“Number one: All the floors and carpets should be covered with white sheeting because Joan didn’t like dirt. “She and Mamacita would prepare the list,” says Varney. “The floors were always polished every single day and if she were to bring in fresh roses - she loved fresh roses - she always had a towel put underneath.”Īfter her fourth and final husband, Pepsi-Cola chief executive officer Alfred Steele, died in 1959, Crawford remained on the board of directors and when traveling on behalf of the soft drinks giant required hotels to adhere to her exacting specific rider. “One of the insistences was that I take all of the bathtubs out because Joan never liked to soak in her own dirt so she’d always have showers,” recalls Varney. It went from white to cream to soft yellow to deeper yellow to pink and so on.”Ī notorious germophobe, the former Lucille LeSueur covered all of her midcentury Billy Haines sofas and chairs in fitted plastic, as seen on “Feud,” but furniture prophylactics were not Crawford’s only domestic demands. “Mamacita - Joan’s maid for many years - had the shelves numbered top to bottom: the hat, the gloves, the coats, the suits, the handbags and shoes were all numbered by complete outfits. “She had one long wall of wardrobe,” describes the jovial designer, who is wearing a devil-may-care purple neckerchief. Molly Sims, Laney Crowell Cohost Hamptons Dinner Reminiscing about Crawford from his Technicolor office in New York City as president of Dorothy Draper & Co., Varney recalls decorating the actress’ Manhattan apartments in the years following “Baby Jane.” “If the waiters were rattling dishes she would stop speaking until there was total attention focused on her,” explains interior designer Carleton Varney of his former client and friend. But the “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” actresses are arguably hotter now than at any point in the nearly 40 years since Crawford’s lonely death at (approximately) 73 years old - after all, a lady never reveals her true age. “I’ll stop worrying about how I look when they dip me in formaldehyde,” hisses Jessica Lange as an aging Joan Crawford in the finale of “Feud,” airing this Sunday on FX.Ĭhronicling the real-life catfight between screen legends Crawford and Bette Davis, the Ryan Murphy-created anthology series depicts the two stars in the Sixties as their illustrious careers began fading in tandem with their youthful good looks.
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