Customer Reviews (2)

Rare but indispensable overview of Stanwyck's film career
As the first reviewer of this book has pointed out, _The Films of Barbara Stanwyck_ is one of the rarer entries in Citadel Books' notable "Films of..." series (along with Christopher Young's _The Films of Doris Day_); while the other reviewer states a softcover version is available, I've never seen one yet on Amazon or elsewhere, just the hardcover edition. As such, it commands a price well above that of most other books in the series, but it's very much well worth it, especially in combination with _Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck_ (which I also highly recommend).

Following the format of other volumes in this series, _The Films of Barbara Stanwyck_ is comprised of a concise biography of the star followed by short overviews/commentary on all her film work, along with hundreds of black-and-white photos.Homer Dickens has plainly done his homework; I've been able to locate several Stanwyck films from the data contained in this book. If you're a serious Stanwyck fan, you need this book.

Great Book, Great Star
THE FILMS OF BARBARA STANWYCK (1985) is one of the rarer titles in the Citadel Press filmography series as it was published almost 20 years after the first entries in the series that went through many editions and are easily obtainable (Davis, Crawford, Hepburn, etc.)Who knows why it took the publisher so long to get around to Stanwyck, surely on everyone's list as one of the top dozen women stars in film history, but this book was published not long before the series pretty much dried up and as a result appears to have only had single printings in both hardcover and softcover format.So if you ever run across it at a reasonable price, grab it!

The book is written by one of the better Citadel authors, Homer Dickens, and is loaded of course with photos of the great lady throughout her film and television career (although it was published before her final work on the TV series THE COLBYS).The "foreward" by Frank Capra is actually a excerpt from his autobiography, however.Ella Smith's STARRING MISS BARBARA STANWYCK still remains "the" book on Stanwyck but THE FILMS OF BARBARA STANWYCK is most definately a very honorable second place. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck by Ella Smith
The book "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck" by Ella Smith was an outstanding biography of the great Barbara Stanwyck's career.It was a comprehensive study of the great actress Barbara Stanwyck and includes many photos from Barbara's very beginning in movies and until the end of her career in television.I admired Barbara Stanwyck very much prior to reading this book but adore her even more now.It was no coincidence that Barbara was loved so much by some of the greatest producers, directors, actors, and crews who ever lived.The book is a testament to both the professionalism and talents of Miss Stanwyck and to the class she exhibted on her many sets with everyone she was in contact with.It is apparent that the author of this book also admired this movie and televison star a great deal and wanted the world to know the reason why.Finally, I think that the ultimate compliment to the author Ella Smith of this fine book is from Barbara Stanwyck herself who states that "you made me live on pages and, lady, you did one hell of a job".This book is a must for all Barbara Stanwyck fans.

ABSOLUTELY THE FINEST BOOK ABOUT STANWYCK
The photographs alone in this fine volume are worth a mint!!I've worn out the spine on my copy which I grabbed in 1989 shortly before Stanwyck's death.This is the finest career analysis movie book that was ever written.The definitive Stanwyck biography ...that is...about her private life is yet to be written and probably never will be.Stanwyck was an enigma and remained so until the end.But this book, by Ella Smith, covers everything about her career that you would want to know...from her start in the theatre to the movies to the television work.It was a labor of love and I have never found another movie book comparable to it.A must for all Stanwyck fans!!

An excellent overview of her career
This is a lovely book with over three hundred black and white photo reproductions spanning Stanwyck's career. There is detailed information about almost every film and television show in which Stanwyck appeared, and about her career and work. The information consists of story outlines concentrating on Stanwyck's parts, and some background tales concerning actors, directors, producers and crew, but only as they figured in the making of the films, and admired Stanwyck.

Apart from her very early career, I found here no information about her private life at all, other than that she was a consummate professional who inspired great admiration in everyone with whom she worked.

Faced with such a bounty of information about Barbara Stanwyck's career, it seems greedy to want to know more. What genius drove Miss Stanwyck to her great performances is not explored here, nor is any aspect of her personal life, at all, other than in the very early years of her theatre career as it affected her early film performances.

