Katharine Hepburn: A 60-Year Hollywood Career and Legacy

[00:00:10]and is it can we have a stationary table can we have a table that's John everybody answers Kate Hepburn call me Kate that's alright don't be so formal no one ever dreamed of getting katharine hepburn on a talk show I got word to her and the word came back I have a quick answer for that everyone knew what the answer was that's great yeah miss Hepburn because she feared doing it made herself do it if anybody can survive that carpet whose idea was that the minute she steps on a stage or comes on a screen or enters the room that you happen to be in it's as if music plays bang cold sober I find myself absolutely fascinating [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] I think it was being born at the right year for my personality you know Vance came in no he just came in terrible woman came in who spoke her mind I was born absolutely at the right time that's the story of me great timing [Music] katherine hepburn is regarded as the greatest female star in the history of American cinema her over 60 years of acting have been applauded on many occasions and her record-breaking four Oscars for Best Leading Actress confirmed that she had something special something that only great stars have but what is it the characters that she helped create were so multi-layered that's why her career sustained for such a long time because she could be so funny she she she was a great leading woman because she gave her leading men because she challenged every single leading man that she had what you want you rub down anything what a star has to sell is their persona and Hepburn had the ability to dig in her heels without pissing people off to the extent that they would not hire her again and you know she delivered on screen she was always interesting even in films that were not always as good as she might hope they would be [Applause] I remember one time all of us were going to her house for between matinee and evening and she had made some shrimp thing I anyway they were the car was full of us she got the trunk sat in the trunk of a car when we drove over there okay I'll be fine I'll be fine crazy woman miss Hepburn she's a champ I mean it the champion lady golfer watch this [Applause] I don't think anybody knows worth they so-called it is you'd know it when you see it you see that face those features and that burning personality that's coming out of it I don't want to be worshipped I I want to be loved I was lucky enough to have been born at a time when they wanted this me my whatever it is I've got it I mean what is it I don't think it's Salant I think it's just you've got a good hot motor inside your net ticks away and your eyes John and the teeth John hello Dexter hello [Music] Deborah Newman Landis is professor for costume design at UCLA in Los Angeles and an insider in the Hollywood film business she created the look of Spielberg's Indiana Jones as well as the iconic leather jacket for Michael Jackson's Thriller video is she someone who was ever gonna be a flash in the pan no she was a star in the 30s she was a star in the 40s in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s enemy 80s she maintained her career and she transitioned so magnificently through her 60-year career and the audience just kept wanting to see her and kept showing up to see who she would be next [Music] katherine hepburn is the second eldest child of very progressive parents and together with her five brothers and sisters Katherine enjoys an easygoing and liberal upbringing in their family home Fenwick in New England early photographs of Cathy and her two year older brother Tom show two very similar young kids they form a close relationship within the family later they are followed by brothers dick and Bob and the younger sisters Marian and PEG mr. and mrs. Hepburn encouraged their children to be self-confident and free from fear they are allowed to speak their minds and given space to realize their own dreams but under one condition everything in life must be earned by hard work competition plays an important role within the family her upbringing inspires her for the rest of her life [Music] the closeness of the family is embodied by their family home in Fenwick Old Saybrook the hepburn motto listen to the song of life is carved into the stone fireplace the house is Catherine's lifelong hideaway she described it as a private paradise whenever the work allowed here on the Connecticut coast she could just relax and be herself I was brought up in a big family and I was brought up great just bought upgrade I had a fascinating mother a fascinating father and a wonderful childhood I really did and I have a wonderful family now and I have my roots in the same place that I was brought up and I'm extraordinarily lucky you know and that's just luck in my family Kate was the hero she was the one who we all admired and looked up to Mundy Hepburn is Katherine's favorite nephew and the son of a younger brother dick he grew up in the house and Fenwick with auntie Catherine he still lives in Old Saybrook and is an artist who works with glass Kate's mother was an orphan and taken care of by rich relatives and got an attitude of you and your money the hell with you you want to be mean to me I know who you are you're an old bastard that's who you are and she begged to go to Bryn Mawr I want to go to college and the answer was women don't go to college good God go marry someone rich and she thought forget it not a chance so there was a sort of original thought on Kate's mother's part born of suffering think it out for yourself figure out what's real for yourself Catherine Martha Houghton saw a man diving into a swimming pool and said I'm gonna marry him and that man was Tom Hepburn then married went to Hartford he being a urologist started a practice and being a urologist he got the venereal disease cases from the hospital and the rich society women would come in doctor there's something wrong with me and I can't imagine what's wrong madam you have gonorrhea hi I do not madam you have gonorrhea and a bunch of these ladies would come in and it was learned after a while that their husbands were visiting the local whorehouse and catching gonorrhea from the and bringing it home to their lovely wives