by Axel Madsen
5. Fay sie. Levant touched upon Frank Fay’s anti-Semitism in Memoirs of an Amnesiac, p. 80, as did Harry Golden in The Right Time, p. 175. Levant described his European trip with Fay and Fay’s attitudes toward religion and Helen Hayes in Memoirs of an Amnesiac, pp. 80-83. Levant, “Barbara fell madly in love with him”: Oscar Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, p. 83. “It was ‘Hi there, Frankie’”: Photoplay, October 1931. Fay’s personality and early years are detailed in Photoplay, January 1933, and New York Times obituary, September 27, 1961. Milton Berle, “Fay’s friends” and Fay’s court appearance on a business matter: Milton Berle with Haskel Frankel, Milton Berle, pp. 100-101. Stanwyck-Fay wedding detailed in Al DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 41. “Pretty little Barbara Stanwyck”: New York Times, February 28, 1929. Schenck, “If you ever want to do a movie part”: “Nobody Knows Stanwyck as I Do,” by Ruby Stevens as told to Margaret Lee Runbeck, Good Housekeeping, July 1954. Descriptions of Hollywood, Joseph Schenck, United Artists, and industry switch to talkies in 1929-30 are author’s own, based on Axel Madsen, Gloria and Joe, pp. 6, 8, and 232ff. Schenck, “Three weeks is a short time”: Photoplay, January 1933.
6. Hollywood. George Fitzmaurice background: Dictionnaire du Cinéma, ed. Jean Tulard, pp. 273-74. BS, “He kept arranging all kinds of drapery” and “I staggered through it”: Film Comment, March-April 1981. “They never should’ve unlocked”: DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 45. Show of Shows summary: Leslie Halliwell’s Film Guide, 7th edition, p. 915. The author interviewed Harry Cohn and Frank Capra in 1964. Their early relationship is detailed in Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, pp. 197ff. BS, “You memorize the script”: New York Times interview, February 23, 1941. BS, “I made a frightful thing”: New York Times, June 21, 1931. Gloria Swanson told author of Alexander Korda’s screen test of BS. Wallis, “This was before the days”: Hal Wallis and Charles Higham, Starmaker, p. 10. Author interviewed Adela Rogers St. Johns in 1969.
7. Capra. Jo Swerling’s early years and quotes of story meetings detailed in “Failure to Be ‘Yes Man’ Started Swerling’s Career,” New York Herald Tribune, April 29, 1934. Ladies of Leisure dialogue from screenplay at Center for Motion Picture Study, Beverly Hills. Harry Cohn, “Capra is going to do”: Bob Thomas, King Cohn, p. 111. BS, “No thanks, I’ve had my experience with tests”: Thomas, King Cohn, p. 111. BS, “Oh hell,” and Capra, “Harry, forget
Stanwyck”: DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 50. Capra told author of working with Howell and Swerling in interview in 1966. Capra’s work method with BS detailed in Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title, pp. 116ff. Capra, “Naive, unsophisticated, caring nothing about makeup”: Capra, The Name Above the Title, p. 116. Bernds, “My God, we were all on our toes”: quoted in Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, p. 213. Capra, “I wish I could tell you more”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, p. 216. BS, “It isn’t what you do”: Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1931. BS, “Frank Capra taught me” and “You never really look at yourself,” Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987. BS, “If the part calls for”: American Film, July-August 1989.
