Taylor and Stanwyck at the Venice Film Festival, 1950

The Golden Lion, the top award at the Venice Film Festival.

Recognized as the oldest film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival began in 1932 in Venice, Italy. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, the Festival was originally held at the Hotel Excelsior in Venice. Only a handful of countries participated in the 1940s due to World War II. The turn-out of participating countries, however, shot up in the 1950s and the festival grew internationally. Even films from Japan and India entered in 1950. With the introduction of new genres of films, the festival grew rapidly and gained worldwide popularity. The festival has boosted the careers of film directors from around the world. (Wikipedia)

The 1950 Venice Film Festival was held from August 20th to September 10th.

In 1950 Robert Taylor was in Italy filming Quo Vadis. Barbara Stanwyck came to visit him and stayed for several weeks. It is reported* that during this visit Ms. Stanwyck asked for a divorce. Mr. Taylor, to her horror, accepted. She had hoped to push him into saying he did not want a divorce. The pictures below** give no hint of their domestic troubles. They were, after all, actors and could give a very good show.

At their luxury hotel, the Gritti Palace, in Venice.

At a screening: 3rd and 4th photo with Mervyn LeRoy and Jean Simmons.

Partying: right hand photo: Helen Ferguson, their mutual agent.

Partying

Also in Venice:

In Piazza San Marco followed by a crowd of fans.

Gondola ride

*There are many sources for this information. Two are: Charles Tranberg, Robert Taylor: a Biography, Bear Manor Media, 2011, pages 228-230; Linda J. Alexander, Reluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood and Communism. Tease Publishing, 2008, pages 254-256.

**several of the pictures come from Tumblr posts by F–k Yeah Barbara Stanwyck

About giraffe44

I became a Robert Taylor fan at the age of 15 when his TV show, "The Detectives" premiered. My mother wanted to watch it because she remembered Mr. Taylor from the thirties. I took one look and that was it. I spent the rest of my high school career watching Robert Taylor movies on late night TV, buying photos of him, making scrapbooks and being a typical teenager. College, marriage and career intervened. I remember being sad when Mr. Taylor died. I mailed two huge scrapbooks to Ursula Thiess. I hope she got them. Time passed, retirement, moving to Florida. Then in 2012 my husband Fred pointed that there were two Robert Taylor movies that evening on Turner Classic Movies--"Ivanhoe" and "Quentin Durward." I watched both and it happened all over again. I started this blog both for fans and for people who didn't know about Robert Taylor. As the blog passes 200,000 views I'm delighted that so many people have come by and hope it will help preserve the legacy of this fine actor and equally good man.

View all posts by giraffe44 →

2 Responses to Taylor and Stanwyck at the Venice Film Festival, 1950

Lisa Alkana says:

May 5, 2015 at 5:53 pm

It’s nice to have the history of the Venice Film Festival. Copies of all of these photos are among the 101 I now have of Stanwyck’s visit to Taylor in Italy. Those with watermarks have all been cleaned.

LikeLike

giraffe44 says:

May 6, 2015 at 2:37 am

Lucky you, having all those photos. They look wonderful after their cleaning. Thanks for writing.

LikeLike