Swerling took Capra’s script: Tazelaar, “Failure to Be ‘Yes Man,’ ” McBride, Frank Capra, 211, 212.
“long enough for”: Tazelaar, “Failure to Be ‘Yes Man.’ ”
“magnificent—human”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 114.
“curry of sensationalism”: Alan Dale, New York American, December 24, 1924.
“went the limit”: Ibid.
“violation of the canon”: Percy Hammond, review, New York Herald Tribune, December 31, 1924.
“the language of the gutter”: Theatre, March 25, 1925.
“shrewd frame-up calculated”: Hammond, review.
“the old Camille story”: Frank S. Nugent, “Jo Swerling, Scenarist,” New York Times, February 17, 1935.
Throop College of Technology: Later California Institute of Technology. McBride, Frank Capra, 70.
“changed his whole viewpoint”: Hellman, “Thinker in Hollywood.”
Swerling’s Russian-born family: Jo Swerling Jr. to author, January 2001.
Swerling also sold newspapers: “Sunday News of the Theatre and Its Workers.”
“a rebel against”: American Film Institute, Frank Capra.
“goal as a youth”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 93.
“a natural actress”: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
Capra had what he thought: Capra, Name Above the Title, 114.
There he met Louella Parsons: Ralph Graves, interview with Anthony Slide, The Idols of Silence (South Brunswick: A. S. Barnes, 1976).
Graves, like Capra, trained: Capra wrote three Sennett pictures starring Graves: Breaking the Ice (1925); Good Morning, Nurse (1925); and Cupid’s Boots (1925).
He’d become famous: Ladies of Leisure, 1930 press book.
Capra’s first picture for: That Certain Thing (1928).
Marie Prevost made her mark: The Old Swimmin’ Hole (1921); Cornered (1924); Tarnish (1924).
She was first noticed: The Marriage Circle (1924); Kiss Me Again (1925).
Sherman was one of the most: Ladies of Leisure 1930 press book.
“asked to play roles”: McBride, Frank Capra, 190.
“clear, sharp lighting”: Ibid.
“It was the first time”: Ibid., 191–92.
The cameras themselves had: Walker and Walker, Light on Her Face, 171.
For his work at Columbia: McBride, Frank Capra, 190.
“Suddenly [with talking pictures]”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 101.
“The silence from the studio”: Mary Astor, interview in Brownlow, Hollywood.
Shooting on Ladies: January 14, 1930; Ed Bernds to author, June 9, 1997.
“from the start”: BS, in Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, July 1931, 63.
“was perfectly accustomed”: Bernds to author, June 10, 1997.
“didn’t see anybody else”: BS to Rex Reed, April 13, 1981.
“The next day I waved”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 20.
“Don’t you ever dare”: BS to Rex Reed, April 13, 1981.
“Only go later”: Paul Rosenfield, Calendar, Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987.
“We’re going to do this”: BS to Rex Reed, April 13, 1981.
“it was fun to make”: Walker and Walker, Light on Her Face, 164.
“different from any other”: McBride, Frank Capra, 190.
Capra wouldn’t tell Walker: Ibid., 192.
“to let a person play”: Ibid., 213.
“ubiquitous phantom”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 100.
“But then she could never”: American Film Institute, Frank Capra.
“Barbara was rehearsing mentally”: Ibid., 17.
About the third or fourth take: McBride, Frank Capra, 212.
Instead of a full rehearsal: Bernds to author, June 8, 1997.
“to utter one word”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 116.
This presented a problem: Bernds to author, June 9, 1997.
Capra had Barbara’s: Capra, Name Above the Title, 116.
“the points of emphasis”: Ibid.
If he agreed with: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
“Barbara was silent”: American Film Institute, Frank Capra, 17; McBride, Frank Capra, 210.
“fan the smoldering”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 116.
He stressed honesty: Tom Capra to author, December 4, 2000.
“You can almost smell it”: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
“It has to be from”: Ibid.
“could see a performance”: Bernds to author, June 3, 1997.
“attempted only one thing”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 20.
“to show how really”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 20.
“something was happening”: Bernds to author, June 3, 1997.
Barbara was “so happy”: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, May 1931.