and my grandmother learning this from her husband was enraged now this was around the time of women's rights and suffragettes and all that stuff she got a soapbox my father told me that she went to Elizabeth Park and said do you realize what's going on in your town and talked to people I shut up they threw things at her and she would come home with a dirty dress and go out in a few days and do it again and finally it was like oh those terrible horrible Hepburn's don't go near them there Oh spreading rumors and gossip oh how could they and finally she did it for long enough or people would be like what did she say for real Lou the whorehouse was closed the ladies stopped getting gonorrhea and she they became absolutely reviled in their community and she helped get the woman's vote and she stood up for human rights that is woman's rights children's rights and what is right not what is correct not what's politically correct or proper what is actually good for human society and so Kate grew up during this time and thought my god these people are crazy but I like it would you consider yourself a feminist I yes I'm absolutely feminist you were quite a tomboy as a as a young girl weren't you you were called Jenny I was called to be a mountain I hated being a girl I really hated I just shaved my head and thought I don't like what did your parents think of this they thought it was great they didn't have to brush my hair or wash it in 1921 the family harmony is crushed by an unexpected tragedy it casts a dark shadow over Catherine and haunts her for the rest of her life Cathy and Tom decide to visit an aunt in New York there's no sign of anything wrong tom tells his aunt that the trip is one of the best experiences he's ever had they go to the theater and the following morning Catherine discovers her brother hanging from the attic ceiling dr. Hepburn tries to talk himself and the newspapers into thinking it's just an accident simply a foolish prank the death of her adored brother at just 16 remains the trauma of her life she adopts his birthday as hers and makes herself 2 years older my father remembered an image of my granddad he's sitting there with his head in his hands going why did he do it why why did he do it the family never speaks about the loss of Tom again the past is the past Kathy becomes moody after Tom's death and her parents take her out of school she's given private lessons which are perfect for Katherine she develops a passion for golf and even reaches the semi-final of the young women's golf championship in Connecticut but one of the few other things that really lifts her spirits is acting in backyard productions thanks to intensive private teaching Catherine is able to enroll at college at 17 like her mother she attends Brin more an elite women's college near Philadelphia Monday September 29th 1924 is her first day [Music] she was not a regular girl she was a high-class Bryn Mawr girl and Bryn war and still is one of the greatest colleges in this in the United States probably in the world only for really smart girls from all over the United States and from foreign countries to young women who have completed their high school education enter Bryn Mawr for a four year course in liberal arts Kate as she now calls herself makes an extraordinary first impression at the college the first evening she enters the dining hall trying to conceal her terror of the other girls the tables of students fall silent all are staring at her suddenly a voice quips are self-conscious Beauty everyone laughs Kate runs out her nearly dropped dead she writes in her autobiography she avoids the dining room for a month and always goes to bed early to study [Music] the time at Bryn Mawr was very formative for Kate but not only in an academic sense in her second year kate becomes more confident and joins the theatre group to act in the truth about blades where she plays the leading man in Wigan trousers to celebrate the good reviews of her first appearance Kate starts amusing herself outside of college she goes out dressed as a man and one evening she strips off and jumps naked into the cloister pond smoking and boys are in one of her first flirts and admirers is Ludlow Upton Smith nicknamed ludie Kate poses in front of his camera sometimes nude but that's all there was to it she soberly writes later in her autobiography about future husband ludie Katharine Hepburn graduated in history and philosophy at Bryn Mawr in 1928 [Music] her acting a twin more is crowned by her role as Pandora in the Grand May Day celebration in 1928 [Music] whoever filmed the parade that day managed to capture Katharine Hepburn acting for the very first time on celluloid [Music] all Kate's father can see that day are the souls of her dirty feet getting blacker and blacker and her freckled face getting redder and redder dr. Hepburn remains skeptical about the whole acting business for him the profession is just one step away from walking the streets but Kate has already made up her mind sparked by the applause of the audience's that win more she knows she has to become an actress he just thought if you go into the theater for a woman it was a profession for her that would last about five years mines have a stood fifty-two so far okay daddy was wrong Cait stays loyal to the school and visits the campus several times to talk to lecturers and students the Katherine Houghton Hepburn Center is founded in 2006 to honor the adventurous and bold spirit of the Houghton Hepburn women and to inspire future generations of women to challenge conventions just as Katharine and her mother of them [Music] Catherines next step is to join small touring theater companies she plays her first leading role at I've written Playhouse not far from Fenwick in the summer of 1931 she is 24 [Music] then everything starts happening fast Catherine manages to reach the dream of almost every struggling actor she lands a job on Broadway but instead of acting kate is acting up under pressure her voice gets too high and she speaks too quickly Hepburn is bad Hepburn is inept she needs a lot of practice [Music] my dama study dad well I studied with the quite a number of people I studied with Francis Robinson dove in New York I studied boys and you used to blow a candle out so you'd have to and feel