Barbara Stanwyck, Boxer, In Breakfast For Two – 1937

Barbara Stanwyck knocks some good sense into Herbert Marshall, her playboy sweetheart, in their new RKO Radio picture, “Breakfast For Two.” Under the tutelage of ex-ring champ Tommy Herman, she developed a right upper-cut guaranteed to make any erring lover see the light…and a few stars thrown in! photo: RKO

Every month you can count on several films on TCM starring Barbara Stanwyck. Even if the film isn’t any good, Stanwyck usually is.

When I first saw this photograph of Stanwyck in boxing gloves all I could think of was Frank Fay, Stanwyck’s first husband. Stanwyck could have used the boxing gloves in real life as Fay would frequently beat Stanwyck, sometimes in an alcoholic rage, other times just to show her who was boss.

During the 1920s Fay was a big star and among the first stand-up comedians to do monologues in a natural and humorous way. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Jack Paar, George Burns, Groucho Marx and scores of entertainers who saw Fay admired his talent but not his personality.

A man of contradictions, Fay openly hated Jews, yet at the same time would participate in a benefit for a synagogue.

Fay was 36 when he married the 21-year-old Stanwyck on August 26, 1928. Stanwyck was on the cusp of stardom and Fay would soon be on the way down. They divorced in 1935 after an incident where Fay threw their adopted son in a swimming pool.

Stanwyck and Fay’s stormy marriage was the inspiration for a fair portion of A Star is Born (1937) starring Fredric March and Janet Gaynor.