Why was Joan Rivers always crying poor?

Typical Jewish lady of that generation. Could have $30M but always on her “last dime”.

She always had something interesting to say.

She has been dead for years OP. Why are you wondering now?

Have to agree with R1 though. Don't know if being Jewish had to do with it, but have you seen pictures of her place in New York? This woman was loaded to the gills. Probably just cheap and paranoid. Paying gigs as a performer can turn on a dime, so I get it for a newbie, but she clearly had plenty.

i thought i read somewhere her estate was worth 150Million

R3 I've known plenty of people her generation and older, who were well off or wealthy, yet they were always fearful of losing it all and being poor, especially if they didn't grow up rich. Religion/ethnicity had nothing to do with it.

[quote] She has been dead for years OP. Why are you wondering now?

The FOOL! Does he not realize that questions about the dead are FORBIDDEN here!!!

R6 If that was the case 75% of DL would cease to exist.

Did she and Jacko really share the same plastic surgeon?

Could never get into her act, she always seemed like such a bitter angry woman.

Well, she said that when her husband killed himself (because he had lost all of their money in bad investments), she owed $37 million. (I tend to think that this was mortgage debt, and not actually money that she owed to creditors.) She then moved to the NYC and bought PART of the apartment she lived in for $2 million, which she said was all the money she had left when Edgar died. (Presumably she was forced to sell the other real estate to pay back the mortgage loans that she couldn't service herself.)

As time went on, and things got better for her, she bought more space in the same building (another apartment) and combined that with the apartment that she had. (I recall reading this, but may not be 100% accurate.)

So she certainly went through a period that was frightening. She said in another interview that her parents never had enough money when she was growing up: her dad was a doctor, but with a huge practice of poor people, and they used to pay him in food (with chickens and things).

I believe her when she says Obama was gay, and Michelle trans.

Joan was cheap and miserable, yet lived in a huge Manhattan co-op which looked like fucking Versailles! Very typical of rich people in general, they usually are the cheapest. She didn't exactly come from a poor background either, she came from an upper middle class family.

I have a very wealthy relative who would sometimes go to dinner with a few relatives. One time we all ate at a suburban diner. I was a teen at the time, about 15-16, yet remember this vividly. I don't remember the circumstances as to why were were in the suburbs, I grew up I Brooklyn. It might have been after a funeral. Yet I remember the actual dinner vividly.

Since this relative always bragged so much about his European, trips, his three homes and his expensive 'bespoke' suits, everyone assumed Mr. Moneybags would foot the bill at least once, or at least pay the tip.

At the end of the dinner Mr. Moneybags took out a calculator and tried to divide the bill equally! Everyone looked mortified because this man is extremely wealthy.

As usual, he had the most expensive meal. One uncle was so disgusted at his behavior, he said, "If we are going to split the bill, don't you think we should pay for our exact meals? You had a full dinner and alcohol, the rest of us didn't, the kids sure didn't eat expensive meals!" That uncle was so disgusted by Mr. Moneybags always miserly behavior, this was not the first time he pulled this bullshit when out with family.

The uncle asking to that we pay the bill according to what we ate, didn't care how he came across, he was truly disgusted at Mr. Moneybags penny pinching behavior.

Mr. Moneybags was in shock, he couldn't believe someone else beat him at his own stupid game. My other uncle took the check, asked my aunt for her calculator, then made sure everyone paid for exactly what they ate. My uncle who was disgusted, did pay the entire tip and even tipped the busboy!

Afterwards, we ended up going to some expensive Italian bakery which had a section where you could stay and eat dessert. We lied to Mr. Moneybags that we were all heading home. The uncle who was disgusted paid for everyones desserts, we all vowed to never go to dinner with the rich relative again.

It was always a stressful situation seeing that relative, we always had to endure his bragging and utter cheapness, then him always taking out his damn gold-plated calculator! Even if the calculator wash't real gold, it was gold! What a pompous bore.

Ding Dong, the wicked witch.