Get this book for the photos, if that is what you want, or the play-by-play recitations of the films and television shows she appeared in, but do not expect to know more about this beautiful sphinx by reading "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck."

Extraordinary book - PLEASE SOMEBODY BRING IT BACK
This isthe most outstanding career retrospective ever published on a movie star, a flagrant labor of love done with intregity and intelligence. The end result is an example of quality ever film star biographer ought tofollow. Each of Stanwyck's 80+ films are profiled in depth with exclusivecommentary from scores of her coworkers - leading men, directors,screenwriters, etc. This landmark book was extremely important inreestablishing Stanwyck's reputation as one of the truly great women of thecinema.I fell in love with this book twenty years ago as a teenager ina local library - I had grown up watching reruns of Barbara in THE BIGVALLEY and had no idea of her incredible film career. I was thrilled whenthe author published a revised edition in the late 80's enabling me toactually own a copy of this gem and now with Miss Stanwyck's death (10years ago - how time flies!It seems like yesterday)it is truly time fora second revised edition. If you own one book on one movie star LET THISBE IT.

THE BEST CAREER BOOK EVER WRITTEN
Ella Smith's coffee-table book on the career of Barbara Stanwyck is, bar none, the finest of its kind that this writer has ever read. Instead of being content to merely list Stanwyck's films and reprint old reviews (inthe tradition of most"Films of" books), Ella Smith has gone theextra mile, and then some.This is because the idea originated with Smith(as opposed to a writer being "assigned" the project by apublisher), and it's entirely her baby. Smith designed the layout,selected the photographs and determined which of them would get the fullpage treatment (and her choices are absolutely breathtaking!)

Inaddition to including original reviews of Stanwyck's stage, film, andtelevision work(as well as highlights from Stanwyck's interviews fromthat period) Smith personally viewed all of Stanwyck's work, and herobservations are marvelously perceptive (drawing as they do on her ownexperience as actress, director and teacher). I was particularlypleased that she notes the powerful impact of Stanwyck's SILENT moments(whereas too many critics remember only the explosive ones).Butmost of all, I value the interviews Smith conducted with Stanwyck'sco-stars and directors. These anecdotes are, in turn, touching and funny--- and reveal aspects of Stanwyck's personality that add greatly to thereaders' regard for the woman, as well as the actress.

Of all thebooks written about Barbara Stanwyck, THIS is the only one worthy of her. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Biorgraphy of Barbara Stanwyck by Al DiOrio
I enjoyed the book titled The Biography of Barbara Stanwyck by Al DiOrio.However, I agree that it was a cut a paste account of the life of Barbara Stanwyck.The book did not give too much more information about Barbara's personal life and career than I already knew from both the internet and from the book Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck by Ella Smith.Since I am such a big fan of Barbara Stanwyck and am eager to find out more about her, I am eagerly waiting for the Barbara Stanwyck biography by Virginia Wilson which is supposed to be the definitive book about Barbara's life and career.Hopefully, Virginia Wilson's account of Barbara Stanwyck's will be released soon and all of her fans will finally know the real Barbara Stanwyck.

Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck deserves better than this. The author tells the reader no more than a newspaper article would. Ruby Stevens' traumatic childhood and her chorus-girl period are the best parts of the book, but the rest is dealt with so routinely that the author gives no hint of having even seen her movies. Stanwyck is underrated, considering her versatility and, in the early years, her subtlety. Now that more of her 1930s films are being seen, it is time for someone to set this book aside and write a fresh one.

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT BIOGRAPHY
Clearly the author, Al Diorio is a Stanwyck fan.Citing no primary sources in his material, Diorio really doesn't tell us much about Stanwyck that we didn't already know.Stanwyck will always remain an enigma in the annals of Hollywood history because that was the type of person she was.Diorio paints a very flattering picture of Stanwyck and only adequately assesses her film work.The definitive Stanwyck biography is yet to be written.The closest thing to perfection in Stanwyck books is Ella Smith's fine career analysis "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck".Diorio's intentions are good and there is some merit in this biography.It's just a lukewarm attempt, something Stanwyck never was.