8. Low-budget Life. Joan Blondell, “This town”: quoted in John Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 185. Cagney, “They were squeezing”: James Cagney, Cagney by Cagney, p. 65. The author interviewed William Wellman in 1966. Wellman mentioned his friendship with Hal Skelly in Wellman, A Short Time for Insanity, p. 184. BS, “Directors are very vain”: BS to author, 1985. BS, “Does this sound like”: Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1931. BS, “Our dandy little opus”: BS to author, 1985. Los Angeles newspapers reported Zanuck firing Fay, June 5, 1931. BS, “I’m a star now”: Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1931. BS, “He’s old-fashioned”: Los Angeles Examiner, June 21, 1931. Capra, “I weaseled. I insisted on a ‘heavy’”: Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title, p. 131. The Los Angeles Times and New York Times covered Columbia’s court request for an injunction against BS September 5 and September 11, 1931. BS, “You didn’t argue”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, p. 239. Bellamy, “I can remember vividly”: McBride, Frank Capra, p. 231. “It hurt,” quoted in McBride, Frank Capra, p. 240. Photoplay on BS not liking Hollywood, Photoplay, April 1932. Frank Fay at Palace review, Photoplay, May 1932. Hollywood Herald, “tawdry and cheap”: quoted in Mason Wiley and Damien Bona, Inside Oscar, p. 38. BS, “She had the kind of creative ruthlessness”: Lawrence Quirk, Fasten Your Seat Belts, p. 53.
9. What Price Hollywood? The author interviewed David Selznick in 1963. “It was a story based on things”: Wellman to author, 1966. York, “Suddenly Broadway’s favorite son”: Photoplay, October 1932. Harrison Carroll column, Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1931. Foch, “She did one odd thing”: Foch to author, 1993. The Fays’ Brentwood house and architect James E. Dolena details: Architectural Digest, April 1990. Ruth Biery’s feature on the Fays appeared in Photoplay, Jan 1933. BS, “I chose that picture” and “You may take a trip to Palm Springs”: Photoplay, January 1933. Nude photos of Crawford with woman published in Kenneth Angers, Hollywood Babylon II, pp. 117-18. Crawford, “I knew of my mother’s lesbian proclivities”: Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest, p. 157. Livingstone, “Why do you always bring that maid”: quoted by Shirley Eder to author 1993. Helen Ferguson, “We certainly present”: Academy of Motion Picture files, 1992. Author interviewed Iris Adrian and Shirley Eder on BS’s relationship with Helen Ferguson in 1993.
Homosexuality in Hollywood is detailed in Patrick McGilligan, George Cukor; Denis Brian, Tallulah, Darling; David King Dunaway, Huxley in Hollywood; Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon II; and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Hollywood Androgyny. Elizabeth M. Curtis’s suit against BS and Cradick’s response reported in Los Angeles Times, March 10 and 30, 1934. Barbara climbed over the wall and “Their fights were dreadful”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Crawford’s Men, p. 6. Brice, “Who the hell?”: quoted in Herbert Goldman, Fanny Brice, p. 144. BS, “I love you just as much”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 48.
10. Depression Blues. Thomas Reddy’s column in Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1933. Court records date John Charles Greene’s birth as February 5, 1932, and his adoption by the Fays December 6, 1932. BS, “Too much attention”: Los Angeles Examiner, December 28, 1932. The Nation reviewed Grace Zaring Stone, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, January 7, 1931, The New Republic, October 29, 1930. Capra, “The missionary was a well-bred”: Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title, p. 143. Garbo, “Don’t kiss”: quoted in Charles Higham, Merchant of Dreams, p. 145. BS, “Any revulsion”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, p. 280. The Bitter Tea opening at Radio City Music Hall: New York Times, January 12, 1933. BS, “The story was far ahead”: American Cinematographer, August 1973. Howard Smith’s November 1932 story conference notes are quoted in Leonard J. Leff and Jerold L. Simmons, The Dame in the Kimono, pp. 28-29. Joseph Schenck, “You and I will start”: Mel Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, p. 59. Marx, “It was the prettiest house”: Hector Arce, Grouch o, p. 198.
11. Single. BS, “Frank Fay was causing”: Film Comment March-April 1981. Graham Greene review of Red Salute, Greene, Graham Greene on Film, pp. 36-37. BS asks for divorce, reported in New York Times, November 10, 1935. Comedians’ barbs against Fay quoted in Milton Berle, B.S. I Love You, p. 55. Golden, “He would go on binges”: Harry Golden, The Right Time, p. 175. Levant, “She loathed him”: Oscar Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, p. 83.