her diaphragm go in and never understood a word of it I'd blow and I was so excited I blow from here and I'd lose my voice every time I played because I was petrified Katharine Hepburn always loved facing a challenge as dick cavett well knows dick cavett is an actor who was a talk show host for 30 years from 1968 on he interviewed some of the greatest stars in the world on his celebrated Dick Cavett show in 1973 he succeeds in getting Katharine Hepburn in front of television cameras for the very first time kate is 68 I never been able to totally satisfy myself and why she finally decided to do it I think she became aware that it was a current thing to do for many people in the business I think she liked the challenge Kait only wants to deliver the best and loves being provocative [Music] despite initial difficulties theater produces quickly noticed she has charisma all the makings of a star she embodies the zeitgeist I got fired but but then sometimes I'd get taken back and sometimes I'd get good reviews and sometimes not terribly interesting I think I irritated people maybe I still do since college ludie is at Kate side and follows her to New York to become a stockbroker ludie is a sensitive loyal and good-natured friend after the first flops on Broadway he seizes the opportunity Katyn ludie shocked the theatre company with the sudden news that kate is giving up her career to marry him their marriage last six years they move into a modest house and Turtle Bay Gardens New York in 1933 it becomes Katharine Hepburn's home for more than 60 years and one of the stable pillars which Catherine's life and career rests on however the enthusiasm about being a married lady only lasts for a few weeks Kate returns to the theater she makes ludie change his name because she does not want to be called mrs. Smith she says later I wasn't fit to be married because I only thought about myself whatever Kate wants is fine for ludie she's working hard on herself and isn't discouraged by constantly being fired from shows anyone else would have given up but in 1932 she suddenly cast in the Warriors husband the players erase eSATA set in 800 BC an overbearing tribe of Amazon women rule their men with an iron fist the perfect world for Kate kate feels like a real actress for the first time she embodies the perfect art deco look her angular beauty reflecting the ideal of art and design of the time progressive and futuristic Hepburn plays the overbearing Amazon warrior and t.o.p in the turquoise swimsuit metallic armor and bronzed arms legs and face she Springs feisty Leone to stage a stag swinging over her shoulder the audience's go wild and so does Hollywood she's offered a screen test for RKO studios all her dramatic energy is invested in it in militant beginning Kate knows she wants to be a success Kait describes her arrival in hollywood in her autobiography she tells of her tough dealings with agents and studio bosses she quickly learns her role within the Hollywood movie making system and turns it to her own advantage the very first film is a box-office hit you see you can't stand even the first glimpse of the truth darling it would be dangerous for me to marry there was this fascinating new experience the film the medium you know this whole new industry this new experience of people seeing imagine putting your face on a huge screen twelve feet tall and it's a new thing in the world and whatever you say people are gonna dream on and she picked up on this and worked it it was cool Robert s Burchard is an award-winning film editor writer and noted film historian at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles katharine hepburn came to films in the early 1930s just as sound was fully taking hold and in the silent era the stars had been very visually iconic and there was a carryover with that visual appeal in the early 30s many of the stars have that same kind of glamor aspect to them but sound added another dimension in some of the stars that had been very popular and the silent era didn't maintain that popularity in the sound era because not because they were bad actors or any lesser than they had been earlier but their voices didn't project that same kind of iconic aspect that their visual personas had Katharine Hepburn was one of those actors in the early 30s who like a Jimmy Cagney or a Mae West who had a vocal quality that matched her screen image and projected that a total persona for for audiences the 1920s and 30s at times driven by style and attitude anything fresh fast and rebellious is intriguing Hollywood success is based on the creation of dreams Katharine Hepburn silver screen charisma promises something very unique or from the wrong side of the tracks find happiness with a man from the right side if you want our summary needs to be over you have to drive me away yourself no one else no one see for yourself with Academy Award winner katharine hepburn she has the tough fragile about her she she was absolutely beautiful but was she a sex object I don't think so there were three women in the Golden Age of Hollywood who were really known for wearing trousers in their own lives Greta Garbo and Marlena Dietrich can I just say the great Greta Garbo the great Marlena Dietrich and the great Katharine Hepburn and each of these women were able to transform on screen into goddesses glamorous goddesses [Music] it's lucky for me I'm not the sort of girl that likes to make a man pay the fool perhaps I played the fool myself including lives at a lonely life Christopher strong is completely androgynous it's just totally gender-bending and she does wear this metal chain a silver chain mail suit and yet works it and makes it it becomes it's it's not a costume look Katharine Hepburn was such a great actress that clothes became or a second skin to her she literally filled that new person she she was born new every time she brought part of her personality to each and every one of her characters and yet she was different in each and every role your eyes are soft your hair is pleasant to my touch now I cannot see this change and I I do not wish to change it is within me but it is so greater I thought it must show in my face on the strength of her first film a bill of divorcement directed by George Cukor RKO signs the actress to a long-term