The story of your uncle has nothing to do with Joan.

Joan was not cheap by any means. She was very giving of her time and money. She paid for longtime friends and staffs medical bills, mortgages. She put some of their kids through college. She spent every Thanksgiving personally delivering food to the homeless. She used to volunteer for the Red Crass.

Her private persona was completely different from her public persona. I've never heard a bad word about her from fans who have had encounters with her.

Jewish = cheap

Woman = cheap

2x miserly bullshit. What do you expect?

first, she cried poor so she could fit in with her audience. Secondly I would strongly guess that when her husband died it wasnt mortg debt that was the problem. They had lived in their bel air house a long time and when they originally bought it prices hadnt skyrocketed. At the time of Edgars death even if they borrowed against the house it wouldnt have been 10 s of millions by any means. Maybe it was bad investments, a lot of overhead for Joan s act, She had just lost her show on fox that was competing against fox and maybe they were spending anticipating future earnings. FInally Joan lost a ton of money when a business parther in her qvc merchandise line/biz absconded with all the money and sold her trademark and name without her knowlege. The guy went to prison. That alone put her into 37 million of debt. SHe slowly climbed her way out and worked constantly. Decades later when she died, in addition to her co op she had about 130 million dollars as a net worth. Great, but by new york standards it would be comfortable but not out of this world.

As another poster said she was incredibly generous to everybody who worked for her, right down to the maids. SHe paid for everyones kids to go to private schools for one thing.........

I thought she was extremely funny, talented, quick witted etc. I even liked her looks, and thought her money spent on plastic surgery was well spent. I miss her a great deal.

Jews, for the tiny group they are, give an outsized amount of money to all sorts of charities.

She made her many millions on a public persona that included racist and homophobic "jokes" and slamming women for their looks when SHE didn't even look human. She was grotesque and tacky.

Using some of that money to help her friends and family doesn't mitigate HOW she got the money.

[quote] FInally Joan lost a ton of money when a business parther in her qvc merchandise line/biz absconded with all the money and sold her trademark and name without her knowlege. The guy went to prison. That alone put her into 37 million of debt.

Okay, that's the part of the story I hadn't read yet. Thanks

[quote] Using some of that money to help her friends and family doesn't mitigate HOW she got the money.

Welcome to the world of stand-up comedy!

Also, she didn't just give to her friends and family: she also gave to non-profits, and significant amounts, which we know because she was a long-standing board member of quite a few charities. (Which are give-or-get off board memberships.)

[quote] She made her many millions on a public persona that included racist and homophobic "jokes"

She did an enormous amount for gay causes before it was "cool" to do so--including financially supporting them.

I think R17 and R21 has answered the question posed in another thread about what Melissa Rivers is up to these days.

Jews take all the heat for crying poor, but it is a universal richie thing.

She grew up in a household that should have been well off as her father was some sort of medical specialist. Unfortunately, her mother spent all the money as quickly as it was earned so perhaps that left her always feeling like she had no money?

Hey gang - I’m bumping this Joan Rivers thread to let all those interested know that someone uploaded the super hard to find TV movie where Joan and Melissa play themselves! It is in three parts and I’m currently watching Part I - Edgar just killed himself and left everything to Melissa and Hoan just hired a psychic to channel Edgar!

Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story

She was so vile, unfunny and a walking stereotype..

I read her and Phyllis Diller did scissorine

She was a legend. Tough old bitch.

In her first book she talks about her parents struggles with money. They were immigrants and even though her father was a doctor and did pretty well, the family spent as much or more than was coming in. Both Joan and her sister attended private schools and always had new store bought clothes. She mentions her mother running up department store charge accounts and having to sell her jewelry to pay off the bills.

When she set off to attempt her show business career, her parents eventually cut her off and she struggled living a very hand to mouth existence she wasn’t used to before finally hitting it big. She says she always lived with the idea that everything could disappear in a heartbeat so I’m sure that’s why she worked constantly and probably believed whatever she had wasn’t enough.