- When I marry it's gonna be somebody I've
never seen before. I mean, I won't know what he looks like, or
where he'll come from, or what he'll be. I want him to sort of take me by surprise. - Her comedy sense was incredible. She had such a wonderful interior humor, and
I think that she used that a great deal. Well she had a great range. - Listen, everything in that speech are things
a certain man believed in. It was my father John, and when he talked,
people listened, and they'll listen to you too. Funny, you know what my mother said the other
night? She said to look into your eyes, that I'd
see Father there. - I loved to watch her in movies because of
her dexterity and subtly of it, she never anticipates everything, she's always brand
new, and always rewarding. - I was proud of you. I saw your future in big, electric lights. It's a pity never to seen you in action again,
used to be a thrill. - She was one of a very small group of women
who became stars by being strong women. She was one of the very few tough women who
came across sympathetically, and with whom the audience could identify. - She had the simplicity of art, she had the
inner fire on the control. - We're hitting it for the limit, baby. That's why it's got to be the train. - It'll be the train Walter, just the way
you want it, straight down the line. You don't know anything about me. What kind of an animal am I? Do I have fangs, do I purr, what jungle am
I from? You don't know a thing about me. - Oh that ain't important. - People have funny things swimming around
inside of them, don't you ever wonder what they are? - It would be very difficult to describe Barbara
Stanwyck. She was very complicated, and she could be
fiercely loyal to her friends, but she expected the same thing. She had been hurt so many times over the years
and in her life, that she was very guarded against becoming close with anyone. - There was a certain toughness about Barbara. She was tough with her coworkers, she was
demanding, she was also very much loved by them. And I think this came from her childhood. - Ruby Stevens was born in Brooklyn. She was born to a poor family, and she was
orphaned when she was four. Her mother was killed when she fell off a
streetcar, and the father then deserted the family. Ruby was brought up in foster homes. She and her brother were the youngest, they
were not in the same foster home. - [Nolan] He was not as strong as she was. As long as he was alive, she always took care
of him. She built a tough image of, I don't need anyone,
I can take care of myself. - She didn't talk too much about the past,
she had closed many doors in her life, and that's the way she chose to keep it. - She was private, she was a very private
person. I didn't know Barbara Stanwyck in her early
years, but Barbara and I would sit with our feet up on the radiator of the Plaza, looking
into the Park. She said, "I envied any of the kids who could
go to the park." Then there was a little boy who had a little
tiny red jacket, and it was snowing, and she said, "You know, I really was heartbroken
"that I didn't have some kind of warmth, "and I didn't have that kind of warmth," and she
said, "My whole life I wanted to be in Central Park "all the time with the other kids," and
she never could do it. - She didn't have all the breaks that she
should've had, that she should've been allowed to have had. - There were five children in the family,
but the others were either married, or her sister Millie, who was older, was a showgirl. - Millie is the one who took her on the road
from time to time, and traveled with her. - [Ella] She quit school when she was quite
young, about 14, and she took one menial job after another, and finally she ended up in
show business. - [Nolan] She first worked as a chorus girl
when she was about 16 years old, and she used to tell me that she worked at two shows. She worked in a Broadway show as a hoofer,
and then at night she said she would race down the street to the other theater that
she was a pony in the Ziegfeld Follies in the midnight show. - [Ella] She finally got a job at a Broadway
show called The Noose. And Willard Mack, who was the producer of
that, saw that he had more than just a chorus girl, he took her out of the chorus and gave
her a scene. - [Larry] He took an untrained chorus girl
and made her into an actress, and she never forgot this. - [Ella] She brought the house down, and she
had wonderful reviews. He also named her. - [Barbara] We were all sitting backstage
in the green room of the Glasgow Theatre in New York City. There was a very old English program, and
it read, James Stanwyck, appearing in Barbara Fritchie. So he said, "Here's your name, Barbara Stanwyck." - [Ella] The big break after her small role,
which brought her to the attention of the critics, was Burlesque, with Hal Skelly, who
was already an established, top performer. One night when she was doing this show, she
was introduced to Frank Fay. Now Frank Fay was a vaudevillian, he was Broadway's
favorite son at that point, and he was at the top of the heap. - [Nolan] Everybody considered him the greatest
