A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940
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“But of course you were”: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
“Remember, Barbara”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 116.
“babied and pampered”: BS, in Gladys Hall, Modern Screen, November 1937.
And in his understanding: McBride, Frank Capra, 214.
“knew nothing about camera”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 115.
When production started: Los Angeles Examiner, March 5, 1931; G. D. Hamann, Barbara Stanwyck in the 30’s (Hollywood, Calif.: Filming Today, 1997), 11; Variety, March 11, 1931, 44.
“I’m making a pot”: Los Angeles Examiner, March 5, 1931; Hamann, Barbara Stanwyck in the 30’s, 11.
attended the opening: April 3, 1931.
“soured [them both] on”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” Movie Classic, June 1933, 23.
Two: Idealism and Fight
“I like to keep them”: Ezra Goodman, Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, 209.
At twenty-one, he’d run off: “ ‘Wild Bill’: William A. Wellman,” interview by Scott Eyman, Focus on Film, March 1978, 17.
Wellman was a fighter pilot: Ibid., 10.
During Wellman’s months fighting: Ibid.
“of grabbing a headline”: Frank T. Thompson, William A. Wellman (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1983), 107.
“a crazy bastard”: Scott Eyman interview with William Wellman, Focus on Film #29, 1978.
“Miss one of those”: Mosley, Zanuck, 28.
Zanuck worked as a dishwasher: Ibid., 33.
The Public Enemy was taken from: Lee Server, Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures (Pittstown, N.J.: Main Street Press, 1987), 70.
“Italians, Irish, Jewish”: Ibid., 74.
Bertolt Brecht was fascinated: Clurman, All People Are Famous, 137.
He wanted to make: John Bright, interview in McGilligan and Buhle, Tender Comrades, 134.
James Cagney was under: Warner Bros. pay ledger, Warner Bros. Archives, courtesy of Ned Comstock.
“gutter quality”: Cagney by Cagney, 80.
“We got the wrong man”: “Wild Bill,” interview by Eyman, 13.
Zanuck sent out: Thompson, William A. Wellman, 112.
The part of Powers’s girlfriend: Louise Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 21.
“that’s all [she] had”: Clarke, Featured Player, 64.
In it, Blondell, a former: Thompson, William A. Wellman, 109.
It was her first picture: Clarke, Featured Player, 64.
“Anyone working in one”: Julian Fox, “A Man’s World,” Films and Filming, March 1973, 36.
“quiet sadism”: Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood, 25.
He had been fired: Bright, interview in McGilligan and Buhle, Tender Comrades, 134.
“tough, tough, tough”: Mosley, Zanuck, 115.
“as tough as they come”: Fox, “Man’s World,” 36.
“I doubt there is”: McCabe, Cagney, 82.
“felt an empathy”: Clarke, Featured Player, 68.
“Shut your mouth”: Mosley, Zanuck, 116.
Powers cuts her off: Henry Cohen, ed., The Public Enemy, Wisconsin/Warner Bros. Screenplay Series (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), 129.
“That was enough”: Clarke, Featured Player, 68.
“Bill [Wellman] and I”: Ibid.
Cagney said the omelet: Cagney by Cagney, 45.
“No, come on back”: Clarke, Featured Player, 69.
“I was a good sport”: James Curtis, Featured Player, 69.
“I put my head on her”: Randall Malone to author, March 5, 2001, 16; Clarke, Featured Player, 69–70.
“We needed something big”: “Such Guys as Capra and Wellman,” New York Times, October 16, 1938.
“stole scripts, new ones”: John Wakeman, ed., World Film Directors (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1987), 1:1186.
“more than anybody”: Ibid.
“stayed for half”: Ibid.
“That’s what I want”: “Wild Bill,” interview by Eyman, 11.
The Public Enemy was shot: Wakeman, World Film Directors, 1:1188.
“we are renting her”: Sam Briskin to Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., March 6, 1931, Warner Bros. Archives.
A month later Cagney: Night Nurse cast memo, February 2, 1931, Warner Bros. Archives.
“I had a script”: “Wild Bill,” interview by Eyman, 17.
With Clark Gable: Harry Lang, “ ‘What a Man!’—Clark Gable,” Photoplay, October 1931.
“a real tough guy”: LeRoy and Kleiner, Mervyn LeRoy, 95.
“He was powerful, brutal”: Ibid.
“the same quality”: Ibid., 96.
