"Me - Stories of My Life" by Katharine Hepburn

The title is me and these are

stories

from my

life

and they are written by me and I am Katherine and I am going to read this to you. I have a friend who keeps asking me why I wrote this book, especially because I've said it a thousand times no no that's personal no no I'm not going to talk about it what made me change my mind I was wondering something changed me I guess I'm not saying I know but I think I always have I thought of myself as an actor now in the last few years I've seen that creature I created sitting she's sitting saying hey what's up what are we going to do we're wasting our time let's shut up I said I'm sick of you I'm not going to hide behind you anymore.

Who are you anyway? You're not me. You are that big, beautiful doll. You are the lucky side of the coin. You were born at the right time. You looked good. You just sounded. right, you got lucky, you caught it, you got rich, well, I'm glad you had a good time, now I'll take over. What are you saying? Who I am? Well, it's me. I am what her name is. the power behind the throne I am your character that's not what they call it you do this don't do that you are I am your foundation I run your ship you are the ship you're taking a bit of a toll on, yes maybe not I can sell you as easily as before, you have a right foot that doesn't work very well, I mean, it hurts, in 1982 we ran into that telephone pole, silly of him, silly, listen, so it hurts. but at least they didn't have to cut it off, yes of course, it's all about your balance, the balance of your body right away and now that you're back it's painful, oh my god, what are you waiting for?

You just took your body for granted. You're lucky you had a good one to begin with, oh yes, those two shoulder surgeries, rotator cuffs, not that they called, yes of course, oh yes sir, the right hip is fake, when did it go wrong? 1973, oh that was quite a long time ago. Well, you're lucky that the operation actually worked. Oh, damn, you're lucky. You can see, you can hear, you can ride a bike, you can garden, yes, kneel, but that's relaxing, isn't it kneeling anyway? This is where I come in. I am your character. I don't think you ever realized how helpful I've been to you.

I've been there. I'll tell you what that means. I am your backup when you make a decision that is bad and what you get involved in is not. It doesn't work and here I am trying to explain it, you know what I really am. I am the greatest gift from my parents and when I realized this I also knew why I had suddenly become interested in writing this book. I wanted to discover the real reason behind all the fluff, that piece of fiber that can grow in all of us, there it is waiting to be used, that's what suddenly caught my attention, how did I make it work?

How did I have enough brains to survive that game? lake and the initial failure my film career the period of box office poison and how I developed such a useful hand of common sense that's what really keeps you afloat you can say you had enough money to do it yes, yes I did, but the money just no I didn't, I wasn't going to starve, but I could have been defeated. It's finding out where you went wrong and correcting it, for example, at the lake. I let Jed Harris, the producer, push me. I knew they were pushing me and I didn't respond I didn't say look look I'm the one who has to sell this and if you turn me into mush I'll just be mush and I was mush the lake story of my survival was extremely important to me I learned the responsibility of saying talk to me I'm to blame and the movies in the same way I half allowed myself to say yes yes it's okay and then no, I don't like that script, I won't do it to learn responsibility each of us has to learn responsibility here we are lives up to your potential but what to do well don't you see what I'm doing and why I'm doing it?

I tell you the story of my

life

. I have been led to it, what else can I do before I begin? I have to warn you that what follows does not follow a path when I say story I mean

stories

from my life and when I say stories I'm afraid I mean flashes before I tell you something about myself I would like to tell you or at least identify for you the world in which I live. I was born my background I mean of course my mother my father both of my parents mother died when I was 40 and dad died when I was 50 yard so I had them as my well they were always there for 40 years there they were there and they were mine from where I was dad to the left of the fireplace mother to the right of the fireplace tea every day at 5:00 were the world in which I was born my background my mother Catherine Martha Houghton was born on February 2, 1878 she was daughter of the house Caroline Garlin and Alfred Augustus Houghton Alfred Houghton was the younger brother of Amory Houghton who was the director of the Corning Glass Company which started in Cambridge Massachusetts moved to Brooklyn and ended in Corning New York Alfred's first wife had died leaving him a daughter, Mary, he later married Caroline Garlin at home, they had three daughters, Catherine Edith and Marion, Alfred in his wife, happy, financially comfortable, not rich, not poor.

He played the violin She played the piano They were interested in Robert Ingersoll the great agnostic and attended all his lectures They had left the recognized church Alfred was about 20 years older than Kerala Apparently his relationship with his older brother Emery was complicated Amory had fired He was kicked out of the glass factory because he was always late, then Alfred became the director of the Buffalo scale factory, he was a temperamental guy and a victim of severe depression during one of these episodes, he was visiting Amer in Corning and disappeared. she was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on the train tracks no, nothing, at that time, my grandmother Caroline was left with three daughters to raise, then it was discovered that Caroline had stomach cancer, she knew it was doomed to die shortly Caroline feared leaving her curls to be raised by any of her available relatives whom she considered hopelessly reactionary wanted her daughters to go to college visited Bryn Mawr College with my mother Katherine arranged for my mother to care for them . go there and made arrangements for the other two daughters is not Maryland go to miss the Baldwin boarding school which was almost next door to the university when her mother died Katherine was 16 Edith 14 Marian 12 Katherine was filled with her mother's feelings about From the future she wanted to go to college.

Bryn Mawr wanted to guide her younger sisters in the right direction and she wasn't about to let Uncle Amory boss her around Uncle Harry the same way she was used to getting her way, she thought. girls should be girls and they should finish school and learn to be ladies these girls wanted an education to be independent everything seemed to stagnate then the mother realized that she was old enough to appoint her own guardian uncle Amory was the one who managed her money but he was not her legal guardian, she threatened to appoint a man with a very hostile tongue and glamor is her guardian and she forced him and fulfilled her wish.

She went with Bryn Mawr, the girls went with Baldwin and then they both went with Bryn Mawr when dear Carolyn Houston died. she was 34 years old she must have been a very strong character my mother spoke a lot about her her beauty her strength of character determination that the daughters receive an education and live independent lives from the very dominant Amory Oden Corning last group to which her creed goes university obtain An upbringing I felt the enormous effect that my grandmother must have had on my mother, who was the eldest of the three girls, so my mother was the one who received the powerful philosophy of George Bernard Shaw, this is the true joy of life that is uses. for a purpose recognized by yourself as powerful, being completely worn out before you throw the force of nature being on the scrap heap instead of a feverish and selfish little cloud of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not be dedicated to make you happy.

Do not give up in the fight for your future independence it is the only solution women are as good as men from now on you do not have much money but you have independent spirits knowledge education make your own way do not complain do not complain think positively my dad dr. Thomas Norville Hampton was born on December 18, 1879, he was a year younger than his mother, he was the son of Reverend Sewell Snowden Hampton and Selena Lloyd Powell, he was the youngest of their children, his father's mother was a member of a very important and distinguished. With other families in the south, they have been quite impoverished by the father of the Civil War, where they loved their mother, they were very close and he developed a great respect for the female sex through her, she was his ideal, a fighter with the standards she believed in. in education, my grandfather was a minister in the Episcopal Church and made over $600, yes, dad went to Randolph-Macon University in Virginia, got a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree, then went to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to study medicine.

He met his mother's sister, Edith, at Hopkins. He used to hang out to work out mom and dad found out about the adidas department when he met mom she was fascinated by him and took a teaching job there in Baltimore to get him hooked she did it they saw each other a lot dad seemed very interested in her, but he He didn't propose, she started to think he was just cheating on her, finally, in desperation, she said, you know, the best thing about our relationship is that when each of us gets married, it won't hurt our relationship at all, dad was. indignant I don't know how you can say such a thing if I don't marry you I never marry anyone mother said can I take this as a proposal?

Dad said he had been proposing to her for six months she was Dad was offered several very good hospital jobs in New York, but he thought a big time mother and father in New York were married, which warmed two hearts and it won't happen Being family, they were both dedicated to improving the situation. Position of men and women At first, mom and dad lived across the street and the hospital where dad was an intern and then a resident, the residents were supposed to sleep in the hospital at the end of a bail, dad would find a house right in front. from the Hudson Street hospital, subject to his own bail system, he was very fast and since he was never late, he never knew that time passed and one day my mother was walking in the park, Tom, her first son, walking at her side. and me, Kathie, being taken well, Phillip, mother.

Here I am, these two adorable children, a beautiful and brilliant husband, I look forward to his brilliant career, but me, what of me, what of me is all this? I'm here, it must be something. She went home a little perplexed and Dad ran in and said look here in the paper, a woman called Emmeline Pankhurst is talking about women and the vote tonight that they win. Dan had obviously begun to realize that Mom was getting a little antsy about her place in the world and found the solution in which she became Mom. the head of the Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association, women problematizing voting, prostitution, the white slave trade, teenage pregnancy, venereal diseases, and large public gatherings.

The mother had a booth at the Connecticut Fairgrounds and we had a gas cylinder at the booth so we could fill balloons with votes. for the women purple, white and gray balloons and I was about eight years old I used to fill the balloons tie a six foot rope under them go out into the street chase the visitors to the fair follow them until they were willing to accept one of my balloons If you wanted one, I wanted one and it was hot and it was a pretty insistent voice I said vote for women here taking votes for women and they didn't accept it in the middle of everything there we are Tom and I were used to being in parades we were used to being snubbed in In In the most subtle sense of the word, there were many people who violently disagreed with Mom and Dad's goal.