A FLAWED, BUT FAIR MINDED, BIOGRAPHY
DiOrio's intentions are good, and he does the best he can considering that he received no cooperation from Stanwyck's friends and closestcolleagues. Thus the author is forced to rely primarily on the countless articleswritten about the actress over the years. The problem is,these articleswere usually written carelessly, with the "facts" ofteninconflict ---- or even made up out of whole cloth.In short, this is afair-minded cut-and-paste biography.

Nevertheless, I found some of themagazine exerpts interesting, and DiOrio has collected some especially finequotes (such as director Douglas Sirk's). HOWEVER, I MUST CALL ATTENTIONTO A MAJOR ERROR:In describing Stanwyck's slashed artery incident (during her marriageto Bob Taylor) DiOrio states that the accidentoccurred in October 1941 and infers that it may not have been an accident,but instead a desperate act resulting from her despair over Taylor's affairwith "Johnny Eager"co-star Lana Turner.This rumor was firstwritten about by Jane Ellen Wayne in her worshipful biography of RobertTaylor (in which Wayne trashes Stanwyck). How DiOrio came up with theOctober 1941 date is a mystery, because it is incorrect --- and yet it hasnow been repeated in two subsequent books about Stanwyck: Jane EllenWayne's follow-up to the Taylor book (yes she went to the poisoned wellagain!), and theeven more absurd and error laden book by Axel Madsen.

FOR THE RECORD: Stanwyck's accident occurred in February 1940, longbefore Taylor worked with Turner.Shortly afterward, in a letterdatedFebruary 27, 1940,Stanwyck wrote to a friend explaining that she wasinjured while trying to open a stuck window: "I carelessly hit it with the heel of my hand.The glass broke and my wrist was badlycut."

Clearly DiOrio's errors are not deliberate or malicious, andthe book does have some merit --- but it cannot be considered definitive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Capsuled Look at The Film Career of A Legend
Jerry Vermilye's book on the film career of the great Barbara Stanwyck is one of the best volumes in the undeservedly short-lived Pyramid Press series of the 1970's chronicling the film careers of American movie greats.This little 6x8 paperback is crammed with great photos of Barbara in the movies plus Vermilye's critique on nearly every one of her films.He is admiring but clearly not awe-struck as he is in his volumes on apparently bigger personal favorites Bette Davis and Ida Lupino (he even dares to question whether Stanwyck deserved an Oscar nomination for BALL OF FIRE!!) but his somewhat impartial viewpoint gives the book a solidly grounded profile on one of the movies' greatest actresses.This book is mostly of use for it's great pictures and criticism.Not as essential as Ella Smith's STARRING MISS BARBARA STANWYCK (which Vermilye clearly used as a major reference point, to the point of quoting the New York Times' review of THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, apparently unaware that Ms. Smith edited the review's comment from a decidely qualified remark (the original quote from TNYT ended with an unfavorable comparison to DOUBLE INDEMNITY) or Homer Dickens' THE FILMS OF BARBARA STANWYCK this book is still a must for Stanwyck buffs and classic movie lovers.The book was published in 1976, almost fifteen years before Stanwyck's death but a full decade after her last feature film (she only made a few television appearances in later years) so all of her big screen work is in here. ... Read more