“Do you know what”: Ibid., 95.
“They [the powers that be]”: Wellman, Short Time for Insanity, 229.
“The instant Clark walked”: Gladys Hall, Modern Screen, November 1937.
“That was okay”: BS to Shirley Eder, conversation, April 1981, courtesy of John Slotkin.
“resembled an actor”: Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood, 25.
“rough and tough”: William Wellman, “The Birth of a Celebrated Mug Shot,” Calendar, Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1978, 127.
Wellman married Marjorie: John Gallagher, Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman by John Andrew Gallagher and Frank Thompson (Men with Wings Press), 8.
Margery Chapin: Shawna Kelly, Aviators in Early Hollywood (Arcadia Publishing, 2008), 41.
“intelligent; womanly”: Doris Lee, Motion Picture, August 1920, 44.
“I was happy when”: Thomas Dove, National Enquirer.
Wellman finished Night Nurse: Daily production notes.
The picture was budgeted: March 26, 1931, budget, no. 606, $289,898.
Wellman brought it in at: Warner Bros. budget, Warner Bros. Archive.
appearing at the Strand: Variety, April 22, 1931.
“It’s no gift”: Ibid.
“the whole show”: New York Times, April 18, 1931.
In early June, Warner Bros.: Variety, June 16, 1931, 24; Hollywood, Variety, April 29, 1931, 6.
“When you are up”: Ruth Biery, “Let’s Talk About ’Em,” Photoplay, January 1933, 114.
Life would be rich: Albert, “She Has Hollywood’s Number,” Photoplay, June 1931, 69.
Three: On Being “Barbaric”
“She was gorgeous”: BS to Shirley Eder.
“Where the hell am I”: BS to Shirley Eder, April 1981.
“got to thinking”: Helen Louise Walker, Movie Classic, June 1932, 62.
“Good for Ann”: Beranger, “Private Life of Barbara Stanwyck,” 8.
Barbara concluded that: Helen Louise Walker, Movie Classic, June 1932, 62.
She was delighted: Frank Capra, affidavit, 2, Columbia Pictures Corporation v. Barbara Stanwyck, injunction no. 327362.
“I [was to] be paid more”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” 23.
“Fifty thousand dollars”: Helen Louise Walker, Movie Classic, June 1932, 62.
“You’ll have to stick”: Ibid.
“In the theatre we had”: Cagney by Cagney, 39, 40.
She was ready to report: Sam Briskin, affidavit, 8, Columbia Pictures Corporation v. Barbara Stanwyck, injunction no. 327362.
Having made extensive plans: Capra, affidavit, 2.
“My mind is made up”: Briskin, affidavit, 7.
“Barbara Stanwyck’s quiet charm”: New York Times, July 25, 1931.
“one of the most natural”: Los Angeles Evening Herald, July 24, 1931.
“The second day”: Conversation with Shirley Eder, April 1981.
“I consider it”: Capra, affidavit, 2.
Frank Fay emceed the opening: Variety, July 28, 1931, 45.
“Miss Stanwyck’s most effective”: Marquis Busby, Los Angeles Examiner, July 18, 1931.
“Capra can do more”: Variety, July 28, 1931, 14.
Photoplay singled out Barbara: Photoplay, August 1931, 57.
Barbara made it clear: P
hotoplay, September 1931, 88.
The press wrote about her: Beranger, “Private Life of Barbara Stanwyck.”
Harry Cohn offered Barbara’s: Bernds, Mr. Bernds Goes To Hollywood, 219.
“turn to her husband”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” 22.
“many of the exhibitors”: P. S. Harrison to BS, July 23, 1931, 9, in Columbia Pictures Corporation v. Barbara Stanwyck, injunction no. 327362.
“I asked for fifty thousand”: Stanwyck response to Peter Harrison (publisher of Harrison’s Reports), 9, in ibid.
“I knew you had”: Beranger, “Private Life of Barbara Stanwyck,” 8–9.
Night Nurse was a standout: Variety, August 18, 1931, 5.
“This town of supreme”: Los Angeles Examiner, July 27, 1931.
“If you only knew”: Helen Louise Walker, Movie Classic, June 1932, 62.
“cut me cold”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions”; and Barbara Stanwyck, Movie Classic, June 1933, 70.
Despite that and Barbara’s: Los Angeles Evening Herald, September 23, 1931.
While driving, he hit: newspaper clipping, Temple University.
