Why Didn''t Barbara Stanwyck Get Along with Her Son?

Career came first with Barbara. I have no idea why they were estranged her whole life. It's not like she beat the little shit.

Who is her son? Always thought she was a full-blown lesbian.

She's my favorite actress. But from what I've read, she was a far worse parent than Joan Crawford.

Some people are just not meant to be aprents; she was one of thsoe people.

She and her husband Frank Fay adopted a poor kid they named Dion. Since neither of them really wanted or liked children and both were career-driven it's hard to understand why they did it. I guess because they could. And adopting a child always resulted in good publicity.%0D %0D Dion was neglected and made to feel unwanted, which he probably was. Cute when very young, he quickly got overweight and unprepossessing, which made his parents even less inclined to like him. No wonder he turned out to be a loser.%0D %0D It was very wrong for Stanwyck and Fay to adopt a child. They had no business being parents. They just weren't cut out for it.

Which one? Heath, Cliff or Jarod?

Hell, Linda Evans was more butch than any of those boys...

Just a cursory glance at her childhood I think might provide an explanation why she was a shit mother (her real name is Ruby): When Ruby was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar. Two weeks after the funeral, her father joined a work crew digging the Panama canal; and was never seen again. Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their sister Mildred, who was five years older than Ruby. When Mildred got a job as a John Cort showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes (as many as four in a year), from which Ruby often ran away. Ruby attended various public schools in Brooklyn, where she received uniformly poor grades and routinely picked fights with the other students... [wikipedia]

Fay was a drunk.

She wanted to be treated like she would be by any stranger on the street. The kid wasn't a fan.

From Hugh Hefner's Twitter page on Stanwyck:%0D %0D Robert Taylor was bi-sexual, & he had a bi-sexual wife, Barbara Stanwyck. A marriage of convenience arranged by the studio.%0D %0D In the middle of making "Johnny Eager," Taylor told Stanwyck he had fallen in love with Lana Turner & wanted a divorce.%0D %0D In her ghost-written autobiography, Lana Turner later said she flirted with Taylor, "But I wasn't in love with him, not really!"%0D

[quote]She's my favorite actress. But from what I've read, she was a far worse parent than Joan Crawford.%0D %0D Not true. Stanwyck had had to be a very tough lady to survive in her life and was emotionally incapable of relating a needy child. It was a bad idea for her and the drunk and wife-beating Fay to adopt Dion as a way to shore up their shaky marriage. Stanwyck never beat up Dion - she just couldn't be "maternal" with him and the kid couldn't measure up to her standard of toughness.%0D %0D By all accounts, when Taylor came along, he tried to be a good dad to the child. Taylor, however, was athletic and outdoorsy and Dion was fat, uncoordinated, and unprepossessing.%0D %0D When he got older, Dion was busted a couple of times for selling porn. Stanwyck bailed him out and paid his legal fees but they parted company.

Ooh this stuff is interesting, keep it coming - I love Barbara Stanwyck and don't know anything about her personal life. Is there a good bio worth reading?

Wait, if Mildred was 5 years older than Ruby, that would have made her only 9 years old when the parents were gone. A 9 year old raised her two younger siblings? What?

No, Mildred was 18 when Ruby went to love with her.

I have the book Stanwyck by Axel Madsen. It's not rated very highly on Amazon, but I found it interesting. I don't think Stanwyck was a bad mother at all, I think she just got worn out dealing with Dion when he was a teenager. I think they adopted him because she felt pressure to be a mom. If you were married you had kids in those days, or you were considered a freak. Didn't she make a ridiculous scene at Robert Taylor's funeral? I heard his daughter wrote a biography recently to tell the world how misjudged her father was.

Hell, I didn't even know Stanwyck had a son! Keep this coming, fascinating.

Best actress in Hollywood. Love her. There was no one who had her range. She killed it in comedy, screwball, drama, film noir, westerns and crime. Name one other actress who could do that.

She simply was not maternal. I love her too, so long as I ain't her son.

"Around the time Barbara was receiving her last gestures of praise from critics, her treatment of Anthony Dion was becoming public knowledge. With the release of her daughter’s 1978 book and ludicrous 1981 movie adaptation, Joan Crawford’s reputation was in ruins. Why shouldn’t Barbara’s be? After all, Dion had legitimate complains next to Christina Crawford’s bullshitted attempt to gain pity from the American public. Dion was about to bring the skeletons out of his closet, and reveal in a tell-all book about the rejection and humiliation that he had endured as a child. What he realized that Christina Crawford did not was that he was complaining about a mother who had been raised on abandonment and abuse. Dion’s speaking out about his childhood was done from a much more sensitive and sympathetic manner, telling reporters, “..perhaps if we meet once more, we can both live the rest of our lives in peace.” She refused to see him, and kept only one picture of him locked away in a closet where no one else could find it. Barbara had officially rejected Dion for good by rejecting him from her life entirely. By the time the scandal had reached tabloid headlines, they had not seen or spoken to each other in decades."

