I entertain the bottlers and their wives, whether they come from Africa, London, Switzerland or Kansas,” she said. After they wed, Joan starred in fewer movies and traveled with Alfred, too. Alfred, meanwhile, had quadrupled Pepsi’s sales during his tenure by visiting bottlers and attending plant openings around the world. In addition to cultivating relationships with Hollywood dealmakers, she grew her fan club by writing personal letters and sending little gifts to admirers. From the moment of her big break dancing the Charleston in 1928’s Our Dancing Daughters, Joan became a tireless self-promoter. “We were so happy,” she gushed.Īlfred and Joan were well matched in that they were both smart about business. They wed, sealing their vows with a borrowed ring, on May 9, 1955, when Joan was 47 and Alfred 54. However, three months after Alfred received his divorce, he eloped to Las Vegas with the film star.
“To me death, yes death, is preferable to breaking up a home,” she dramatically claimed. I am a woman with a woman’s need, a husband.”Īlfred didn’t initially seem like a candidate because he was still married to his second wife and Joan insisted she didn’t chase married men. “I can’t tell you how many nights after I put the children to bed I’ve stayed up alone, all alone. “I was utterly lonely,” admitted Joan, who was raising the four children she adopted as a single mother. “A career, particularly if you are a star, demands your time, your energy, everything.”Īfter almost a decade on her own, the Mildred Pierce Oscar winner met Alfred Steele at a party in 1954. “It is very difficult for an actress, a busy one, to have a happy marriage,” said the silver screen icon, who had more than 100 credits to her name before her retirement in the early 1970s. And I was sure I could have it, too,” she said.Īfter her third marriage ended in 1946, Joan never expected to wed again. “I wanted everything - stardom, happiness in marriage and children.
The renovation combined two apartments on the top floors at 2 East 70th Street into one expansive family home with seven large, sun-drenched rooms and views of Central Park. In 1956, construction began on the New York apartment of Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi executive Alfred Steele.
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