Stanwyck [Hardcover]

Jane Ellen Wayne (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stanwyck, a Hollywood legend and a distinguished actress who achieved admirable longevity in a fickle profession, receives a debunking in this unauthorized biography. Wayne, author of a biography of the late Robert Taylor, claims to have been "inspired" to investigate one of Taylor's famous wives. This "untold story" is so gracelessly and crudely presented that any gleam of humanity in the actress is lost. Wayne presents a portrait of a workaholic, incapable of giving love to her child or husbands (Frank Fay was her first); the sad life of Stanwyck's adopted son, Dion, is alluded to but not explicated. Readers are left with a compilation of gossip, innuendo and distasteful stories; facts are related but rarely interpreted. Still, Stanwyck, born Ruby Stevens and orphaned at age four, has survived worse than this pap. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this biography of Barbara Stanwyck, Wayne generally skims rather lightly over Stanwyck's professional success in films such as Stella Dallas and Double Indemnity. Instead she concentrates on Stanwyck's two failed marriages (to actors Frank Fay and Robert Taylor) and her apparent total indifference toward her adopted son. Stanwyck 's emphasis is on the sensational; it is overdependent on anonymous sources; and its style is pedestrian. The book has some worth, but in most respects it is far inferior to Ella Smith's Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck (1974; 1985. rev. ed.). John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Freehold, N.J.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Arbor House Pub Co; First Edition edition (January 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877957509
• ISBN-13: 978-0877957508
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,802,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A DISTORTED ANTI-STANWYCK DIATRIBE, September 10, 1999

By 

E. S. Frasuer (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stanwyck (Hardcover)

To evaluate this book, one must first know the one that preceeded it. Soon after Robert Taylor's death in 1969, Jane Ellen Wayne began writing an admiring biography of the actor. Her heart was obviously in her work. Her anti-Stanwyck bias was equally obvious. During the book's early chapters Wayne presents Stanwyck favorably, as befits the woman that Taylor was to fall in love with. But later on, as their marriage begins to crumble, Wayne attempts to justify Taylor's wandering eye by turning Barbara into the kind of woman with whom the reader can't sympathize.

Fourteen years later, on the heels Stanwyck's resurgence (an Honorary Oscar, and an Emmy for "The Thornbirds"), Wayne reached into her trunk and turned her Taylor biography into a STANWYCK biography ---- but in doing so (her animus now more profound than ever) she omitted whatlittle of value the first book contained. Furthermore, when drawing on material from other books, Wayne's tactics are stunning in their audacity. Here are just two examples: Wayne takes Frank Capra's affectionate story about meeting, working with, and falling in love with the young Stanwyck (as told in his autobiography "The Name Above the Title") and systematically deletes everything except his first NEGATIVE impression. Then there's the story (from Ella Smith's excellent "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck") told by a witness to Barbara's first screen-test (which was sabotaged by a vindictive cameraman whose advances she had rejected). Here, Wayne has STANWYCK appear to be telling the story, which not only makes it sound self-serving but also allows Wayne to omit the gentleman's other admiring remarks. This is the kind of book for which the term "hatchet-job" was invented.

IN SHORT: THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF VALUE IN THIS BOOK.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Jane Ellen Wayne is obsessed with Robert Taylor, June 25, 2004

By 

Nancy Tannenbaum (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stanwyck (Hardcover)

Too bad you don't have a rating scale which includes a minus category. This pile of claptrap is clearly the work of a strange and bitter woman who hates Barbara Stanwyck because this "author" (a misnomer if ever one existed) is OBSESSED with Robert Taylor. The book is biased and unfair. Wayne presents Taylor as a saint (overlooking his numerous extramarital affairs, which hurt Stanwyck, who loved him, very deeply) and presents Taylor in such a way as to make him look like an automaton or a weakling who needed to be led around by the hand. So, Miss Wayne, if your intention was to vilify Miss Stanwyck and elevate Robert Taylor to sainthood, you failed. Wayne's hatchet job on Barbara Stanwyck gives one a bit of insight into the mind of a grown woman with the mentality of a teenager with a stalker's tendencies. What a pity she managed to make money off Barbara Stanwyck's name! Incidentally, if anyone should read this drivel, note Wayne's insistence on referring to "witnesses" to Miss Stanwyck's behavior, as though the poor woman were on trial. Miss Wayne, I would give ANYTHING if Barbara had decided to sue the pants off you for libel and slander. Believe me, you DESERVE it. What a nasty person you must be!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Axe to Grind, September 24, 2002

By 

libnnc - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stanwyck (Mass Market Paperback)

In reading this diatribe, I learned two things. First, Jane Ellen Wayne is in love with the memory of Robert Taylor. Secondly, Jane Ellen Wayne hates everything about Barbara Stanwyck. That's about all that this little book has to offer. I don't think I've ever read a more one-sided characature about anyone. I hope Miss Stanwyck never read this tripe. We'll probably never know what exactly happed between Stanwyck and Taylor in their marriage and maybe that's as it should be. To quote Miss Stanwyck, "The more you kick something that's dead, the more it stinks." Rest in peace Stany. I hope her ghost doesn't haunt me because I bought this book!