12. Arly. Adela Rogers St. Johns on Robert Taylor: Liberty, October 24, 1936. Hay, “Every year Gilmor Brown”: Hay to author, 1993. Author interviewed agent Paul Kohner on Taylor, publicist Don Prince on Strickling, and MGM police lieutenant John Hollywood on 1930s studio security. Strickling, “We told stars what they could say”: Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1982. Home, “MGM created a certain name”: quoted in Ava Gardner, Ava, pp. 147-48. Ingersoll, “Taylor was careless”: Ingersoll to author, 1968. Gilbert, “I have been on the screen”: Movie Classics, June 1934. McCrea, “I took Arlington out to MGM”: quoted in John Korbal, People Will Talk, p. 292.
13. Private Lives. Crawford, “He knew the public”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Crawford’s M
en, p. ix. Garbo, “He used to have a gramophone”: Sven Broman, Conversations with Greta Garbo, p. 148. Cukor, “It can be hell”: Gavin
Lambert, On Cukor, p. 115. William Faulkner’s deleted dialogue from Banjo on My Knee detailed in Tom Dardis, Some Time in the Sun, p. 97. Bette Davis on BS inheriting Ruth Chatterton’s screen nobility: Bette Davis, The Lonely Life, p. 213. Young, “Barbara Stanwyck has always been strong”: Lyn Torn-abene, Long Live the King, p. 193. Cromwell, “Stanwyck had great star presence”: Larry Swindell, Charles Boyer, p. 115. Mayer, “God never saw fit to give me a son”: Bosley Crowther, Hollywood Rajah, pp. 6-7. Fay, “Well, your dress”: Photoplay, June 1940. Author interviewed Wyler, who directed Mary Astor during Astor-Kaufman scandal, 1972. BS and Frank Fay testimony quoted in Los Angeles Examiner court coverage, December 29-30, 1937. The Los Angeles Times reported Fay’s attempt at visiting Dion, January 19, 1938.
14. Stella. Dixie Willson, “Barbara For Her Own Sake” feature appeared in Photoplay in December 1937. BS, “I’ve always felt that John”: Film Comment, March-April 1981. The author interviewed John Ford in 1966, William Wyler in 1972. John Engstead on BS quoted in John Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 520. Head, “Barbara had been a little insulted”: Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Edith Head’s Hollywood, p. 33. BS, “Everybody was testing for it”: Film Comment, March-April 1981. Vidor to LeBaron, “I’ve such a belly-full”: Raymond Durgnat and Scott Simmon, King Vidor, p. 173. Vidor, “See silent picture”: Durgnat and Simmon, King Vidor, p. 200. Goldwyn, “She’s just got no sex appeal”: A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn, p. 294. BS, “But I can imagine”: Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 67. BS, “I was spurred by memory”: Saturday Evening Post, October 5, 1946. BS, “My life’s blood”: BS to author, 1985. Haskell, “Stanwyck brings us to admire”: Molly Haskell, From Reverence to Rape, p. 6. Kendall, “Capra had been the first”: Elizabeth Kendall, The Runaway Bride, p. 246.
15. Offscreen. Wilson’s description of Crawford dinner is quoted in Shaun Considine, Bette and Joan, p. 74. BS, “bitter about a lot of things”: Pageant, May 1967. BS, “If you say”: John Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 508. Shirley Eder and Lloyd Nolan detailed to author BS’s relations to nephew Eugene Vaslett, 1983. Joan Benny, “Skip Stanwyck was my first boyfriend”: Benny interview with author, 1993. United Press carried story of Taylor’s grandfather on welfare, dateline, Beatrice, Nebraska, February 4, 1937. Graham Greene on Louis B. Mayer, Night and Day magazine, November 4, 1937. F. Scott Fitzgerald, “the sequence in which”: Matthew J. Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, p. 506. Taylor’s New York arrival and hairless chest brouhaha covered by Los Angeles Examiner, December 14 and 17, 1937. Damon Runyon column was a King Features Syndicate release August 22, 1937.
