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| Barbara Stanwyck |
Barbara Stanwyck was one of the leading ladies of Hollywood’s
Golden Age. She was a glittering figure and a dazzling image. Yet, her early
life was far from grand. At three, she was orphaned and later in life, she
would say, “I just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat.” Her
childhood was so full of “struggle, confusion and pain,” in the words of her
biographer Axel Madsen, “but she never learned to blame anybody.”
“Alright, let’s just say I had a terrible childhood. Let’s
say that poor is something I understand.” But she never let poverty become her
hindrance to success. Dropping out from school at a very early age, her first
job was as a wrapper of packages at Brooklyn’s Abraham & Straus department
store. Here, she early $14 a week and became an early milestone because she
never again depended on her family for financial support.