Lights, Camera, Action: Wild and Intriguing Facts About Our Favorite Old Hollywood Movies and Stars

Did you know that Joan Crawford’s original name was Lucille Fay LeSueur? I can’t believe MGM had to resort to a public contest to create her stage name. Clearly, studios had way too much control over their stars, even down to their names. They were essentially like slaves.

I wonder what other stage names we don’t know about that were picked by a contest or by a studio executive, although it’s unlikely that we’ll ever find them out. There were sure to be some hilarious ones out there! It’s interesting to think about how different things were back then in Old Hollywood.