A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940

by Victoria Wilson

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.