Photoplay (Jan-Sep 1937)

DESPITE all the radio, newspaper and magazine rumors — even in the face of all the so-called marriage plans and the stories of their passionate love — Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor are not going to be married That is the straight truth of it, for the first time. The reason? There is only one. Here it is: Barbara is not going to marry at all — Bob or any other man, for a long, long time. This is Barbara Stanwyck's honest answer to the question of the Hollywood hour. At an interview which took place at her bedside as she struggled valiantly back to health from influenza, she gave me her reasons. In many ways, Barbara Stanwyck is the most interesting person in Hollywood today. Not alone because of her muchpublicized romance with Robert Taylor, but also because her career, which sagged so dangerously after her marriage to Frank Fay terminated in divorce, has taken on a new blush of success. She has just been signed to play the famous role of Stella Dallas. This should place her right back on the top of the heap where she belongs. Somewhere it is written: ". . . and there shall be seven lean years, then seven fat ..." Barbara, we hope, is now starting on the promised seven years of happiness. Happiness in love, in her career, and in her new way of life. 1 decided to tell Barbara of a conversation I had overheard the night before at the home of another motion picture star. Her romance with Bob had beon brought up and finally one of the group asked for reactions on their possible marriage. The men had been unanimous in their decision: "Bob Taylor would be the luckiest guy in town. Without a doubt, Barbara Stanwyck comes as close to a perfect wife as we've ever seen." "Gee," Barbara smiled, "that was swell of them all to say that. But," and a frown of obvious sincerity crept over her face as she said this, "they are wrong. At least for the moment. I couldn't be a perfect wife to anyone for a long time to come. I've got a lot of things tangled up inside of me that have to be untangled before that could happen. A lot of things." She stopped. We looked at each other for a long moment. She seemed to be trying to decide whether she should tell me more. I let her make her own decision. She would, anyway. Barbara hasn't a strong purposeful jawline and an almost masculine sort of judgment for nothing. Far more important is the beauty of spirit that so far outshines the mere physical beauty of Barbara that everyone knows. " For one thing," she continued, "there is nothing any woman wants so much as peace and happiness. No sacrifice to attain it must be too great and a woman must give everything within her power when she marries. But even if a woman acknowledges this, she still can never be positively sure. Despite everything, complete disillusion sometimes comes. To me, now, the lure of marriage and its promise of happiness and contentment seems vaguely distant." Barbara herself, will not talk of it rfow, but the whole world knows that her previous marriage crashed. " COR six months after my divorce, mained home every night alone, casual companionship of other people. Not in a romantic way, believe me. ' she continued, "I re I didn't want even the Then I met Bob Taylor Bob was going with another girl at the time. So we didn't see much of each other at first. In fact, it was weeks later, after his romance had broken up completely, that we began going out. "It began by our having dinner dates — mostly at my home — after which we'd go to a movie or take a long ride in his car. Bob was all mixed up — mixed up about romance and about his career — and for a long time we talked of nothing else. • I tried to help him get it straightened out in his mind. Finally he did. But soon he was demanding to know why I limited our public appearances to a movie or an automobile ride. Why wouldn't I go out dancing with him? I had my reasons; none of them seemed satisfactory. "Then one night, after an early movie, Bob stopped his car in front of the Trocadero. "He told me, in no uncertain terms that we were going in to dance. He warned me that my refusal would mean that I did not want to be seen in public with him. We went in. WHY SHE Here at last — for the first time — she reveals the answer to the burning question which has been agitating Hollywood for months By WALTER RAMSEY 24