16. Screwballs, Mr. C.B., and Golden Boy. BS, “I’m glad someone”: Daily Variety, December 20, 1937. Fonda, “Everyone who is close to me”: Howard Teichmann, Fonda: My Life, p. 125. BS, “Then it was announced”: American Cinematographer, August 1937. DeMille, “more cooperative”: Cecil B. DeMille, Autobiography, p. 364. Comparisons of Union Pacific and The Iron
Horse in George N. Fenin and William Everson, The Western, p. 237. Atkinson, “Perhaps the depression”: Brooks Atkinson, Broadway, p. 285. Author interviewed Rouben Mamoulian in 1966. Clifford Odets on money for Golden Boy: Margaret Gibson, Clifford Odets, p. 524. BS, “Look, Bill, I know”: Bob Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 29. BS, “My God, he’s only had a week”: Al DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 102. BS, “I told him much of what Willard Mack”: Stanwyck as “Rambling Reporter” guest columnist, Hollywood Reporter, April 23, 1954.
17. Marriage. Kirtley Baskette, “Hollywood Unmarried Husbands and Wives,” Photoplay, January 1939. National press covered the May 14, 1939, BS-Taylor marriage and press reception. Taylor, “We’ll just smile”: Los Angeles Herald, May 15, 1939. Holden as BS’s lover, Billy Wilder to author, 1969. Taylor to Crawford, “All I had to say about it”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Crawford’s Men, p. 154. Shipman, “the Stanwyck-Taylor marriage”: David Shipman, Judy Garland, p. 139. BS, “They made you”: Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987. Benny, “The boy was in the way”: Joan Benny to author, 1993. Fay, “At first he”: National Enquirer, January 3, 1984. Andy Devine on Taylor’s penis: Robert Stack, Straight Shooting, p. 43. Sal Mineo going out with RT and confessing his own homosexuality in 1967: quoted in Boz Hadleigh, Confessions with My Elders, pp. 26-27. Loy on Taylor: James Kotsilibas-Davis and Myrna Loy, Myrna Loy, p. 156. Mosley, “Zanuck knew the propinquity of Stanwyck”: Leonard Mosley, The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon, p. 185. BS, “We dressed to the teeth”: BS to author, 1985. Bob Thomas excerpted David Selznick’s homage to BS in Selznick, p. 183.
18. Passions. BS, “I’ll go to Ciro’s or the Trocadero”: Al DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 116. BS, Can Hollywood Mothers be Good Mothers? Photoplay, June 1940. Fay, “She threw me away”: National Enquirer, January 3, 1984. BS, “Now you can do everything”: DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 148. BS, “It wasn’t hunting”: Collier’s, July 12, 1952. Hemingway on BS’s “Mick intelligence” in November 15, 1941, letter to Max Perkins. BS, “I have a passion”: Hollywood Citizen-News, August 17, 1944. MGM hiring Eric Drimmer is detailed in Sven Broman, Conversations with Greta Garbo. Preston Sturges’s youth and early screenwriting are detailed in Diane Jacobs, Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges. BS, “Preston was around a lot”: Film Comment, March-April 1981.
19. The Lady Eve. Dialogue and stage directions of opening pages of The Lady Eve taken from unrevised November 6, 1940, shooting script. BS, “He kept his word”: American Cinematographer, August 1973. Sturges, “I happen to love pratfalls”: quoted in Jacobs, Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges, p. 294. BS, “He’d ask us how we liked the lines”: New York Times, February 23, 1941. BS, “Eve was lucky” and “Lady Eve changed”: Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Edith Head’s Hollywood, p. 45. Kael, “Like Bringing Up Baby”: Pauline Kael, S001 Nights at the Movies, p. 313.
