Stanwyck

by Axel Madsen

  25. Bearing Witness. BS, “I think American designers”: Louella Parsons in Los Angeles Examiner, May 18, 1947. Louella Parsons detailed BS and Taylor ship-to-shore broadcast in Los Angeles Examiner, May 18, 1947. BS, “Bill and I go way, way back”: Hollywood Studio Magazine, March 1982. Fay, “She gave me the lecture of my life” and “Uncle Buck explained”: National Enquirer, January 3, 1984. The HUAC hearings are covered in Larry Ceplar and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood, p. 439, and Lester Cole, Hollywood Red, pp. 265ff. Adela Rogers St. Johns discussed BS’s anticommunism in Los Angeles Examiner, June 3, 1951. Hopper, “I admire Bob’s courage”: Chicago Tribune syndicate, July 6, 1947. Wyler, “We tried to defend”: Wyler to author, 1972. Ayn Rand’s HUAC testimony is detailed in Otto Friedrich, City of Nets, pp. 317-18. Taylor’s verbatim testimony is published in Thirty Years of Treason, ed. Eric Bentley.

  26. Prejudice. William Wyler and Bennett Cerf HUAC testimony is covered in Larry Ceplar and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood. Joseph McBride details Capra’s informing for the FBI and State Department in Frank Capra, p. 609. Senator Wherry, “You can hardly separate”: New York Post, July 11, 1950. BS, “Everybody said, Oh, my God’”: Pageant, May 1967. BS’s refusal to color her graying hair during B.F.’s Daughter is detailed in Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 112. Nancy Reagan details her irritation with suspected communist namesakes in My Turn, pp. 80-91. BS, “The first thing Litvak”: People, November 25, 1985. BS on Jack Benny’s Show is detailed in Milt Josefsberg, The Jack Benny Show, pp. 475-76. Kathleen Murphy on Gardner, “Farewell My Lovelies,” Film Comment, July-August 1990. Gardner, “I was available”: Ava Gardner, Ava: My Story, p. 119. Earl Wilson column quoting BS on Taylor and airplanes appeared in New York Daily News, September 26, 1949. Reagan, “She was known as a real pro”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 91.

  27. Primal Women. BS, “I couldn’t take a part”: Los Angeles Times, April

  5, 1987. BS, “First I look for a good story”: Hollywood Citizen-News, March 28, 1952. Sirk, “She has depth”: Sirk to author, 1964. Capra, “She can give out that burst of emotion”: Variety, January 24, 1990. BS, “I wrote a fan letter”: Hollywood Reporter, April 23, 1954. Stephen Harvey, “The Strange Fate of Barbara Stanwyck,” Film Comment, March-April 1981. BS, “I burst into tears”: quoted by unit publicist Don Prince to author, 1968. Purvis, “Barbara didn’t like me”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 117. Walter Huston, “I’m not going”: Film Comment, March-April 1981. BS, “I’d carry a spear”: Stanwyck guest column, Hollywood Reporter, April 23, 1954. Busch, “I thought Stanwyck should have been better directed”: Pat McGilligan, Backstory, p. 107.

  28. False Fronts. Davis, “I knew Margo”: Charles Higham, The Life of Bette Davis, p. xiv. Guest on BS’s reaction to pending divorce detailed in Charles Higham, Bette: The Life of Bette Davis, p. 223. Taylor moving into rented house: Los Angeles Herald-Express, February 22, 1951. St. Johns, “What Shattered the Taylor-Stanwyck Perfect Movie Marriage”: American Weekly, May 1951.

  29. Herself. The Los Angeles Daily News carried the divorce proceedings, including Helen Ferguson’s testimony, February 22, 1951. Taylor, “I’m here”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 134. “Let’s just say”; Lawrence J. Quirk, The Films of Robert Taylor, p. 11. Purvis, “Maybe they should have adopted children”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 136. BS, “I remember telling him”: Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987. Virginia Grey career: Patrick Agan, Whatever Happened to … ?, pp. 82-83. Grey, “At the end of the evening”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 137. Jack Benny on BS’s nerves of ice quoted Collier’s, July 12, 1952. BS, “I hope I won’t”: quoted by Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1952. Dion, “When I met her”: National Enquirer, January 3, 1984. BS, “My divorce from Bob”: quoted by Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1952. Nancy Sinatra, “Frank has left home before”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Ava’s Men, p. 116. Levant, “I hadn’t seen Barbara in twenty years”: Oscar Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, p. 83. BS, “I’m concentrating”: quoted by Hedda Hopper, Chicago Tribune syndicate, March 11, 1951. Mayer, “You have disgraced”: quoted by Billy Wilder to author, 1968. Hopper, “A succession of bad”: Los Angeles Times, December 24, 1950. Crawford, “The face and the breasts are new”: Shaun Considine, Bette and Joan, p. 259. Johnes, “It was always a kind of bond”: Considine, Bette and Joan, p. 374. Ronald Reagan’s directives as Actors Guild president are detailed in Cogley, Report on Blacklisting, p. 163, and Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood, p. 367. Ward Bond nicknamed “The Hangman Ward”: Carl Foreman in Punch, August 14, 1974. Brewer, “Communists created”: from minutes of Brewer meeting with producers released years later by Congressman Carroll Kearns in congressional investigation of labor. Robinson, “Call me as a witness”: Otto Friedrich, City of Nets, p. 380. Fritz Lang detailed Clash by Night shoot, repartee with BS, and her relationship with

