You have to be self-reliant and strong to survive in this town. Otherwise you will be destroyed.

But others including Betty Hutton Helen HayesJames MacArthurJune AllysonLiz SmithRex Reed and Vincent Sherman stated that they had witnessed abuse. After the film's release Crawford guest-starred as herself on The Lucy Show. Both Davis and Crawford were backstage when the absent Anne Bancroft was announced as the winner and Crawford accepted the award on her behalf.

After his death in 1959 Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. Her first three marriages ended in divorce; the last ended with the death of husband Alfred Steele. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s Joan Crawford was labeled "box office poison".