demille

Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck: 1939

Robert Preston,, Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck's voice was perfect for radio and on August 3, 1936 she had made what would turn out to be the first of many appearences on Cecil B. DeMille's " Lux Radio Theatre"
DeMille used Stanwyck more than any other actress, sixteen times between 1936 and 1943.
\In late 1938, he began production on "Union Pacific" with a million -dollar budget and Stanwyck, Robert Preston and Joel McCrea as his stars.

Union Pacific 1939 . Paramount
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Mollie Monahan)
        Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff,
          Lynne Overman, Robert Preston,
         Brian Donlevy, Anthony Quinn,
        Evelyn Keyes, Regis Toomey,
          Stanley Ridges,
Costumes: Natalie Visart

Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck's role is a plum. She was cast as Mollie, the Irish postmistress of the portable town that followed the building of the Union Pacific Railroad across the country. She did many of her stunts herself. Cecil B. DeMille was notorious for his own professionalism and demands for perfection. He was a director who was very hard to please and seldom satisfied. Nevertheless, when he wrote his autobiography some years later, it was Barbara Stanwyck he singled out as his favorite actress.
After a grandiose premiere in Omaha,Nebraska on April 28,1939 the film was one of the biggest hits of 1939.

1939 was an incredible year in film history. Never before or since have there been so many classic films or films of such high quality released in one year.
"Gone with the wind", "The Wizard of Oz", "Dark Victory", "Mr Smith goes to Washington", "Wuthering Heights" were all released during that year to become all time classics. And Barbara Stanwyck was to have her own classic to finish the decade. Clifford Odet's play, "Golden Boy" starring John Garfield and Frances Farmer, had been one of Broadway's biggest hits in 1937. Frances Farmer had turned her back on Hollywood to work with Odets and The Actors Guild and although her own success in New York had equaled the play's, filmland was unforgiving. She wasn't even considered for the film version of "Golden Boy".
Instead Columbia signed Barbara Stanwyck to appear as ' Lorna Moon' a dame from Newark.

The romance between Robert taylor and Barbara Stanwyck had continued unabated and by early 1939 they were as much as living together.So were several other famous couples. Then in January 1939, Photoplay , one of the most powerful fan magazines published an article by Kirstley Baskette entitled* Hollywood's Unmarried Husbands & Wives" In one fell swoop, Baskette revealed the truth about the supposedly platonic relationships between Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, George Raft and Virginia Pine and, of course, Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck.
Its secrets laid bare, Hollywood was horrified. Through the industry orders went out to the studios' contract players: " If you are living with someone- marry them!" Both Gable and Taylor were given the ultimatum by Louis B. Mayer. MGM was identified with family films and a reverence for a happy home life.
Gable complayed on March 29,1939 and on Saturday May 13,1939 barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor were married in San Diego. Since she was still working on Golden Boy, the honeymoon was postponed.