  Marilyn Monroe to author, 1968. Dorothy Parker on Hollywood fear: Marion Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 345. Daily Variety, June 3, 1952 reported scenes cut from Clash by Night after Catholic archdiocese objections. Nugent’s cover story, “Stanwyck,” appeared in Collier’s, July 12,1952. Howard Hughes, “We are going to screen”: Daily Variety, October 2, 1952.

  30. Β Pix. BS, “I didn’t work for one whole year”: Family Weekly, August 4, 1968. The Writers Guild of America decision to credit Dalton Trumbo with Roman Holiday screenplay was reported in Daily Variety, October 22, 1991. BS, “Bob and I didn’t stay”: Photoplay, August 1954. Wagner, “She changed my whole approach”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 140. BS, “I keep reading about these romances”: Los Angeles Daily News, December 12, 1952. BS, “I’m playing the type”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 141. Grey, “She let me have it with words”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck, p. 137. BS, “Because they recognized life for what it is”: Hollywood Citizen-News, March 31, 1953. BS, “My entire role is written”: Hollywood Citizen-News, March 31, 1952. Cooper, “Her veins swelled”: Swindell, The Last Hero: Gary Cooper, p. 295. Houseman on Executive Suite filming: John Houseman, Front and Center, p. 420. Foch, “She was very sportsmanlike”: Foch to author, 1993. Dwan, “Of course in those days”: Peter Bogdanovich, Allan Dwan, p. 157. Jack Benny described the Gaslight parody in Joan and Jack Benny, Sunday Nights at Seven, pp. 241-42. Reagan, “Somehow working outdoors”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, p. 221. Harry Hay told author of Joan Crawford pursuing Mercedes McCambridge during Johnny Guitar filming, 1993. BS, “That’s our royalty”: Film Comment, March-April 1981.

  31. Sharp Reminders. Vierge Traub on Ursula Thiess to author, 1993. The Los Angeles Mirror News detailed arrest on pornography charges of Dion Fay April 8, 1960. Taylor, “because there are too many ghosts”: to screenwriter Andrew Fenady in 1968. BS, “First of all”: BS to author, 1985. BS, “In all the westerns”: Los Angeles Mirror News, May 29, 1961. Fuller, “It opens in a bedroom”: quoted in Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Pierre Sauvage, American Directors, pp. 150-51. Fuller, “The Stuntmen refused”: Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin, The Director’s Event, pp. 149-50. BS, “I don’t think he wanted”: Los Angeles Mirror News, June 25, 1958. Horan, “There is no doubt”: James D. Horan and Paul Sann, Pictorial History of the Wild West, p. 127. BS, “Dick calls me”: Los Angeles Mirror News, June 25, 1958. BS, “He’s a terrific designer”: New York Times, October 18, 1992.

  32. “The Barbara Stanwyck Show.” BS, “From six on it sounds like”: American Film, September 1968. BS, “What else”: TV Guide, January 22, 1961. BS, “The foundation of any good show”: Al DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 170. BS, “I never even got a free shampoo”: Los Angeles Mirror News, May 29, 1961. BS, “As I understand it”: Hollywood Reporter, April 17, 1961. BS, “I hated playing the role”: Kay Gardella interview, quoted in Jerry Vermi-lye, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 129. BS and The Mistress of the Inn, Los Angeles

  Times, December 27, 1961. BS, “It would have been great to go back”: Film Comment, March-April 1981. Charles Feldman, “We’re updati
ng”: at January 12, 1962, news conference. BS described Louella Parsons’s reaction to BS’s casting in Walk on the Wild Side in Film Comment, March-April 1981, interview. Baxter, “One day he kept us waiting”: DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 178. Dmytryk, “I didn’t blame Capucine”: Edward Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living, pp. 246-48. Byron Steven’s obituary: Hollywood Citizen News, December 15, 1964. Eder, “I can still hear Barbara”: Eder, Not This Time, Cary Grant, p. 115.

  33. The Last Picture Show. BS, “I thought, well, if he’s calling me”: Earl Greenwood and Kathleen Tracy, The Boy Who Would Be King, p. 288. Head, “Barbara looks terrific”: Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Edith Head’s Hollywood, p. 140. Author interviewed Aldrich in 1972. BS, “He did not offer”: Whitney Stine, Mother Goddam, p. 308. BS insisted The Night Walker was a shocker, not a horror movie: John Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 511. BS, “I think it would be”: Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 511. William Castle quoted BS on first day’s shooting to author, 1966. Bosley Crowther, “The whole thing”: New York Times, January 24, 1965. BS, “It was a chance”: Jerry Vermilye, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 132. BS, “You know, Shirley”: Shirley Eder, Not This Time Cary Grant, p. 119.

