I am not sure if The Big Valley is still being shown in America, but I taped the complete series from Sky Living several years ago, all 112 episodes. They released two boxed sets some years ago, but only of the first two series.

Barbara rode horses from the mid 1930's, she also co owned a horse breeding ranch with Zeppo Marx called "Marwyck." Robert Taylor owned an adjoining ranch, but they sold them both when they married in May 1939 and moved to Beverley Hills.

Barbara was a skilled horsewoman, and rode them from 1935 in the following films,

The Woman in Red, Annie Oakley, A Message to Garcia, The Lady Eve, The Great Man's Lady, The Bride Wore Boots, California, Cry Wolf, The Furies, All I Desire, Blowing Wild, The Moonlighter, Cattle Queen of Montana, Escape to Burma, There's Always Tomorrow, The Maverick Queen, Trooper Hook, Forty Guns, The Thorn Birds.

She also rode in many TV shows, including Wagon Train, Rawhide, and many episodes of The Big Valley.

To see her most stunning riding scene take a look at the opening credits of Forty Guns on You Tube. Dressed all in black and riding a white horse she leads forty horseman down a hillside, it really is a breathtaking scene.

As for my last breath, well hopefully it will be a long time off, if my current training is anything to go by. I ran 10K on the treadmill on Friday, another ten miles on Sunday, and this morning I will be in the gym at 6.45 to run another 12K on the treadmill.

I'm not sure whether I mentioned this before, but you can see photo's of me in action at

www.JustGiving.com/Ray-Johnson4 (more photo's on Facebook under the same name.)

Im very confident that your last breath is years away Walter dont worry!I can only imagine that the thought of a marathon would make many much younger but unfit people feel exhausted and ashamed when they see the links outlining your partciaption!
What date is the marathon please?

Im impressed at Barbara being a keen and skilled horsewoman for some reason I thought you were going to say that Barbara wasnt keen on horseriding but was professional about it being part of her job.I can now see that the opposite was the case and in many instances horseriding scenes played to her strengths.

Were there any particular kind of scenes Barbara disliked or even loathed doing?I know as a professional she wouldnt have made a fuss but what were her dislikes in this regard?

The London Marathon is Sunday 26th April, ten weeks from this coming Sunday.

I have never heard of Barbara disliking any sort of scenes. All I have ever heard her admit to disliking, was testing for a role. It goes back to her early days in Hollywood when she tested for various roles and didn't get them. When she first met director Frank Capra she was nervous, shy and very unsure of herself. She reacted badly when he asked her to test and stormed out of his office. He thought she was surly and rude, and hoped that was the last he saw of her. It wasn't until her first husband Frank Fay, showed Capra a film test of her Broadway hit The Noose that he realised what a unique talent this young girl was. As he said many years later, "Underneath her sullen shyness smouldered the emotional fire of a young Duse, or a Bernhardt. Naïve, unsophisticated, caring nothing about make up, clothes, or hairdos, this chorus girl could grab your heart and tear it to pieces. She knew nothing about camera tricks; how to cheat her looks so her face could be seen, how to restrict her body movements in close ups. She just turned it on, and everything else on the stage stopped." He persuaded Columbia's studio head Harry Cohn to sign her, and a Star was born in her first hit film, Ladies of Leisure. It was said that Capra fell in love with Barbara, and they went on to make four more films together, The Miracle Woman, Forbidden, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, and Meet John Doe.

I was fortunate enough to see him at her Lincoln Centre Tribute, at which he made a loving and moving speech After telling the audience about their first meeting and what it led to, this was how he finished his speech:

"And so Barbara, beloved pal, beloved actress, that was half a century ago, when we both started at the bottom, and struggled up that mighty tough hill. I an inexperienced Jack, leading you, a budding Jill. Tonight you are star light, star bright, the only star we cheer tonight is our beloved Barbara Stanwyck. There were dozens of young actresses in Hollywood who could have been convincing as the tramp in Ladies of Leisure, but it took a Stanwyck to make you care about the girl. It's that gift of hers to communicate the truth of a role which has made Barbara the great actress she is.

Thank you for the detailed reply

Thats definitely one of the keys to Barbaras success and legendary status as an actress ,not just being alive at the right time in this unique era but an ability to get the audience to really care and root for the character.When you have that ability to get the audience to emotionally enage in spades then you have a very special gift.

