People can feel diminished by having to live smaller and sell belongings, out Go, keeping only what you need, and moving forward. There's two ways of looking at downsizing. Later, I downsized down the street, to 1621 East Lane, in Traverse City, MI Much like the Fifth Avenue apartment was for Joan with Alfred Steele. Here was my "dream house" with my late partner, on Traverse City's Boughey Hill, Instead, she downsized to her final, five-room apartment. This may have been a daydream on her part, but I still found it Said that she would like to move one more time, to the country, away from the I will wait out the real estate boom before buying my Still another dream over, and I’m feelingīittersweet selling. Iīought a 1,100 foot stone cottage on Indian River. I moved back, I sold the Traverse City house and moved back home to Upper MI. After aboutįive years, restless, I moved out west and rented out the small house. I movedĭown the street of this fab fifties neighborhood to a house half the size.Īlong the way, I also got rid of about half of our possessions. By the end, I had felt like a caretaker to a home and memory. Square feet and the downstairs nearly the same, with four courtyards and a Like Joan, I loved our life at that home andĪlso lived in our modern house 10 more years. Also dynamic andĭriven, living a businessman’s hard life, Jigger was most generous and left me My late partner, Jigger, an oil businessman, also suddenlyĭied of a heart attack at home. She downsized one more time,Īpartment at Imperial House half the size of her prior one, where she lived the Prestigious, but less deluxe apartment building. Joan lived there until 1967, until she reluctantly moved to Imperial House, a Happy ending, but Steele barely resided in it before he died of a heart attack. This marriage and merger was supposed to be Joan’s They renovated a massive apartment on FifthĪvenue to modern perfection. When Joan met Al, they instantly married andīecame a publicized super couple. Her glory years, it reminded me of my own life. It all started with Al Steele’s sudden death in 1959, just daysīefore his 59 th birthday. Hollywood, Pepsi, and the world know that she was still here, and very BUSY,īless you. Some folks felt that Joan was tooting her own horn, letting Ironically, Joan died that same day in 1977. Who Lunch.” Frankly, they would have rather had another vodka stinger than askĪlfred Steele and Joan Crawford on their wedding day, May 10th, 1955. Were looking for ways to cut corners so they could surprise their hard-workingīusiness men with caviar! Stephen Sondheim, inspired by Joan to write the divaĭitty “I’m Still Here,” wrote another classic tune. The tips on the perfect life for the modern wife were beyond But Crawford's culinary feats feel like very tall tales. But remember, HE comes FIRST.Īs for Joan's "way of life" as written, her tips for multi-tasking and perfectionĪre easy to believe. The man have the career that counts while the woman maintains all at the homeįront, including entertaining his co-workers and clients, raise the children, and The height of Joan's marriage to Pepsi mogul Alfred Steele. Way of Life as a book, it’s a pity this lifestyle piece wasn't published at It made me think of my own mortality, as IĪm just a few years younger than Joan was at the time, and have faced similar I wondered to myself while reading My Way of Life: Was Joan Crawford unconsciously writing her own obituary through rose-colored glasses? Looking at it from that point of view, I was suddenly overwhelmed with Joan Crawford was proud of her hard-earned Brentwood mansion, which she owned for nearly three decades, before making NYC her permanent home. By the end of ’76 Joan was quite ill.Īnd on May 10, 1977, Joan Crawford passed away. Unhappy about her physicalĪppearance at an event for a publicist/friend in the fall of ‘74, Crawford Joan even downsized her living situation once more, to her final and smallestĪpartment. Was retired without notice on her “official” 65 th birthday, MarchĢ3, 1973. Her tireless Pepsi promotions had slowed down and Joan After ’71,Ĭrawford acted just once more, in a TV episode of The Sixth Sense. I read between the lines, I recalled Joan’s ‘70s public outings. This book in a far more empathetic way, despite its pretensions and self-delusions. As made me think of her book as My Way or the Highway of Life.Īs someone who is now 62, I recently found myself re-reading The past, partaking of Joan's edicts from everything to dress, manners,Įntertaining, public behavior, etc. When Joan Crawford's lifestyle tome My Way of Life was published 50 years ago, October 8, 1971, theīook’s best sales came from life-long Crawford fans. Joan Crawford, at a book signing for her lifestyle tome, "My Way of Life."
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