contract catherine is now the property of the studio and many aspects of her life are also under control the Hollywood publicity machinery gets rolling [Music] a devoted fan scrapbook lying untouched for decades in the New York Public Library reveals the Hollywood star system strategy in headlines and articles studio buses are trying to mold Catherine into a Garbo like figure but Catherine is neither exotic or mysterious I think when you have a unique personality as she did it's a little unnerving to come across that and have you know for the first time it's she was unlike anybody else and whether she was good or bad in those early roles is not really it's hard to know but we know that she was unique and film audiences had trouble relating to her screen image in Hollywood city of dreams business is not only about creating celluloid images it's about making money katherine hepburn obviously understands this from the very beginning in fearlessly commands an outlandish salary of $1,500 a week the studio knows she's worth it she'll bring the money rolling in [Music] International capital of the motion picture a fabulously press agent at suburb of Los Angeles Hollywood a community whose name alone is a magic word throughout the world during the Golden Age of Hollywood everything is controlled by five major studios in the 1930s these homes of movie magic produce hundreds of films a year they invest enormous sums of money recruiting and grooming talented actors in order to control them with long-term contracts the star system creates legends in order to create money many actors are just small fry in the system but Katherine knows exactly how the dream making machinery works everyone is curious about hepburn fans photographers and newspapers overwhelm her with attention it is stressed how much she hates publicity but then she cheaply shows off with a monkey perched on her shoulder her private life has kept a secret but rumors are already circulating about those trousers and her women companions at a time when marriage and motherhood are seen as the ultimate goals for women she sees neither as being right for her one day Catherine wears dungarees on set studio executives think she's pushing things too far and take them away she simply strips off and walks around half naked until she gets them back the stage and screen are just ways of becoming a star only later Kate begins to take her acting seriously what's with all this fames stuff and she said yes isn't it the damnedest I'd be like why do people do that make you all famous and stuff and she said I don't know people like to look up after six months in Hollywood in just two films Katharine Hepburn does something unusual for a woman in Hollywood at the time she gets involved in the production process at 26 she reads the script for morning glory and thinks it must have been written for me the girl from New England goes to New York to become an actress has a couple of lovers and becomes a star overnight she wins her first Oscar beginner's luck she was so sure of not winning that she goes to Europe this is the first of her famous non appearances at the Academy Awards in less than a year she's become more than a Hollywood leading lady she is now a star your most challenging role is there one that sticks out in your mind and I don't think so like that you know I think I played the ball the same way didn't I that's what they tell me you don't believe that do you yes I do I think most people do some people very good characters I'm not they're just that you have to be sure that you're well cast please wait thank you mommy comes home but no God Kate now we never gonna be boy and girl again are those happy old times can't come back and we shouldn't expect under Catherine is perfectly cast in Little Women and by the autumn of 1933 the film is breaking all box office records there's nothing standing in her way anymore as though it's part and parcel of the business catherine has a few Affairs including a legendary one with Howard Hughes the millionaire and aviator but this isn't the reason she eventually decides to divorce ludie the work of an actress and the life of a housewife are absolutely incompatible for Katharine Hepburn in 1934 after six years of marriage they're divorced in Mexico these are the golden years of Hollywood and Katharine Hepburn embodies them although the studio regards her as one of its most valuable properties the appealing mix of comedy and pathos in her first films is being neglected she is being cast in melodramatic parts as a serious actress Katharine lacks the traditional feminine appeal of the sweet 1930s girl and her next four films are box-office flops the audience's just don't want to see Katherine Hepburn anymore at least not like that Katharine Hepburn star seems to have suddenly burnt out the studio begins to talk about the Hepburn stigma the financial flops at the box office are increasing Katherine's downfall seems to be unstoppable when independent cinema owners issue a list of actors declared as box-office poison Greta Garbo milena Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn are amongst them [Music] not only the films are unpopular problems arise from Hepburn's attitude she refuses interviews and turns down requests for autographs which earned her the nickname Katharine of Aragon's she simply refuses to behave like other Hollywood celebrities it looks as if her movie career which began so brilliantly just six years before is now over my pictures were bought I mean woman Rebels was a poor break of hearts was a poor quality Street was a bore and I sort of smelled it before I made them but I was on a salary where they had to pay me and I thought I should do them I've never thought that the Golden Age was a moment in time that was any different than now that that somehow it was more glamorous than or somehow they had a different point of view they didn't all I wanted to do was make money from their films how do you make money from a movie you make money from a movie if people love it love it you have to love the movie how do you love a movie you love a movie when you're swept away and you forget your life and you're in the film and you have left everything behind and you're on a journey that's when a movie transcends storytelling it becomes