We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
22C Ways to Film Success
"I OWE IT TO MY HUSBAND"
—by BARBARA STANWYCK
(Warner Brothtrs Star)
T OWE to my husband the fact that I am a fihn star. In these days of •*■ modern m.arriages and feminine independence that statement sounds to many people a Httle fantastic ; but that is the way it happened.
The story starts some time back when I spent my time kicking a leg for the amusement of the patrons of Texas Guinan's famous night club in New York. The)^ called me by my real name— Ruby Stevens — in those days.
One night Frank Fay, one of Broadway's greatest stars, walked in. I admired him from a distance, but it seemed hardly likely that we should ever meet ; and 5'ct, before very long Rub}^ Stevens had become Mrs. Frank Fay. Before verj/ much longer she had also become Barbara Stanv/yck, and Frank managed to get me the job of leading lady in the play Burlesque. For a year or two we were content with the successes that both of us gained on Broadwaj^ but then came the revolutionizing of the film industry by the introduction of talking pictures, back in 1929.
With everything in the melting-pot, Hollywood was eager for stage talent. They needed actors and actresses who knew how to put emotion, tragedy, laughter, into the spoken word. One by one, all the greatest Broadway stars were offered contracts. Of course, Frank was one of the number, and he accepted a job with Joseph Schenck.
Meanwhile we were appearing at the Club Richman in New York, and one evening I was invited over to the table of a strange young man, who told me his name was Irving Thalberg ; that he was from Hollj'Avood ; that my work interested him ; and that he wondered if I had ever thought of working in pictures. The name Thalberg meant little or nothing to me, and I told him casually that, as Frank was due on the West Coast quite soon, I should probably go with him. I even promised airily enough to drop around and see him at the M.G.M. Studios some time. That was all I knew of Hollyv;ood when we eventually left for film headquarters.
While Frank v/as making musicial pictures like The Show of Shows, I managed to secure a part in The Locked Door with Rod la Rocque. That film was so bad it nearly locked the door of my screen future. I began to hate Hollv'\vood. After a long time Warner Bros, gave me a test. I still liated Hollywood ; was bewUdered and confused by it. My test was as much a failure as my first screen effort.
It was then that Frank Fay's hand went to the moulding of my career. , Without telling me — and I did not find out for a long time afterwards — he went to Harry Cohn, chief of Columbia Pictures, and offered to pay my salary and the cost of dressing me if only they would give me a chance. They did give me a chance, although they refused Frank's offer, and I played with little more than medium success in an unimportant film. 1 ' was still unenthusiastic about Hollvwood and quite ready to return to the old happy days in New York ; but Frank was still fighting on my behalf. .
When he heard that another picture was being prepared by Columbia he tackled Frank Capra and fought, argued, demanded that I should be