Little by little the majority joined our side and mom was right and dad was right, of course, and naturally we were on the right side too and that was it. all for the benefit of the poor, powerless oppressed, of course, the things mom had fought for turned out in her favor. Our tea-time house was a meeting place we children were allowed in, but we didn't talk much, if at all we met Emmeline Pankhurst. margaret sanger rebecca west richard bennett many distinguished doctors and professors the door to our house was always open my parents said come in, come in, tell us, come with us to spend the night agree no, no, there is plenty of space, always mom and dad We were parents perfect, we were raised with a feeling of freedom, there were no good rules, it was just certain things we did and certain things we didn't do because they would hurt others and I think to myself how much I miss you too.

I was so used to becoming you, it was heaven to always have you to return to in despair, enjoy, they were strong, fun for the rocks, how lucky to be born from love and live in an atmosphere of desires and interests, we were a great family man. mother had six children during aperiod of 15 years Tom calf dick mom Mary and PEG we were a happy family we are a happy family when we were children we, but Tom and I Dickon Tom then Mary an ampeg I was much older than my sisters to them. It was actually another adult they lived in, 13 years younger than me, almost like my own children, Bob and Dick were closer, but they were kids when I went to college at 17, they were 11 of 13, so When we were children we didn't really live. as equals we were my parents and I and Tom and then the children the children like children used to visit me in New York I felt like they were mine I dressed them up I took them to the theater I took movies Museums all the emotion that the mother used to choose between them when money It was a little scarce in the early 30s, she was a wonderful teacher and the girls loved it and she was kind of a rich aunt and we had a lot of fun together.

I'm sure that's why I never had children of my own, what can I say about the luck of having dad and mother they really loved each other dad with his red hair and his bad temper some say I'm like him I hope so I would be so proud mother with a real knowledge of life she adored him adored us she was she was witty some say I'm like her, I hope, I would be very proud that they loved to read aloud, so, Emerson O'Neil, they took what the life he had to offer and they devoured him.

Some send a real set of values ​​and a sense of joy. I was born 80 hour days ago, May 12, 1907, despite everything to the contrary, in Hartford Connecticut, 22 Hudson Street, then across from Hartford Hospital Street, it no longer exists, the hospital got old, friend , the heart is the capital of Connecticut, that's right. a lovely town full of parks and hills and even elm trees, some lovely old houses, good skating, skiing in the winter, heat in the summer, very soon after I was born we moved to 133 Hawthorne Street, north of the street, we had a chimney from where we hear the song of life.

The top was a beautiful early Victorian house with three peaks, the central one a little higher than the other two, of painted red brick with a black lace trim. It doesn't exist anymore either. It was next to the Rural Electric Factory east of us, as it was. a long and fairly wide lot with a stream running along the side of the factory at the bottom of a sort of small forest of trees, mostly hemlock and pines in the front of the property, the driveway was a large circle to the main door. The house was about 70 feet from the street in the winter, when it snowed heavily, we had enclosed that circle in a high wall of snow, very thick and terrible battles took place, it was like a city field, the grass was deep and ran.

Back on the railroad track to the east there was a ravine with a lot of trees so we couldn't see the factory, the kind of forest full of daffodils Jack in the pulpits Trillium oh you see that hemlock tree on the west side of the property. that was the tree I used to climb mmm the neighbors used to call my mom say kit Kathy is at the top of the hemlock yeah I know don't scare her she doesn't know it's dangerous there was another tree and an elm that did a role much of our lives had a tall trunk, could climb straight without branches, about 60 feet up there was a strong branch almost parallel to the ground that grew directly towards this branch, damn tied, a rotating ladder we climbed up there slowly , of wood. stairs to get to a trapeze that was on a pulley that was ready to ride a rope that ran from Elm to the back of our property, we would go up, get on the trapeze sitting or hanging from our knees and ride down the rope that, of course, it started at the top and went down to ground level.

It was exciting to cross the gravel path. A back gate that led across the back lawn to the end of the property. I used to terrorize people. Dad was a very good athlete and he wanted to. what we will be if we live said that mother, mother, not being the athletic type, would suffer if she saw her daughter riding the trapeze on a gravel road hanging by her feet in the air hanging by her heels, but she was silent, she thought which looked fun and Today, on Sundays we walked through the woods, climbed on swings, climbed the trees as high as we could and then held on as tight as possible, swung our legs, bent the tops of the trees towards the floor, it was a lot of fun because dad we were the center of action and thanks to mom we could always give each other cookies and ginger ale or birch beer with sarsaparilla, but the greatest gift he gave us was freedom, freedom to be loud, freedom to shout , don't scold, do it, yes, do it, tell me.

On that note, I went to West Middle School as a kid, Kim the Garden Public School, and then up until fifth grade, I led a group of kids who wanted Police Officer O'Malley to drop him off at the intersection in Farmington Avenue and Laurel Street. I had decided to move it to a different place, it was fun, we liked it, we made a good request. O'Malley stayed with us at the east end of Nile Streep was Trinity Church, the pastor's daughter was my great friend in the arts, me, her. she was pretty she's not beautiful long curly brown hair i had freckles warmer hair like a boy shaved actually with an older brother tom and my two younger sons the dick involved being a girl it was torment i always wanted to be a boy jimmy was my name and if we want to go down, I love diving, I love all sports, I was skinny, very strong and completely brave.

There was a mate at Fenwick, our summer home, and a diving board on the dock, level with the board from the water. Naturally, it varied with the tide, there was a railing on the dock about two and a half or three feet high so I could have a better spring because I was quite skinny. I would stand at the top of the railing and jump all the way to the end. the board and dive either jackknife or swan a one and a half four somersault running from the end of the board I would do a winning half standing on the end of the board a backflip Rebeck dive was a lot of fun golf became on a kind of specialty Me and my brother Bob went to Fenwick in the summer, where we have a private nine-hole course and the very young children could play at any time.

We started well at five years old when I was 2/13. My mother started me. in the lessons at Hartford Rostrum when we came back to town, you know, during the winter, from an Englishman named Jack State. A mother who had never had any athletic training struggled with golf and diving, she also believed in teachers the winter she was 14. years I decided I was a tutor instead of going to Oxford school I wanted to be able to play golf every day well, I didn't really want to be in any school too many girls too curious I'll tell you why my brother Tom two and a half years older than me ended up of dying in strange circumstances.

I adored him. In reality, Tom's death remains unexplained. It was Easter time. Kingswood summer vacation or spring break. I guess you'd say the boys' private school in Hartford was on vacation. Tom. and I were going to go to New York to visit our very tall daughter. She had a charming house on Charlton Street in Greenwich Village. She had been to Windmill College with my mother. They had become great friends. Annie was a lawyer and the house next door in Charlton. The street was occupied by the birth of REM plus where the rebel was a judge, they were friendly, they were very successful.

Mary said she never married, we called her aunt and she was generous and fun when we visited, she took us to plays and showed us around. On this visit to the big city we went to the theater to see a play called Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court when we got home from the theater. Well, I can't really tell you what I did, but when I later told the story, I said that Tom had looked at me and said, "You're my girl, no, oh, you're my favorite girl in the whole world, why did I say that "Was this true?

I mean, did Tom really say it? Honestly, I don't know, at aunt's house, Tom used to do it." He slept in his attic studio type at the top of the house it was full of garbage and trunks and had no roof just a ceiling and beams his bed was a cot next to a wall the events were as follows the next morning I went upstairs to wake him up and there he was next to the bed with his knees bent hanging from a piece of torn sheet he was tied to a beam he was dead he was tangled he didn't make sense in a state of shock numb I cut him off and laid him on the bed bed tom he was dead he just he was dead what should I do who should I tell the aunt was too emotional she would be frantic a doctor, look for a doctor, look for a doctor I went downstairs, closed the front door, I had seen a doctor sign and one of the houses on the other side of the street I went to the door I rang the bell it was around 8 in the morning the door was open just a crack by a woman looking out yes my brother is dead a moment pause what my brother said my brother, he is dead , then the doctor can't help you, he didn't answer, he closed the door, he closed the door, he just closed that door.

I stood still for a moment, yes, you are right, the doctor is too late for the doctor to help me. I should better go. I rang the bell to speak. Bertha replied that Tom is dead. I said and then burst into tears. This was what I thought I should do. People will die, you will cry, but inside I was frozen. Aunt Bertha took over and told Ayane. They called mom. and dad, I just remember the confusion when we were on a boat crossing the Hudson with Tom's body going to a crematorium in New Jersey. I remember standing with Dad on the bow of that ship.

I looked at mom, my mom was crying, my mom was crying, oh. dear, what can I do? I had never seen my mother cry before and I never saw her cry again. It was never unconditional. My father didn't cry either. He took what life had to offer. I only saw him once. What can I say? A loop, it was one day in early 1951, dad and I went to Finland, we drove to defend ourselves with mother left in the middle and to take an afternoon nap, we came back to tea at 5:00, we had tea every day at 5:00 when we got home, we entered the living room, there was no fire in the fireplace, my mother's chair was empty, there was no fire, we ran up the stairs, we opened the bedroom door, My mother was there in bed dead, I looked at dad, oh no, no, he said "I can." She can't come down daddy don't look come down daddy I said mother daddy doesn't have every day this was essential she was getting dressed for tea she must have felt something strange she went from her dressing room to the bedroom she got I put her in bed with her left hand she was lifting her hands blankets and dead bingo.

I left my mother dead. My dear mom. The only mother I will ever have. I took her still warm hand and unclasped the sheep's fingers. She got up and I kissed her. She and I went with Dad, we didn't say goodbye, she just left after Tom died, she went to Cedar Hill Cemetery when we buried his ashes, but she never mentioned it afterwards, she never said, "I'm going to the cemetery," nor did she. who went on with life in First, the newspaper sentiment committed suicide, there was no reason for him to commit suicide that anyone could see, then Dad made a statement that it was very possible that Tom was practicing hanging himself.