20. The Sweater Girl. Sidney Skolsky’s column on BS, Hollywood Citizen-News, July 2, 1940. Filming of John Doe crowd scene at Wrigley Field detailed in Los Angeles Downtown Shipping News, September 11, 1940. BS, “We have always agreed”: October 15, 1942, Hunt Stromberg Production press profile. Turner, “Bob had the kind of looks”: Lana Turner, Lana, p. 74. Taylor, “I have never seen lips”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 93. BS, “It’s a kind of history”: Movie Digest, September 1972. Mankiewicz, “I could just dream of being married”: Leonard Mosley, The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon, p. 219. BS, “It broke my heart”: BS to author, 1985. BS, “He was delicious”: U.S. magazine, March 28, 1983. Ferguson, “She meant well”: Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 96. Wilder on his screenwriting career detailed to author, 1969. Howard Hawks on Ball of Fire detailed to author, 1974.
21. Patriot Games. The Jack Bennys’ 1942 New Year’s party detailed in Irving A. Fein, Jack Benny, p. 83. Ronald Reagan’s deferment is detailed in Anne Edwards, Early Reagan, pp. 258-61. BS in Canada: documented in National Archives wartime photo service. Davis, “I would be so grateful”: Charles Higham, Bette, p. 149. Rapper on Young: George Eells, Final Gig, p. 59. Mrs. Miniver, Louis B. Mayer, and Song of Russia: Wyler to author, 1972. Creation of Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals detailed in Otto Friedrich, City of Nets, p. 168, Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, pp. 515ff, and Donald Shepherd and Robert Slatzer, Duke, p. 236. Alliance statement of principals published in full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter, February 20, 1944.
22. Double Indemnity. Purvis, “Taylor was nervous”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Robert Taylor, pp. 114-15. Irish Adrian, “Frank quit drinking”: Adrian to author, 1993. BS’s GI pen pals, Hollywood Citizen-News, August 17, 1944. Author interviewed Wilder on Double Indemnity in 1968. Chandler, “Working with Billy Wilder”: Raymond Chandler, Raymond Chandler Speaking, p. 237. Cain, “It’s the only picture”: Pat McGilligan, Backstory, p. 125. BS, “I thought, This role’”: Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987. Buddy De Sylva, “We hire Barbara
Stanwyck”: Billy Wilder quoted to author, 1968. BS, “I remember saying, ‘Fred, really’”: Wilder to author, 1968. BS, “I’m afraid to go home”: Variety, July 8, 1944. Time review of Frank Fay in Harvey, November 13, 1944. Root, “Nobody could touch him”: Maggie Root to author, 1993. BS, “I don’t like it, to take things this fast”: Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1945. Jane Ellen Wayne quoted Earl Wilson’s column in Stanwyck, p. 103. Details of Mildred Pierce casting and BS quote, “I desperately wanted the part”: author’s interview with Wald, 1973.
23. Rand and Warner. BS on wanting to do The Fountainhead and meeting Ayn Rand are detailed in John Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 507. Bogart, “I’m not good looking”: Ezra Goodman, Bogey, p. 51. Coe on The Two Mrs. Carrolls: Jonathan Coe, Humphrey Bogart, p. 117. BS telegram to Jack Warner is from Warner Bros. Archives at University of Southern California.
LeRoy, “For weeks we had gradually whittled”: Mervyn LeRoy, Take One, p. 255.
24. Uneasy Peace. Taylor’s army release and airport news conference reported in Los Angeles Examiner, November 6, 1945. Reagan, “I learned that a thousand”: quoted in Anne Edwards, Early Reagan, pp. 299-300. BS, “Hey, Bob, your wife”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 121. Wallis, “I knew I was taking a risk”: Hal Wallis and Charles Higham, Starmaker, p. 116. BS, “You know they could get fired”: Los Angeles Daily News, March 28, 1983. Douglas, “We continued to shoot”: Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, p. 136. Wayne, “It was so humiliating”: Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 117. Fay, “The doctors”: National Enquirer, January 3, 1984. Taylor, “Except for his bad grades”: Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 118. Dorothy Manners’s syndicated column was published December 8, 1946, Louella Parsons’s “Barbara Stanwyck year” feature May 18, 1947, and Hedda Hopper’s “Barbara and Bob” July 6, 1947.