| Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck: Frank Capra |
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| Frank Capra was preparing "Ladies of Leisure" for Columbia, and he already had an actress in mind for the lead when Harry Cohn asked him to consider Barbara Stanwyck for the role. Their meeting was short and ended with Barbara running out of Capra's office in tears and Capra,furious, calling Harry Cohn and telling him to forget Stanwyck. Half an hour later Capra stormed again in Cohn's office yelling that he had to sign Her for the part! At Frank Fay' s insistence Capra had reluctantly accepted to at least look at Barbara's screen test for Warner. Thirty seconds into the film he was hooked He admitted he had never seen or heard such emotional sincerity. "Ladies of Leisure" began one of the most successful collaboration between an actress and a director.. |
| Ladies of Leisure 1930. Columbia Director: Frank Capra Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Lowell Sherman, Ralph Graves, Marie Provost, Nance O'Neil |
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| Barbara Stanwyck plays a party girl, Kay Arnold, who is hired by an artist, played by Ralph Graves, to pose. She is a girl who covers up her own vulnerability with a wisecracking exterior , until she falls in love with Graves and all her pretensions crumble. Unfortunately Graves's father has no intention of welcoming the girl into his family, and Stanwyck eventually realizes the futility of the relartionship and runs off on a pleasure cruise to drown herself. Graves discovers her intentions and manages to contact the ship in the nick of time, thus allowing for their reunion before the picture's end. |
| Stanwyck was ideally suited for the role and in Capra she found a director who was as serious about his work as she. |
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| Ralph Graves, Barbara Stanwyck |
| Ralph Graves, Barbara Stanwyck, Lowell Sherman |
| Marie Provost,, Barbara Stanwyck |
| The film was a triumph for all with reviewers falling over themselves in raving about Barbara Stanwyck. Columbia wanted her to sign an exclusive contract, but she refused. Barbara Stanwyck was too much independent, even in this early period of her career, to be tied down to any one studio. Instead she accepted non-exclusive contracts with both Warner Brothers and Columbia. It was a shrewd move on Stanwyck's part. Not only was she now in a position to have parts offered by both studios, but both studios began major publicity buildups for that "Barbara girl" |
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| Stanwyck's next film was "Illicit" a sophisticated love story done for Warner Brothers and, since the Hays office had not yet enforced its stringent moral codes, story lines were far more risque than they would be five years hence. |
| Illicit 1931 . Warner Brothers Director: Archie Mayo Cast: Barbara Stanwyck ( Anne Vincent) James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell, Charles Butterrsworth |
| Barbara Stanwyck ( Illicit) |
| Stanwyck is Rennie lover, they marry,and thing go wrong but then they make up. |
| During the promotion of "Illicit" Warner Brothers started a tradition that would be continued throughout Barbara's career. All publicity referred to her as; Miss Barbara Stanwyck . It was an honor bestowed upon only three other performers in motion pictures, Mr. John Barrymore, Mr. George Arliss, and Miss Ruth Chatterton. Little Ruby Stevens from Brooklyn had come a long way. |
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