emcee in vaudeville, and he could play weeks, months, at The Palace. He was always new, always fresh, different,
and people just loved him. - [Larry] She was just deeply in love with
him, and of course, when they came to Hollywood, he was a great help to her, he took this inexperienced,
young girl, who was then his wife, and tried to open doors for her. - [Barbara] And then I came originally for
Joe Schenck, who then owned United Artists. I did a perfectly dreadful picture called
The Locked Door, that was the beginning of talkies, and it was terrible, awful. - [Ella] Mexicali Rose she did, oh, what a
disaster. It was early talkies, she was totally miscast,
she had no direction, another dog to her credit. - All she could think about was returning
to New York, but she never did, however, because she met Frank Capra. - [Ella] She went to an interview with Capra. She had no confidence whatsoever, and finally
she said, "Oh hell, you don't want any part of me," and she just got up and she left. And so Capra left the office and he said,
"Forget it, she's not an actress, she's a porcupine." - [Barbara] I had tested a couple of times
for various and thundering parts out here, and I always lost. I was up to here with testing. - About a half hour later, Frank Fay, her
husband, was on the phone to Capra, and he said, "What the hell'd you do to my wife,
"she came home crying and upset, what did you do?" Fay said, "Look, she's young, she's shy, "she's
been kicked around out here, she hasn't had a chance. "I want you to see a test of the scene "that
she had done in The Noose." And as Capra said, "I wasn't going to like
that "for anything, I had no interest in seeing this test," but about 30 seconds into it he
got a lump in his throat, he said, as big as an egg. - And he saw something in Barbara that he
thought was unique, and he saw an inner fire there, perhaps, that he could bring out on
the screen. - Would it put you out any if I quit? Would you care? - Well, no, I mean, I'd like to finish the
job I started. - Is that all? - What do you mean, is that all? - Well I mean, what difference does it make
whether you do finish it, who cares, it'll be just another painting. The museum is full of paintings. - Now look here, Ms. Arnold-- - Ms. Arnold, Ms. Arnold, can't you call me
Kay? What am I, a statue or a hunk of furniture? That's the way you treat me. I'm a human being. - He found out that he had a natural actress,
that she was wonderful. - I love him, he's the only man I ever loved. I couldn't live without him. I'll work for him, I'll take care of him,
gee, I'd die for him. He don't need his father and he don't need
you. I won't give him up, I won't listen to you,
get out! - [Ella] The Capra-Stanwyck magic, what a
relationship that was. - When she came to Hollywood, Barbara was
not a raging beauty. She had pleasant looks, dark hair, rather
Irish looking. But Capra saw something in her eyes, and as
anybody who has studied film knows, the great stars have penetrating eyes that reach out
across the screen. - [Ella] But she had one drawback, she gave
everything on that first take. This made it difficult because it meant using
multiple cameras, but it was worth it to Capra to get that, that white heat. Now of course over the years she learned technique,
and she knew, of course, how to give on the fifth take if she had to. Stanwyck had bad luck with her relationships. Frank Fay had to be the king. And when he came to Hollywood, her star rose
and his went totally downhill. He was doing some film work, but it was not
major. - Oh Barbara Stanwyck, may I present Mr. Fay. - We know each other, we're married. - Why, of course. Do you know anything about those stolen jewels? - Shh, I've just written the most beautiful
piece of poetry. - Really? - Well I've gotta go. - Just a second, let's hear it. - In a year or so the girl returned, and mighty
proud was she. She told how she'd done her duty in the great
war o'er the sea. She told how she picked up the wounded and
held each one to her breast, so the woodworkers got together and made her a cedar chest. - Well, I'll see you around sometime I guess. - Kindly come in the garden please. - It was the
first time he really had any failure in his life. He just couldn't register in talkies. Meanwhile her career was growing. He became very bitter, and he was quite a
drinker too. - She did love this man enough to try and
save the relationship through being less than she was. He was hurt that she was doing so well and
he wasn't, she invested a lot of money in some work on Broadway, and she was in a show
with him, but her career was the most important thing at that point. - Seems like only yesterday I saw your picture
on the billboard, and Lem Jordan wanted to tear it down. - Why, the fella musta been crazy. - He wanted to, but I wouldn't let him. - Now you really got me. - I got you? - You sure have, Annie. No other girl's got a chance. But look, we... Look, people'll pay to see us battle each
other. Oh, I don't care no more who wins those matches. - You don't? - Ah, I know you can beat me and I'm proud
