Customer Reviews

Stanwyck

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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.

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!

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!

If you must read this, check it out of the library. It's mean spirited, twists all possible opinions to the negative and makes it seem as though Stanwyck never did one thing in her whole private life that was praise worthy. Wayne doesn't seem to think too much of her professional accomplishments either. She clearly thinks Stanwyck made a bad wife to Taylor but certainly doesn't explain to my satisfaction why he would hang around taking that abuse for all those years. It's not as though he had no other options! I do also wonder why she took the time to write not one, but two biographies of Stanwyck, a person for whom she clearly has no respect or regard.