![]() ![]() I have been a huge fan of Barbara Stanwyck since I was 16 and in a small way this is a dream come true for me. ![]() 1,000 pages-860 pages of narrative-and this is only part one. Nevertheless, history buffs and fans will be educated, if not always entertained. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson is an amazing work. Wilson includes a wealth of intriguing material but her meticulous research weighs heavily on the narrative, making it hard to plow through. The Hollywood players and the climate of fear around the Great Depression and WWII are also captured, as are numerous pictures of Stanwyck and the stars of the day. ![]() Her life in the studio system and her troubled marriage to the abusive Broadway legend Frank Fay are among the most interesting sections. We follow Ruby through the early 1920s on Broadway, her friendship with Mae West, her audition as a Ziegfeld girl, her turn from dancer to actress, and then Ruby to Barbara, her work with Frank Capra, and even her first mink coat. Beginning with a brief history of the Stevens family, dating back to 1740, and ending at the height of WWII with Stanwyck's work on Frank Capra's 1941 film Meet John Doe, the book offers a rich chronological look at the actress's rise from Vaudeville chorus girl to Hollywood star. ![]() In this well-researched tome, the first of two-volumes, Knopf vice president and senior editor Wilson offers an exhaustive account of the life of Ruby Stevens, better known as Barbara Stanwyck, the beloved actress from Hollywood's golden age. ![]()
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