Her best early role was "Babyface". A flawless, brazen, unapologetic slut who *loved* using sex to wield power over men. Her and Theresa Russel were a great ahead-of-their-time interracial girl team.

She always loved Nick, Heath, and Jarrod more.

Has anyone ever found out who her female lover(s) were since it's stated that she was bi-sexual?

She was very career driven and it's obvious why she became that way. I would love to read a really good book on her. It's sad because she doesn't seem like the type of person to let a man beat her.

Dion, not true, she loved you more. but unlike the Big V. sons, you were indicative of her successes and failures and she couldnt bear to look upon that. easier to shut you out, than deal with it all---emotionally crippling on top of all the YEARS of heartache that she never dealt with from the loss of a mother and father. If she didnt care for you deeply she could look at you, see you, etc., with little or no affect on her. it was HER shortcomings, not yours, that caused her to do what she did and handle it the way she did. When the human psyche has no more room for pain, it shuts down. some very good counseling could have helped tremendously. you MUST forgive her and let the pain go. Ask God to do this with you, for if you dont you will carry this burden to your grave thinking YOU did something wrong. She had just reached her limit in emotional strength and you, the innocent casualty of this. if you are still living and seek happiness and peace- try this. make your peace with your maker and ask that He forgive her and then you. love her and accept her for what she was-fractured, weak emotionally that is why acting was so easy for her. she could leave her prblems outside, not deal with them and get volumes of accolades and kudos without having to really develop herself. my guess is she had PTSD and a broken heart, and lived with it all her life.

Wow, she's even more of a survivor/success story than Marilyn. I wonder if they ever compared horror stories on the set of "Clash By Night"?

I read that she was repeatedly raped, by a gang of boy's at nine, That has to make you grow up TUFF!

back in the day many women had sex with, Lilyan Tashman, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ruby Stevens aka Barbara Stanwyk, Kay Francis and many more. Read "The secret life of Humphrey Bogart" the early years (1899-1931) by Darwin Porter. Myrna loy, and Joan Crawford, they were all in the mix. Back then it was common practice.

Mario takes on... Barbara Stanwyck, at the 1:09 min. mark.

R27 that was a bit far-fetched. How ever there is some possibility to be true since everything is possible in this funny life.

R26, i have seen 'Clash By Night' and i can say that it is undoubtedly a good movie. It's a Fritz Lang film and Barbara has an interesting role here. Marilyn too! However Barbara's character has more edges that Marilyn's in that one. Marilyn was so sympathetic. It really surprises me that many Dataloungers trash her. She was just a tortured woman with a lot of nightmares in her beautiful head.

And lol R26, i have no idea what happened between those two ladies on the set of this movie. It would be interesting to know some stories about that though, yeah!

Didn't she kill one of her husbands?

Omg, did she?

When????????????????

Gimme facts

R31 I think you are thinking of Lana Turner.

Because she was an old bitch

Bette Davis also (prehaps) killed one of her husbands. It was the style at the time, like wearing an onion on your belt!

It's interesting that so many of the old actresses from the same time period - Stanwyck, Crawford and Davis - were apparently unfit mothers. I wonder if Joan and Barbara ever disussed it while they were friends? Toward the end Joan publically admitted that she probably shouldn't have been a mother. I think she tried her best but just didn't have the basic human skills needed.

Norma Shearer and Bette Grable were no mothers of the year either. Bette wasn't horrible. Her daughter was a selfish bitch.

R20, what language was that blather originally in, Venusian?

Wasn't there a rumor she had a long love affair with Agness Moorehead?

Did anyone think that maybe Sandra Bullock is the same, adopted the baby for press, not because of love?

Stanwyck has had more pussy than a cat shelter.

Well yea R40. She had a lot to cover up. We all knew a baby would be coming and it would be a black one. I'm black and I and every black person I know called it. So tired of these white chicks using black babies as pawns. You don't see black actresses pulling that shit. But lets be honest, you don't have to be black to see through that lying cunt. Her comeuppance is way overdue.

R23, this is a quote from Barbara Stanwyck's press agent, Helen Ferguson: "There is no doubt in my mind that Joan and Barbara were intimate on more than one occasion."

I also read that at the time of Joan's death, the only two photos in her apartment were of Barbara Stanwyck and John. F. Kennedy. Makes you wonder if they had an actual relationship.

Kennedy fucked them all. That guy knew how use a woman. If I were straight he'd be my hero. Love ya John!

