The newspaper story was headlined “Twins adopt ‘sister.’” The twins were Charles and Thomas Moss, then 12 1/2, of Riverside. The woman they adopted: Joan Crawford. Yes, that Joan Crawford. The Academy Award winner was in Riverside filming “Strait-Jacket,” a thriller. Their encounter was chronicled in the Aug. 14, 1963 Riverside Press in a feature by Maryan Foster turned up for me by Ruth McCormick of the Riverside Main Library. Not only is the story utterly charming, but it presents a far warmer view of Joan Crawford than we’re used to. No coat hangers were involved. The boys had seen all of Crawford’s movies on TV and had each received a signed photo after sending her fan letters. And here she was in their hometown! Their interest is one of the delightfully oddball aspects of the story. There can’t have been many preteens in 1963 captivated not by Annette Funicello or Ursula Andress but by Joan Crawford, who was in her late 50s (her birth year is a matter of conjecture). The boys spent three hours on Aug. 6 outside the Mission Inn, where she was staying, until finally encountering her. After speaking with them for a couple of minutes, “she asked us to call her,” Tommy told Foster. Each time they phoned, they were told Crawford was busy filming. “We ran into her,” Tommy said, “and she wanted to know why we hadn’t been in touch with her.” When they explained, she apologized and invited them to spend the next day on the set with her. In this Sept. 1963 letter to Thomas Moss, Joan Crawford tells him to be a good boy. Perhaps in response to a request from her young Riverside friend, she says: “I gave my dogs a nice big hug for you.” (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) “Miss Crawford’s chauffeur took us to call mother to tell her where we were going and to get her permission for us to be gone all day,” Chuck said, “and we rode in the limousine with Joan to the location” — a chicken ranch in Norco — “and while we were driving there we did scenes from ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ My brother and I had seen the picture so many times that we knew the lines as well as she did.” The boys met actors, crew and personnel, including a man who gave them each a dollar, and they ate a lunch of rock Cornish game hen. Before Crawford’s first scene, each boy gave her a kiss for luck. While riding back into Riverside, Crawford asked the boys if they’d like some watermelon. Tommy related: “She had the chauffeur pull up to a supermarket and went in herself to get it for us.” Boys in the car next to the limo were holding a white mouse. Crawford fed the mouse some watermelon. The twins, but not the mouse, got to see Crawford’s Mission Inn suite — “and boy, was it ever something,” Chuck enthused — before the chauffeur drove them home. The next day, the twins wrote a thank you letter. Crawford replied in a note dispatched to their father’s barber shop and addressed to “Darling Tommy and Chuck,” whom she had learned had no siblings. Her note read: “It was wonderful seeing you yesterday. Thank you for spending the day with us on location, it was such fun. You’re such wonderful boys and I’m so proud to be your big sister. Love, Joan.” You can see why I didn’t cram this into my column last November on the filming of “Strait-Jacket.” It was worth telling in detail. My brief mention of their meeting included a request for more on the Moss twins from anyone who had it. This brought more information — some terrific, some tragic. Charles, left, and Thomas Moss, fraternal twins, are pictured in the North High School yearbook in 1969, the year they graduated. (Courtesy Riverside Main Library) Crawford and the Moss boys became pen pals. It’s unclear if they ever met again, but they stayed in touch. A cousin, Stuart Dorsey, ended up with Crawford’s letters to the boys and donated them to Redlands’ A.K. Smiley Public Library about 15 years ago, thinking they should be preserved. He was president of the University of Redlands at the time. The typewritten letters, 26 in all, span 1963 to 1977 and are signed by Crawford. They are personal, responding to comments the boys had shared in letters while relating her own activities. She takes a motherly interest in the twins, encouraging them to do well in school, thanking them for sending her birthday wishes by card or telegram, or noting approvingly that Tommy was mowing Mr. Bryant’s lawn or that Chuck had a part in a school play, “Exit the Body.” “Darlings Charles and Tommy,” a 1964 letter begins, “How are my brothers?” A 1965 letter ends, “Love from your big sister Joan.” “I don’t know if a secretary wrote the letters and she signed them, or if she dictated them,” says Nathan Gonzales, the library’s archivist. “Either way, it gives us a different perspective on Joan Crawford.” Life was not exactly idyllic for the Moss boys. Their parents, Thomas Sr. and Mildred, divorced in 1970, and the boys, who graduated the previous year from North High, continued living with their mother at 4437 Sixth St. They attended Riverside City College and occasionally acted in plays there, such as Charlie’s role in “American Kaleidoscope” in 1974. Joan Crawford continued writing to Charles Moss into the mid-1970s, including one last letter sent just weeks before her May 10, 1977 death. She signed off as “Big Sis.” (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) It’s unknown what employment they had. In a 1976 letter, Crawford puts a positive spin on the news of Charlie’s job at the May Co.: “I am sure there is never a dull moment in the Women’s Shoes Department.” The two young men spent many of their days in the back yard, sharing one or more bottles of wine. Mark Ontiveros grew up next door and assisted Mrs. Moss around the house with tasks her sons were unable or unwilling to perform. “Even as a child, I could tell they were alcoholics,” Ontiveros recalls of the twins. “You could tell she despaired for them because they were drunk all the time.” Mark’s father, Richard, says the twins’ father was in a rest home for alcoholics. Mrs. Moss was not known to drink. 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Have a lovely spring and summer.” The hand-penned sign-off: “Love, ‘Big Sis.’” David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, but not with a pen, pal. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.