“Somehow,” said Ed: Bernds to author, June 3, 1997.
“she exposed her arms”: Ibid.
They shot throughout: Ibid.
“if you can think it”: Paul Rosenfield, Calendar, Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987.
“an exciting stimulant”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 199.
Sixteen: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Love
Fay and Michael Curtiz: Variety, February 5, 1930, 35.
He had an enormous: David Lewis, Creative Producer, 136–37.
He was under contract: Variety, March 26, 1930.
To celebrate, a banquet: May 11, 1927; Robert Osborne, 75 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards (Abbeville Press, 2003), 9.
The nominees and the winners: Ibid., 8, 9, 17.
For the 1930 awards: McBride, Frank Capra, 226.
At the beginning of April: Variety, April 9, 1930, 2.
The weekly box-office receipts: Variety, December 18, 1930, 14, 15.
By March 1930: Meltzer, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, 21.
“blowsy acrobatic”: Charles Brackett, New Yorker, February 18, 1928, 25.
“one of the great comic”: New York Times, February 10, 1928.
“mad, unique”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 122.
“only one set”: Ibid., 123.
With the signing: Variety, April 9, 1930, 2.
“a delicious bit”: Los Angeles Examiner, May 29, 1930.
Fay traveled to Texas: Variety, April 9, 1930, 62.
Warner was considering: Variety, May 7, 1930, 4.
Fay, in preparation for: Variety, June 4, 1930, 65.
“great box office”: Variety, May 28, 1930, 35.
The headline of the review: Regina Crewe, New York American, May 24, 1930.
The censors gave the picture: Variety, April 9, 1930, 8.
“with a good deal”: New Yorker, May 31, 1930, 72.
“that the screen version”: New York Evening Journal, May 24, 1930.
“talkie version of”: Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, April 3, 1930.
“Barbara Stanwyck’s Career”: New York Herald Tribune, May 25, 1930.
“Frank is a big actor”: “Barbara Sticks to Her Man,” Screen Play, June 1931.
In Los Angeles, the Fays: Variety, April 9, 1930, 62.
“Full to the brim”: New York Times, January 12, 1930, 8.
First National bought it: Mothers Cry contract, March 6, 1930, Warner Bros. Archives.
During the spring of 1930: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, July 1931, 115.
She and Fay spent time: Budd Schulberg to author, 1998.
“I never demanded anything”: Jerry Asher, “In Exile and Loving It,” New Movie Magazine, April 1935.
“a new sensation”: Photoplay, July 1930, 74.
“we felt our unimportance”: Asher, “In Exile and Loving It.”
To honor the men: Watkins, Great Depression, 95–97.
Fay’s studio, Warner: Variety, July 9, 1930, 30.
Edith Fitzgerald and her companion: Wray, On the Other Hand, 200; Riskin Papers. (Fay Wray/Robert Riskin Collection), the University of Southern Cal
ifornia Cinema–Television Archives.
The plan was to produce: Variety, September 24, 1930, 57.
$7,000 a week: Samuel Briskin, affidavit, 2.
Zanuck, in addition to: Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, 42.
“Anne Vincent is a girl”: Illicit press book, 9, Warner Bros. Archives.
“Her drama”: Ibid.
Columbia’s agreement with: Columbia Pictures to Warner Bros., memo, July 2, 1930, file 2874, Warner Bros. Archives.
“butchered in [the] operation”: Grace Mack, Screen Play, June 1932, 57.
He had shot sixteen: Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, 38.
directed such actresses: Illicit press book.
Before shooting a scene: Ibid.
“[Joan’s] career was pre-determined”: Ibid.
“I was never so”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 27.
When Jack Warner first: Mosley, Zanuck, 77.
They chose Zanuck: Ibid., 86.
“Even if you don’t need”: Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, 42.
“What she did”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 27.
Several weeks into: Jerry D. Lewis, “Top Story Man,” Collier’s, March 29, 1941, 83.
The picture cost: Schaefer Collection.
Warner Bros. in 1932: Variety, June 25, 1930, 102.
Seventeen: On Her Own
During the early weeks: August 2, 1930.
“the city of beautiful”: The Matrimonial Bed press book, 4.
