With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic

Mommie Dearest, by Christina Crawford, daughter of iconic actress Joan Crawford, chronicled the child abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother and became a blockbuster sensation. But the film by the same name remains one of the most legendary critical bombs in film history. Despite this, the movie was a commercial success and four decades later is still wildly popular. In With Love, Mommie Dearest, Hollywood historian, A. Ashley Hoff, details the drama surrounding the publication of the book as well as the filming of the movie, all while exploring the phenomenon, the camp, and the infrequently addressed social issues in both. Author Alonso Duralde calls the book,“Dishy and thoroughly researched, [a] page-turner [that] takes us deep inside a movie that wrecked careers and reputations while launching a thousand midnight screenings.” Sponsored by the

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About the Author:

A. Ashley Hoff is the author of Match Game 101: A Backstage History of Match Game and My Huckleberry Friend: Holly Golightly and the Untold History of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He previously worked for talent agencies in Chicago and Los Angeles and has written articles on Hollywood for The Advocate and Films in Review. He has been interviewed on numerous pop culture subjects on The Nick Digilio Show on WGN Radio, The Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius XM, Feast of Fun on iTunes, in magazines such as Closer Weekly, and on various local talk shows and podcasts.

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