Joan Crawford & The Poet Who Saved Her Career...

And Possibly Even Her Life Before It Got Started

Jun 09, 2024

Joan Crawford, was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, in either 1904 or 1908 in San Antonio, Texas.

This was before mandatory birth certificates for all states and Joan insisted it was 1908 despite anecdotes to the contrary from those who knew her when she was a child.

Little Lucille liked to be called “Billie”.

Billie spent most of her days dancing around the house.

From childhood, it was Billie's dream to be a dancer.

A rebel at heart, Billie wanted to escape her dreaded piano lesson. So, she leapt off the front porch of her home. Unfortunately, she ended up severely cutting her foot on a broken milk bottle.

It took three surgeries to repair the damage. For 18 months Billie was unable to attend dancing lessons or even go to school.

However, as bad as the injury was, it could have been much worse.

Possibly, even irreparable.

While Billie was on the ground, bleeding and barely able to move, a boy from the neighborhood walked past.

Seeing Billie needed help, he ran over, picked her up and carried her into her house. He applied a tourniquet to Billie’s foot and called for the doctor immediately.

Billie was deeply grateful. The boy saved the functionality of her foot and quite possibly her life.

The boy’s name was Don Blanding.

He lived across the street from Billie and was a senior at Lawton High in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Donald Benson Blanding was born November 7, 1894 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

Blanding was an American poet, journalist, artist, author and speaker.

Blanding and Crawford became neighbors sometime around 1910 in Lawton, OK.

Blanding and Crawford’s ‘foot’ incident would later become the focus of a poem he wrote when the two met again many years later.

Below is the story of how Crawford and Blanding met again long after both of them had achieved a high level of success;

“Years later in 1936, after Billie had become a star and was known worldwide as Joan Crawford, she was filming The Gorgeous Hussy (1936).
Don Blanding arrived on the set to interview the stars. He was working as a journalist at the time.
Joan knew exactly who he was and said, “Hello Don Blanding, do you know you once saved my life?”
Don looked at Joan blankly. He had no clue that the lovely, famous actress before him with little Billie his childhood neighbor.
Not long after the meeting with Joan on the film set, Don wrote a poem about her.
This poem was later published and entitled The Little Girl Across The Street.
-Find the reference story here…

Below is Blanding’s poem, which was written & published especially for Joan.

THE LITTLE GIRL ACROSS THE STREET

She was just the little girl who lived across the street,
All legs and curls and great big eyes and restless dancing feet,
As vivid as a humming bird, as bright and swift and gay,
A child who played at make-believe throughout the livelong day.

With tattered old lace curtains and a battered feather fan
She swept and preened, an “actress” with grubby snub-nosed clan
Of neighborhood kids for audience enchanted with the play,
A prairie Bernhardt for a while. And then she went away.

We missed her on the little street, her laughter and her fun
Until the dull years blurred her name as years have ever done.

. . . . .

A great premiere in Hollywood… the light, the crowds, the cars,
The frenzied noise of greeting to the famous movie stars,
The jewels, the lace, the ermine coats, the ballyhoo and cries,
The peacock women’s promenade, the bright mascaraed eyes….

The swift excited whisper as a limousine draws near,
“Oh, look! It’s Joan. It’s Joan. It’s Joan!” On every side I hear
The chatter, gossip, envy, sighs, conjectures, wonder, praise,
As memory races quickly back to early prairie days.

The little girl across the street… the funny child I knew
Who dared to dream her splendid dreams…
and make her dreams come true.