Barbara Stanwyck: A Look into Her Life

During the closing years of the 1920s, at a New York speakeasy catering to the gay and lesbian community, owned by Texas Guinan, she imparted dance instruction. It was within this environment that she became deeply connected with the city's lesbian circle, alongside notable figures such as Tallulah Bankhead, Marjorie Main, and Blythe Daly. This is also where her acquaintance with Crawford began. Both Bankhead and Crawford openly discussed their romantic involvement, and various chroniclers also highlight her enduring, thirty-year connection with press agent Helen Ferguson.

Ferguson resided with Stanwyck even during Stanwyck's two ostensibly heterosexual unions, both of which offer considerable insight. In the year 1928, at the age of twenty-one, she entered into matrimony with Frank Fay, a vaudevillian thirty-one years her senior, who was known for his arrogance and homosexual tendencies; his struggles with alcoholism made him appear considerably older than his actual age. This marital arrangement provided her with a degree of protection from the media's scrutiny and served as an entry point into the film industry. Following the ceremony, she relocated to Hollywood and commenced a six-month performance tour. Their turbulent relationship concluded in divorce in 1935. Although Fay and Stanwyck shared a residence, during her time there, she frequently hosted Crawford, who would traverse from her own abode to reignite the intimate connection they had first established in New York.

Her personal inclinations were not concealed within the film studios; nevertheless, she was eventually compelled to wed Robert Taylor, who was bisexual. The studio even facilitated the couple's journey to San Diego to finalize their marriage with a judge. Taylor notably declined to kiss his bride for the assembled photographers. She subsequently returned to her ranch in Northridge, while he went back to his mother's home. He affectionately referred to her as "The Queen," and in return, she addressed him as "Junior." Their time together was infrequent, and they openly demonstrated to reporters their separate sleeping arrangements. In his leisure moments, Taylor engaged in flying aircraft with a homosexual co-pilot and close companion of many years. Amidst their surprisingly acrimonious divorce proceedings, Taylor confided in friends that she was a lesbian, asserting that they had never been intimate and had never shared a bed.

- Extracted from Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Seventeen Driving Tours with Directions, authored by E.J. Fleming