of you. Never thought I'd see the day when I can stand
out, but now I-- - Toby, I'm gonna tell everybody how wonderful
you really are. - [Film Announcer] Annie Oakley! - [Bob] The fact that his career was disappearing
was the real problem. No matter what she did, she couldn't change
that. - [Ella] She also adopted a child, a boy,
hoping that that would help. She would like to have had children, she couldn't,
but again, that was not enough to save the marriage. - He just fell deeper and deeper into alcoholism,
and made impossible demands on her, was very jealous of her career and her success. - And gradually he became physically abusive
to her, there were those who would talk about hearing him hit her on the set of a film,
and it just wasn't working. - [Bob] Eddie Foy, Jr. told me that Frank
never fell out of love with Barbara, and that to his dying day, he said, "She'll come back
to me someday," and he always held that belief. He never married again, he was always waiting
for Barbara. - [Ella] Her first major opportunity was the
wonderful 1937 Stella Dallas, where she was padded, she had horrible makeup, junky jewelry,
and hideous costumes. And Stanwyck loved that role, and she worked
very, very hard, and she received her first Academy Award nomination. Her favorite scene in Stella Dallas was the
very last scene, and this is where she is standing outside in the rain and watching
her daughter marry a wealthy man, and she sees the veil lifted from the face, and sees
how happy she is. The tears come to her eyes, and she walks
away very satisfied with what she has engineered, even though the daughter never knows, it's
true self-sacrifice. Stanwyck was not a sacrificer in real life,
she loved to play it on the screen. - She had this vulnerability that people wanted
to, in a sense, help her, could feel her tragedy, but yet she never had that fateful thing that
actors can do, and that is self-pity. - But it was only in the intimacy of our friendship
with my wife, where she confided in us, that one time, only one time. The rest of the time, that's water under the
bridge, I'm go forward. I don't live in the past. - Barbara never had a great deal of vanity
the way most stars do. It didn't matter with Barbara, either on the
screen or off, she was just being herself. I was surprised with how small she was, but
that often happens. - These images you see on a screen and you
think they're much taller than they actually are, she's a tiny little thing. - Barbara Stanwyck never fussed with her clothes,
or checked with them, you got her dressed in the morning, and if she was wrinkled or
there was something wrong, you had to tell her, because she was so busy concentrating
on her lines and on her performance. And she used to always tell me, "If the shoes
are important, "than the whole thing's a mistake." - Barbara was a very kind person, she was
very helpful to young actors. The most famous example, of course, is Bill
Holden, who was scared to death in his first real starring role on Golden Boy. - [TV Announcer] In Hollywood, event motion
picture producers start bidding for the screen rights to Golden Boy, which finally go to
the Columbia Studio. The studio casting director combs all Hollywood,
interviews hundreds on young actors to find one capable of playing the title role, that
of a boy who thrusts aside his violin to become a mauling fury in the prize ring. The final choice is William Holden at the
pinnacle of stardom. Under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian, maker
of many of the screen's biggest hits. - Everybody wanted that part of Golden Boy,
man I wanted it, and a fella called William Beedle got the part, his name was Bill Holden. She brought him along and helped him so much,
but not many people would do that. - [Ella] Golden Boy was his first major opportunity,
and after he'd been shooting for a short time, they were ready to replace him. Stanwyck went to bat for him and she said,
"You haven't given him a chance." - You shouldn't be in the ring, Joe. You belong in your home with your violin. - Say, that's funny coming from you. - I know. Oh Joe, do you remember the night you spoke
of music and what it meant to you? You knew what was right then, how people should
live. Joe, maybe you ought to give up fighting. - She took him under her wing, rehearsed in
her dressing room, encouraged him, and got a pretty fine performance out of this young
kid, who was up against this consummate actress. - I wanted to conquer the world, but instead
I smashed myself. I'm lost, Lorna. - No darling, you're not. Now you can go back to yourself, to your music. - With this? A great violinist with a broken hand. - Your hand will heal, and you'll play again,
you must. Nothing can stop you when you do what's in
your heart. We have each other Joe, we'll find a way. - Stanwyck is one of the few star actresses
who was in control of her own life, she was not a studio creation. She made films at all the studios, and that
was very, very rare. And in that journey, therefore, she picked
