BOOK OF THE DAY: The Real KateBy Charlotte Chandler JR Books, 349pp, £20
MOST SHOWBIZ biographies, sad to say, are rubbish, but this one of Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) is an admirable exception. Related mainly in her own candid words, both earnest and droll, in interviews taped by Charlotte Chandler, the author of respectable books on Groucho, Hitchcock, Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman, the story of Hepburn’s long career on stage and screen reveals an ardent and intelligent sense of vocation rare in her profession.
Dorothy Parker in a 1933 theatre review wrote that Hepburn “ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B”. The wisecrack probably gained Miss Parker a lot of laughs from her cronies at the Algonquin Round Table, and may even have had a certain validity at the beginning of the actress’s ascendancy to first-magnitude stardom. However, in the course of appearing in 44 films, from 1932 to 1994, she won four Oscars as tributes to her adaptable talent and, it is generally acknowledged, extended her run of the gamut all the way to Z.
Lovingly cossetted in affluent security and comfort in Connecticut by a prosperous urologist and a rational feminist of superior family, and educated at Bryn Mawr, a distinguished Pennsylvania college of which her mother was an alumna, Katharine seemed quite aristocratic compared with most other actresses of her generation.
“I was born into a world in which I was totally wanted, loved, treasured,” she told Chandler.” I’ve had every advantage. Isn’t that ducky?” Furthermore, she went on, “I excelled at sports, and I liked to wear boy’s clothing . . . I wanted to compete with boys. For the most part, I was better at swimming, diving, golf, tennis, acrobatics, et cetera, but it’s harder for a filly to be taken seriously.” In Hollywood, she usually insisted on doing her stunts herself. The only incident which marred her childhood and influenced her for ever, she said, was the suicide of an older brother she adored.
After one early, unsuccessful matrimonial experiment, she decided not to allow marriage to distract her from concentration on the work she cared about more than anything else. But while dedicated to acting, she found time in her 96 years for some long-lasting affairs with an interesting variety of men, most notably Howard Hughes, the multimillionaire aviator, producer and womaniser, and Spencer Tracy, who has been described as the love of her life, but was unable to legitimise their union, he said, because Catholicism prevented him from getting a divorce.
“Howard was the best lover I ever had,” Hepburn recalled. “No doubt about that. Our relationship was sexually charged.” Years later, Enid Bagnold recommended butterscotch sundaes for energy and a face-lift to lift the spirits.
Howard Hughes lavished precious gifts on Hepburn, including the screen rights to The Philadelphia Story,in which she had been such a hit on Broadway that she was determined to play the lead in the film version. Hughes paid €30,000 for the rights, which she called "small change in his world". Spencer Tracy ranked a close second as a lover, she said, though "often his reaction to me was to laugh. I asked him why he laughed at me. He said it was my Bryn Mawr accent, which made everything I said sound funny". When she wondered how to play the spinster who falls for the Bogart character in The African Queen, John Huston, the director, simply said: "Eleanor Roosevelt." As well as neatly linking Hepburn's words together, Chandler makes a major contribution by synopsising every film mentioned in the text. These excellent summaries of films such as Adam's Rib, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and On Golden Pondare vivid reminders of Katharine Hepburn's versatility. The book's photographs offer further proof.
Patrick Skene Catling is a writer and novelist