Dad told us about this trick of pretending to hang himself when he was a kid at soccer. At baseball games, the teams that came from the north were very aware of that southern attitude towards blacks and felt that the Virginia deer had a genuine job role and felt superior to the blacks as a way to irritate these northerners. . The Virginians trained several. blacks to pretend they were being hanged dad was an expert at this he was holding a certain musician's neck and a trick that kept the news from cutting him off dangerous sport it could be that Tom was practicing this and instead he was doing rope trap, The rope was slippery and I couldn't control it, it could have been like that.

Dad felt it was a reasonable possibility and how this must have tortured Dad, but we never talked about it. It is surprising how the behavior of fathers and mothers left their mark. I just didn't believe in complaining about anything the important thing was that the town was dead in the first terrible shock my mother cried but never allowed the fact of her death to dominate the atmosphere we were not assigned a house anyway this incident seemed to separate me from the world as I knew it I tried to go to school but I felt isolated I knew something the girls didn't know I knew the tragedy they were curious and I didn't want to talk about it or discuss it the school year ended at the end of May I never went back to school in the autumn I decided to be a tutor my tutoring years were very nice being more or less alone it didn't bother me we had a seamstress Mary Brian who used to come every Thursday I used to talk to her she was Irish she was very pretty so I also had a little theater that I did with a wooden box that had a floor with lines cut every half inch was green the floor parallel to theHe would be on my side, we were very close, mom and dad, and I was nervous, so I proposed, of course, he said yes, he would pay for death, so I left Baltimore and went to New York City after of the second week in The Death of Baltimore Francis Robinson was an experience.

He had a house on East 62nd Street between second and third. Her and her mother. Her mother is an opera singer daughter. Frances was tall, about five foot seven. a medium sized wisdom and she was very cautious in her office it was on the top floor she sat down she tried to teach me to speak from my diaphragm I would have to put my hand on her diaphragm hold my hand there while she pursed her lips to blow out a candle Well, it was a strange feeling. She had my hand on her, of course, and somehow it was extremely embarrassing for me.

I don't think at that time she really had the notion of producing air from the candle. diaphragm instead of straining my throat I can now call it directly from the diaphragm my lack of success in actually connecting my voice and volume to the diaphragm caused me great concerns in my career. I kept losing my voice. I get very hoarse every time I play. a part that was fast and loud was agony in a way that I can understand why I couldn't connect my voice and diaphragm well. I think I was so excited about life and living in my future that I just felt so tense that I couldn't relax, so I was in the big city and we're with Francis Robinson Duff.

I didn't really know the city at all, and neither do you. I had Lonnie's car in New York, you could park almost anywhere. in those days it was totally different than New York today there was no FDR Drive or West Side Highway Oh, the George Washington Bridge, the Holland Tunnel was almost ready Lincoln didn't exist in my area yet, the East 40 and before that Easter it Street were elevated on 3rd Avenue elevators on 2nd, I'm talking about the '20s and early '30s, Central Park opened. The cars I used to drive there spend the day in the park.

Very few people use the park. So there were no races, there was no Pan-American building looming over the view. From the Grand Central skyline against the sky I moved into a large empty family apartment of a college friend, Meigs Merrill, at 9:25 Park Avenue, I spent my days actually waiting for the phone to ring, I was offered a job I don't really know anyone well in the big city Jack Clark and his two sisters again Louise Clark were there they were from Bryn Mawr the city not the college his friend loved oh I'm Dan Smith they had apartments on 39th street east of the 3rd and everyone was nice to me, especially ludie, this generosity with the car Jack Clark was tall, skinny, fascinating, he was about 30 years old, so letter, he was about 30, I mean, I was 20, he was tall, weight Medium and dark, he was a strange-looking man, dark hair, dark eyes set wide apart. rosy cheeks and strange nose it was a long nose with a hump and a long bite well I'm trying to describe it but this description sounds ridiculous, it didn't look ridiculous, I can assure you that the boy and Jack were very good friends.

They both didn't have much money, but life was easy now. Jack and Lonnie were looking for trouble but as far as they went they were taking nude photos photographs mainly of me lying on a large sofa they had in the living room I posed with complete confidence as I think I must have imagined myself I don't remember who else posed they gave me enlargements of the photo I remember that I put them in a straw basket with a straw lid and it had a strap around it and I had it for years I don't remember when it disappeared I think I must have thought to myself I don't look at them they don't exist now I keep thinking that if I don't look at something It doesn't exist I never look at notices that it doesn't exist or in movies that I've made that doesn't exist My past sin so to speak they don't exist But I was talking to you about Letty because it was really her generosity that propelled me on my path He was the soul of the Letty came from Stratford Pennsylvania which was several stations over from Ranmaru on the main line, she had gone to Grenoble to go to college in France, she was an excellent musician and could learn any language in a few days, she could function anywhere , as I mentioned, Jack spoke and his sisters were then living in New York.

Ludie lived nearby. I started seeing them for dinner and to the movies and whatever. He had a car he used to drive made of Fenric during the weekends and soon we saw more and more of each other. Well, what did you say? Where? It happened, oh yeah, of course, it was in the Clarks department, everyone was out and well, I guess I knew Lonnie was in love with me, but you see, my problem was that I was in love with myself, I mean, you know what. wanted to. Be a big star anyway, Ludie and I were alone in the apartment and there was a dead engine, there seems to be some reason not to do it right.

What I'm trying to say is that's what happened, I mean, we did it, I mean, I guess Ludie knew what he was doing and I didn't object, so we did it and that was the end of my virtue. He was my boyfriend since then. Listen, let me tell you, yeah, it was mind-blowing and that's the biggest butt you've ever heard. He was my friend, he was really my friend, well, my first job, the pan op corporation, suddenly decided to try a production in New York with Kenneth McKenna of The Big Pond, a play they had dried with some success in Baltimore, They had sent for him.

I wanted to be the protagonist, naturally, I was delighted. I learned the role. I sat on the sidelines quite convinced that he would be far superior to the protagonist. I was seeing Lucy in Nikolas. She was a very competent actress who didn't have the advantage of being very young and absolutely scandalous and full of a kind of wild confidence based solely on energy and ego, of course, I thought I was scared to death, but the only thing I could say now was looking back. I wasn't scared enough. open at all, it happened even though the room I was entering was on fire one lunchtime after the play had been his murder, so during the wait I was asked to stay and act out a scene driven by some kind of frantic boiling that I should have read.

They fired the protagonist very well and took me in. Of course I didn't know what she was doing but I did it with great style. I took this change in my status as something natural, of course I was the protagonist, yes. I've been in the theater for weeks. This was happening just as I imagined. If it came, then a whirlwind of memories begged Goodman for the clothes. That she was a lot of compliments. The trip to Great Neck for a Saturday night performance. This was. a very popular place to play for a one night stand. I drove my car.

I arrived at the Great Neck Theater around 6 o'clock for the opening. I thought, well, don't go and I picked up something scary. Stay away as long as possible. I could do my makeup in five minutes my hair was never a problem pretend it's not happening I came in around ten past eight so I frolicked around London which I brought with me in a field I went for a run I finally got to the theater at ten past eight until the fury of everyone but I'm not wearing makeup but I got dressed. I hurried following a sign very quickly after my entrance.

I had to do an imitation. Kenneth McKenna was playing a Frenchman. He was to be my guide and play my mother and father. on tour in Europe he supposedly had a good French accent that brought down the house they burst into applause for that but well that's because in the star overconfidence flooded my voice went up my pace increased and apparently that's true for everyone except me I made it too difficult to understand too loudly and too quickly I wasn't McKenna's leading lady I was the star he was my leading man I realized that no one particularly bothers to come up and tell me I was notable, but since I've never really been A big opening night star didn't know what to expect so I thought well, they must be in trouble.

It never occurred to me that I was the problem. The next morning I was about to leave for rehearsal when the Frances Robinson death cult She told me to come to her house before I went to work I said I'd be late Frances She said they wouldn't care about my weight or I thought they wouldn't care what does that mean? I arrived at her house, she sent for me and went upstairs. I went up to her study and entered the moment I saw her long and very serious face, it was already done. I got fired. I said yes, she said well, without words.

I'm not crying, aren't you proud of me? No, she said. I'd be prouder if you were, that was the problem with your performance last night, freelance, well fired, I said, I won't do it, darling, how embarrassing, they must feel terribly, who will play my part, who was it, she had said Lucille Nicholas . oh yeah, she had some work, she must be very happy, that's nice, isn't it? I think I'll run to the National so they can see that I'm not very upset and I went to the theater. I walked in suddenly and congratulated the lead, they offered me back to my understudy job and I said no thanks, I thought that would be reckless, I thanked everyone for my left, what must they have thought, then took the train to Hartford, told my family.

I decided that they would never again see this of my opening nights which might be my only performance and we all laughed happily hahahaha on the way back to New York. I went the next day. I received two calls from Arthur Hopkins and one from JJ Schubert. I went to Schubert first, he had seen my performance at the big pond, you were sweet, dear, he said there were women, men, gentlemen, rabble, ladies and children in that audience on Saturday night, they all liked you, yes, I told everyone except management they were fools. Let it go. I offer you a five-year contract that starts at two hundred and fifty dollars and ends at 1,500 annual options.