Product Description
Barbara Stanwyck swore like a sailor, chain smoked and was an alcoholic. And yet, she was one of Hollywood's biggest stars, indeed, number eleven on the American Film Institute's 100 Years of Greatest Screen Legends, and appeared in classic films such as Double Indemnity and Meet John Doe. In this fascinating biography, we follow the orphan who, by sheer determination, became a dancer in Hollywood and began her rise to the top. She auditioned for Frank Capra who called her a 'porcupine' and had an affair with her but after, made her a star. Barbara's first marriage was to comic Frank Fay, they adopted a son whom she later abandoned in the most extraordinary way. Her second husband was Robert Taylor, to whom she vowed revenge after their break-up for his affairs with Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Until the day she died, she collected 15 per cent of his substantial earnings. Yet on her own deathbed, she swore he was by her bedside waiting for her.Full of tragedy, ambition, success and jealousy, Hollywood stars and stories that include new revelations of affairs with both leading actors and actresses, as well as details of her films, this is a must for Barbara fans and film fans alike. Jane Ellen Wayne, who was employed by The National Broadcasting Company for fifteen years, is the author of numerous biographies of Hollywood stars that include Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe. Her most recent are The Golden Girls of MGM and The Golden Guys of MGM. She is listed in Who's Who of Women in the World and Contemporary Authors. Ms. Wayne resides in New York City. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting But Not Comprehensive
I've read a couple of books on Barbara Stanwyk many years ago, so the basics based on my recollections seem consistent with the information this book supplies. That said, there were a few revelations in this account of Stanwyck's life pertaining to her first husband Frank Fay, her adopted son Dion Anthony Fay, and second husband Robert Taylor. Additionally, author Wayne attempts to debunk the myth that Robert Taylor was gay or had gay tendencies. Wayne also tends to approach the subject of Stanwyk's long alluded to lebian tendencies as inconclusive.
So why read this book/why did I like it? I thought it gave a pretty good rundown of Stanwyk's personal background, her career, and her personality. If you haven't read anything about Stanwyk before it's interesting and informative and provides some revelations. She was in many ways an uber-private person and quite an enigma as an actress who never had an acting lesson, wasn't particularly beautiful based on common perceptions of beauty, and was largely uneducated. This book is an essential primer for Stanwyk fans twenty years after her death. ... Read more

Product Description
1985 - Berkley - 1st Edition - Paperback - Barbara Stanwyck a Biography - By Al DiOrio - With 16 Pages of Photos - Pages 247 - Hard to find biography of one of the most popular actrsses to come out of Hollywood's Golden Age - Good Condition - Collectible ... Read more

Product Description
Barbara Stanwyck Biography; Hollywood career ... Read more

Product Description
Reveals the complex, lonely woman behind the screen star's imperturbable facade, examining her Dickensian childhood, her turbulent first marriage, her estrangement from her son, and the sexual dynamics of her marriage to Robert Taylor. $25,000 ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Doesn't Even Deserve One Star
This man seems so intent to defame Stanwyck's name is subtle, deragatory ways.His sources are unbelievable.....the tabloids??????Come on, that should say something right there about his credibility as an author.

Stanwyck was a legend and had to much class to be relegated to garbage like this from someone who obviously felt like he had to make some money off a great film star's life but failed to research his subject adequately and got most of his information from other biographies already published about her and of course...the tabloids..."The National Enquirer", "The Star" and "The Globe".

Mr. Madsen ought to be ashamed of himself for taking a great subject and making a book about her life mediocre.If Stanwyck were alive she'd slap his face and spit on it too!

She deserves better...
Flat, passionless, lazy, pointless...I don't think there are enough words in the English language to communicate that this is a completely crap biography.Why did Axel Madsen even bother?He doesn't seem to have any enthusiasm for his subject.He gets so lazy in points that he gets concrete facts wrong.(Barbara DID share a scene with Ava Gardner in "East Side, West Side" - did he not even bother to watch Miss Stanwyck's movies?) It's like he wanted the money, researched which actress hadn't had a biography written on her in awhile and decided he would pound out some boring pages on this one.Just look at the title - "Stanwyck" - it just screams passion project!

Barbara Stanwyck was a fascinating mixture of brains, beauty, talent, humility and guts.She had a hell of a rough life but never outwardly felt sorry for herself.She gave intelligent, honest and layered performances in every movie she worked on, no matter the quality of the overall picture.Many of the great directors and leading men of her time site Barbara Stanwyck as the greatest actress they ever worked with.They don't say it in trite statements, they gush about her for paragraphs. She deserves something far better than this rubbish.Hopefully a more thoughtful biographer will come along some day and do her the justice she deserves.But Axel Madsen seems to think the world of himself and not much of anything for poor Missy.Well, in the words of Miss Stanwyck herself: "Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity."Go ahead and ignore this one.