Is there any word on when the second part of Barbaras biography will be published?
Random question but was Barbara a woman of religious faith?

Still no news about Volume 2 of the biography. Victoria Wilson is still touring the USA promoting Volume 1,
I just hope that we don't have to wait another 15 years. or I will be ga ga by the time it is finally published.

I can't say that I know anything definite about Barbara's religious views.
There was the usual fan magazine crap about her dropping in the local church to pray, but as a devout atheist it was of no interest to me at all.

Congratulations to us, at 11.15pm our grand total of viewers is now 30.000.

I would be shocked if it took that long!

What little new gems of information about Barbara and that era of Hollywood in general did you glean/learn from her first book?


Im impressed by your precision of time on this matter!
Thank you-Long may this joint achievement continue

The most shocking disclosure was that she had been raped by a family member at the age of 12 and had undergone an abortion which left her unable to bear children.

I wasn't surprised about the abortion, I always though that was the reason that she had never had children, but I always imagine that she had got pregnant when she was a chorus girl, not as a kid of 12.

I think that her marriage to Robert Taylor may well have survived if she had been able to have children. When he married his second wife, German actress Ursula Theiss in 1954 they had two children in quick succession.

Thats desperately sad and tragicPoor poor woman.

Was there anymore revelations but of a more positive nature?Something quirky/cute/funny etc you found out about Barbaras early life.

By the way did Barbara retain a second home in New York as a fair few Hollywoods stars did and indeed still do or was LA her sole base and were her heart was?

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/lo...93-1201434557/

Another one passed away sadly Walter,most famous for his role in Octopussy.

I can't recall whether this story is in the book, but it is worth repeating:

In the early years of their marriage Barbara decided to host a surprise birthday party for husband Robert Taylor. All the invited guests were hiding in another room, but with the door ajar when Bob arrived home from the studio. He rushed in, saw his wife looking ravishing waiting at the top of the stairs for him, she had got all dolled up for the party, and he shouted up to her, "Hey Barbara, how about a quick Fu## before dinner?"

and then the guests burst in screaming "SURPRISE!"

When Barbara left Brooklyn she never went back, as she said, "it took me long enough to get out of it" She never owned a home in New York, and rarely went back, she was 22 when she went to Hollywood, and she lived there for 60 years.

I think that one of the biggest tragedies of her career was that she never went back to Broadway. So many stars like Roz Russell and Katharine Hepburn revived their film careers after they had smash hit Broadway shows. I always thought that Barbara would have been a magnificent Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes. She said that she had many offers but she was just too scared of appearing on stage again after being away for so long.

Ive no doubt Barbara would have been brilliant on Broadway and would have been a crowd puller for sure.

Were there many theatre producers/showbiz folk actively trying to tempt /entice Barbara onto the stage and she rebuffed/resisted them?

Similarly in Barbaras career especially her later years were there offers of work ,acting roles that film executives tried to entice her with but she declined?Are there roles you feel she should have taken?

It seems rare if not impossible for a big legendary star from this era to end their career on a high unless they die young!

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/movita-...295995597.html

Had an acting career of sorts in the golden era but was most famous for being Marlon Brandos second wife.

Sad another link and direct witness to part of this era has sadly died

I vaguely remember her, but 98 is a pretty good age for anyone to live to I guess.

I never heard of any specific stage role that she was offered, she did say that she got nervous as soon as she received the official looking buff envelope.

In 1972 she started working on a TV Pilot entitled "Fitzgerald and Pride" in which she played a lawyer. It looked just perfect for Barbara, and there were hopes that it would become a series. Sadly she became ill and was rushed to St John's Hospital where she was critically ill for several days and eventually had a kidney removed. It was obvious that she would take some time to recover, and after a few weeks she was replaced by another great Brooklyn born Star, Susan Hayward. It was eventually released as "Heat of Anger" but sadly it did not result in a series.

I do know that she turned down the role of Angela Channing, matriarch of a grape empire in Falcon Crest. I never understood why, because she seemed perfect for the role, even though her good friend Jane Wyman was terrific. Even more baffling, she accepted a guest star role in that load of old rubbish, Charlie's Angels. It was called "Toni's Boys" and Barbara played Toni, the head of a detective agency. I did hear that it was a Pilot that they hoped would become a series, but there was no chance of that with a really awful script.