material that was versatile. The variation of the roles that she would
play, it was just, the difference between Stella Dallas and The Lady Eve. She spun across drama and the comedy with,
just benevolent ease. - [TV Announcer] Here's the gorgeous, tantalizing
Lady Eve. Now watch her go into action. She has her eye on this handsome, wealthy,
but terribly naive and inexperienced young man, who hasn't seen a woman for a year. Now every woman has her eyes on him, but only
Lady Eve knows how to get him. Meet Barbara Stanwyck, his very, very vexy,
Lady Eve. Bewitching, bewildering, and very bothering
to Henry Fonda, a modern Adam. - Thank you. Do you know that I find your son very handsome? - That's the same dame, I can tell by the
way she-- - I'll take over from here, Mr. Murgatroyd. - You and who else? - I said I'll take over from here, Ambrose. - Ambrose? - Leave me alone, will ya? - The way she and Fonda worked together was
enchanting, but in playing that double role, she was so tasteful, she never pretended to
be anybody else, she just thought differently. That's what was wonderful about her, her thought
mechanism was stunning. - I mean to say, have we met? - Well of course we have, your father just
introduced us. - Aren't you feeling well? - Oh, I'm so sorry, you meant, hadn't you
met me before someplace? - Yeah. - Oh, very probably, let me see, where could
it have been? Deauville. - No. - Biarritz? - No. - I know, Le Touquet. You had a mustache at the time, and you tried
to meet me at a dance in the casino. - Oh, you weren't on the S.S. Southern Queen? - Say, what's the matter with you? - I'm sorry. - Oh, were you in love with her? - Yeah, he was in love with her but he don't
remember what she looked like. - Don't let them tease you. You can tell me all about her. - She was a very shy individual, she was not
comfortable around strangers, she always preferred to be around people that she knew. She loved the crews on the sets of her films,
and they loved her. She knew everybody by name, she felt comfortable
with them. - She was just one of the guys, they all called
her Missy. And they would practically get down on their
knees to her, and they loved to go on her pictures. - She knew, in this industry, that you could
be the best actress in the world, but if the man who's pushing the dolly doesn't go when
you walk, you can't do it. If the sound man doesn't have the boom in
the right place you can't do it, it's a collaborative effort, and she was very knowledgeable about
that. - [Ella] When she met Robert Taylor she fell
in love, and so did he. They did an early film, a terrible film, called
His Brother's Wife. They did another called This is My Affair. These two are so obviously in love, you can
see it. She absolutely adored this man, they had a
wonderful relationship. They were married in 1939. - [Bob] Certainly Robert Taylor was the most
important man in her life, probably the most handsome man in Hollywood. He loved her, and that was a great boost for
her. He thrived on this marriage, enjoyed going
out with him. And she wasn't much of a party person, but
to do what the studios wanted, go to premieres, show up at parties, awards, events. She'd go along with, especially if she had
this beautiful man on her arm. That was a very exciting period in her life,
her own career was on the ascendancy and so was his, and they were the legendary perfect
marriage. - When I was a young boy, I'm talking about
the middle-30's, there were three women on the screen that fascinated me; Greta Garbo,
Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. At that time I knew nothing about acting,
but instinctively I felt that in Davis, and in Greta Garbo, I enjoyed the histrionics,
they were bigger than life, and it was exciting to watch. But then when I saw Barbara Stanwyck, I noticed
in her an inner power with less histrionics. It was a little more truth, to me, her performance. - [Ella] The last film that Stanwyck did of
the five she did with Frank Capra was Meet John Doe. - Please listen to me, please, I can explain
everything John, I didn't know what they were going to do, let me go with you John. - Stanwyck was a very strong, emotional actress. She was a combination of toughness and suffering,
vulnerability, the vulnerability would show, no matter how strong a women she was, sooner
or later, in almost every role. - John, John look at me. You wanna be honest don't you? Well you don't have to die to keep the John
Doe idea alive, someone already died for that once, the first John Doe, and he's kept that
idea alive for nearly 2,000 years. It was he who kept it alive in them, and he'll
go on keeping it alive forever and always. For every John Doe that these men kill, a
new one will be born, that's why there's bells a-ringin' John. They're calling to us, not to give up, but
to keep on fighting, to keep on pitching. Oh, don't you see darling? This is no time to give up. You and I John, we... Oh no, no John, if you die I wanna die too. Oh I love you, - She loved losing herself in a character,
