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5. Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers, and Barbara Stanwyck: American Homefront Women
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96 ★★★★★★★★★★ ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩ 5 Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers, and Barbara Stanwyck American Homefront Women DAVID M. LUGOWSKI Claudette Colbert portrait, c. 1943; Ginger Rogers portrait, probably for The Major and the Minor (1942); Barbara Stanwyck portrait, c. 1941. All photos collection of the author. Pondering the signature stars of the 1940s, one might not immediately consider Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers, and Barbara Stanwyck , who seem so much of the 1930s. Each was, however, a major star who appeared in many hits and contributed excellent performances to fine films. They achieved heights of cultural importance during the forties, and the trajectories of their images, from newfound peaks to postwar declines, are instructive. They had perfected images during the 1930s that still resonated, but the end of the Depression, and the onset of World War II and middle age, revised their personae. Their unique qualities in romantic comedy would shift toward drama; while roles would often be striking—mothers, misjudged outsiders, war wives, historical figures, victims, and villainesses—their overall tone, more dutiful, conservative, and all-American, became inescapably more generic. Colbert had the greatest box office success. (She carried films by herself , however, the least often.) Boom Town was 1940’s top grosser, and So Proudly We Hail (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), and The Egg and I (1947) were top films in their years. The latter propelled Colbert to the number nine spot on Motion Picture Herald’s list of top ten box office stars, among seven appearances in the top twenty-five from 1943 to 1949. Rogers was RKO’s only superstar under exclusive contract from 1939 to 1941, and she accounted for one-third of their top hits (such as Lucky Partners [1940], Tom Dick and Harry [1941], and The Major and the Minor [1942]). Freelancing, she scored two of the highest grossing films of their years (Lady in the Dark [1944], Week-end at the Waldorf [1945]), and enjoyed hits including Tender Comrade (1943) and I’ll Be Seeing You (1944). Popular wisdom casts Rogers with Fred Astaire, but of these divas, Rogers most often carried a vehicle alone in the forties. Having appeared solo in 1938 among the top twenty- five stars, Rogers returned (unlike Astaire) from 1939 to 1941 and 1944 to 1945.1 Polls are quirky, though, for Stanwyck made the top twenty-five in 1947 only. She was not on the list in 1941, oddly, when the popular The Lady Eve, Meet John Doe, Ball of Fire, and You Belong to Me appeared. Nonetheless , Stanwyck, a pioneering freelancer, made hits for Warner Bros., with Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and My Reputation (1946) among their biggest. Male stars reversed the female box office dominance of the 1930s, but these three were still top names. In other realms of achievement, Rogers won an Oscar for Kitty Foyle (1940), Stanwyck received three nominations (Ball of Fire, Double Indemnity [1944], Sorry, Wrong Number [1948]), and Colbert one (Since You Went Away). Also, they rarely sacrificed top billing : in the all-star Since You Went Away and Week-end at the Waldorf, Colbert AMERICAN HOMEFRONT WOMEN 97 [44.192.107.255] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:50 GMT) and Rogers, respectively, were billed first. Stanwyck was America’s highestpaid woman in 1944, Rogers held that spot in 1945 (and was Hollywood’s highest-paid star overall), and Colbert (highest-paid in 1936) netted a large salary too (Vermilye 84; McGilligan 117; Eames 120). Among other similarities, this trio often worked with the same directors and co-stars, men able to cede ground to these dominant women while shining themselves. Film titles echo each other: Stanwyck’s Remember the Night (1940) and Colbert’s Remember the Day (1941); Rogers’s Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and Colbert’s Family Honeymoon (1948); Stanwyck’s You Belong to Me and Rogers’s It Had to Be You (1947). Consistency is germane to each star too. Colbert’s Arise, My Love (1940) precedes her Sleep My Love (1948). Stanwyck’s “lady” titles—The Great Man’s Lady (1942), The Lady Gambles (1949)—signal her representative nature, and parallel Rogers’s vehicles named for their heroines—Kitty Foyle, Magnificent Doll (1946), and her own “lady” (in the dark). And William Wellman directed one raucous comedy about a dancer accused of murder, Roxie Hart (1942, with Rogers) followed by another, Lady of Burlesque (1943, with Stanwyck)! Even plot highlights overlap meaningfully, as each star is presented as physically appealing...