A Decent Crack at an Elusive and Complicated Subject
Biography can be a tricky thing.It's inherently gossipy, inherently exploitative.A biographer opens herself up to accusations of slander when she writes without cooperation from her subject, to accusations of pandering when she writes with it.Perhaps more importantly, a human life--any human life--is too nuanced and fickle a thing to be completely reduced to words.This is especially true when the biographer aims not just to plot a step-by-step map of the subject's life, but to expose his or her inner demons, as Axel Madsen endeavors to do in his biography of Barbara Stanwyck.

Ultimately Stanwyck proves too elusive and complicated a subject to present a clear picture, but that's no reflection on Madsen.Instead, it's a reflection on Stanwyck.There may never have been a movie star more protective of her privacy or more prickly when it came to talking about her feelings and foibles.Stanwyck would have despised Madsen's biography, not necessarily because what it says isn't true, but because she hated being talked about, hated being stared at and prodded like a laboratory specimen.Some of this probably goes back to her childhood, which was by all accounts one of the most miserable a future Hollywood star ever had.

Stanwyck's reticence may account for some of the seeming structural problems with Madsen's book.For one thing, the book is frustratingly short on direct quotes and named human sources.This might be due to laxness on Madsen's part--or it might signal that he received no cooperation from Stanwyck's friends--but it seems equally likely that many of his sources simply refused to be quoted or named, perhaps not wanting to be thought to have betrayed Stanwyck.In any case, the lack of quotes adds more uncertainty to an already uncertain subject: we are never sure whether Madsen is reporting what he was told or his own conclusions drawn from what he was told.

Some would accuse Madsen of outright fabrication--especially in his page-and-a-half treatment of Stanwyck's possible bisexuality, which has somehow dominated all discussion of his 400+ page book.Indeed, for whatever reason, there's never been a star whose putative heterosexuality has been more hotly championed than Stanwyck's.Not Cary Grant, not Errol Flynn, not even Kate Hepburn--Kate Hepburn, for pity's sake!!!--has been "defended" so vigorously against similar charges.You'd think Madsen had questioned Mom and Apple Pie, or accused John Wayne of wearing girl's panties under his chaps.

In fact, however, Madsen neither fabricated the rumors about Stanwyck's bisexuality nor lifted them from tabloids.Stanwyck's own press agent has been quoted as saying that she had "no doubt" that Stanwyck was "intimate" with Joan Crawford on "more than one occasion."(Lawrence J. Quirk, Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography).Tallulah Bankhead reportedly claimed to have had an affair with Stanwyck.(David Bret, Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life).So, incidentally, have men, including Robert Wagner, who is more than 20 years Stanwyck's junior.

Of course, any or all of these claims might be false, but that doesn't mean a biographer has to ignore them.Unproven statements are all the evidence there is ever likely to be about a person's sexuality.Moreover, sexuality is no less a part of a person's life simply it might make other people--or even the subject himself--uncomfortable.Bisexuality is not a disease, but even if it were, a biographer would still be entitled to explore evidence of it after her subject's death.If a life story is to have any value at all, it must be allowed to track the full range of life experiences.Anything else isn't life, but someone's sham idea of what life "should" be.

That said, Madsen struggles and ultimately fails to describe Stanwyck's life below the surface: what drove her, how she thought, what feelings she had about whom.Madsen suggests that Stanwyck said virtually nothing publicly that wasn't scripted, nothing privately that might have left her vulnerable.He implies, moreover, that she couldn't have begun to open up if she'd wanted to, that she simply didn't know how.That seems believable enough: Stanwyck had virtually no formal education, virtually no stable family relationships, especially in early childhood.The hurts from her early life may have simply been too deep; maybe the reason we can't know Stanwyck from her biographies is that no ever quite knew her, because she couldn't let them.

