Women in Film: Barbara Stanwyck

She wore the pants in Hollywood

By Christina Schultz

Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley from the television Western "The Big Valley," 1968 (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

On this very day, July 16, in the year 1907, Barbara Stanwyck (née Ruby Catherine Stevens) was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Why should this interest you?

Because I think Barbara Stanwyck’s (her)story borders on extraordinary. Orphaned at the age of four, she started out as a dancer, showgirl and stage actor. Moving on to a career in film in 1927, at the young age of twenty, she would then dominate Hollywood (and later television) over the next forty to fifty years to become an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actor. She also earned the title of highest-paid woman in the U.S. at one point, and, finally, enjoyed (or rather still enjoys) status as a gay and lesbian icon.

It might sound like the stuff of fiction, but it’s all true. How, you might ask?

• Barbara’s rather “rough” upbringing with life in and out of foster homes made her dream of becoming a performer; her drive to “make it” was palpable,
• Her work as a showgirl at a young age helped launch her rather successful career on Broadway and then on the silver screen,
• Her prolific output of films - Wikipedia claims she made 85 films in 38 years (!); see selected list below - brought her enormous fame and wealth,
• Her childless marriage to incredibly popular and dashing leading heterosexual man Robert Taylor (1911-1969; he later remarried and had two children) might have been a lavender marriage[1], a practice quite common during the golden age of Hollywood, but having a celebrity husband was another way for her to stay in the spotlight (think of couples like Brangelina, Bennifer, Becks and Posh, etc.),
• She certainly had grandes cojones - she taught Robert Taylor how to play a spurned lover for his film Camille (George Kucor, 1936) with Greta Garbo!
• Her deep, gravelly voice, her rowdy and boisterous demeanor and her mixture of sass and glamor - she wore a lot of sparkly dresses - made her approachable.

All these factors seemed to have been a formula for her success in Hollywood, as well as with the gay and lesbian community. Her strong, independent personality arguably makes her a good fit as a feminist icon as well. We can only recommend you watch some of her films and see what you think. 

We also highly suggest you read  “Today in Gay History: The Inimitable Barbara Stanwyck” by Andrew Belonsky for Out magazine for more information about the late, great Barbara Stanwyck, one of Hollywood's greatest stars and suspected lesbian. 

Selected filmography (click titles for selected clips or trailers):
Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937) 
Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak, 1948)
Walk on the Wild Side (Edward Dmytryk, 1962; a film with heavy lesbian undertones) 
Roustabout (John Rich, 1964; with Elvis Presley!) 

Special thanks to Felicia Carparelli for providing me with information for this piece and to filmmaker Emma Seligman who reminded me that Barbara Stanwyck was (most likely) a closeted lesbian. My interview with Emma will be published this Friday, July 20! Come back to read what Emma has to say about sex, the Jewish culture, her work as a filmmaker and, of course, Barbara Stanwyck 😊

[1] For those unfamiliar with the term, a “lavender marriage” refers to a “male-female marriage,” also known as a “mixed-orientation marriage,” a type of marriage of convenience, “in which one or both of the partners is homosexual, pansexual or bisexual.” The main reason several Hollywood celebrities in the golden era of Hollywood entered into lavender marriages was to hide their homosexuality because it was not accepted. One of the earliest uses of the phrase appeared in the British press in 1895, at a time when lavender was associated with homosexuality. 
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_marriage)
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