Barbara Stanwyck Speaks: How I See Myself

When people set about comparing my personality on the silver screen with the personality I show before people, they call it "a study in comparisons." I think that is overdone, for I look on the screen just as I look in the street; not the slightest change comes over me, and perhaps I am at the best hours of my life when I act naturally, without any affectation...

Let me tell you a little about myself, so that you may arrive by yourselves at whatever conclusions you wish to reach. I hate artificial beauty and the face plastered with cosmetics; if anyone should happen to knock at the door of my house, he will find my face as God created it, with no trace of paints and colors upon it, just as he will find my hair natural, no hairdresser's hand having had a part in dressing it or caring for it...

Often I feel something is lacking in me when I see myself going along in my own natural way while I watch others taking pains over their outward appearance and their elegance. I remember once hearing a colleague of mine say in the studio, "I wonder how a person feels when she is free of every trace of powder" — or of "artificial beauty"!!

But — do not let anyone tell you that I take no care of the affairs of my house; on the contrary, I choose everything myself: I choose the curtains of the sitting room, the dining room, and the bedroom, and I think the result, however strange it may be, wears in any case the stamp of femininity...

I take special care in arranging and placing the photographs of my friends on the desk or on the little tables scattered about the house, and it pleases me greatly to change the arrangement of these photographs whenever I obtain the latest pictures of my friends...

I count my hobby of collecting miniature tea sets and tiny vessels among the most delightful hobbies dear to my heart... And despite my great love of sports, I have tried very hard to learn one game out of a desire to please my husband Bob (Robert Taylor); I believe it is the duty of every wife to learn the games her husband loves best. I spent two years tearing up the ground with a golf club, trying at last to learn this game, or to discover its "point"?! But, to my great regret, I could not... Do you suppose I am striving to give up this game?... Not at all! It keeps me, at least, close to my husband...

I often think about my husband's sport more than I should; and when my husband whispered in my ear one day that he loved flying, I encouraged him with all my strength to go on with this hobby — though personally I hate airplanes and am very much afraid of them... and whenever I learn that my husband is piloting his plane in the sky, a feeling of fear and dread comes over me.

There is another "hobby" which some may find cause for wonder: I often withdraw into myself to rest from the fatigue of work, put a book in my hands, and then talk with my friends...

Some days back I was driving my car in haste to reach the studio when I saw a little girl weeping at the side of the road. I stopped the car and asked her what was the matter.

She answered that she had been waiting for the "bus" to carry her home, where her mother was breathing her last... So I rushed to her, put her in the car, and drove her at a mad speed — so fast that several times I nearly lost my life — until I brought her to her house...

... And so, my dear readers... you see me as I am, without any "camouflage"... or at least as far as a woman's pride allows...