Theirs was a mature, happy, and fruitful love story- it was when she married Al that Joan decided to turn a new leaf and became hands-on in the Pepsi-Cola business, temporarily leaving her acting career behind. “He was so right for me in every way,” she said. Speaking of her union with Al, Joan said it was her happiest marriage. In 1950, she met Pepsi-Cola main man, Alfred Steele, and the two were married in 1955. Joan did find her one true love… but it would be four years later. I think I’ve owed him an apology from the first.” They divorced after- you guessed it- four years, in 1946. She later said, “I realized I had never loved him. Joan felt that her newly-adopted children, Christina and Christopher, needed a loving father, and she mistook the comfort she felt for love. Then she met B actor Phillip Terry.Īfter only six weeks of dating, they were married in 1942. In the 1940s, Joan seemed to have matured already… but still in search for her one true love. In return, she let him in on her movie projects, letting him co-star with her in films like The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), Love on the Run (1936) and The Bride Wore Red (1937). Joan also learned a lot about Franchot’s well-mannered upbringing. In Franchot’s part, he introduced Joan to the ropes of radio and encouraged her to spread her wings a bit. Joan and Franchot fairly contributed to each other’s growth, both personally and professionally. They were married in 1935 and divorced in 1939 (told you, four years). He came from a prominent family, and was well-educated and highly respected. Husband number two is stage and screen actor Franchot Tone. They were both young and happy, and although Doug was younger than Joan (he was 19) and his stepmother, esteemed actress Mary Pickford, didn’t approve of Joan, they still lived an amazing married life… that is, until their divorce in 1933. They were married for four years, a length that will, weirdly, continue until Joan’s last marriage. With who? A young actor named Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.- who happened to be part of Hollywood’s elite family. In 1929, at age 23, she married for the first time. I won’t bore you all with the details, because you can always read more on the Internet. This post is about Joan’s husbands, just a quick tour in each marriage. As a champion Charleston dancer, she frequented places where she could dance- and socialize with dappers. As a young flapper in the 20s, like most women, she had flings and short-lived romances with boys her age (or sometimes, even a bit younger than her). Joan’s love life is a very fascinating subject to look upon. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” “Al Steele had been the company’s showman who traveled the world promoting Pepsi,” said Andrew Barnet, son of Pepsi president Herbert Barnet. Within weeks, a heartbroken Joan returned to making films, reasoning that “work is the best alleviator of sorrow.” She also was elected the first woman director of Pepsi’s board just days after her husband’s passing. On April 19, 1959, just a few days shy of her husband’s 58th birthday, Joan went to rouse Alfred for breakfast and discovered him dead from an apparent heart attack. I entertain the bottlers and their wives, whether they come from Africa, London, Switzerland or Kansas,” she said. After they wed, Joan starred in fewer movies and traveled with Alfred, too. Alfred, meanwhile, had quadrupled Pepsi’s sales during his tenure by visiting bottlers and attending plant openings around the world. In addition to cultivating relationships with Hollywood dealmakers, she grew her fan club by writing personal letters and sending little gifts to admirers. From the moment of her big break dancing the Charleston in 1928’s Our Dancing Daughters, Joan became a tireless self-promoter. Alfred and Joan were well matched in that they were both smart about business.
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