“missed fire”: Variety, August 25, 1930.
“preposterous and grotesque”: New Yorker, August 30, 1930, 50.
“the coming big star”: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, July 1931, 115.
“frozen rabbit”: Grace Mack, Screen Play, June 1932, 29.
“The two best friends”: Ibid.
Judith Anderson: She made her debut in vaudeville at the Palace headlining in Thieves Journal, June 7, 1926.
Ethel Barrymore: She appeared at the Palace in the fifth act in J. M. Barrie’s one-act play The Twelve Pound Look in 1926.
Rita Mayon: Also at the Palace in a number called Dance Sparkles of 1926.
as well as: They too worked as Fay’s stooges. Vaslett to author, May 30, 2000.
RKO threatened to cancel: Variety, September 10, 1930, 64.
The picture cost $208,000: Warner Bros. Archives; Ned Comstock to author.
Playhouses along Forty-Second: Madsen, Stanwyck, 63.
The Shubert brothers were: Hirsch, Boys from Syracuse, 163.
Soon six thousand people: Watkins, Great Depression, 63.
“In the years between”: Kotsilibas-Davis, Barrymores.
“Well, this fellow ran”: Barrymore and Shipp, We Barrymores, 236.
Mannix, who had the: Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 130–31.
“You’re finished, Gilbert”: Fountain, Dark Star, 131.
His Glorious Night received positive: Ibid., 178, 179.
Instead of inspiring women: Ibid.
“I watched John Gilbert”: Hopper, From Under My Hat, 164.
Gilbert’s opening speech: Fountain, Dark Star, 181.
“love was a comedy word”: Hopper, From Under My Hat, 200.
“Jack’s voice was not”: Colleen Moore, Silent Star, 206–7.
“I don’t know whether”: Fountain, Dark Star, 184.
“never turned up”: Ibid.
After the Gilbert picture: Cromwell, interview with Maltin, 3.
in 1929: AFI Feature Films, 1921–1930, 662.
Metro temporarily released: Variety, August 13, 1930, 24.
The picture’s title: Simple Simon opened at the Ziegfeld and ran from February 18 through June 14, 1930; Stage, Film, and Television Scores.
“Ten Cents a Dance”: Ibid., 132; Frederick W. Nolan, Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Ann Harding: Ann Harding was nominated in 1931 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Holiday.
Two weeks into the filming: The picture started filming on September 12; Barbara fell on September 23. Variety, September 24, 1930.
“In my desire”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 27.
Barbara landed on: Variety, September 24, 1930, 3.
Barbara defined her days: Sonia Lee, Movie Classic, February 1934, 62.
The hours between: Ibid.
“[Lionel] seems to check”: Kotsilibas-Davis, Barrymores, 64.
“Lionel was the real”: The House of Barrymore (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990), 437.
“He has none of those”: Margot Peters, The House of Barrymore, 175.
“The theatre was not”: Barrymore and Shipp, We Barrymores, 37.
“labor for months”: Ibid., 241.
“The poor man was in”: As reported to Larry Kleno to author, June 19, 2001.
“very trying”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 27.
“for her dignity”: Ibid., 29.
“old fish eyes”: Kleno to author, June 21, 2001.
“He gave me nothing”: Ibid.
In the midst of shooting: September 29, 1930, Warner Bros. Archives.
The contract was for: Watkins, Great Depression, 54.
“It is further agreed”: Warner Bros. to BS, September 29, 1930, 3, Warner Bros. Archives.
If the studio picked: Agreement between BS and Warner Bros. Studio, 4, September 29, 1930.
After the reception: Variety, October 8, 1930, 12.
The contract department: Zanuck to Ralph Lewish, memo, March 19, 1931, Warner Bros. Archives.
“I couldn’t believe that”: Sonia Lee, Movie Classic, February 1934, 62.
PART TWO: Undertow
One: “Hot Speel in the Blood”
For the first time: Variety, October 1, 1930, 1.
It was rumored that Metro: Wiley and Bona, Inside Oscar, 26.
Joan Crawford, Mrs. Douglas: They married on June 3, 1929.
“I had my freedom”: Capra, Name Above the Title (Da Capo Press, 1997), 116.
von Sternberg’s original exotic: Variety, December 31, 1930, 55.