and going all the way, if it meant aging, or whatever. - [TV Announcer] The great man's lady, gallant
woman of America, who's life was a procession of wonderful, terrible, turbulent years. Men who looked into her eyes were forever
caught, ready to fight and die for her love. Queen of the gambling halls, notorious woman
of mystery in roaring San Francisco, when she saw things that even today men and women
whisper about. - Speak for the truth and fight for it, speak
for all the people to hear. Help them to build something fine and free,
a country that, that your own little boy and girl, and all our children will be proud to
inherit. - I'll do it. - I know you will, Ethan. - [Larry] One of her favorite films was the
Great Man's Lady, in which she aged to an elderly lady. She loved that, she loved basking in the character. - She loved the films that were really difficult
to do. I know that she loved doing Ball of Fire. The film was written for Ginger Rogers, after
she read it she told the producer and the director, "Oh, I would never play that part,
she's too common." So they called Barbara Stanwyck and they said,
we offered this to Ginger Rogers but she has turned it down, would you be interested? And she read the script, she said, "You bet,
I love playing common broads." ♪ Come on and give me heat ♪ ♪ 'Cause
I don't like my music sweet ♪ ♪ I wanna feel my impulse beat ♪ ♪ Take it off the
E string ♪ ♪ Play it on the G string ♪ ♪ If this gives you a thrill ♪ ♪ It's happening
much against my will ♪ ♪ And only 'cause I've caught a chill ♪ ♪ Take it off the
E string ♪ ♪ Play it on the G string ♪ ♪ What goes a lot ♪ ♪ Goes when I do ♪ ♪ My
act ♪ ♪ Boys it's a fact ♪ ♪ Whenever I'm applauded ♪ ♪ You're rewarded ♪ - Whatever she experienced early in her life
which gave her the ingredients to be a survivalist, she used in, she channeled very, very well. Some people's persona ends up being totally
opposite to their beginnings. She was very strong, and at the same time,
could muster immense femininity, as in The Lady Eve, and her performance is stunning. Double Indemnity, it's really the totally
other side of the coin, it's a malevolent woman that she plays, and a lot of actresses
wouldn't have the guts to step up to that. - [Walter Voiceover] How could I have known
that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle? - I can't stand it anymore, what if they do
hang me? - They're not gonna hang you, baby. - It's better than going on this way. - They're not going to hang you, because you're
gonna to do it and I'm gonna help you. - [TV Announcer] Yes, from the moment they
met it was murder. - I'd have the cops after her so quick, it'll
make your head spin. Now we know the Dietrichson dame was in it,
and a somebody else. - Well they haven't got a single thing to
go on, Keyes. - [Keyes] He'll show, he's got to show, sometime,
somewhere, but gotta be. - [Barbara] When Billy Wilder sent me the
script of Double Indemnity and I read it, I had never played an out and out killer,
and as such, I was a little frightened of it. And I went back to his office, I said, "I
love the script and I love you, "but I'm a little afraid, after all these years "of playing
heroines, to go into "an out and out coldblooded killer." And Mr. Wilder, and rightly so, looked at
me, and he said, "Well, are you a mouse or an actress?" I must've said something that gave you a terribly
wrong impression. You must never think anything like that about
me, Walter. - Okay. - No, it's not okay, not if you don't believe
me. - What do you want me to do? - I want you to be nice to me, like the first
time you came to the house. - [Walter] It can't be like the first time,
something's happened. - I know it has, it happened to us. - Double Indemnity was certainly a chance
to do a really strong role with no holds barred, and she loved it. It garnered her another Academy Award nomination. - Maybe I had Zachetti here so they won't
get a chance to trip me up, so we can get the money and be together. - That's cute, say it again. - He came here first to ask where Lola was,
I made him come back, I was working on him. He's a crazy sort of guy, quick-tempered. I kept hammering into him that she was with
another man so he'd go into one of his jealous rages, and then I'd tell him where she was. And you know what he would've done to her,
don't you Walter? - Yes, and for once I believe you, because
it's just rotten enough. - We're both rotten. - Well Barbara was rare in Hollywood, she
was not a personality star. Most of the major stars, they pretty much
projected their own persona, Barbara was not like that. She didn't wanna reveal herself. At any rate, she could adopt any role, she
could play mothers in tragedies, she could play wild, mad-cap comedies, she could play
adventures, she loved Westerns, and that was probably why she was never a huge box office
star. She was a freelance actress most of her time,
and she made good salaries, but she never made the popularity charts. I don't think that bothered her at all, she
just wanted to be a working actress. - [Male Disembodied Voice] Ivers, Ivers, Ivers... - No, no, Martha Smith. - [Ella] Stanwyck had a rough childhood, she
