a life of barbara stanwyck steel true 1907 1940

As well, the records of Stanwyck’s public actions find her full of contradictions, alternately fighting tenaciously to keep the son she fought to adopt out of Fay’s hands after the divorce and later sending the boy off to military school at the age of six.īut the third and most significant factor in Stanwyck’s opacity throughout the biography is its lack of a clear organizing principle Wilson has published a book which apparently no one bothered to read before printing. One is that Stanwyck, as Wilson reminds the reader throughout, never fully acclimated to the life of a movie star, developing a touchy relationship with the press as they endlessly predicted the failure of her first marriage to the brilliant but unstable Broadway comedian Frank Fay. There are multiple possibilities, though, as to why Stanwyck becomes more elusive after having followed her rise to success onscreen. The sort of discipline Stanwyck displayed over her rightly-heralded career on stage and screen is no one’s birthright, and the early chapters, depicting a young Ruby Stevens flitting between odd jobs before eking out a living as a dancer and eventually a stage actress in the New York City of the ’20s, provide the necessary perspective to sympathize with the mercurial and enigmatic character she remained throughout her life in Hollywood.

Wellman as well as the rich comedies of Preston Sturges and Mitchell Leisen.

Indeed, Wilson does not even refer to the actress by her stage name until a major role gives her opportunity to change it, and reflects a constant identity crisis by switching back and forth between “Ruby” and “Barbara” for many pages.įor the appeal of Stanwyck - a performer for whom Wilson demonstrates the sort of fervent admiration necessary to sustain a project like this over more than a decade - lies in her consummate professionalism and devotion to each part, allowing her to fit smoothly into the anguished melodramas of William A. Author Victoria Wilson decided to cut off her narrative at the cusp of Stanwyck’s major stardom with consideration of the mountains of research conducted for this biography, which builds a world around the actress born Ruby Stevens that proves far more fascinating than any heretofore unknown tidbits about Billy Wilder’s conduct onset. Only up to 1940? cries the eager Stanwyck fan? That just misses Ball of Fire and The Lady Eve, which came out the very next year! She won’t even get to read her reviews for Meet John Doe! And we have to wait another ten years for part two before reading about Double Indemnity? The numbers 1907-1940 on the cover of a Barbara Stanwyck biography prompt a double-take without so much of a glance between its pages.

A life of barbara stanwyck steel true 1907 1940