If this is true, it isn't fair to besmirch Madsen's book because of it.His book has flaws, but he's given us the best psychological study of Stanwyck to date, and very likely the best we'll ever get.

Pure Junk
What can you say about a "biography" that uses articles from the National Enquirer for some of his information?This book is badly written with tons of speculation but little solid information.The author clearly wants Stanwyck to come across as a fool.There's scarcely a word about how beloved the actress was on her film sets and at the studios but plenty of conjecture about her private life.Madsen is outrageously inconsisent.On one page he tries to paint Stanwyck as a closeted lesbian, on the next she is absolutely obsessed with her ex-husband Robert Taylor (how many lesbians do you know who won't let go of an ex-husband?) Similarly, he pushes an image of Stanwyck as a Bible thumping right-wing fanatic which again hardly seems to fit with his image of Stanwyck as a hardcore dyke. Lesbians will no doubt be as offended as everyone else for the negative spin he puts forth.I suspect Madsen is smart enough to know the gay rumors about both Stanwyck and Taylor are bogus but they are a strong starting point if one wants to write an salacious book. He barely acknowledges Stanwyck's talent and seems to not admire anything about her.

Stanwyck Still a Great Woman
No matter what Axel Madsen writes about Barbara Stanwyck, I find her to be someone I would love to have met and known. He tries to make her "toughness" sound like something negative; but, as a matter of fact, I admire that quality about Stanwyck. She was tough, she was strong, she was independent, she was sharp, and she was a brilliant actress. Her vulnerability, still visible beneath that tough facade, always goes straight to my heart, somehow. She couldn't help the facts of her early life, her being an orphan, poor, abandoned by her father...the woman's drive to succeed was phenomenal and she should be remembered for that, for her refusal to wallow in self-pity, and for her professionalism, both on and off the screen. I've always loved her and I always will. She was a private person; her personal life was her personal life, entirely her own business. Her refusal to "let it all hang out" should be copied by today's "actresses," as I loosely call them. The book is laced with mistakes about the facts of her life. But, as these books go, I'll have to admit it isn't as lurid or as vicious as some of them are. Madsen seems to own up to a grudging respect for Stanwyck; that's a step in the right direction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Jane Ellen Wayne is obsessed with Robert Taylor
Too bad you don't have a rating scale which includes a minus category. This pile of claptrap is clearly the work of a strange and bitter woman who hates Barbara Stanwyck because this "author" (a misnomer if ever one existed) is OBSESSED with Robert Taylor. The book is biased and unfair. Wayne presents Taylor as a saint (overlooking his numerous extramarital affairs, which hurt Stanwyck, who loved him, very deeply) and presents Taylor in such a way as to make him look like an automaton or a weakling who needed to be led around by the hand. So, Miss Wayne, if your intention was to vilify Miss Stanwyck and elevate Robert Taylor to sainthood, you failed. Wayne's hatchet job on Barbara Stanwyck gives one a bit of insight into the mind of a grown woman with the mentality of a teenager with a stalker's tendencies. What a pity she managed to make money off Barbara Stanwyck's name! Incidentally, if anyone should read this drivel, note Wayne's insistence on referring to "witnesses" to Miss Stanwyck's behavior, as though the poor woman were on trial. Miss Wayne, I would give ANYTHING if Barbara had decided to sue the pants off you for libel and slander. Believe me, you DESERVE it. What a nasty person you must be!

An Axe to Grind
In reading this diatribe, I learned two things. First, Jane Ellen Wayne is in love with the memory of Robert Taylor. Secondly, Jane Ellen Wayne hates everything about Barbara Stanwyck. That's about all that this little book has to offer. I don't think I've ever read a more one-sided characature about anyone. I hope Miss Stanwyck never read this tripe. We'll probably never know what exactly happed between Stanwyck and Taylor in their marriage and maybe that's as it should be. To quote Miss Stanwyck, "The more you kick something that's dead, the more it stinks." Rest in peace Stany. I hope her ghost doesn't haunt me because I bought this book!