had to do for herself. She also learned that you have to be in control,
or somebody else will be in control of you. This carried over all her life, and it carried
over into relationships. And of course, with Robert Taylor, this was
tough on him too. This was something that began to pull things
apart. Taylor was also an outdoors man, Stanwyck
was not an outdoors woman. She did like to ride horses and so on, but
she didn't wanna go camping, she didn't wanna go shooting, hunting, whatever. He also liked to fly, he had his own plane. I think she went up maybe once. - I knew Bob quite well, he was a guy who
was a country boy, he was a fella who loved to shoot. And we'd go up to my father's duck lodge and
shoot skeet together, and Barbara didn't like that very much. Some of the other ladies, like Gary Cooper's
wife Rocky, loved to shoot. I think Barbara was 100% involved in her craft. - [TV Announcer] Their strange conflict, their
even stranger love, brought to its unforeseeable climax in one unforgettable night when a woman
overhears the plotting of a murder. But which call has created this perfect pattern
of terror. - I want you to get out of that bed and walk
to the window, I want you to scream out in the street, Leona. - [Leona] I can't, I can't move Henry, I'm
too frightened. - Keep trying, otherwise you've only got three
more minutes to live. - [Ella] Sorry, Wrong Number was a great suspense
film, and she had 12 minutes of terror to shoot. This was very, very difficult, and the director
asked her if she'd like to do them, spread them throughout the filming, or do them all
together so she would have continuity. She found that the continuity worked best
for her, and again, she received another Academy Award nomination. - I don't think anybody really knows what
happened between the two of them, but certainly it's an old, old story in Hollywood, or anywhere,
but at a certain period of life, a man casts his eyes on a younger woman. - I think Barbara was unremitting, I think
she was terribly, terribly tough on herself. I don't know the story about Bob and the other
lady, and whatever happened, but in life there are no finites, and nobody's perfect. She was so dead straight on a set of tracks
that she marched to, and she just couldn't allow herself to go any other way. - I think she never really got over him, and
I suppose it was the great love of her life, was Robert Taylor. He went on and had a wife and children, but
I think he always had that kind of a love for her also. - [Bob] Her friends say that there was a void
in her life after the divorce. The only way she could find to fill that void
was to work. - No, I don't wanna miss ya, I got as much
right to make you my wife as any man on the planet. - Gary, let go of me or I'll smash your face
with the first thing I can lay my hands on. - Hey, don't you know I love ya, can't you
tell it? - What are ya? Animals? At a zoo they keep 'em in cages, they keep
'em apart, they don't let 'em hurt people, you're animals, animals, animals, animals! - [Ella] In 1952 Stanwyck did a wonderful
film, which is called Clash By Night. It was again, a very strong character, but
now a kind of downtrodden character, who falls for a no-good. But at the same time wants peace from this
terrible life she has lived. - One thing I know, he was a man who didn't
tear a woman down, he made her feel confident. - Confident? - Sure of herself, more than she was, not
less. The only man I ever knew who gave me that
feeling. - Which makes me what? - A sparrow on a treetop. - [Ella] One of the actresses in the film
was Marilyn Monroe. Stanwyck never had a bad word for Marilyn. Marilyn would be late all the time, she would
be going up in her lines, et cetera, but Stanwyck understood her, she said she was just a young
kid, but she had the world at her fingertips. - I'm tired of looking after men, I wanna
be looked after. - Weren't you ever in love, Mae? - Once. - Where? - St. Paul, he was big too, like Charlie. I'll say one thing, he knew how to handle
women. - Is that what you want from a man? - Confidence, I want a man to give me confidence,
somebody to fight off the blizzards and the floods, somebody to beat off the world when
it tries to swallow you up. Me and my ideas. - [Ella] You could tell there was magic there,
and Stanwyck understood her totally, and knew where she was coming from. - Barbara couldn't stand unkindness. There used to be a kind of core of directors
who were mean to performers. This particular day, on California, there
was a director being mean to this one particular bit player who couldn't fight back, and she
said, "Cut, hold it, wait a minute." She said, "You, you apologize to this actor,
"get up on a parallel, I want you to apologize to him, "in front of the crew, everyone to
hear it "otherwise I'm on the first train home." And he did. - Everyone told her if she let her hair go
gray it would ruin her career completely, and she said, "Only the young die," and she
just refused to dye her hair, she said she wasn't gonna sit in a beauty salon for two