Fay went to the bank: Zolotow, No People like Show People, 193.
As soon as he: Barbara Stanwyck Fay, affidavit, January 10, 1938, 6, Superior Court of the State of California.
Cohn was adamant: “Stanwyck Must Adjust with Col Before Playing for WB-Position,” Variety, August 18, 1931, 3.
“it would be difficult”: Irving Thalberg, affidavit, September 9, 1931, Columbia Pictures Corporation v. Barbara Stanwyck, injunction no. 327362.
Columbia notified Warner Bros.: Ralph Lewis to J. L. Warner, August 17, 1932, Warner Bros. Archives.
$42,500 per picture: Dorothy Mackaill contract, August 29, 1930.
In court before Judge Douglas: August 14, 1931.
Barbara went to see: Helen Louise Walker, Movie Classic, June 1932, 62.
Warner tried to work: Lewis to Warner, August 17, 1932.
Four: “Theoretically Dangerous Overload”
Fannie Hurst’s Back Street: Brooke Kroeger, Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (New York: Times Books, 1999), 161.
“no other living American”: Grant Overton, Fannie Hurst: A Biographical Sketch, Critical Appreciation, and Bibliography (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), 13.
“overwhelmingly prodigal of both”: Robert Littell, “Lummox,” in ibid., 37.
“the most ambitious”: Margaret Wallace, New York Times Book Review, January 18, 1931, 11.
The book was on the: Kroeger, Fannie, 163.
“courageous,” ambitious novel: Overton, Fannie Hurst, 11.
“shop girls appear”: Kroeger, Fannie, 39.
“the Yiddish descendants”: Ibid., 47.
Famous Players–Lasky bought: Ibid., 163.
“knew how to reach”: Modern Movies, November 1938.
Capra originally shot it: Capra, Name Above the Title, 101.
“bit offbeat so people”: American Film Institute, “Frank Capra,” 39.
“the debonair Frenchman”: Wellman, Short Time for Insanity, 70.
Vaudeville Gulch, was coming into: Variety, October 6, 1931, 35.
Barbara had commemorated by: Sidney Skolsky, newspaper clipping, 1932, Shubert Archive.
He was getting drunk more: Barbara Stanwyck Fay, affidavit, January 10, 1938, Superior Court of the State of California.
“He sensed, as horses”: Martha Kerr, Modern Screen, February 1936.
“The grips turned”: Walker and Walker, Light on Her Face, 184–85.
“While [the horse] was”: Martha Kerr, Modern Screen, February 1936.
“Hurry,” she said: Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1931.
In truth, the doctors told: Martha Kerr, Modern Screen, February 1936.
“Her courage, to me”: McBride, Frank Capra, 240.
Barbara recovered slowly: Los Angeles Evening Herald, October 7, 1931.
“We were supposed to be”: Ed Bernds to author, June 9, 1997.
“Everyone was trying to”: McBride, Frank Capra, 213.
“Menjou and Bellamy performed”: Bernds, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood, 146, 147.
“interesting characterizations”: Forbidden press book.
“lost their superficial”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 108.
“I just ask the cameraman”: Rex Reed interview April 13, 1981.
“What those two”: Paul Rosenfield, LA Calendar.
“The scene where Barbara”: Bernds to author, June 9, 1997.
“It is true”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 115.
“communists—the Democrats”: Bernds, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood, 147.
Menjou and Capra railed: McBride, Frank Capra, 254.
“modern society, acting”: Message to the Legislature, August 28, 1931, in The Roosevelt Reader, ed. Basil Rauch (New York: Rinehart, 1957).
“I wish we could get”: S. R. Mook, Screenland, January 1932, 113.
A bucket brigade of more: Los Angeles Evening Herald, November 4, 1931.
The damage to Barbara: Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1931, 1.
“I’m not proud”: Fredda Dudley Balling, Lady’s Circle, May 1968.
“I’m not crying about the house”: Beranger, “Private Life of Barbara Stanwyck.”
Capra finished filming: McBride, Frank Capra, 241.
“steadily dating”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 134.
“a smallish, attractive”: Ibid., 110.
Lu Reyburn was the daughter: McBride, Frank Capra, 207.
He had driven Lu back: Capra, Name Above the Title, 111.
“You don’t have to”: McBride, Frank Capra, 217.
“more married to work”: Capra, Name Above the Title, 67.
“Nothing can depress”: Ibid.