"Read "The secret life of Humphrey Bogart" the early years (1899-1931) by Darwin Porter"

Um, you mean you actually BELIEVE Darwin Porter's hilariously fake Hollywood gossip? If so, you are one incredibly gullible, uninformed queen.

Anyway, Stanwyck and Fay should never have adopted a child. They only did it to shore up their marriage.

A good biography of Stanwyck by Axel Madsen claims that Barbara insisted on adopting a child, thinking it would improve her marriage to Frank Fay. The book suggests that they adopted because Stanwyck could not have children, possibly because she was damaged internally by an illegal abortion or abortions:

"During her teenage years and early twenties she had avoided stag parties but shimmied in speakeasies, danced in chorus lines on the road, cadged meals at LaHiff's, impressed Williard Mack and Arthur Hopkins, and fallen in love with Rex Cherryman, all without getting pregnant. Or had she? Contraception was crude in the 1920s. Barbara would never admit to an abortion, nor would she ever bear a child. An unwanted pregnancy was the chorus girl's curse--her friend Crawford admitted to four abortions--and for Barbara and Rex, enjoying their first flush of success, a pregnancy would have been devastating. There can be no doubt that she would have done whatever it took not to let the brass ring slip from her grasp, including an abortion."

"Frank didn't want to adopt a child. To him fatherhood had to be biological. But Barbara insisted."

"Once home on Briston Avenue, Barbara and Frank named their son Anthony Dion and happily played house. For a brief time they bent over the crib in awe and self-congratulation, but within weeks the infant was left in the care of a succession of nurses and nannies. Stanwyck talked of baby Dion as a fullfillment and reminded reporters that she'd been an orphan herself. She would like to adopt a slew of orphans and surround them with love, she told Photoplay."

"It was all a facade. Barbara put in long days, six days a week at the studio, and her husband's brooding and drinking didn't stop. Frank whined that he was sacrificing his career for hers. She couldn't stand to see Frank unhappy, and against her better judgement, all too often gave in to him. After he threw Dion into the swimming pool in a rage, the nanny locked herself and the toddler into the nursery when he was home.'

Rue tells the best Bea story ever, at the link. It's just the first 45 seconds of the clip, and it was at Bea's memorial.

Oops -- wrong thread! But, please enjoy!

Movie stars just don't make good parents, usually. You have to be extremely obsessed with your career to make it as a movie star (even talent and luck and beauty are not enough--you have to have incredible drive), and that kind of focus usually does not leave enough time for your children.

The only movie star whom I ever heard of being an exemplary parent is (predictably) Meryl Streep.

DL really is geezer town isn't it?

Back to reddit....

[quote]I don't think Stanwyck was a bad mother at all, I think she just got worn out dealing with Dion when he was a teenager.

That's a contradiction in terms. If you get worn out by dealing with a teenager who is not a special-needs child or a psychopath, then you are a bad mother.

[quote]DL really is geezer town isn't it? Back to reddit....

Buh-bye! Don't let the door smack you on the ass on your way out!

[quote]DL really is geezer town isn't it? Back to reddit....

Move it along, toots! *taps him on his head with umbrella*

R49, You aren't going anywhere and you fucking know it. You are either ignorant or stupid. Plenty of people of all ages love talking about old movie stars. I'm 20 years old. I doubt that makes me an old geezer. If you don't like it don't read it. Simple.

Because they were both tops.

Oh sorry, it was Bette Davis I was thinking of.

I adore Barbara, but she was not a good mom.

Yeah, I definitely think it was the same situation as Crawford. These women were raised rough from day one. Poverty, abuse both emotional and sexual. It feeds your ambition, sometimes. And then you become a movie star. You are adored by millions around the world. It's your job and you do it very very well. You marry a charismatic, rich man and live in great luxury, never forgetting where you came from and how you got there. You are truly grateful for your success.

Children raised in great luxury aren't aware when their when their movie star mothers begin to look down on them for not being grateful for their own success -- at being adopted by a movie star.

And movie stars should be careful whom they adopt, should they turn out to have names like Christina BD, or Soon-Yi.

Oh, BD was the biological daughter of Bette Davis, wasn't she. That's the saddest one of all.

[45], Don't believe Axel Madsen.

It seems strange to me that back in the Golden Age of Hollywood there wasn't some sort of day care system in place at the big studios to accommodate the babies of their female stars.

Perhaps the moguls felt that the presence of those babies would distract their leading ladies even if they were cared for by studio-paid nannies?

Not a bad mother? She was cold as ice. She shipped him off to Military School because he was overweight, took him to the Train Station and SHOOK HIS HAND goodbye and Never saw or talked to him again.