hours every week having her hair dyed. - She was never that concerned about her looks,
or her makeup, or, she was really interested more in the character. I did one picture with Barbara, I was in a
picture called the Titanic. - [Tv Announcer] Unforgettable drama in scene
after scene, an immense canvas on which is thrown the gripping story of young love, of
cowardice and heroism, of faithfulness and adultery, of sinner and saint. - And if you try to interfere, I'll be as
common as you think I am, I'll fight you tooth and nail, I'll take you to the courts. - No court in the world, no power in the heaven
can force me to give up my son. - He is not your son. - Well I think you'll find, if you study the
history of great actresses of the 30s and 40s, that they are all strong personalities. Barbara lived her life as she wanted it, because
she'd heard it all, and she could give it right back to you if you tried it on her. - She loved Westerns, she loved pioneer women,
and she loved the early West. She loved doing stunts, the stunt people were
among her favorites. She wanted action, she didn't wanna just be
sitting in a corner knitting. - Remember what I told you, keep your head
down. Run for it! - You've gotta do something about those guns. - Do you know where McCord's turnin' 'em over
to Natchakoa? Once Natchakoa gets his hands on 'em this
whole territory'll be on fire before night. - [Ella] Barbara Stanwyck did over 80 films
in her career. She loved to work. Now it became tougher, as it did for all Hollywood
actresses in that era, when she hit a certain age. Movies had changed. She realized that television was going to
be an important medium, she didn't look down on it. In those days Westerns were not the thing
for a woman unless she was going to wear a long gown, and just stand around and make
cakes or something. She wanted to get out in ride, to be in cattle
drives, and do all of the things that the men could do. She did an anthology show, it was a half-hour
show, it won her an Emmy, and it was canceled in the same season. - She hated playing herself on the anthology,
she would've done everything to do away with those introductions. - Some actors, when they are inside a role,
they lose themselves, and find great difficulty in really being themselves, because perhaps
there is a certain sense of insecurity. And I think Barbara, who was rather reserved,
she was not the most social person I've ever known. This magnificent actress found it a little
difficult being herself. - [Bob] Then came The Big Valley, and that
really pleased her. She loved to get on a horse, and wear buckskin,
talk with the wranglers. The most pleasant part of her later life was
when she could do that show. Her life was not particularly a happy life,
and maybe that's why she threw herself into her work so much, because when she was working
on a picture, she gave it everything, she gave more than 100%. The amazing thing is that she was so generous. Linda Evans, when we were doing Big Valley
all those years, every Saturday was at her house working on her script, and working on
lines, working on scenes with her. Linda really started thinking that she was
her real mother. - When I first met Barbara Stanwyck, I was
the most frightened writer in this whole town. Dick Powell called me and said, "I think I
can get Barbara Stanwyck "to do a Zane Grey Theater, write her something." I was petrified, Barbara Stanwyck, me write
something for Barbara Stanwyck? I did, and Missy, Barbara, did it, and then
she called so many people in town saying you should use this writer, you should use this
writer, and that started my career in this town. - When I first met her I got out of Chouinard
after studying design for film, couldn't get a job at a studio, and I'd taken a job in
Beverly Hills in a flower shop. And Barbara Stanwyck came in, and of course,
they almost had to call 911 for me, because I was close to passing out that my idol was
there and I was talking to her. - I went to get some flowers for somebody
I was dating, I went to this flower shop, and by coincidence, there was Barbara Stanwyck. And she immediately gave me a hug and a kiss,
said, "Come here, I want you to meet somebody." I went over and I met the florist, and she
said, "He's not only a florist, he does my clothes, "I want you to use him on your next
show." I started Nolan Miller as couturier, and Nolan's
done everything for this company from Dynasty on down, because Barbara Stanwyck said, "Aaron,
you should use him." - I think in her later years, Barbara was
something of a loner. It wasn't because she had lost her looks,
because she looked terrific and did occasional roles. - [Aaron] When we talked about things that
Missy wanted to do, she had just one thing, "I would do anything, I will show fear, "I
will show vulnerability, but I want a strong woman. "There are too many things being done on television
"where women are just victims, "I don't wanna be a victim, Aaron. "I can be victimized, but I don't wanna be
a victim." - I think Barbara Stanwyck was interested