I thought quickly, don't even buy a pig in a poke, that's very reassuring, mr. Schubert but I don't think I would like to be tied to anyone so I couldn't do what I wanted to do what I wanted to do think about it carefully don't be stupid Catherine yes, I'll leave CERN I went, I couldn't believe it I walked down Sherwood Alley along 45th Street La Arthur Hopkins' office I found a remote place The back of the orchestra at the Plymouth theater I walked I arrived at his door It was a small office that his secretary the lady has on the left and her small office on the right.

This told me to come in. I heard her calling him, so I went to the door and stayed there. He was at his desk in front of me reading a script. He finally looked up. Hi Dara, I saw you. The other night he's Roger, we're fine. I would like you to work for me. Thank my Lord. I said I would like it. He looked at his script again. I stayed there minutes later than I thought. What am I supposed to do? It's just that he would like me to work for him so I'd better go said Mr.

Warner read so I started to leave and his voice called me again no you don't want to know what you're going to do if sir he reads a script at the end of your desk read this Veronica's part we are going to rehearse next week Monday at eleven I left I had a job and a job the play was these days by Katherine Tungsten my part was a nice schoolgirl role that we rehearsed in New York at the Theater Plymouth Hopkins had its own way of rehearsing: you would sit around a big table and rate the play and do it again and again and again and again until everyone knew it and felt that the play itself was completely understood in an instant, although the ideas slipped into place, this seemed to me then and seems to me now a very sensible way to do it, to jump in immediately with a script in hand and wander off before you know it.

In the part I could never understand that he would do it, but I learned the play first. I guess I was exposed to the Hopkins method from the beginning and it made sense, so if I know the play before rehearsing I'm in no better position to feel. where I would like to be to perform a scene and in a better position to discuss with the director having also studied the play very hard, many actors say oh, but I couldn't learn it until I know where I'm going. I could never see the point and that's like saying you don't want to learn to walk until you know where you're going being a clue.

I have to learn it, then my instinct tells me something like what tells me where to go or the director tells me. what really doesn't matter standing still sitting just for the audience to hear we opened these days in New Haven and Hartford my hometown great excitement and New York on Thursday night Premiere in New York at the Court Theater on 48th Street the reviews were withering They praised me on Friday The night that everyone seemed to bite, not me of course, they had torn me apart and that was the only part of the review that anyone with any sense would surely say, own apartment.

I read that it was a success just before my entry. One of the stagehands. He patted me on the shoulder, well you don't have to worry honey, you'll get another job in no time. What do you mean? I said we are closed on Saturdays. Oh, so I said, pretending that of course I knew all the actors were piling into Hopkins. office to find out if he had another job for the rifle world, he knowswhere I am, if he needs me, he will send for me and he did so on Saturday night, he reported to the Shubert Theater in New Haven on Sunday at noon to fill in for Hope Williams on the vacation I took. straight to the understudy job I hope Williams was a big star overnight a charmer with a unique dedication great youthful appearance after being on vacation I hope to be understudy for about two weeks ludie and I decided to get married my grandfather was visiting Hartford and I had a nice knit dress The money was crushed white velvet with antique gold embroidery around the neck, sleeves and front, so I told Arthur because I was leaving the theater and we got married in the living room. be from Hartford with all the families present.

We went to Bermuda for our honeymoon Letty was always an angel of understanding luckily for me I said oh yes we will live in Stratton Pennsylvania and we started looking for a house well my enthusiasm lasted about two weeks and we moved back to New York and we sent it ourselves themselves to his New York apartment, 146 East 39th, and I went to Hopkins and asked him to give me my job back. He said yes, of course, he was really waiting for you. I said oh yes, he smiled because Ludie was a proper wife for two weeks.

Honey, honey, be careful later on the fourth when Holliday was getting ready to hit the road. Jimmy Hagen, the stage manager, called me at midnight. I hope SiC. He said we were going to play at the Schubert Riviera Theater in a Broadway book. She doesn't believe that she. She could play tomorrow Saturday morning and night and then open Monday in Boston, so I kept going, yeah, I kept going with Hope's clothes. Now I will never know how she was inches taller than Hope. There and then I found out how good Hope was. and how I had to find my own personality in the role of her, not imitate hers, it was a baptism of fire where she laughed out loud.

I didn't get anything at all, and anyway, in the third act I found my way a little bit with the rest of the cast. She was as excited as I was and very helpful. Hope had asked me during the run through New York if I'd like her to stay home one night so I could have a chance to play the role I'd had the good sense to say oh no, no, no. Stay well, I was right, it's a poor second Wester, the best for anyone after the big thaw and after I got fired, my photographs went to New York City and were in a booth on the sidewalk outside the Bijou theater on the 45th Street.

A man named Henry Soles brings Paramount, he saw them and called me and asked me if I would do a test. Well, I thought that would be done. I'm not even an actor, I'm just a photographer for whom I had been hired for very little. I wouldn't have control over what I did. I did see the Lord. Salisbury and I said just that, but I added that if I ever do a test for anyone, I'll do one for you. I thought that was very kind of me. He took me in a big limousine to see the premiere of a play with Jack Dempsey.

Darling. so I thought: "this is the big moment, don't rub shoulders with the bosses, you lose." I didn't have an agent, some people had agents then, but they didn't control the business like they do today. Once or twice I went to the officers, I went and sat down and at the end of the day, the secretary, whoever it was, would come up to me and say why are you here? The only notable moment was when I said to bring a secretary from Elwood. I'm here to see the girl at her farewell. arms oh she said she's been kicked out for a long time she had a warm heart come on she said she's going to meet mr.

Woods anyway, so I did, he had a warm heart too. I asked him who was going to play the role they prepared as a landing, that was all so they wouldn't think he was making any effort. He used to go up. a kind of sales costume, I had an old cap or no hat in an era of hats and an old green tweed coat and I had pinned it with a safety pin, I threw a sweater over my shoulder, I tied my hair up a little, very informal. For those days I also wanted to show off, it's really nothing to me whether I got the replacement or not.

I had a car and that gave me a kind of confidence. At least I could write well. In fact, he didn't go out often. I was lucky to look for a job. One night he was at the Empire Theater, a perfect stranger approached him and said: "Excuse me, but are you at the theater? I'd like to be." I told him to give you a letter now. He told the theater guild. Thank you. he said that was in 1929 the man was Maurice at the time and he was one of the patrons of the theater guild and do you know who he was?

I just found out that he was Barbara Tuckman's father, she was the author of books like The Guns of August. and the proud tower I presented my credentials to the theater guild Maurice's letter where time worked like magic I met Terry Hilbun also Brin Maha Lawrence Langner Philip Muller they were doing a Sam Biermann play called meteor I like to read to get the answer who they were the Lunts' leads, yes I would, they gave me the script now, I might not have been able to keep myself apart, but I could get any part, I just had the ability, it could come out of nowhere, I could have it at any time , it didn't really matter.

Whether he read the script or not, he could rest his attention. I could laugh, I could cry. It was fast. It used to fascinate me. I didn't think about anything for days except leaning into something or seeing someone. I ate and exercised. I would sleep by the time I walked over and out of his car and I would be tight like a steel trap and I would go to the bathroom 45 times before I left and then I would have to check the office. To go to the bathroom before going in I always arrived very early and then I went in and read and was in a kind of coma of excitement.

I was never easy with people. I guess I was in an agony about whether I was making a good impression, but the concentration was total, it wasn't based on an intellectual conception of the role, oh, not at all, it was just based on the universal spark. I think it finds the perfect spark that the person sparked in the audience. Hit him when all that energy turned into a box, so to speak. and I couldn't go out so I just didn't go out I was always very aware of whether I was trapped a fluid take a hot cold bath relax how the engine runs the intellectual father of the study came as a framework but the spark of life was will the spark of life is this bark of life The great story of Laurette Taylor she was making that Glass Menagerie Laurette always seemed like Spencer Tracy to me the two Irish both with problems she seemed to be some kind of sketch be the inside of the pot the outside of the part just indicate dial the phone indicate anything the audience had in their immediate experience suggested let them understand and then move on effort that's easy hence a fuse illuminates the character one could never see the wheels turning it was always an event there was a frame that indicated that everything was magic Spencer playing the flute as he judged Timberlane lighting the cigarette with one hand bad day in Black Rock he didn't work much on the characterization sketch, those two will be my ideals that I had first seen Loretta in The Glass Menagerie in Chicago I was crossing the country with Terry Hillman Theater Guild flying to New York with one stop in Chicago Terry said to me Kate, would you like to stop and see Larette's Glass Menagerie?

Tennessee Williams Yes, I would. I replied. I have heard wonderful stories about Laurette. by George Cukor and she was not going to miss this opportunity to meet Miss Taylor. We went to the Blackstone Hotel, then to the theater and backstage before the play. The RET was early. She was sitting at her vanity without anything resembling a robe. thin, fine, blonde, reddish hair, pin curls, just putting on makeup, dipping into this, dipping into that, those eyes, blonde eyelashes, eyebrows so far apart, so open, transmitting a multitude of wild, touching and funny thoughts, mouths big and soft, without any kind of stripe on the clown, a vulnerable.

George Cukor once said about visiting old stars when they're getting their makeup done, that there they're surrounded by any number of empty jars and they dip their fingers in the jar and then rub their rosy cheeks and rub their cheeks together. red lips and they rub their eyelids violet blue a line here a line there a puff of dust the eyelashes turn black old memory and magic she let down her hair as if she was brushing it she showed it she was me spend both were as if they were baked potatoes fundamental basic nothing sophisticated somehow rough and all the time talking and funny and like a clown the top variety this was her life she could do it she knew how to do it in her bones the moment she arrived in that little room to the antigen some how many strokes here there is no agony of preparation like the method without constipation she and it happened they say they could show you tell you make you feel a bath make you look it was real life the daily Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday that they couldn't cope with, that's what separated them, she was talking about Julie Hayden who played the role of her daughter in The Glass Menagerie and how the curtain would rise when they were taking their vows, Julie and turned her back to the audience and L before.