There's a new 1,000 page biography coming out in the fall, and it's only Part 1! She must have been a real bitch to warrant a 2 part biography.

I know she had a super rough childhood, and she was poor and fought her way in life. She was considered a real survivor. she was well loved on the set of Big Valley. Linda Evens said she lost her mother and she was crying on the set. Barbara asked her what's wrong? She told her her mother died and Barbara said I'll be your mother and you can talk to me anytime.

The Barbara Stanwyck fans cans practically every biography that comes out on her, especially when the author makes the claim she was bisexual,wow! look out! They most be the same people on IMBD message boards.

I think Susie Lee said that there was some incident that pointed out that Barbara Stanwyck was a lesbian, but I forgot the story. Dose anyone remember what Susie Lee said? So Hugh Hefner said Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor were bisexual? What else dose that world famous pimp know?

I been doing a little research on Barbara Stanwyck and find it sad that the two of them could not have worked things out before she died. From what i understand in some way he did try to reach out to his mother. Dion invited her to his wedding but she did not attend. I think in own was he was trying to make things right.

I always wondered if Barbara was intersexed. Just a hunch. Great actress, but she had an androgynous quality about her.

Whatever happened to Dion?

Is he still alive?

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

After seeing a few of her movies today, my interest again peaked regarding Barbara Stanwyck. She seems to have had a rough start, didn't know she had a child.A life is very interesting. We all have so much we have experienced. As I read about others, I just sincerely hope there was some joy. We must do they best we can.. Ingrid Quin Harvey

Barbar's father died at sea coming back from Panama June 15, 1919.

[quote] Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their sister Mildred, who was five years older than Ruby

That makes no sense at all. The mother died when Ruby was 4, the father disappeared two weeks later. That makes Mildred nine years old.

If Ruby went to live with Mildred when Mildred was 18, that makes Ruby 13. Who raised Ruby in the nine years before between aged 4 and 13?

[quote] When she was four, her mother died of complications from a miscarriage after a drunken stranger accidentally knocked her off a moving streetcar

Botched abortion

R63 umm she wanted to eat Linda Evan's taut little pussy.

On her deathbed, Barbara made it clear to the nurses that Dion was not allowed to enter her hospital room.

[R49] Yes. The misogynist peeping-toms of Reddit are awesome.

Pigeon holes are fun to drill for everyone!

"There's a new 1,000 page biography coming out in the fall, and it's only Part 1! She must have been a real bitch to warrant a 2 part biography."

I've just finished reading it. Robert Taylor comes off in he book as the ultimate mama's boy. After he and Stanwyck were married by a JP, he left Barbara to rush to his mother's house to inform her of the marriage, but she had already heard the news on the radio and was distraught. Taylor spent his wedding night in bed with his mother, holding her as she sobbed until she fell asleep. Stanwyck would complain to friends that she wished Taylor were more of a man and not so weak.

Does the book address Barbara's penchant for muff-diving?

Maybe her kid was a pain in the ass.

At some point Dion got busted for selling porno and Babs bailed him out. They were even less on speaking terms after that.

To think he could have become an internet porn millionaire. Timing is everything.

-It wasn't underage crap, I'm assuming. No, praying.

The Stanwyck biography details several attempts by Frank Fay to kidnap Dion after their divorce and demand ransom from Stanwyck. His planned attempts were always thwarted by members of his own staff, who would tip off Stanwyck of each planned attempt.

Many actors are able to express simulated or genuine deep emotions on film , though they can not do so in reality. Then in real life they continue to attempt to live up to whatever idol image fame, fans and Hollywood had carved for them. On another note, Meow, Meow, why so many scratches at one another in comments. Peace, Love and Jesus Joy to all‼️💌

Why is the OP's post greyed and crossed out? How does that happen, enough people f&f them? The thread and their comment is totally innocuous. Who'd have such a problem with it, obsessed Stanwyck fans ?

What could he have possibly done that was so unforgivable?

R35 = BD HYMAN

Poor kid. Being adopted by two homosexuals, one an alcoholic, the other career-obsessed....why WOULDN'T there be problems? It's creepy, tragic--when kids are used as underage beards for their fucked-up parents.

Her son could have written a book. I wonder why he didn't. He must have had some loyalty to her despite everything.

"Maybe her kid was a pain in the ass."

So? You sound just like Crawford apologists. An adult is not on the same level as a kid, and he/she should act like an adult no matter how obnoxious the child is. A child's behavior does not make him deserve being neglected or mis-treated from parents. A movie stars' bad family background does not excuse their behavior as a parent. And how well liked they are at work is no indication of how bad they are at home.

Stanwyck was a shitty parent. When she was tired of being a shitty parent, she threw the kid away. No excuses.

Both Crawford and Stanwyck had traumatic childhoods.