  34. Matriarch. BS, “They don’t write”: Miami Herald, April 9, 1967. BS, “I’m a tough old broad”: Family Weekly, August 4, 1968. BS, “We do twenty-six”: Miami Herald, April 9, 1967. BS, “Most of these young people”: Movie, January 1973. Evans, “As the rehearsal went on”: People, February 5, 1990. BS, “There is no age in my life I want to be again!”: Pageant, May 1967. Vogel, “She had great confidence”: Vogel to author, 1985. Neal on The Fountainhead: Neal, Patricia Neal: As I Am, p. 306. BS, “It’s the first time”: Al DiOrio, Barbara Stanwyck, p. 189. BS, “A role of any sort provides a challenge,” Hollywood Citizen-News, March 31, 1953. The Henry Roy Belmert case was extensively covered by Los Angeles media in 1971. Taylor’s death on June 8, 1969, and his funeral was covered by the Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1969; also The Star, November 26, 1985.

  35. Golden Girl. BS, “I’m not yesterday’s woman”: New York Times, March 22, 1981. Spelling, “We dangled Nolan”: New York Times, October 18, 1992. Miller, “Stanwyck taught me”: Miller to author, 1993. BS, “She looks like a million”: quoted by Shirley Eder to author, 1993. Oakie, “Made me a rich man”: Eder to author, 1993. Crawford, “All of my friends”: Shaun Considine, Bette and Joan, p. 402. BS, “Plenty of people survive”: Photoplay, November 1971. Nolan, “When I introduced Missy”: Nolan to author, 1993. Holden, “Before Barbara”: Associated Press news transcript, April 3, 1978. Matthau, “She has played”: Daily Variety, April 15, 1981. BS, “N-n-no, it can’t be”: Bob Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 5. The burglary and terrorizing of BS, March 30, 1981, covered by Los Angeles media, including Los Angeles Times and Herald-Examiner, October 29, 1981, and People, November 25, 1985. Travolta, “Four years ago”: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 265. BS, “Look, believe it or not”: Singer syndication, May 18, 1982. Thorn Birds casting of BS announced: Daily Variety, April 1, 1982. Details of Wolper-Margulies production setup: Daily Variety, March 15, 1983. BS’s hospitalization for smoke inhalation: Hollywood Reporter, August 3 and 20,1983.

  36. Closing Number. Stephen Harvey’s BS career assessment published in Film Comment, March-April 1981. Kael on The Lady Eve: Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies, p. 313. Richard Schickel surveyed Stanwyck’s and Taylor’s careers in Architectural Digest, April 1990, and BS’s career in April 15, 1992, TNT TV special “Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire.” Gavin Lambert quote: Ten Percent magazine, UCLA, summer 1993. National Enquirer interview with Dion Fay, January 3, 1984. Kleno on Dion Fay and BS’s “unfortunate situation”: Kleno to author, 1993. Eder, “She wouldn’t talk about him”: Eder to author, 1993. BS, “Life’s a pretty difficult thing”: BS to author, 1985. BS, “I had a scrapbook”: quoted by Eder to author, 1993. Fire at BS’s Loma Vista home reported by Los Angeles media, including Daily Variety, June 24, 1985, Hollywood Reporter; June 25, 1985, and The Globe, July 16, 1985. Praed, “Both Barbara and Heston”: People, November 25, 1985. Miller, “Barbara dear”: People, November 25, 1985. BS, “I say the same line”: The Star, July 15, 1986. BS, “Even if Rock Hudson”: The Star, July 15, 1986. BS, “This is the biggest pile”: The Star, September 3, 1985. BS, “It’s one thing to know”: The Star, July 15, 1986. American Film Institute award: USA Today, April 10, 1987, and New York Times, April 11, 1987. BS, “Honest to God, I can’t walk on water”: New York Times, May 29, 1987. BS, “When I hold this Oscar”: National Enquirer, February 6, 1990. The campaign soliciting fan mail: The Globe, October 18, 1988. Renaming of MGM’s Robert Taylor Building: Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1990. BS’s hospitalization, last days, and death are detailed in Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1990, Daily Variety, January 22, 1990, Los Angeles Daily News, January 23, 1990.

  37. “It worked—didn’t it?” BS, “Put me in the last”: BS to author, 1985. BS, “I marvel at people”: Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987. BS, “It used to drive me crazy”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra, p. 297. BS told author of Preston Sturges’ desire to write a comedy for her, 1985. BS on Sturges, New York Times, March 22, 1981. MacMurray, “She was just the most wonderful”: Hollywood Reporter, January 22, 1990. O’Sullivan, “I found her a cold person”: David Shipman, Movie Talk, p. 193. BS, “I would hate”: Pageant, May 1967. BS, “Many people will hurt you”: Photoplay, December 1937.

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