Laurette I don't really blame Julie, let's face it, one would be inclined, but there is no red thought, that was the bunk, she said, don't do that, I dare you, I'll give you a push, I'll send you anyway to come back to The Big Ritz Story Point Julie Hayden had been struggling with her role several months later. I saw the play again in New York. Julie seemed much better to me. I told Lynette. Yes, she said she's having fun too. That's very important to have a good time, she continued. I remember when I did Peggy, My Heart for the second time in a five-year span that we premiered in Philadelphia, the critics went on about how brilliant she was and how remarkably she had grown into the role. and when I returned to New York to open the work there I told my husband Lima art is not pretty that they think I'm so cool he smiled and said yes not nice but I like the way you used to do it, I remember you I had such a great time Well, Laurette said that she was furious with him, that he didn't talk to her, and then she started to think and realized what a subtle and brilliant comment it was.

It became his key if he knew the expert work and the effort is exhausting for the audience this is true only if the work is comic or serious anyway I am in the red media in a state of great excitement the next day I played again I got work and then the same thing that always happens happened. At the theater I received another call, this Schubert, please come and read the main role and death is taking a vacation. Well, yes, I would come right away, dear. I thought, how about we mediate? We will try to choose the best.

They sent me the script. I read it. I was speechless. I thought it was a wonderful part. A romantic young woman who goes with death and the protagonist of it. Philip Neri, Dale and James Dale Lawrence. Tell the guild I had a better offer. I did it. I feel a little cheesy walking away from the months and the guild, but my character Grazie and death take a vacation. It seemed like a perfect offer to me. I couldn't resist her. We enter. In the trial from the beginning there seemed to be the same problems. I had to scream.

I used to go to theater town and scream. I never got that scream to work. We went to Washington, the National Theater opened a wave and I knew. Maude Adams and one roast a new girl looking for everyone like death, she said in a metallic voice and then we opened in Philadelphia again, a wave, a roast for me. I don't have the slightest suspicion that anything was dangerously wrong that Wednesday night in the production. The man returned after half an hour and said mr. Schubert is giving you the privilege of resigning from the cast. Oh yes, I see.

I responded holding on to my senses. Will you tell mr. Schubert that I have no intention of resigning from the cast, so if he wants to fire me, go ahead, fire me, close that door now and get out. I have to perform tonight. I had to tell you, okay, now before the show we said the opposite we would have to pay you an extra week's salary poor kid I said just go away good bye bye bye bye I called home I told dad another what had happened that was in the spring of 1930 It seems that I'm not getting anywhere that summer I went for two weeks to Europe with you, Miss Stoddard, then I went to the stock company: Alexander Kirkland and Howard Strickling to play whenever.

My friend Laura Harding went with me. We were both Frances Robinson. Delphine Falls. Laura seemed very sophisticated to me. Ludie was tough. she at work in New York and she came as often as she could, then she left her and the lady. bottle Kenneth McGowan and Joseph for Anna Reed were going to do their thing played by Ben Levy with Jane Cowell and Leon Quartermaine Pop Huntley jr. and Noel Coward's friend Joyce Carey, Clifford Brook, directing, had already made Twelfth Night in mrs. The Battle will be the second play of a repertory season at the Maxine Elliot Theater on 39th Street.

The office exam knew I had been called. I went to see them and read to them. They seemed to like me and I signed for the whatever group. of English was a part in which I had many possibilities in those days they did not even think abouttoo many English actors and not too many accents available. I was going to get one hundred and twenty-five dollars and we went to rehearsal. My old rags to rehearsal like they do today, but then nothing was known and I wore no makeup, just bright red lipstick. Then, eleven, the author of the play thought that she was totally unattractive in terms of appearance, personality and talent, what does she do?

Do you wash your face where yellow kitchen soap every morning and then Levy was almost dry? She fancied me a sort of polished look. Jane Cowell took me aside and said she really liked her, but Ben Levy wasn't used to this kind of American stare. and would I mind if she put makeup on me to soften my appearance a little, which she assured me she liked it but he didn't, so she put makeup on me and it didn't help, so Levy still found me unattractive and they let me go clear I thought they were stupid and they drew the day well they did.

He was right and after a week they called me again. I said they would have to pay me 150 instead of 125 because it would hurt my dignity. He was traveling on pretty safe ground because he knew everyone liked him except Levy and they were running out of time and had tried every available girl in town. They gave me the 150. They were a little surprised by my Yankee trade. We open. I made a hit now that coward came to see the play I went up five floors to my dressing room I want to say that I was very good and to continue like this I was in the process of discovering the enormous generosity and enthusiasm of People in the theater often hear about of jealousy.

I have never met them. I think it is such an obvious field for jealousy that everyone who has any sense starts early in the fight against it. The season ended. I was. I have written Connecticut Lawrence Anholt Milton. Steple had a very good limited company, that's where I came back and that's where I really learned a lot. They gave me a job as a kind of half-lead. I played when they couldn't get someone well known. He had done very little. at that time in the theater but I was somewhat known in the neighborhood by dad and mom we played the man who came back we didn't captain the canary and then I played the lead role in a play called let's be gay that Francine Larry Moe had starred in that winter during this divergent summer the office called Philip Barry had written a play he called the animal kingdom Leslie Howard was going to star in it there were two main female roles his wife his lover Phil wanted me to play the lover Daisy Sage I I read the script, I was transported, it was a wonderful part, it was actually Howard's two separate lives, so the two segments were rehearsed separately.

The work was going to become a versal in about four months, of course, I hate, oh yes, I would wait and I agreed. He was on terms with Miller's office, but he hadn't actually signed the contract. Larry and I went to Europe that year. Time passed quickly. This absolutely made me a star. The rehearsal began around November 1931. I was dressed as neatly as possible in high heels. This was my first mistake. He made me allow it to Leslie Howard. From the beginning I felt that there was something unpleasant about me to Mr. Howard, I try very hard to be subservient, sweet and feminine, anything that can overpower my too vivid personality.

I struggled, nothing worked. I remember a horrible moment when I said what would you like me to do here, sir. Howard and he replied: It must have happened. I couldn't have invented it. I really don't give a damn what you do, dear. The next day we would rehearse on our set somewhere across town west of 8th. I asked Walter Abel, the man who was my friend on the play, if I could take him. We arrived at the location and found out that they had decided to rehearse. the wife scenes, so we were dismissed for the day.

I told Walter I would take him home in our Uptown 8th Avenue I told him how terribly excited I was to have this opportunity that I felt would really help me move forward and then I felt like he had written this part for me. Oh he said no, nothing matters that much in this business in all the big part, but there will be others for you oh no no no for me I said this is it I left it and as I drove to the garage a kind of feeling came to me if I was trying to say something why don't we rehearse I was there something oh no I went home when I walked through the apartment door my phone was ringing it was my brother dick and Hovind started telling me about the big party they had for my opening in Boston feeling no I didn't say bad luck, don't plan anything and at that very moment someone knocked on the apartment door, telegram for you, Miss Hepburn said, Mr.

Price, the girl says, just put it under the door, please, mr. . Bryce I concluded my conversation with Dick, casually opened the cable which was from Gilbert Miller and read in accordance with clause c1 of his contract. You are hereby notified of the termination thereof. Heavens fired. I had waited months for that part and it was. perfect for me, well there must be some mistake. I'll call Phil Barry after endless attempts. I got it. I got fired. I told Phil yes, sir, no. He responded, but why should they fire me? Well, to be brutally frank, you were.

Not very well oh yes, I see, thank you, bye, I hung up, it was a desperate moment. They fired me because I wasn't good. That was good, wasn't it? Leigh, what's wrong? It hadn't been fresh. Just shut up, of course, I felt like it wasn't like that, I mean, it was too big or too small, it was something he didn't like and he didn't have any money or a dime. He had waited for me to answer that part and everyone would. Do you know what can be said? Well, you just have to say that I was fired.

Oh, that was a blow. It stopped me dead. I felt so unwanted. I wondered if it was because of me that it didn't work. I was fired again and very. bad cast get busy get busy get busy the phone rang I'd like to play with Laura Taylor in Alice sit by the fire what they didn't have to ask me twice on the night of the first day of rehearsal I got a call from a man named Harry Moses for the Broadway production of the war her husband I read the script it was a wonderful role for me yes yes I would give up Alice sitting by the fire if I got that role I got it the Warriors' husband was originally a one-act play written by Julian Thompson it was a Greek fable about love between anti-b and thisis Hope Williams had played the lead role completely.

I hope Williams is a real product of New York's 400 easy distinction in integrity of charming New York accent pendants. very good appearance a slim figure a boyish haircut and a walk his walk was an arm movement he was elegant and was original hope obviously had a tremendous influence on my career vocally in terms of walking I incorporated a lot of hope into my supposed personality I was in the air really that boy woman my arrival to the big city was timely hope had vanished that summer when he returned Arthur Hopkins had found a wonderful new play for her so I have hope warrior husband we opened cold at the Marasco Theater in New York my whole family came, this time they didn't take any risks.

It had an entrance via a narrow staircase that crossed the backdrop, it had about 20 steps and was steep, then it turned towards the audience about four steps ahead there were lights on. towards the back of the stage this staircase and it looked exciting I had a deer on my shoulder a tight tunic made of metal things beautiful silver leather shin guards showing that leg to great advantage in a silver shield and a tall silver helmet and a cape a large costume and I had a very safe step, so the fact that the stairs were only one and a half meters wide with a high, narrow step and no handrails did not bother me at all and I did not mind risking my life anyway of fame.

