A Peek into Barbara Stanwyck’s Country Life By Kim Luperi
You’ve heard of Barbara Stanwyck the movie star. But what about Barbara Stanwyck, the horse breeder? Though the city girl only spent three years in the country, the endeavor provided a peaceful respite from Stanwyck’s busy career. (Fun fact: Her home still stands, and I toured it in 2018! More on that later.)
Following the dissolution of Stanwyck’s rocky marriage to actor Frank Fay in the mid-1930s, the actress and her young son Anthony Dion needed a new beginning. Stanwyck’s agent Zeppo Marx and his wife Marion, two of her closest friends, owned property in Northridge, California, and they discussed the prospect of buying land together. As Stanwyck recounted in a 1937 Picturegoer article: “[Marion] and I just started talking about ranches. The next thing we knew, we were deciding where good ranch properties were located.” Though initially tentative about moving 30 miles outside of Hollywood, Stanwyck realized it would be beneficial for Dion, and it would provide her an opportunity to relax and heal following her divorce.
So, Stanwyck and the Marxes purchased roughly 130 acres of land in Northridge, dubbed the “Horse Capital of the West.” As Victoria Wilson explored in A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940, they spared no expense in their efforts to emulate the best breeding facilities in Kentucky: we’re talking a half-mile track and a full-time veterinary surgeon on staff, among many other features. The ranch, branded Marwyck, was formally incorporated in early 1937 and housed horses used for racing, breeding and leisure. (The racehorses ran alongside the country’s best animals at famed tracks such as Del Mar and Santa Anita.)
Construction on Stanwyck’s Tudor-style manor concluded that summer. She worked closely on the design with renowned Black architect Paul R. Williams, and the result was a 6,500 square foot brown-gray stone house with eight bedrooms, four fireplaces, one playroom, a three-car garage, a tennis court and a pool. Despite the size, the star’s residence was described as unassuming and relaxed, with one indulgence: a marble tub in Stanwyck’s bathroom. Not long after moving in, she told writer Dixie Willson that “everyone’s home, whatever and where it is, means to them exactly what my home means to me… A place where, if you demand, there can be peace.” The tranquility and magnitude of her estate, the first home she owned by herself, was not lost on the hardworking actress, and she frequently marveled at the land with contentment.
Stanwyck’s life and career during this time were anything but serene. In the midst of Marwyck’s incorporation, the star received the final divorce decree from her marriage to Fay, though their contentious custody battle lasted until 1938. While she vowed not to marry again, Stanwyck began dating actor Robert Taylor, who built his own home up the road from Marwyck, and they tied the knot in May 1939.
Marwyck aside, 1937 proved a landmark year for Stanwyck’s career, too, as her heartbreaking performance in STELLA DALLAS earned the actress her first Academy Award nomination. In his book Barbara Stanwyck, Al DiOrio explained that the star became more selective with her parts following such a monumental role. She rejected enough scripts from RKO and 20th Century-Fox, where she was under non-exclusive contracts, that Stanwyck was soon suspended from both. (During her suspension one of Marwyck’s horses won at Santa Anita, prompting her to quip, “I’m glad someone in the family is working.”) Within no time, though, Stanwyck was back in action. Her star continued to rise over the next few years in classics like THE MAD MISS MANTON (’38), UNION PACIFIC (’39), GOLDEN BOY (’39), REMEMBER THE NIGHT (’40), THE LADY EVE (’41), MEET JOHN DOE (’41) and BALL OF FIRE (’41), three of which air today as TCM launches its 2020 Summer Under The Stars lineup with the spotlight on Stanwyck.
By the end of 1939, Stanwyck and Taylor moved back to the city, and her home sold in 1941 to actor Jack Oakie, who named the estate Oakridge. In 1990, the house was designated a City Historic-Cultural Monument, and in 2001, Oakie’s widow Victoria donated Oakridge to the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Most recently, the Department of Recreation and Parks approved the purchase of the home and over nine acres by the City of Los Angeles in 2009 with the intent to preserve it and create a community recreational site.
In 2018, I toured Stanwyck’s former home, which stood out in a bustling residential area as a landmark from an era long gone. Though most of the empty house, including any remodeling, belonged to the Oakies, it was still awe-inspiring to wander the same halls and property both stars inhabited all those years ago. Please enjoy a few snapshots from my visit, including Stanwyck’s tiny marble tub!