in this role because it was a love story. It was a story about her being in love with
a man, and that wasn't a role that I think was available to her at the time. Barbara Stanwyck must've been in her mid-70's
somewhere when we were shooting this, and that was a big concern to us obviously, because
a miniseries is a very lengthy, and difficult process to shoot. It turned out that Barbara was the strongest
of anyone on that set. She was a consummate professional, she wouldn't
allow her character in the picture to be harmed by a lotta the extraneous elements that are
involved with shooting a movie, and that is probably why she was so successful in her
career, she knew who her character was. There was one scene in particular, it was
a pivotal scene where she starts crying and expresses her love to Richard Chamberlain,
it was all done in one take, in a master shot. And we were on a stage shooting the scene,
and she went through this entire scene uninterrupted, without making a single mistake, from talking
to us and having fun to having tears now in her eyes, screaming at Richard Chamberlain,
crying. - I'm the goat of your old age, that's all. A reminder of what you can no longer be. - Let me tell you something, Cardinal de Bricassart,
about old age and about that God of yours. That vengeful God who ruins our bodies and
leaves us with only enough wit for regret. Inside this stupid body I am still young,
I still feel, I still want, I still dream, and I still love you, oh God, how much. - [Mark] The entire stage, everyone on the
stage had stopped and listened to the scene and was now applauding for her. - She never got the awards and the acclaim
that her contemporaries did. Finally it came to her. - She was in the hospital, and I went to the
hospital to tell her that she was getting an honorary Oscar, and she said, "You're not
kidding me, "I'm really getting this Oscar?" I said yes, she said, "Well I've gotta get
well, "I've gotta hurry up and have Nolan design me a gown, "and I've gotta make plans,"
and with that, she willed herself out of the hospital and cured herself. - A few years ago, I stood on this stage with
William Holden, as a presenter. I loved him very much, and I miss him. He always wished that I would get an Oscar,
and so tonight, my Golden Boy, you got your wish. - I said, maybe there's a chance I can get
Barbara Stanwyck to do a favor for me. I never heard, she's too old. Their whole attitude was, Barbara Stanwyck,
yes. Then I had to call her and said, "Would you
do The Colbys for me?" and she said, "What's The Colbys'?" I said, well this series we're doin' with
Chuck Heston, blah, blah, blah, blah, and she said, "And you're telling me that I'm
older than Moses, "is that what you're telling me?" I said, "No Missy, I thought you'd have fun,"
and I said, "Can I send you a script?" she says, "No, don't send me a script. "When do I report on the set?" - She was persuaded to be my sister. She was all I had expected her to be, I knew
she would be good in the scenes, I did not realize how fully she would realize, she would
fulfill her responsibility as a professional. - She was remarkable, she had an inner strength
that, when she was very tired and the camera was rolling, there she was again, as if she
were the healthiest, strongest woman in the world. "Cut," and then when she'd sit down, you could
tell that she was tired, and of course, all my admiration went to her. Unfortunately, I only did one scene with her,
one insignificant scene, but it was just the two of us alone. But in that scene, communicating with her,
seeing that simplicity, her eyes connecting with me, not playing to the camera or doing,
but really talking to me, I felt almost an electricity filling me. - As with all radiant, in-depth stars, they
carry an individual stamp, and perhaps the best thing is it cannot be defined, they are
unique. Stanwyck, because of the versatility of the
canon of work, is one of the most valuable of those creatures, over three-and-a-half,
four decades, that's quite phenomenal. And right up until the end, everything that
she performed was full out, and with style and stamina. - [Larry] She was very shy and very insecure,
and yet she could go out on a soundstage and work it for all it was worth, and give the
camera exactly what they needed. The little girl who danced to the music of
the Herty Gerty never lost that childish quality. No matter what her age was, you always wanted
to protect her and shield her. - [Roddy] She makes you realize that you can
keep going, there is no end except by your own choice. - Bette Davis became a star of a greater magnitude
than Barbara Stanwyck, that is in fame, that is in box office. But to me, Barbara Stanwyck stands up there
way on the top of all the names that have ever worked in this industry. - [Barbara] We are all very privileged people. The good Lord gave us that much more to walk
ahead of somebody, and He showed us how to do it, and we did it, but we're survivors. But we didn't do it on our own, we didn't
do it on our own. The man upstairs was pushing me.
