSueur, her first film part was as a showgirl in Lady of the Night (Monta Bell, 1925), starring MGM's most popular female star, Norma Shearer. Crawford was determined to succeed, and shortly after she also appeared in The Circle (Frank Borzage, 1925) and Pretty Ladies (Monta Bell, 1925), starring comedian ZaSu Pitts. She also appeared in a small role in Erich von Stroheim's classic The Merry Widow (1925) with Mae Murray and John Gilbert. MGM publicity head Pete Smith recognised her ability to become a major star but felt her name sounded fake. He told studio head, Louis B. Mayer, that her last name, LeSueur, reminded him of a sewer. Smith organised a contest called 'Name the Star' in Movie Weekly to allow readers to select her new stage name. The initial choice was 'Joan Arden', but after another actress was found to have a prior claim to that name, the alternate surname 'Crawford' became the choice. She first made an impression on audiences in Edmund Goulding's showgirl tale Sally, Irene, and Mary (1925). The film, which co-starred Constance Bennett and Sally O'Neil, was a hit. Joan's popularity grew so quickly afterwards that two films in which she was still billed as Lucille Le Sueur: Old Clothes (Edward F. Cline, 1925) with Jackie Coogan, and The Only Thing (Jack Conway, 1925) were recalled, and her name on the billings was changed to Joan Crawford. In 1926, Crawford was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, and she starred opposite Charles Ray in Paris (Edmund Goulding, 1926). Within a few years, she became the romantic female lead to many of MGM's top male stars, including Ramón Novarro, John Gilbert, and action star Tim McCoy. She appeared alongside her close friend, William Haines in the comedy Spring Fever (Edward Sedgwick, 1927). It was the second film starring Haines and Crawford (the first had been Sally, Irene and Mary (1925)), and their first onscreen romantic teaming. Then, Crawford appeared in the silent horror film The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927), starring Lon Chaney, Sr., who played Alonzo the Armless, a circus freak who uses his feet to toss knives. Crawford played his skimpily-clad young carnival assistant whom he hopes to marry. She stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. Her role of Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont, 1928) elevated her to star status. Joan co-starred with Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian, and her spunky wild-but-moral flapper character struck a chord with the public and zeitgeist. Wikipedia: "The role established her as a symbol of modern 1920s-style femininity which rivaled Clara Bow, the original It girl, then Hollywood's foremost flapper. A stream of hits followed Our Dancing Daughters, including two more flapper-themed movies, in which Crawford embodied for her legion of fans (many of whom were women) an idealized vision of the free-spirited, all-American girl." The fan mail began pouring in and from that point on Joan was a bonafide star. Crawford had cleared the first big hurdle; now came the second, in the form of talkies. But Crawford wasn't felled by sound. Her first talkie, the romantic drama Untamed (Jack Conway, 1929) with Robert Montgomery, was a success. Michael Eliott at IMDb: "It's rather amazing to see how well she transformed into a sound star and you have to think that she was among the best to do so."
In the early 1930s, tired of playing fun-loving flappers, Joan Crawford wanted to change her image. Thin lips would not do for her; she wanted big lips. Ignoring her natural lip contours, Max Factor ran a smear of colour across her upper and lower lips. It was just what she wanted. To Max, the Crawford look, which became her trademark, was always 'the smear'. As the 1930s progressed, Joan Crawford became one of the biggest stars at MGM. She developed a glamorous screen image, appearing often as a sumptuously gowned, fur-draped, successful career woman. She was in top form in films such as Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932), Sadie McKee (Clarence Brown, 1934), No More Ladies (Edward H. Griffith, 1935), and Love on the Run (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936) with Clark Gable. Crawford often played hard-working young women who found romance and success. Movie patrons were enthralled, and studio executives were satisfied. Her fame rivalled, and later outlasted, that of MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Among her early successes as a dramatic actress were The Women (George Cukor, 1939), Susan and God (1940), Strange Cargo (1940), and A Woman’s Face (1941). By the early 1940s, MGM was no longer giving Joan Crawford plum roles. Newcomers had arrived in Hollywood, and the public wanted to see them. Crawford left MGM for rival Warner Bros. In 1945 she landed the role of a lifetime in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945). It is the story of an emotional and ambitious woman who rises from waitress to owner of a restaurant chain. The role gave her an opportunity to show her range as an actress, and her performance as a woman driven to give her daughter (Ann Blyth) everything garnered Crawford her first, and only, Oscar for Best Actress. The following year she appeared with John Garfield in the well-received Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946). In 1947, she appeared as Louise Graham in Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947) with Van Heflin. Again she was nominated for the Best Actress award from the Academy, but she lost to Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter (H.C. Potter, 1947). Crawford continued to choose her roles carefully, and in 1952 she was nominated for a third time, for her depiction of Myra Hudson in Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952) opposite Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame. This time the coveted Oscar went to Shirley Booth, for Come Back, Little Sheba (Daniel Mann, 1952). In 1955, Crawford became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company through her marriage to company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Steele. Crawford married four times. Her first three marriages to the actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1929–1933), Franchot Tone (1935–1939), and Phillip Terry (1942–1946) all had ended in divorce. After his death in 1959 she became a director of the company and in that role hired her friend Dorothy Arzner to film several Pepsi commercials. Crawford's film career slowed and she appeared in minor roles until 1962. Then she and Bette Davis co-starred in Whatever happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962). Their longstanding rivalry may have helped fuel their phenomenally vitriolic and well-received performances. Crawford's final appearance on the silver screen was in the bad monster movie Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970). It is said Bette Davis commented that if she had found herself starring in Trog, she'd commit suicide. Anyway, Joan Crawford retired from the screen, and following a public appearance in 1974 withdrew from public life. Turning to vodka more and more, she became increasingly reclusive. In 1977, Joan Crawford died of a heart attack in New York City. She was 72 years old. She had disinherited her adopted daughter Christina and son Christopher; the former wrote the controversial memoir 'Mommie Dearest' (1978). In 1981, Faye Dunaway starred in the film adaptation Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981) which did well at the box office. Joan Crawford is interred in a mausoleum in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Sources: Stephanie Jones (The Best of Everything), Michael Elliott (IMDb), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.