Mamie Van Doren reveals why Joan Crawford felt 'disgust' when she first encountered Marilyn Monroe

Ryan ColemanTue, May 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM UTC

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Mamie Van Doren, Joan Crawford, and Marilyn MonroeCredit: MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty; Archive Photos/Getty; Michael Ochs Archives/GettyKey Points -

Mamie Van Doren is letting decades of juicy old Hollywood gossip fly in her new memoir, You Thought I Was Dead.

Among the morsels the actress born Joan Lucille Olander offers up is the shocking reaction her namesake, Joan Crawford, had to the original blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.

"Marilyn was cavorting on stage that night in a skintight gold lame gown," Van Doren recalled of one 1950s awards ceremony, "while Crawford watched in disgust, drinking herself into a stupor."

No one is safe from Mamie Van Doren's photographic memory and crackling sense of humor.

But the ultimate blonde bombshell of the rock & roll era, now 95, also displays a bottomless capacity for empathy in her new memoir, You Thought I Was Dead.

Published on Tuesday by Permuted Press, You Thought I Was Dead traces the starry highs and harrowing lows of Van Doren's storied Hollywood career, which reached its zenith from the late 1950s into the early 1960s. In films like Girls Town and Sex Kittens Go to College, Van Doren became an icon of a rebellious new spirit than began to break through the rigid, yet failing facade of the studio era in the '60s. But she still had plenty of crossover with the icons of Hollywood's golden years.

Case in point, a thrilling passage detailing her first encounter with the legendary Joan Crawford, her namesake, which gave her a front-row seat to Crawford's first encounter with Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe in 'Some Like it Hot'Credit: Richard C. Miller/Donaldson Collection/Getty

"We sat at the same table for the 1953 Photoplay Awards. My date for the evening, arranged by the studio, was Rock Hudson," Van Doren writes. "Marilyn was cavorting on stage that night in a skintight gold lame gown, while Crawford watched in disgust, drinking herself into a stupor."

The image it paints of Oscar winner, whose career stretched back to the silent era, is not flattering. But it isn't unsubstantiated. Monroe biographer Donald Spoto details the same evening in his 1993 account of the star, in which he quotes gossip columnist Florabel Muir's report that "With one little twist of her derriere, Marilyn Monroe stole the show." But while some attendees "broke into wild applause... two other screen stars, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner, got only casual attention. After Marilyn every other girl appeared dull by contrast."

Spoto alleges that Crawford thereafter "summoned the press and publicly denounced Marilyn's 'burlesque show,' advising that 'the public likes provocative feminine personalities, but it also likes to know that underneath it all the actresses are ladies.'"

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Still, Van Doren could understand Crawford's reaction. "It must have been difficult for her to witness the changing of the Hollywood talent landscape. Joan Crawford had been in movies since 1925—before talkies," she writes in her memoir. "That she had survived in an industry so unforgiving of growing old is a monument to her determination and sheer cussedness."

Van Doren explained how Crawford "supported her mother and younger brother Hal throughout their lives," took care of Hal when he got sick, and even paid for ex-husband Franchot Tone's medical expenses and funeral after he died from lung cancer. "After eighteen years as a huge money maker at MGM, Louis B. Mayer unceremoniously dumped her. When she drove out the studio gate, there was no one to say 'Goodbye,'" Van Doren solmenly writes.

Joan Crawford in 'The Best of Everything'Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Though it "saddened" Van Doren "to sit with her at the Photoplay Awards and endure the snide remarks she directed at me and the other starlets," Van Doren still referred to the actress as "a consummate professional—a fact which even her enemies, like Bette Davis, admitted."

She also had the opportunity to meet the Mildred Pierce star once more on the Universal lot. "'I never really introduced myself—but my name's not really Mamie Van Doren,'" she recalls in the memoir. "My mother was absolutely crazy about you. She saw every movie you did, I think. She named me for you: my real name's Joan Lucille Olander."

That means Van Doren was actually twice named after Crawford, whose own real name was Lucille LeSueur. She was, however, nonplussed by Van Doren's enthusiasm, simply responding "'I'm flattered.'" When Van Doren asked if Crawford saw any potential stars among the young crop at Universal, she merited another simple reply: "'No.'"

You Thought I Was Dead is currently available online and in bookstores.

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