A DISTORTED ANTI-STANWYCK DIATRIBE
To evaluate this book, one must first know the one that preceeded it. Soon after Robert Taylor's death in 1969, Jane Ellen Wayne beganwriting an admiring biography of the actor. Her heart was obviouslyin her work.Her anti-Stanwyck bias was equally obvious. Duringthe book's earlychapters Wayne presents Stanwyck favorably, as befitsthe woman thatTaylor was to fall in love with. But later on, as theirmarriage beginsto crumble, Wayne attempts to justify Taylor'swandering eye by turningBarbara into the kind of woman with whomthe reader can't sympathize.

Fourteen years later, on the heels Stanwyck's resurgence (an HonoraryOscar,and an Emmy for "The Thornbirds"), Wayne reached into hertrunk and turnedher Taylor biography into a STANWYCK biography ---- butin doing so(her animus now more profound than ever) she omittedwhatlittle of valuethe first book contained.Furthermore, when drawingon material fromother books, Wayne's tactics are stunning in theiraudacity.Here are just two examples:Wayne takes Frank Capra'saffectionate story about meeting,working with, and falling in love withthe young Stanwyck (as told in hisautobiography "The Name Above theTitle") and systematically deleteseverything except his firstNEGATIVE impression.Then there's the story(from Ella Smith'sexcellent "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck") told by awitness toBarbara's first screen-test (which was sabotaged by a vindictivecameramanwhose advances she had rejected). Here, Wayne has STANWYCKappear to betelling the story, which not only makes it sound self-serving butalsoallows Wayne to omit the gentleman's other admiring remarks.This is thekind of book for which the term "hatchet-job" was invented.

IN SHORT: THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF VALUE IN THIS BOOK. ... Read more

Product Description
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990)was an American actress, a film and television star,known during her 60-year career as a consummate andversatile professional with a strong screenpresence, and a favorite of directors such as CecilB. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After ashort stint as a stage actress, she made 85 films in38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award fourtimes, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awardsfrom the Motion Picture Academy, the Film Society ofLincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los AngelesFilm Critics Association, and the Screen ActorsGuild, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame andis ranked as the eleventh greatest female star ofall time by the American Film Institute. ... Read more

Product Description
Fill up at the concession stand before taking a front row seat to watch your favorite classic movies on radio! Each of these 2-cassette collections features the complete and unedited radio adaptations of classic movies as originally broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre. These dramatic double features include the original commercials and have been digitally restored and remastered for your listening ease. Also includes special introduction by WNBC-TV movie critic Jeffrey Lyons. Radio Movie Classics Starring Barbara Stanwyck in "SORRY, WRONG NUMBER" 01-09-50 AND "STELLA DALLAS" 10-11-37 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Change of Pace
These two Radio Movie Classics are broadcasts of the Lux Radio Program, a popular radio show that brought famous actors to the radio to recreate roles from films. Cecil B. DeMille ran the show as the host, but the film stars were the ones that really shone.

Before the broadcasts, an announcer explains the show and goes over the life of Barbara Stanwyck briefly. Then the show begins.

First we have Stella Dallas, a film that really helped Stanwyck to remain a star in Hollywood. She transforms from a young woman to an old lady. First, she is an excited but poor girl who meets a rich man who is willing to transform her. When she does not take well to society manners, the two divorce and share their daughter. Over the years, the two become very close, but Stanwyck has to make many sacrifices for her daughter.

Sorry, Wrong Number is a film noir from later in Stanwyck's career. She plays a bedridden woman who hears through telephone coversations and such that a murder is going to take place. Bit by bit, she learns that the killer might just be after her!

