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Rita Moreno made historical past in 1962 when she grew to become the primary Latina to win an performing Oscar, and Joan Crawford was desirous to steal the highlight.
The Puerto Rican actress received the Academy Award for greatest supporting actress for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story.” And when she went offstage to bask within the glory, there was the display star ready for her. Moreno, 92, recalled the incident to Dave Karger for his guide, “50 Oscar Nights.”
“Joan Crawford was legendary in Hollywood for stealing the thunder of other people,” the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) host informed Fox News Digital.
“During that Oscar night, she managed to be waiting in the wings with a photographer. The moment Rita Moreno came off the stage with her Oscar, Joan just grabbed her and pulled her into her bosom. She tried to console her, even as Rita kept saying she didn’t need any consoling. But Joan insisted on getting a great picture with the Oscar.”
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Rita Moreno tearfully accepts her Oscar for greatest supporting actress for her position within the 1961 movie “West Side Story” on the thirty fourth Academy Awards April 9, 1962. (Getty Images)
“That’s Joan Crawford for you,” Karger chuckled. “I thought the story was hilarious, and it just adds to the legend of Joan Crawford. I was delighted when Rita told me that story.”
Crawford, who achieved the head of her fame within the ‘40s, was “drunk as a skunk on vodka,” Moreno said.
“There’s Joan Crawford ready for me,” stated Moreno, as quoted within the guide. “I’d never met her in my life. There was a photographer waiting for her to greet me, which she had arranged, I’m sure. And she grabbed me and squashed my face against her bosom. I mean, she was built like a linebacker. She wouldn’t let me go. Her breath was very strong of something alcoholic; I couldn’t tell what it was.”
Maximilian Schell and Joan Crawford pose collectively on the Academy Awards. (Getty Images)
“The photographer kept saying, ‘Miss Crawford, I can’t see Miss Moreno’s face,’” Moreno shared. “And she’d say, ‘Oh, but she’s so upset. There, there, dear.’ She would not let me go. And I kept saying, ‘I’m not upset!’ My voice was muffled against her bosom. And my face is all being squashed against her linebacker chest.
“Finally, it took a few folks to wrest me from her grasp. Then two weeks later, after I’m again in Manila [to film], I get this notice: ‘Darling Rita, I cannot tell you how thrilled and moved I was that, at the most wonderful moment in your life, you took the time to stop and say hello to me. Thank you, darling. Joan Crawford.’”
TCM host Dave Karger has written a new book, “50 Oscar Nights.” (Running Press Adult)
Crawford first soared to stardom within the Twenties. By the Thirties, she was one of many highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. But by the ‘40s, her career began to dwindle, and she was labeled “box office poison” to her horror. She bounced back in 1946 when she won the Oscar for best actress in “Mildred Pierce.”
“Joan Crawford claimed she was too sick to go to the ceremony,” said Karger. “But when she won, she accepted her award in bed — with photographers ready to take her photo.”
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American actress Joan Crawford (1904-1977) holding her Academy Award for best actress for her performance in “Mildred Pierce” as she makes a telephone call from her bed, circa 1946. (Silver Screen Collection)
From the confines of her Brentwood boudoir, a glammed-up Crawford told reporters, “Whether the academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for ‘Mildred,’ or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it – I deserved it.”
Crawford got herself into the Oscar spotlight once more in 1963 when she offered to accept Anne Bancroft’s award on her behalf for “The Miracle Worker.” Crawford even posed with the other winners after making a speech for Bancroft.
Crawford’s rival, Bette Davis, was nominated that evening while Crawford wasn’t.
Joan Crawford accepted the best actress award on behalf of Anne Bancroft. (Graphic House/Archive Photos)
“Joan didn’t need me to have that Oscar,” Davis later told Barbara Walters, as quoted by the New York Post. “She labored very onerous, campaigned very onerous, speaking to all the New York folks, saying, ‘If you win, I’ll settle for your Oscar.’ I assumed I ought to have had it. … She lower off her personal nostril, simply so I wouldn’t win.”
As for Moreno, she made historical past on her particular night time for one more purpose — giving one of many shortest Oscar speeches. The gushing star informed audiences, “I can’t imagine it! Good Lord! I depart you with that.”
Actress Rita Moreno as Anita in the musical romantic drama “West Side Story,” 1961. (Silver Screen Collection)
“She informed me that she needs she had the wherewithal to offer a correct speech and converse in regards to the significance of illustration and being that very uncommon factor, a Latina Oscar winner,” said Karger. “I’m glad that she expressed that on this guide as a result of it’s by no means too late to make the factors that you simply wish to make.
“Just because she didn’t say it back then doesn’t mean she can’t say it now. She won her Oscar over 60 years ago, and I was so impressed that she could vividly recall all the things she felt that day. I was astonished by how much she remembered.”
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Joan Crawford’s (proper) rivalry with Bette Davis was chronicled within the sequence “Feud.” (Getty Images)
Crawford died in 1977. She was 69.
For years, Moreno’s Oscar was saved in a carton.
“One thing that really surprised me doing all of these interviews for this book was how many felt shy about displaying their Oscars in a public place,” stated Karger. “If I had an Oscar, I would carry it around with me wherever I went. But a lot of these performers, for whatever reason, felt shy about displaying it. Rita Moreno had hers sitting in a cardboard box out of view.
Rita Moreno attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center March 4, 2018, in Hollywood, Calif. (Frazer Harrison)
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“Her new husband on the time later discovered that it was sitting on this cardboard field,” Karger continued. “He tells her, ‘Why? You earned this. You should have it out on display. Be proud of it.’ Rita stated, ‘You’re proper.’ Now she does. Rita has all of her awards on show now — her Grammy, Emmy, Oscar and Tony. She has all of them on show on her bookshelf.”
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