“She liked movies”: McBride, Frank Capra, 207–8.
“The Irish go through”: Ibid., 216.
“He was my ‘angel’ ”: Gladys Hall, Modern Screen, November 1937.
“likes actresses and enjoys”: “Frank Capra Bridegroom Today,” New York Daily News, January 28, 1932, 42.
The Capras’ honeymoon was: McBride, Frank Capra, 243–44.
On Capra’s return, he: Ibid., 241.
After the Malibu fire: Forbidden (1931) press book.
“We’ve both missed”: Los Angeles Record, November 21, 1931.
He decided he would: Variety, November 17, 1931, 30.
“[That] statement seemed”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” 22–23.
“People were horrified”: Dick Hunt, “Barbara Stanwyck Tells Why She Turned Cartwheels on Stage,” Los Angeles Evening Herald Express, February 13, 1932.
“In fact, he argued”: Helen Louise Walker, “Barbara Stanwyck Loves a Good Scrap,” Movie Classic, June 1932, 60.
“ ‘Well I can still’ ”: Ibid., 17, 60.
“I was so proud”: Ibid., 60.
“I regard the dance”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” 22.
“But I suppose Frank”: Walker, “Barbara Stanwyck Loves a Good Scrap,” 60.
“Mr. Fay is essentially”: Fidler, “Barbara Stanwyck Answers Twenty Timely Questions,” 22.
“getting almighty sick”: Hunt, “Barbara Stanwyck Tells Why She Turned Cartwheels on Stage.”
“The same is true nowhere”: Babcock, “Stanwyck-Fay Menage Plays Up-and-Down Role.”
“would rather live happily”: Photoplay, April 1932, 38–39.
A Fool’s Advice, which Fay: Los Angeles Evening Herald, December 7, 1931.
“I want to use”: Los Angeles Record, November 21, 1931.
To remain in Los Angeles: Variety, November 24, 1931, 2.
Five: F•A•Y
A new contract between: Warner Bros. to Edna Ferber, December 7, 1931, specifying Wellman was to direct and giving Ferber consultation in the selection of another director if Wellman
was unavailable.
Ferber okayed Bill Wellman: Variety, December 1, 1931, 6; Dick Moore to author, n.d.
Production was to begin: M. Gordon to George Crowley Jr., memo, December 18, 1931; start date January 18, 1932.
“leave her heart behind”: Charles G. Norris, Zelda Marsh (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1927), 484.
“justify the sympathy”: AFI Feature Films, 1931–40, 1926–27.
was a screenwriter: The Divorcee (1930).
worked as an assistant director: Excuse Me (1925); Upstage (1926); Body and Soul (1927).
“Barbara was not too happy”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 41.
“low budget affair”: Ibid., 40.
“one of those terrible”: Ibid., 41.
While Barbara was filming: Bernds, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999).
Also listed in their: Variety, December 29, 1931.
“a youth whom Nature”: Voltaire, Candide: The Works of Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet, Trans. E.R. DuMont, 1901.
“There were rain scenes”: Ed Bernds to author, June 9, 1997.
“[The picture] was done”: Bernds to author, June 3, 1997.
While B. P. Schulberg: Memoirs of Will H. Hays, 444.
The house had originally: Tony Fay to author, June 12, 2002.
A separate building was: Gene Vaslett to author, January 31, 1997.
A den, outside Barbara’s: Vaslett to author, June 28, 2000.
Four walls with screened-in: Tony Fay to author, June 12, 2002.
Opposite the table was: Tony Fay to author, February 27, 1998.
“cry picture for the girls”: Variety, January 12, 1932.
“further demonstration that she”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 12, 1932.
Whenever Barbara began: New York Times, February 23, 1941.
Six: Salt of the Earth
“Not only did I not”: Ferber, Peculiar Treasure, 279.
“I feel very strongly”: Ibid., 280.
“a novel to read”: New York Times, February 24, 1924, 9.
“To Miss Ferber’s narrative”: New York Tribune, March 16, 1924, 19.
“queer sort of book”: Ferber, Peculiar Treasure, 276–77.
sold 323,000 copies: Ibid., 282.
“Money. Furs. Jewels. Automobiles”: Ibid., 276.
“Life has no weapons”: Ferber, So Big, 166.
“was the story of”: Ferber, Peculiar Treasure, 276–77.
“learned to read what”: Ibid., 103.
“was all invented”: Ferber, Kind of Magic, 161.