Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in "Rivals: Betty and Joan" are a pair of rivals in their twilight years. In fact, the two of them have actually won the Oscar, and this American drama was taken from their experience when they filmed "The Surprise of the Blue Girl" together. What makes people feel in the play is their extraordinary talent and charm, as well as the unique life universe of the actress.
In the process of chasing "The Enemy: Betty and Joan", the interested friends may have a problem, that is, the sofa in Joan Crawford's house (picture 1) and the sofa in the dressing room on the set (picture 2) are mostly with Plastic covers, even on throw pillows, but not around Bette Davis at the same level. It's easy to arouse people's curiosity, why didn't Betty have the same arrangement? Could it be that this type of furniture was popular at the time (seem to have never seen it)? Or did the director deliberately try to be ironic (comparing Joan's ability to control men to clean living habits, mocking her for not being clean enough)?
I rejected the third idea myself, because the scene props in the play basically restored a real situation at that time (Figure 4), so I planned to look for it in the history of modern design.
According to the time period of the play, I looked through some furniture designs in the 1950s and 1960s, and found that the Blow inflatable chair designed by an Italian designer in 1967 (Fig. 5) played the characteristics of plastic and was attractive with its avant-garde and surging shapes. , but this is still very different from Joan's furniture. But if the Blow inflatable chair comes into the US, I think Joan might also make one at home to show her queenly style.
I couldn't find Joan's furniture from some modern design books, and then I thought I could look in Joan's former residence, and I saw her interesting furniture (Picture 6). Joan, dressed in lace and white, was sitting on the watermelon red plastic On the leather sofa, she is still so radiant, of course, her Oscar cool statue is not far away~
It turned out that the designer behind Joan's furniture was her friend William Haynes. In the movie "Happy Spring", when William and Joan were sitting together (Figure 7), it was still very correct. As a popular movie actor, William (Figure 8) was not low in appearance. He and Joan stayed together for almost 50 years. Years, even considered "the happiest couple in Hollywood". However, he was the first openly gay actor in Hollywood. Because he was unwilling to accept the company's fake marriage to restore his personal image, he left the actor with his partner and turned into a designer.
William has a famous saying: "Money is precious, love is more expensive, and if it's for taste, both can be thrown away." A gay designer who is crazy about taste, his furniture works (Figure 9) are comfortable and charming Yes, now it's called Mengmeng, but I still haven't seen the plastic cover.
"I can only tell you this - I would rather have taste than either love or money" - William Haines
William left Hollywood, but his influence on Hollywood has always been there, such as the furniture he designed everywhere in the house of his friend Joan Crawford. And for William's evaluation, Joan said: "I have always been supported by William, he is like my eldest brother. He told me Chippendale and Hepwhite (the two most famous furniture in England) Designer). In this process, I improved my ability to see things, and gradually I was able to have a dialogue with William." Joan is also not easy, an actress has to read books to learn to understand different designs style, but I think she is willing to do these things, which has some reverence for William.
In the end, the reason why Joan's furniture was not removed from the original plastic packaging on the sofa, I think one reason may be that she has a hobby of cleanliness, because it can be seen from the play that her home is really clean; another reason may be It was her cherishing of the design works of her old friend William. Joan feels that important things will be realized and protected with a strong attitude. The same is true for her acting career and friendship. I believe that there is a large part of her sincerity in her small universe, which is also her preciousness. .
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