I went down the stairs three or four steps at a time I turned the corner I jumped for the last four steps across the deer on the ground I landed on one knee paying homage to Hippolyta my sister queen of the Amazons the audience of course burst into applause, Well, they could hardly do anything other than they asked, but I didn't realize it. He was filled with the joy of life and opportunity in a wild desire to be absolutely fascinating. At that point in my progress, I was sailing through the air anyway. by a ladder of a ladder there are no railings of God hell there is no ladder whatever it is no matter life joy youth and I was quite new and an advantage presented itself to me and I achieved a success the move I fought with I had made one for the first time and she was tall and black and stocky and very dominant, and I remember Dame Lily comes to mind, although I'm not sure, and she knew her job and she made $75 a week, and I gave that to her, that That's what he wanted, that's what he said.

She wanted it and that's what she got. I was getting 150. The show lasted about six months and they asked us to take a part. They reduced me to 75 dollars. She wasn't cut at that time, so she took the salary I received as a star. What is money? What is money? Everyone wanted to test me for films. Everyone loved me and some of the agents loved me. I was getting to the Warriors husband. I started to feel for the first time. I got a real actress. My dressing room was at stage level. a charming old theater, the Marasco, curiously, right next to the Bijou on 45th Street, across from Shubert Alley, where the large pond had played with my photographs outside.

The Boethius theaters have been abolished. I didn't date Greg, I deal with Larry, no, he was still alive. in that apartment at 146 East 39th Street it was a five-story brownstone, apartments in the front and back, it was charming, the house had a elevator shaft and you could send mail in the front, on the stairs, the food was Delicious, truly a wonderful way to live. I never got very close to anyone at the movies. I guess it was because it was good. He was a member of a large family and always tried to get enough sleep. It sounds strange nowadays when people say what he or she and I were like.

To answer, I honestly don't know, but there it is, it didn't look like Waria's husband was going to survive the next thing. David Selznick and George Cukor were looking for a girl to play Sidney Fairfield in the film. A divorce letter. Clements rotates an agent. in New York Miriam Howell, who worked for Lillian Hayward, the American game company came to see me. Would you take a test for the module? I told him I would like it very much. It was a wonderful role with John Barrymore. She showed me the test scene. I told him that I would prefer to use my own vacation material, which he understood.

They said it was fine. I asked Alan Campbell if he would try out with me. I said yes. Alan later married Dorothy Park. He was a good friend of mine and an actor for 7 years. Dude, she was lucky to have it right, and I was invented too by a man called Eddie Sins. It seems to me that I am covered in garbage. and I put on the makeup that I used in the theater I felt more like myself and I made my hair straight I acted like I never did in life I was determined that it was me for me I saw the tests a few days later I thought yes, that's not bad , that's not bad.

I saw them ten years later, they were heartbreaking, so desperately anxious, and I looked sailing with my own makeup and hair straight back, I thought they were transporting me without sad chalant, I was far from being notional, in fact one could become one. It was what I really was. I was a child desperate to be in the movies. I had a kind of truth behind my eyes. This test has disappeared. Oh, so I called Supreme. I told Mr. Salisbury that he had done a test. Well, how did he want me to make him one? He said yes.

Would he do it? New material from Juárez's husband. Well, I didn't and I wasn't very good. Poor material for a test. but I had kept my promise, George Cukor, to always direct the divorce from him as proof. I was offered the role after Warriors' Husband closed. I came downstate in Harmon to bring the 20th century to Chicago and the superboss to Los Angeles. to seek fortune Lara hoarding my friend decided that going would be fun and of course that was great for me then Lara was already on the train with the Junkin scroll old mine Lara had two dogs with her Jaime a Scottie and twig of Shelburne Terrier the first friend real one I had in New York was Laura Hawking she was studying voice 2 and hoped to have a career in the theater she and I saw each other a lot she knew all the kinds of intellectual customs of the time and I learned the way Vito packed his clothes where buy what to buy one time we were in Hollywood people were gossiping about Lara and I and I never knew we needed to have lunch at the restaurant thinking that as she walked into the restaurant there was a barber shop on the left there is a telephone one day Lara went in there to call me I was working on the set the person answering kept saying who is who is this and finally ours said oh tell her it's her husband the director mark sandwich he was getting a haircut when he heard this and was absolutely surprised.

She told him years later that she thought he must have been responsible for the strong rumor that we were lesbians. OfWe could admit that he was the genius and I was the lucky dog ​​when I got back to New York I called him to say hi, Ohio, he said he was about to call you, you have a play you might enjoy, I'll send it to you, what he sent was the Dorothy's lake, butchering him, my act, you thought. the play was really crooked I don't remember what I thought of it as a play it's a night at the theater I think I was just anxious to help Jed I hope they dare to say this I actually thought that if I did it I would give up so he can recover I thought that his position must be very embarrassing for him and now that I was important I felt that in addition to being everyone's little mother I could help him regain his true status.

How I could have been so stupid, I don't know, my relationship with Jed had been really curious. Rehearsals began at the Martin Beck 45th Street West, a big Broadway theater, we weren't worried about filling it, Tony Minor was directing, good man, I was there, doing my best with enthusiasm, which wasn't very reliable. He was in his twenties and had been exaggeratedly referred to as the new Doozer. Not there, although he knew all this adulation wasn't exactly deserved, but hey, he seemed to have done it. something exactly what it was, I wasn't sure and when it would happen, I certainly wasn't sure, I thought about the performance, I mean and, in fact, this had no parents.

I could make them laugh, I could make them cry, but the atmosphere had to be perfect, okay? in the movies, disaster on stage long after the first week of rehearsal, Jen fired Hellen Areas, who she barely knew, she sent me a message saying don't let Gen direct you, it will destroy your confidence, but I was young, It was unique. Oh, keep going. Someone thought, so I ignored her advice why she fired Tony Malina. I never knew. I guess he just wanted to direct it himself. Tony had given me confidence. The other actors gave me confidence. They were kind to me.

Of course, now I know they should. I've been beginning to suspect what awaited them from the beginning. Jedd seemed ready to destroy my only asset, my trust, or he just didn't like what he could do if he turned left. He said he would turn right if he turned. a gesture with one hand said do it with the other I sat down he said booth was falling apart we opened in Washington I was terrified little by little my confidence had abandoned me and confidence was all I had in perfect circumstances and conditions I could fulfill all the type of laughter and crying, but forcing myself to concentrate in a state of terror was still out of my reach at the sold-out National Theater in Washington, DC.

I really walked around in a daze during the play some things. He had a few, but mostly the best ones. In fact, I could feel the audience's attention in scenes like the tide. I went through the motions. There was no heart in anything. There was no joy. Jed came back to my dressing room, stood at the door and said: perfection. He couldn't do more, no more, I asked if he didn't understand what he was talking about, no more rehearsals, he said we open in New York next week. I was stunned. Well, couldn't we keep him out of the bidding until I know what the hell?

I didn't do it then and he left the next morning. The reviews came in and they told me they weren't bad at all. Now I don't read reviews. I just don't see the sense. It's too late to help. We are the other, but of course, the general feels good, bad, great in this case. I thought the critics were just being nice or maybe they were reluctant to demolish the new Wonder Girl. My own judgment told me that I simply had not complied and I said. About talking to myself about the disaster I got worse and worse and the tickets to New York were selling like hotcakes we went back to New York I kept expecting to drop dead but I didn't we weren't rehearsing at all at all now I could be the dead one he felt the need of directing too much and that he was letting me find my way back, but at that moment back to where the trail had grown, I was lost inevitably they arrived at the dress rehearsal on opening night fortunately I was tough Mike, you came.

I walked and walked throughout the opening night it was perfectly horrible I was like an automaton my voice was getting louder and louder I prayed I prayed I prayed to myself useless I went on and on and on and on I hadn't died I was there, I was fully aware of having given a totally zero performance, my family was there, of course, our front. Noel Coward was sitting right behind my assistant, Peg, a beautiful young woman and was overheard saying that Kate's sister looks like Kate should. I've done it, but I didn't know, this time he came backstage, he said yeah, you screwed it up until you screwed it up, but that happens to all of us, you'll get roasted, keep it up, you'll find a way, and actually I got roasted. and I became the irresistible package of all the wits of New York Dorothy Parker summed it up go to the martin beck and c KH ran the gamut of a notion from A to B the box office fell at a rate of $1,200 a week that we had We had a very substantial advance for about ten weeks and began to think that, although we had lasted that long, no one with any common sense was doing well.

Tickets that had been sold could not be returned. The production that had not been expensive. The reward of my main task now was to see if I could learn to act under fire and learn to be a star. I hadn't been either. I had lost my temper if I had complained. He had not passed the exam. I didn't deliver the goods and let everyone know that I was absolutely miserable and terrified. Breslin goes through life, you learn that if you don't paddle your own canoe you won't move after the shock of the opening, we adjust to the gradual People died out of curiosity or whatever, in decreasing numbers.