I know that she very much wanted the role of Henry Fonda's wife in On Golden Pond, and as good as Katie Hepburn was, I think that Barbara would have been better. It would have been so fitting that the two stars of The Lady Eve would be reunited in their last film together, and she would probably have won the Best Actress Oscar.
Hepburn was one of the few old stars who still had Box Office clout, so she won the role, and her fourth Oscar.

Barbara would have made her swan song on a high, if she retired after her Emmy winning role as Mary Carson in The Thorn Birds. Instead, she was tempted into appearing in The Dynasty spin off, The Colby's, and it was a decision that she soon regretted. As I have said before, it was have been so fitting for her to bow out when Mary Carson closed the doors after being rejected by Father de Briccassart, and went upstairs to die.

Sorry for the delayed reply got caught up in EastEnders anniversary week

I loved Jane Wyman in "Falcons Crest" but I agree that Barbara would have been better.It would have kept her away from the awful role in The Colbys.The Colbys could have been so good but for the most part was a wasted opportunity that turned into a joke.

Im pleased Barbara got an honorary oscar but its frustrating as hell for a devoted fan like you that she never won one for a specific role.The academy from time to time does make some odd choices.

Would Barbara herself have been able to vote in the oscars?I seem to recall Joan Collins saying that many stars from that era had voting rights and those still alive still do as they were a lifetime right?I think I recall Esther Williams saying the same thing?

Everyone who was a member of the Acadamy was eligible to vote, and at one time even Film Extra's were allowed to vote until I believe it was Bette Davis who pointed out that many of them didn't speak English, so how on earth could they judge a film.

Although an Oscar is looked upon to be the crowning glory of any actors career, it has also been known to be a jinx, Two times winner Luise Rainer being a prime example of that.

Barbara had the distinction as being known as "The Greatest Actress Never to Have Won an Oscar."

She was also in very good company when looking at those who were overlooked every year, Cary Grant, Garbo, Deborah Kerr, Chaplin, Peter O' Toole, Rosalind Russell, Lauren Bacall, Thelma Ritter, Marlene Dietrich, Thelma Ritter, Ida Lupino, and Myrna Loy, (neither of those last two ladies ever received a single Oscar Nomination)

Thats shocking that the Oscars would omit anyone from theirvmemorial list yet it sounds like they forget people regularly.I would have thought and hoped that the oscars was a much more profesional outfit than that

Im assuming they rembered to mention Barbara Stanwyck at the 1990 oscars?
I will be spitting blood if they forget Lauren Bacall tonight.

I don't believe that they had the In Memoriam slot back in 1990, but I am sure that they mentioned both Lauren and Lizabeth last night, although I doubt if Joan Lorring was included, even though she was a former Oscar Nominee.

I cancelled my sky Movie Channels earlier in the year, as I never watch new films, so consequently never saw the ceremony. This probably saved me screaming with frustration at my TV which I usually do every year.

Joan Lorring wasn't mentioned during the 'In Memoriam' section I don't think. I looked out for Lizabeth Scott's name but if she was mentioned I must have missed it. It would have been nice to see some short, one line clips of some of the big names but I appreciate they only had a certain amount of time to use. Still, some of the flat 'jokes' could have been taken out to give time for more names to be included in the list.

Thirty years ago the Honorary Oscar and In Memoriam sections were the highlights of the ceremony. These days the Honorary Oscar is presented at a totally different venue a few months before the ceremony, and then there is a brief mention of the event on the night of the Oscars. Hollywood's glorious past should be celebrated, and treated with respect, rather than being presented as an afterthought.

I am so glad that I didn't watch it.

Maureen O'Hara was given her Honorary Oscar last November. Another Hollywood great never to have been nominated.

I know many of her fans who would liked ti have seen her presented with her Honorary Oscar at the actual ceremony rather than in November.

I hear that there was a 16% decline in viewers of the show this year, so I am just one of many who has given up watching this increasingly pathetic pantomime every year.

Again appalling to have left out Ms Scott AND Joan Lorring,they are supposed to be at the heart of the film industrys most prestigious but they seem like flamin philistines.

I have some of the In Memoriam clips from 10/15 years ago, they were moving, uplifting, and beautifully and respectfully presented.

The Acadamy should hang their collective heads in shame for the way they treat their late lamented members of the industry.