iconography and dark clouds and not only gathering over Hollywood [Music] September 1938 the eastern seaboard is lashed by a tropical hurricane for two days the coast from New Jersey to New England pelted small fury the Huracan sweeps along the coast of Connecticut completely destroying her beloved family home in Fenwick a double catastrophe for Katherine no home no film career the house was devastated in the hurricane as most of Old Saybrook was it was it was just the cottages along the shoreline were taken right off their foundations and toppled over and landed up in the wetlands and she was very distressed about her house being missed but somebody came down and they were taking pictures of the damage and here was Katherine sitting in the bathtub which was still upright all by itself with no walls around it and Katherine loved it so much that she just wanted that rebuilt and she took it upon herself and to rebuild the house in the same place and she lived the rest of her days down there whenever she could get back from Hollywood she would be down there out of the blue the dramatist Phillip berry arrives at Fenwick to offer Kathleen a play he's written especially for her each line is tailored to her personality and sets the tone for most of the roles to follow the independent outspoken woman far brighter than the men around her a perfect vehicle for her return to Broadway it's called the Philadelphia Story from 1939 the show runs for more than 400 performances the critics and audiences are ecstatic Katharine Hepburn is back every time they show a montage of scenes or from famous movies almost invariably it will include Cary Grant walking out of the house Hepburn behind him breaking his golf club his walking back pushing her in the face and she falls like a trees fast of the room [Music] and I asked her not on the show I think how did you do that fall you don't put your hand down you know this seems like you go straight out of frame but four on your back and she said I don't remember that I said the scene with Carrie she didn't remember it must be wonderful who've made so many films that you can forget being pushed by Cary Grant and the night that you got drunk on champagne and climbed out on the roof and stood there naked with your arms out till amove waiting like a banshee I told you I never had the slightest recollection of doing any such thing what in the name of all that's holy am I to do racy yes parson cause he's never seen Kittredge before has he now look I got you into this thing I'll get you out of it will you marry me Tracy Hepburn steers her own comeback when she buys the film rights to the Philadelphia Story which Kate then sells to MGM under the condition that she plays the leading role she was the leading man's equal she couldn't be manipulated she always had the come back word she was a smart cookie she was a woman's woman she was smart and yet she made us care about her so she wasn't so tough that she couldn't get hurt she could have her heart broken in each of her performances she works on so many different levels the heart and the head now katherine hepburn is playing hollywood's game by her own rules at a time when few stars and even fewer women could escape the grip of the studios she discovers she can stand up to powerful movie executives and win katherine is back in business katherine hepburn once only the very top stars to play with her in the philadelphia story instead of James Stewart and Cary Grant she wheelie once the leading men of the time Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy spencer tracy's the major MGM star with 20 years experience in the film business [Music] man is not truly one but two now supposing we could break that chain separate those two selves free the good and man and let it go on to its higher destiny and segregate the band let it destroy itself in its own degradation performances in films like dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde and father of the bride secure his reputation is one of the greatest character actors of the 20th century affairs boy meets girl long love they get married have babies eventually the babies grow up and meet other babies they fall in love get married and have baby Tracy has 73 films and 2 Oscars behind him he looks rough and ready a tough guy very masculine this seems exactly what attracts Katharine to him katherine hepburn is test the highbrow political writer she may have been the woman of the year but she didn't win it with her cooking Woman of the Year is the first of nine Tracy Hepburn films and sets the working pattern for the successful duo when they meet kathleen is 33 spencer 40 they are perfect casting for comedy is about relationships that was one of the you can't avoid the phrase chemistry than talking about whatever it was that between the two of them was perfect something intimate between husband and wife what would you think about having a child Pass is that what all this build-up has been for did you think I'd have to be sold on the idea I wasn't quite sure I hope that's out there to get you into the right frame of mind get me into the me where the sooner the better so already been done it seems like a harmless flirt at first Spencer is renowned for his affairs with co-stars and catherine is divorced but this is much more than just an affair Spencer and Catherine remained together for 27 years until his death it's a kind of soul relationship but Tracy is leading a double life he's too Catholic to divorce from his wife Louise with whom he has two children Spencer suffers with a constant bad conscience mostly drunk and alone in the Beverly Hills hotel and their films together Tracy plays the dominant masculine man Hepburn his submissive wife they represent the kind of romantic idealism of the time Hepburn embodies this role perfectly but is fully aware that she is only acting it on-screen and indeed Spencer Tracy is the only man she ever looks up to [Music] well Spencer Tracy I think was like an everyday Joe you know somebody you'd meet on the street he didn't have act early mannerisms he didn't have a particularly cultured voice Hepburn had a very distinctive regional accent at least for this country he came in hit his marks read his lines as he often said you know you go through the goddamn door