I, very, very slowly, was trying to pick up the pieces. At least he had the brains to know who was really at the bottom of the failure. I, Jed, certainly didn't do his best work. but my contribution had been a shame one night a woman came back to my dressing room very tall she was very fat I'm Susan Steele she said I'm the singer I think I could help you I looked at her well I said it you could help me I certainly need help when do we start now? she said we came back to my house we talked about vocal problems the next day we worked on the scenes that seemed to be causing me the most problems and voice ever voice and joy you shouldn't be a victim that night and every night she came to the play little by little I I got off that cliff of terror and I started to be able to take myself in my hands and little by little my confidence came back it was exciting and it was exciting what you couldn't do what we can do with ourselves if we really try my dignity came back I stopped making excuses and I would be and I would try to look at myself as the leader of a group not as a mistreated group I was learning to act I was learning to act, I was learning to be a star About the third week, Joe Glick, the manager of our company, came to me dressing room and said that Jed is taking the play to Chicago, oh my God, they don't like it, they certainly don't like it.

Like me, but they didn't like Jed's work either and we've been worth it, why Joe clearly looked me in the eye, shrugged about the money, I worried about it for about a week and then one night around from 3:00 a.m. m., I called you at his house I hadn't seen Jed's hair since opening night Jed I said, I understand you're planning on sending us on the road in Chicago, yes, he said, but I don't know why they roasted me, but let's be Realists, why are you too? send it - he interrupted me dear the only interest I have new is the money I can earn from you speaking clearly I thought how much I asked you how much you have he told me I looked in my bank book that I kept on the shelf next to my bed I have thirteen thousand six hundred and seventy and five dollars and seventy-five cents in the chase National Bank I'll take that he said I'll send you a check in the morning I said and that was I sent him the check and when the receipts dwindled to a non-profit point, we closed several years later, Jed He went to Hollywood and asked Myron Selznick to help him get a job.

Myron said you asked the wrong person. I'm Cates' agent. Kate happens. agent, she doesn't like you, why did I say Jed, why doesn't she like me, you took all her money to close the lake, well, uh, I didn't know she was upset about that, Jen said, Myron said to himself, I'll send her. she a check Jen said so I got the check but I never cashed it I tore it up sad money I had learned a lot I hoped next time I would know I was terrified that the hand on the helm would be as steady as a rock even if the boat was sinking, the captain goes down with the ship, but he doesn't shout about it, he just does his best, that's all.

George Cukor was really my best friend in California. He came to Hollywood just a few years after him. We made many films together. Divorce certificate. Little women. Sylvia calls it a vacation. Philadelphia. The keeper of the flame. Adam's rib. Patten Mike Corliss. Green love among the ruins. Always happy. Always happy. You must have had the same scenario. We both supported the business we love to work in and admired each other. His career was extraordinary and yet he is rarely ranked among the so-called great directors. John Huston George Stevens Ford Willie Why love Billy Wilder Hitchcock? I think I finally figured it out.

Find out why he was primarily a director of actors. He was mainly interested in making the actor shine. He saw the story through the eyes of the main actors. George also loved to entertain her. I love being his guest from the beginning. He bought a modest house. The two-story house on Codell Drive in the hills of Sunset George was a success and his house grew and grew and grew first the property from a several acre lot then the house the old dining room lost its head it grew about ten feet it was dark and in a way it disappeared completely thanks to the candles, you could hardly see it, we all look delicious, the porcelain, the linen, the silver, the crystal, oh, I beg your pardon, I mean Christel, shining so exquisite, a delight.

George himself chose it for any occasion. he left all these treasures represented the dream of him a dream of a child who once dreamed that the flowers in the center of the table were always too high and I would sneak in before dinner and cut them if possible so that we could see each other. I usually sat at the wrong end of the table, which is where I became friends with Irene Selznick. She liked him. She was a trusted person of George. The food was excellent. The company. The best. I was there at dinner. Once a dessert arrived, a beautiful cake arrived.

Judy Garland stood silently and in turn huffed and hawed, as she sang Happy Birthday, Dear Ethel, it was Ethel Barrymore's 70th birthday, we were all drenched in joy and sentiment, and whatever it was, it was romantic, all the glitter and that Selznick Brice Judy. Spencer Peck carried an atmosphere of a poem oh well, it was all fun and partial, it was nice and charming and exciting, and the conversation coincided. After enjoying life, thank you George Cukor dear friend, it was lovely, no smog and you are thinking no. Don't take pills just the energy to make your dreams come true.

I have to tell you now what happened during the filming of the movie Sylvia Scarlett. We would film this picture with George Cukor directing Cary Grant, a leading man, with my father Edmund when I filmed a lot I'll be on my way a speech in California Georgia didn't usually alternate having great picnic lunches sent from home one day a plane flew over circles and circles and then landed on a dime in the field next To close, who could it be? I thought Cary Grant came in, that's my friend Howard Hughes. I was a little surprised because I had heard a rumor that Hughes would like to meet me and apparently that was how he had found out.

I gave Kerry a very black look and everyone had lunch and I never looked at Howard what the nerve the next step was playing golf for the professional at the Bel-air Country Club we were in the seventh about to finish and I know lesson the noise of an airplane Howard landed practically on top of us, he took his clubs out of the plane and finished the nine with us. He had to bring a truck and practically dismantle the plane to get it off the field. I must say it gave me pause. I thought he had a lot of courage and was very insistent.

The club was furious. Howard Hughes was nothing. It didn't hit the next time, about two months later, I saw in the paper that Howard was in Boston at the same time I was playing Jane. Eyre in Boston a play of hers in Jerome I was staying at the Ritz Hotel we were playing at the colonial theater Howard moved to the same hotel well, I guess I must have been lonely because Howe and I had dinner together after the performance that The first night, thus proving that perseverance pays off, we had dinner the next night too, so how does he get better, he was a curious guy, he had guts and he was a really good man, but he was deaf, he was very seriously dead and apparently unable to say, please talk.

I'm deaf, so I was with more than one person. Well, he was likely to miss most of the conversation. This was tragic, butI was absolutely incapable of changing. I think this weakness went a long way toward ruining Howard's life and turning him into a hot mess. he followed his son in everything we played in Chicago I stayed at the Ambassador Hotel Howard took a suite there too yes, same floor yes, oh yes, you're right, of course, inevitable, the papers started putting us in the headlines Houston, It happens that we are getting married today. I couldn't move from that city without being followed.

Howard followed the Cleveland Scavo toy tour. He conducted his life on the phone, as there he could hear that the tour was finally over. We returned to California and moved into his house, which was supported by Country's will. The club golf course was fun because we could just jump over the fence and play golf. We had a very pleasant life. From time to time I went east to see my family. I remember one time I said goodbye to Howard and went to the airport. I was sitting on the plane ready. to leave the luggage on board and a man in uniform approached me and said hmm mr.

Hughes says don't go, the weather is bad. He makes me ashamed. I got off the plane sending the rest of the passengers to their doom, of course, but of course, everyone was fine. Nothing happened, but it was a very peculiar experience. I used to fly everywhere. with Howard all over the country here there Howard taught me how to fly I took off once under the 59th Street Bridge in New York City one time at Fenway we flew to Newport to watch the boat races I smell smoke I said well what the hell do you think I am?

I've been sniffing here we flew back to New London we put out the fire well it was certainly always exciting my family wasn't very understanding Howard first of all he was on the phone all the time and the phone was in the dining room and we were a big family and always We had visitors, the long phone conversations just didn't suit the environment and he was always there too, especially on the golf course, and he was always present with his movie camera and Howard couldn't stand this, they objected that Dad made Howard's famous comment Ludie has been taking pictures of all of us for many years before you joined us and will do so long after you are gone, he is part of this family, go ahead and how Howard Drive you need a 7 iron Howard in a la fury drove he landed two meters from the flag he was a good golfer and hit a bad two in a hurry he was great during this period my career took a nosedive that's when the box office poison label started appearing as independent The theater owners They were trying to get rid of Marlena Dietrich, Joan Crawford and me, especially me.

It seems like they were forced to take pictures of us if they got a few they really wanted. In fact, I felt sorry for them. He had made a series of his adults. films Sylvia Scarlet the woman repels the quality Street Break of Hearts and the good side that Alice Adams had done with Fred MacMurray stage door with Ginger Rogers raising the baby on vacation both with Cary Grant these last four were very good films but apparently I had became someone the independents shunned because of the previous four boring films. I decided it would be better to go back East and do a play or something important.

They had sent me a script for which they offered me a salary of ten thousand dollars, which was a reduction of one hundred and fifty thousand. dollars I called the mat thank you very much I told him it was the only offer I had had and the time I'm sorry but I didn't like the script Howard was very upset with this he was really anxious for me to do a movie. He thought it would be a terrible mistake. He was very aware of what he thought people said about him. and I were indeed an odd couple, I think reluctantly he found me a very suitable partner and I think I found him extremely suitable: he was the best of the available men and I was the best of the available women, we were a couple colorful.

It seemed logical that we would be together, but now it seems to me that we were too similar. He came from the right street, so to speak, and so did I. We had been raised comfortably and each had a wild desire to be famous. I think this was a domineering carrot fail. People who want to be famous are really lonely or they should be. I felt like I was madly in love with him and I think he felt the same way about me, but when the time came. What are we doing now? I went to the East and he stayed in the West.

It was late 1937, early 38. We had been together for about three years. Ambition defeated love or it was like again. When I look back, I have to realize that I took what I considered a good business step and did not let my personal life dominate my actions. I didn't want to bury Howard. I wasn't in the business of capturing anyone in a marriage. I liked the idea of ​​being myself, single, even when I was living with Spencer Tracy and he and I were together for 27 years, we never really thought or talked about marriage, he was married and I wasn't interested.

I went to Fenwick which was in full bloom in June, the weather was heavenly, golf, tennis, swimming, sailing. available, the family was there, everyone was there and it was fun, people weren't really aware of my peculiar situation in the business, so Danson and Hilton were never talked about, no cash was coming in, but he had thought that a career in film and theater. It was a very risky occupation and this sudden pause did not surprise him. One day the phone rang and it was Phil Barry's article in Maine. I have an idea. Kate said. I have an idea.