Both programs are read with heart on the part of Stanwyck and are interesting to hear for major fans of her work. ... Read more

Product Description
Nice 84pg. tribute to Stanwyck from the American Film Institute when this award meant something. Illustrated with many stills and photos including several written tributes. Fine. LAID IN IS A SMALL 3" X 5" CARD THAT HAS BEEN SIGNED BY MS. STANWYCK IN INK. ... Read more

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Chapters: Ziegfeld Girls, Barbara Stanwyck, Eve Arden, Lucia Pamela, Jeanne Eagels, Bessie Love, Paulette Goddard, Louise Brooks, Marion Davies, Olive Thomas, Joan Blondell, Ann Pennington, Mae Murray, Florenz Ziegfeld, Nita Naldi, Susan Fleming, Iris Adrian, Anna Held, Bird Millman, Tamara Geva, Dorothy Mackaill, Billie Dove, Paulette Duval, Yvonne Hughes, Claire Dodd, Irene Hayes, Cecile Arnold, Jean Howard, Helen Gallagher. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 164. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 August 8, 1985), generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, famous for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W. Pabst films: in Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Prix de Beauté (Miss Europe) (1930). She starred in 17 silent films and, late in life, authored a memoir, Lulu in Hollywood. Born in Cherryvale, Kansas, Louise Brooks was the daughter of Leonard Porter Brooks, a lawyer, who was usually too busy with his practice to discipline his children, and an artistic mother who determined that any "squalling brats she produced could take care of themselves". Myra Rude was a talented pianist who played the latest Debussy and Ravel for her children, inspiring them with a love of books and music. None of this protected her nine-year old daughter Louise from sexual abuse at the hands of a neighborhood predator. This event had a major influence on Brooks's life and career, causing her to say in later years that she was incapable of real love, and that this man "must have had a great deal to do with forming my attitude toward sexual pleasure....For me, nice, soft, easy men were never enough -- there had to be a...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=187904 ... Read more

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Chapters: Faye Dunaway, Claudette Colbert, Vanessa Redgrave, Barbara Stanwyck, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Olivia de Havilland, Miranda Richardson, Angelina Jolie, Chloë Sevigny, Kathy Bates, Mary-Louise Parker, Kim Cattrall, Samantha Morton, Anjelica Huston, Sandra Oh, Ellen Corby, Betty Garrett, Laura Dern, Emily Blunt, Sylvia Sidney, Shelley Long, Ruth Buzzi, Rachel Griffiths, Valerie Bertinelli, Diane Ladd, Piper Laurie, Joan Plowright, Camryn Manheim, Gail Fisher, Amy Madigan, Nancy Marchand, Shirley Knight, Amanda Donohoe, Hermione Baddeley, Polly Holliday, Katherine Helmond, Sue Ane Langdon, Josette Banzet. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 290. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. Jolie promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as one of the world's most attractive people, as well as the world's "most beautiful" woman, titles for which she has received substantial media attention. Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and si...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5792809 ... Read more

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Chapters: Barbara Stanwyck, Eve Arden, Lucia Pamela, Jeanne Eagels, Bessie Love, Paulette Goddard, Louise Brooks, Marion Davies, Olive Thomas, Joan Blondell, Ann Pennington, Mae Murray, Nita Naldi, Susan Fleming, Iris Adrian, Anna Held, Bird Millman, Tamara Geva, Dorothy Mackaill, Billie Dove, Paulette Duval, Yvonne Hughes, Claire Dodd, Irene Hayes, Cecile Arnold, Jean Howard, Helen Gallagher. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 149. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 August 8, 1985), generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, famous for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W. Pabst films: in Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Prix de Beauté (Miss Europe) (1930). She starred in 17 silent films and, late in life, authored a memoir, Lulu in Hollywood. Born in Cherryvale, Kansas, Louise Brooks was the daughter of Leonard Porter Brooks, a lawyer, who was usually too busy with his practice to discipline his children, and an artistic mother who determined that any "squalling brats she produced could take care of themselves". Myra Rude was a talented pianist who played the latest Debussy and Ravel for her children, inspiring them with a love of books and music. None of this protected her nine-year old daughter Louise from sexual abuse at the hands of a neighborhood predator. This event had a major influence on Brooks's life and career, causing her to say in later years that she was incapable of real love, and that this man "must have had a great deal to do with forming my attitude toward sexual pleasure....For me, nice, soft, easy men were never enough -- there had to be an element of domination". (When Br...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=187904 ... Read more

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2 pages of music. ... Read more