Barbara turned over her money: Warner Bros. Feature Service, February 1931.
Fay began filming: January 5, 1931.
In one scene in which: God’s Gift to Women press book.
“Mr. Vinegar”: Barry Paris, Louise Brooks (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 358.
Before Illicit could be: AFI Catalog, 1009.
“self-control and”: Memoirs of Will H. Hays, 347.
Eighty million people went: Ibid., 352.
“easily become a corrupting”: Ibid., 326.
The MPPDA’s fight: Ibid., 330.
But Hays had something: Ibid., 438.
They argued about: Ibid., 329–442.
Barbara traveled north with Jack Warner: AFI Catalog.
The picture was being: Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, January 30, 1931.
Little Caesar was based: LeRoy and Kleiner, Mervyn LeRoy, 98.
“the deadly first reel”: Variety, January 21, 1931, 17.
“belongs in subdued”: Cecelia Ager, “Going Places,” Variety, February 4, 1931, 66.
“as smart as next year’s”: Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, February 21, 1931.
Although many of the: The Negative Cost was $385,000; the Gross Income to August 31, 1944: $301,000; the Domestic Income was $301,000; the Foreign Total $89,000. Total earned $390,000. Ned Comstock, USC Film and Television Archive.
Ten Cents a Dance, Barbara’s: The contract was due to expire on August 1, 1931.
At the last minute: Variety, September 9, 1931, 3.
Warner had considered using: John Andrew Gallagher and Frank Thompson, Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman (Men with Wings Press).
daring spectacle Wings: 1927.
and also Beggars of Life: 1928.
The supporting cast: Variety, January 7, 1931, 4.
Cagney was to play: Gallagher and Thompson.
Jack Warner drew up: J. L. Warner to BS, December 18, 1930, Warner Bros. Archives.
Ten Cents a Dance opened: March 6, 1931.
“out of place”: New York Times, March 7, 1931.
“Columbia should be grateful”: Variety, March 11, 1931, 51.
The Miracle Woman was based: Bless You, Sister opened on December 26, 1927. It starred Alice Brady, Charles Bickford, and George Alison.
“a sort of cathedral”: J. W. Krutch, Nation, March 16, 1927.
Aimee Semple McPherson: New York Times, September 28, 1944. The temple opened in Los Angeles in 1919.
“We all know what”: Daniel Mark Epstein, Sister Aimee (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993), 283.
“You can’t kid religion”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 129, 130.
At seventeen, Riskin became executive: Fay Wray to author.
“everything, not only producing”: New York Herald Tribune, February 23, 1941.
Alice Brady was the loving: Bless You, Sister, 1–19, Lincoln Center Library.
Riskin thought Capra looked: McBride, Frank Capra, 277.
“I wrote that play”: Lewis, “Top Story Man.”
Capra said he thought: Capra, Name Above the Title, 130.
Riskin argued that Bless: McBride, Frank Capra, 228.
Capra believed audiences: Eileen Creelman, New York Sun, September 13, 1934; “Frank Capra, Director of Two of the Year’s Biggest Hits, Talks of His Work,” Box 4:2, USC Cinema–Television Archive courtesy of Ned Comstock/Fay Wray Collection.
And for each soul: “Amazing Grace.”
“I have to absorb”: Frank Capra, oral history, 1956, Columbia University.
It took a full hour: Miracle Woman press book.
If different shots: American Film Institute, “Frank Capra,” 17.
Barbara did the scene: Ed Bernds to author, June 8, 1997.
“Multiple cameras aggravate”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 116.
“they were working”: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
“It’s all right if you have”: Ibid.
just-released Dracula: Released February 1931, a month before shooting began on The Miracle Woman, AFI CATALOG A–L, 537.
“What would you like”: The Miracle Woman script 151, box 12, Barbara Stanwyck Collection, University of Wyoming.
Mrs. Higgins opens the box: The bust of Stanwyck was created by Richard Cromwell, a young actor at Columbia who had had a great success in his debut in Tol’able David.
“I’ll say I’m getting”: The Miracle Woman script 164, 65, 3787, box 12, Stanwyck Collection.
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 Page 107