because there's no other way to get into the goddamn room he sort of reveled in that non accurate persona maybe that's what made them a item off screen is that they were opposites that were attracted [Music] I start looking at the bridge I said to myself quite calmly he'll come this way and be killed unless you hurry and warn him I only care that you won't let me help you I'm in love with it don't you understand that you can't do this to me [Music] [Applause] Hepburn had a reputation for being kind of snooty in her early years and and aloof perhaps Spencer Tracy brought her down to earth as he did on screen so many times and and I think that that may have been part of the appeal of their relationship [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't see them as the all-american couple you know what she's not she's not the all-american anything you know what the relationship is very close to much more like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Fred was the class and ginger was the ass that he that without her he was so stiff and she warmed him up I think she was fiercely loyal she was in two words impossible I remember Cagney said to me once he's you know none of us could control her she would come in and break up a card game I'd be playing with Frank McHugh and Spencer and Hepburn would come in and she'd just disrupt the whole game just this and he said but Spencer was say to a red sit down and shut up and she would I like to sexes and what is more I suddenly don't like being married to what is known as a new woman I want a wife not a competitor competitor competitor if you want to be a big he woman go and be one but not with me [Music] what attracted leader spencer tracy's had magic he was a witty amusing entertaining man with a rather difficult nature and there was easy for me to please Spencer because I loved perhaps their relationship functions so well because they never lived together as husband and wife Catherine remains independent and their years together she makes just as many films without him she even returns to the theatre with Shakespeare [Music] in 1949 they took the as you like it tour around the country and they kept a bucket a wastebasket right near stage entry and Kate would go up and throw up into the bucket totally nervous just completely freaked out and afraid and go on stage anyway and as my mother said give a brilliant performance and then come back and grab my mother by the shoulders was they any good was they any good and and my mother said and she meant it was I any good this is how badly this is how hard she tried this is how badly she wanted to succeed and do a good job that's what was interesting about her she was afraid she doubted herself she did it anyway the thing about her nature that's natural is an enormous ly centered ego a very centered Drive so if you're gonna do something do it all the way don't do it half way either do it or don't do it so if you're going to do it and if you have to throw up then throw up but do it as I hate the feeling of being kind of and doing half as well as I can do I love I mean perfection is thrilling she was rough on her the caster people that were working with her but no rougher on them that she was on herself because she felt that if people were there was a movie or plays as she did here Broadway people were willing to pay good money to see them perform they owed it to the audience to do their very best I don't think money was her main consideration I think she wanted to play parts that she felt she could really play well and once she decided to play a part she made up her mind to do everything she possibly could to make that part perfect for a long time I was too egotistical I suppose and too frightened to accept the fact that the audience after all these years had given me theirs and they given me their friendship their undiluted just friendship we like you you're nice Kate thought so much about her position relative to her audience Who am I to you is the question that interested her and so she thought well who are you to me and Who am I to you so she studies this and learns and watches others and really thinks about it on a very personal level and I think the thing about a movie camera is that I can be right here inside of your head I can be next to you and we can dream together so any dream that I dream you can be dragged into and if it's a good dream then both of us will be nourished and helped and that can be a wonderful powerful experience all my old girlfriends loved Katharine Hepburn many people have been inspired by her her way by the early 1950s Katharine Hepburn is at the height of her career she's an internationally famous dramatic actress with a flair for comedy and is a rock-solid box office attraction but she's looking for new challenges and in 1951 she goes on location to shoot the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and director John Huston an authentic experience it is two crocodiles in the river poisonous snakes in the portable toilet and diarrhea Katharine later reflects on the shoot in her book the making of the African Queen or how I went to Africa with Bogart Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind Katharine is tough as the prudish rosy Sayer a well which is probably the one most responsible for branding Hepburn screen image into our cinematic memory [Music] there's death a dozen times over down the river you promised well I'm taking my promise back I never dreamed that an experience could be so stimulating I think as she moved into middle age she was fortunate to have a couple of roles the so-called spinster roles that also projected strength and individuality African Queen and summertime come to mind where she was not just an areal of an old biddy who sitting on the porch rocking in the rocking chair she was out there trying to get things done and again I think this is a matter of self-awareness and of her own persona I think in in you know pushing ahead to get what she wanted and what she needed in her life after beginning of the 1960's spencer tracy's health damaged by a lifetime of heavy drinking begins to deteriorate so rapidly that is taken to the clinic Hepburn always at his side becomes his dedicated nurse she takes appropriate steps by keeping fit with sport drinking