Village Voice columnist Michael Musto went to see a preview of Christina Crawford’s off-Broadway show, Surviving Mommie Dearest, a documentary screening followed by a Q&A with audience members. In the past, Crawford has hinted that her mother killed her last husband, Pepsi-Cola CEO Alfred Steele, but now she’s pretty much coming right out and alleging it rather bluntly.
And what she said effectively wiped away what all the apologists have conjectured for years—that mommie merely drove Steele to a heart attack by making him batty and anxious. Oh, no, kids. It’s way worse than that.
In the doc, Tina describes how Steele was found dead at the bottom of the grand stairway in the house.
“I didn’t believe it was an accident,” she asserts, knowingly. “I know what Mommie was capable of in a state of rage.”
Eek. She was implying Joan was a real-life villainess fresh out of the type of film noir Joan often played the heroine of. Mommie did like to push, after all.
“There was no autopsy,” added Christina, austerely. “He was cremated.”
Yikes! In 1959, Joan Crawford was elected to fill Alfred Steele’s vacancy on the Pepsi-Co board of directors, a spot she held until she was forced out in 1973. Crawford and Steele’s ashes are interred together at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Thanks Niall!