OFF-SCREEN : Ordinary People

In Hollywood’s heyday, fans looked for stars to be everything in their off-screen lives that they were on screen--and they demanded a glimpse of that mysterious private world. Studios and stars were happy to oblige--so much so that Helen Lawrenson was able to paint a classic rendering of Hollywood living for Esquire magazine in 1957: “These are the beautiful people, who, befitting their rank as gods and goddesses of a powerful modern mythology, lead beautiful lives in beautiful houses, attired in beautiful clothes and, ostensibly, thinking only beautiful thoughts.” Christina Crawford’s “Mommie Dearest,” published in 1978, with its tragic portrait of a clearly deranged Joan Crawford, showed that appearances could indeed be deceiving. But for the most part, the world off the silver screen was filled with nothing more than the many ordinary moments of everyday life.