less and stopping smoking out of respect for his wife Louise Tracy Katherine always keeps herself in the background their relationship is a well-kept secret and they're very rarely appear together in public even the sharp-tongued Hollywood gossip columns respect them [Music] she certainly took care of him and it was a nurse patient relationship a lot of the time you know there's a you often run across the thing of someone finding her sleeping outside his hotel room doors I think the Beverly Hills Hotel where he was drunk inside and rolling about tortured man she was good for him apparently and saved him any number of challenge in 1967 a time when racial tension is still arrived in the USA the film guess who's coming to dinner tells the story of a family whose daughter played by Kate's niece Kathleen Horton wants to marry her black boyfriend John Wade Prentiss isn't that a lovely name John Wayne Joanna Prentiss Albee they met in Hawaii black man white woman about the same time that Obama's parents met in Hawaii and there is a scene between po da and Tracy which Tracy says do you realize your children a mixed marriage your children are gonna have big problems and his responses we know there may be problems but your daughter Katherine Houghton believes that one of our children may go up to be President someday this was 1967 30 years or more before anybody ever heard of Barack Obama I think is amazing until today I would never have believed that I could say such a thing but when she fights you I'm gonna be on her side it's their final film together and also the last film to star Spencer Tracy just two weeks after shooting finishes 67 year old Spencer dies of heart failure Katherine cannot bring herself to watch the film but wins her second Oscar 34 years after winning the first after his death Katherine diverts herself with work and is soon rewarded for it a third Oscar comes along the following year in 1968 as usual she doesn't accept it personally she's scared she's going to lose what would you have me do give out give up give in you'd be a little piece a little why so modest how about eternal peace although she's remembered as a star from the 30s and 40s her greatest success really came in the 1960s in terms of recognition and way of Oscar attention yes a lot of good actors don't believe in awards and they are silly who the hell is going to describe exactly why person a was better than person B C D and E in a given year and if you were the best actor one year and aren't the next year what happened to you did your channel it go away the Saluda Chris self-promotional cash conscious vulgar boring event the Oscars but I love them I think a good days gone days to make a son of crowning my subtle battle enduring we were kings and it came my married sons I bought him killed her Menelaus at over 60 katharine hepburn still feels she wants to try something new that was the stage manager of a musical called Coco that this hit branded him on Broadway so I know her intimately as they say I can tell you a story about her the first matinee that we did at the show you could hear them building this building across the streets a 60-story skyscraper and they were hammering and drilling and Kate had this little lullaby at the beginning of the second act she called me to her dress room and she said listen Jerry go across the street tell them that you'll signal them and then when you signal them they'll stop work so I go over there and I get a whole via head engineer and I'm one of those Hut's out on the street he thought I was from an insane asylum or something and he said before I throw you out let me make sure anyway he wouldn't allow it so I go back to Kate she's sitting in her dressing room I said they're not gonna do it I mean it's too expensive so I'm gonna stop work let me rage comes back about a half hour later and she says when you whistle like that they'll stop working the building and when the lullaby is over they'll start work again and they did it every matinee of the run of the show I got out the stage door whistled and they stopped working the building I think was like six months can you imagine what it costs of people all the building but that's the kind of woman she was she was usually bring cookies to the guys up and up in the building fewest extraordinary woman [Music] and she directed herself oops they I would say I never heard are really giving any criticism back to the director but always accepted it and gestured it worked on it it's great before mister couldn't sing but the audience loved the fact that she was trying [Music] she drew a self-portrait of herself and around the south tortured Sherrod all the criticisms of the things that I do wrong at stage manager of the show and then presented it to me it says Jerry don't forget Kate how could anybody forget Kate television is the new popular medium everyone is watching but many big screen stars are suspicious of it even catherine is skeptical at first she's the only guest I ever had who came in a day or two before the show was to be taped to see what it would feel like where she'd sit where the audience was how big the place was and so on and I was just dressed in a casual clothes and tennis shoes and we were sat there on the set and suddenly she said why don't we just do it now and I wasn't prepared supposed to be two days later but I thought she's got a lot of guts there so let's do it certain things have maintained themselves motif I'm pretty good I'm still here I can see pretty well and I still seem to have a wild amount of energy it shakes the boat a bit of good stuff but I can still go on in the 1980s The Players Club an exclusive club for actors in New York decides to commission a limited edition print of a star the sales of which would be used to sponsor the club's library it would need to be a notable celebrity and one name springs to everyone's mind Kate Hepburn [Music] Raik insula is an artist who has painted portraits of lots of stars and politicians this friend players club member james cagney gives him Kate's telephone number by dial the number hello miss Hepburn this is Ray Kinsler oh yes Jim said you were going to call and I will have nothing to do with appear I don't appear I don't accept honors and I have no time for this whatever it is she would ask a question and before you could answer it she was off this way and I finally blurted out to her I think as I miss Hepburn if I can only meet with you sometime and explain this and she said well how about now I got up to her house she was sitting in the couch against the window she was not as large as I expected but still the bones were there the delicacy the voice was there the personality was surely there and I heard some footsteps coming from behind from the upper floor and it was her niece Katherine Houghton and I said well actually what I'm doing with your aunt is she's going to pose for some paintings which I'm going to turn into a lithograph and we're going to sell these to raise money for the Players Club and she said looking at me he was Heffernan behind me said isn't that that all male actors club I heard every egg shell crack I thought this is over and from behind me miss heparins voice said Katherine to her niece we're doing this to save the library and Spencer was a member and I did in the course of several years many paintings of her she was very very very difficult I said miss Hepburn look I can't tell you me what her expressions like this I can't tell you how much I admire you I said I've been very lucky in my career to have met some extraordinary people but you're my favorite you as an actress and a performer and an artist would appreciate what a fellow artist is trying to do and I must tell you that you are driving me bananas I can't work this way your this isn't right that I said I'm just exam exasperated and she looked at me like that night she said you're holding working she said you know what your problem is you talk too much why don't you paint a little more and talk less that was like her [Music] even today older stars are rarely cast in leading roles but katharine hepburn manages to age with her characters when jane fonda arrives with the script for on Golden Pond Kate is more than thrilled jane has bought the film rights for herself and her father Henry Fonda wins his only Oscar for the film and is the third leading man to win an Oscar on Catherine's side catherine has awarded her fourth and final Academy Award as Best Actress she swam almost every day she would even swim in the wintertime she made the rest of us look like wimps [Music] she's over 70 and it's Katherine's last major role where she seems to be playing herself right down to the costumes and swimming you're wrong about the head King tells Carrie cares deeply that's a suck face miss Hepburn had I don't know what the disease was that was crippling her but it was a it was a form of shaking of her head and it became uncontrolled she could feel it coming like a spasm it was very disconcerting and in the Golden Pond I think there were vestiges of this beginning to happen and at one point when Jane Fonda is complaining about Henry Fonda her father in the movie also her father in life miss heparin drops her head on top of Jane Fonda's like this and says bore bore bore and I know she was getting a spasm attack right then she was so intelligent about covering that up she was so sensitive at the beginning of the 1990s she moves out of her New York house to live in Old Saybrook for good she retires to Fenwick Phyllis will burn her secretary for decades remains at her side clinging to my roots Catherine says is what saved me from Hollywood in the peace and quiet of the New England coast she's still working on herself and in 1991 she publishes her autobiography entitled and typically straightforward Hepburn style me stories of my life [Music] now I've maintained that machine as well as I could possibly maintain it and I've tried deliberately this was in the beginning I said don't get spoiled don't dress up don't get an expensive car don't get a lot of fancy habits that you can't maintain if you flop but those the contrast then you're gonna have to carry it's hard to separate Katharine Hepburn the way we saw her on stage and on film and the Katharine Hepburn that we knew here on Main Street and Sabra because he was like anybody else in town Old Saybrook commemorates their local star with the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center or in short the Kate the converted Old Town Hall has a small museum devoted to her but Katherine would have probably preferred the live entertainment there the phone rang one morning and this is verbatim the conversation hello this is Kate hemp Oh miss Hepburn how are you what she said I would like you to call me tomorrow morning at nine o'clock so the next morning I dialed her number miss Hepburn yes who is this I said it's ray Kessler what do you want I saw Miss Efrain you asked me to call you this morning at nine o'clock it's exactly nine o'clock and you said about what well I said my separate I have a clue well she said neither do I and she hung up the last time I talked to her well when Kate died she was 96 years old she was all used up there was nothing left except this spark in her eye she kind of looked at you but she was old and it was time to go and she went grudgingly but she finally realized well I guess you got me beat on this one it's time to go and off she went [Music] and listen we don't create the icons the audience creates the icons and I think that's so important to remember because Katharine Hepburn made hits and flops we all make hits and flops and we always hope it's going to be fantastic but it is a mystery and no one knows only a God would know what the true Katharine Hepburn was and that's probably the way she liked it I tend to feel that she discovered tried out several finally decided on a personality that she would play for the rest of her life and it was a such an entertaining one that I'm glad she settled not the one she did I don't think anyone could say for sure is there a more real Katharine Hepburn moving beneath all the Katharine Hepburn mannerisms manners gestures voice sense of humor which was wonderful if there's a real Katharine Hepburn in below all that I don't give a damn what we had was very good I hate to say this but we've come to the end of the time we we have tonight you mean I'm finished I can go well I hate to I've had a lovely time by but I could can't you work wait till I say good night [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you