I want to talk to you. Good. It went down every time it came people came up to T and finally Phil said look, can't we go somewhere? I want to talk to you alone. She came out to the dock and we sat down and Phil said he had two plots, one. about a father and a daughter and the second Philadelphia story, well, that Philadelphia story I thought sounded better to me. Phil left and within weeks he sent me a draft of the first act. I read it. I got excited. I called Howard. I told him. He had a new and exciting project.

Howard said for the film rights before we opened and he bought the film rights to Philadelphia Story for me, which ensured my success the next day. God sent the hurricane of 1938. The house in Fenric completely disappeared. Howard had a pilot flying with bottled water and I knew that Howard had made me friends and not lovers love had become water pure water but water Louie day mayor and I were friends he was the boss of Metro Goldwyn Mayer I liked him he liked me I sold him a good number of properties he gave me a lot of freedom I gave him a lot of respect it must be that he had a sense of romance about the film business and the studio system I must say I did too it was a glorious time to be in the business , my beginnings with Mayer began as I already told you, when my career was apparently coming to an end and they offered me a reduction of around one hundred and fifty percent in my salary.

I rented the script from Paramount. I rejected it and then returned to the East. Phil Barry revealed the history of Philadelphia. Howard bought the rights to the movie from me. Nobody knew for nine months. All the obvious women in the business wanted to buy it from him. I told Harold Friedman, the literary man. Do not tell anybody. Don't tell that to anyone. I admit, he was one of the few men in the world who could keep the trap shut. Finally people started to realize that I had some kind of control over her. One night I met Mayer, Norma Sharrows was with him and he said, "I'd like to talk to you, I said well, he said, can I come see you?

I said no, sir. Mayor, I'll come see you, so I went to the office and he told me that he would like to buy Philadelphia Story. He said, do you want to do it? I said yes, I do, he said, well, we would like to have you. Do it, he spoke to me so cleverly that he spoke to a person in one way and then he was talking to someone else in a different way, saying things that I would really love, then he asked me what I wanted in return and I told him I wouldn't make any profit.

I told him what I'm interested in is who I play it with because people say I'm ready at the box office so I want it to have a cast and he said who do you want and I said sorry Tracy and Gable said I don't think I'll do it I said I figured they probably wouldn't but he asked them he said yes I'll ask them what did it and they said they wouldn't do it so he said Miss Ellen I can give you Jimmy Stewart because we have control over him and then he added: I'll give you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to get anyone else you want or can get.

You can appoint the director. I said I'd like George Cukor to direct it. He said he was fine, then we got Cary Grant for the hundred and fifty thousand dollars for three weeks of work. He said he wanted to bill me first. I told him it was fine, easy. He gave his salaries to the Red Cross. He said he could pick the pieces and Jimmy. Stewart would play the other role, by the way, Jimmy won the Academy Award, so the mayor and I continued the story together. We had some kind of agreement where I usually took things to the mayor first and brought them a lot of material, he always managed to deal with Mayer.

I always said I like working for Metro because they know how to get you around Chicago. That was the truth. They took care of your life throughout the entire process with the class. They paid less money but they didn't force him to do something you didn't do. I want to do maybe I had never tried to use for so say I will take your money, they didn't force their people, it was a paternalistic organization in the best and worst sense of the word. I think Mayor Goldwyn resolved the romantic awkwardness of him as Wallace. I was a romantic for all those early ones and I think they were brilliant businessmen, but they were chasing a dream that they could hear if they could grasp it, they could see the beauty and they were fascinated by it, it's the fairy tale, isn't it in this business?

Hell, we've been in fairy tales for years, right? Aren't we throwing all that away if you don't imagine them? Your parents, your brother, your sister, your friends, the person you love, if you can't imagine them if you only see them. them four letter word total reality so help you God you have to dream everything I believe in miracles I believe that here we are and we can have serious physical problems, but if our spirits are not in serious physical problems, then it can arise from that that is what that we have that all animals really don't have I think the mayor said he was wild he was a romantic he believed when I tested for the movies it was immediately warm experienced exciting not scary why this is I don't know I just find this medium sympathetic and friendly, it must be that there is no audience, there are no critics in the immediate situation and the camera never responds to you, it was fun.

I made 43 movies when I left Hollywood. I hoped he would. I remember well most of the images and the people that appear in them, the fact is that I don't know why you remember certain things as curious, usually there is a story or something special that brings them to mind, so here are some of the things i find to remember 1937 raising baby howard hawks director cary grant charlie ruggles may robson and the leopard this script was good cary grant was really wonderful and he was so funny in this movie he was better and at this point his boiling energy was on its peak at its peak, we laughed from morning until night.

Hawkes was funny too. He usually worked late. Carrie and I were always there early. Everyone contributed. They contributed anything and everything they could think of to that script. Carrie always refused to work, but the leopard penis didn't. I didn't give that lever to the law. She didn't have enough brains to be afraid, so I did a lot of things with the leopard wandering around. Olga Celeste, the trainer had a big whip and we were inside a cage. August Celeste and me and the leopard, no one else, the camera and sound were captured through holes in the fence, the first scene I had was in a floor-length robe walking, I was talking like crazy on the phone, I had a cable long, the leopard kept pushing me on my thigh, which had been comforted with perfume, the scene was very satisfying, then I put on a knee-length dress with tabs at the bottom of the skirt that covered small pieces of metal to make the skirt would swing pretty well, it moves well, but what and one lunge but one quick turn and that leopard jumped at my back and August and they brought the whip down right on his head and that was the end of my freedom with the leopard.

The idea for one of the year was Garson Kanin and his brother Mike Keenan and Ring Lardner Jr. Garson showed me a 78-page outline and I called Joe Mankiewicz in California, who deduced the Philadelphia story at MGM. Would you mind reading it? It was suspenseful for Tracy and me and would be directed by George Stevens. Joe said he had read it. He called me and read it and liked it and said the studio would be interested. I told him I was coming to California. I always thought Spencer Tracy was a wonderful actor, but when Garson said he wasn't. t Spencer Tracy will be great like the man in the movie Garson said I replied oh I don't know I wonder if we are very good together we are sodifferent now Garson also said that when he suggested the same thing to Spencer Tracy that he had a script that would be wonderful for Spencer Tracy and Katherine - Spencer said "oh, really, really, do you think we'd be good together, we were so different, of course, "I don't remember this at all, I just remember how perfect it was." I thought Spence would be like anyone and how wonderful we would be together and I guess I don't know, maybe God is right and I'm so blinded by years of whatever you want to call it that my memory is unreliable.

Another report on Spencer. Tracy supposedly said how she could take a photo with a woman who has dirt under her fingernails and who has ambiguous sexuality and always wears her pants right after seeing the Philadelphia story and changed her mind, true or false, who knows one day in 1950. Sam Spiegel sent me to the African Queen by sea as a Forester. I read it. What a story. She moved me. We mean John Huston and I. Sam Spiegel we had just bought the book. At first they weren't sure who they were going to get for the man. I felt like he should be a real cockney, but when they started thinking about bogey there was no one who could compete with him and his personality or appearance had him like the Canadian.

Can you imagine anyone else having that thought? John Huston was an incredible character. I had flashes and those flashes were bright when she told me to base my character of Rosy on the African Queen on Eleanor Roosevelt when she visited the hospitals of wounded soldiers always with a smile on her face she said she felt like I was playing Rosie too. seriously and since my mouth turned downward anyway it was making the scenes heavy since I, like Rosie, was a minister's sister, my approach to everyone and everything had to be full of hope, I hope that a smile was not lead, in fact it was a flash.

Brilliance in short, he had told me exactly how to play the role. I kept asking for a strip, but none appeared. John flew to Africa with Peter Vidal, who was helping him with the script. I felt a presentiment. Mogi Wood worked with John Huston before, he said "no." Don't worry, don't worry, this is the way he does it, but wow, I said, you see, he said bogey, it's worth it, so I went ahead with bogey and he won the prize and people still go in droves, what Could you ask for more in summer? It was a picture taken from the cuckoo era, a play by Arthur Lawrence.

They called me and told me that David Lean was going to direct it. If I was going to be in it, you didn't need to finish that sentence. I would certainly be interested in anything David Lean did. I was going to direct like that. I said yes and of course it was going to be done in Venice and Constance Collier my friend and Phyllis will burn their secretary let's go with me and I found an apartment on the grand canal almost opposite the sandy beautifully furnished two floors three bedrooms three bathrooms we have our own gondola was perfection David lived at the Griffey was busy working on the script scrapped everything but the main plot of a desperately lonely secretary who finally discovered that Rossano Brazzi was having a lovely affair with him and then we left him to return to the States the story was told with great simplicity in the streets of Piazza San Marco we were filming in tiny streets only a few meters wide the sun came and went in a matter of minutes Seconds, it was a very emotional part and I tell you that I had to be alert to give David enough of what he wanted, practically unengaging, although it was exciting and the music he chose was perfect, it was fascinating to work for David Lean, it was very basic, it was simple, it was true, we told a story, it's a fragment of life, you understand it in all its details, he photographed what he saw in his mind, it was the most extraordinary gift, it seemed to me, simply absorbing Venice, it was his, he had. a true photographic gift, he thought descriptively, the shots of him tell the story, he was capable of a kind of super concentration, he made a very definitive impression on me and was one of the most interesting directors I worked with. exactly the performance he wanted from each actor to fit what he had in his mind, therefore his images are all of one piece, he painted a picture and it was his, the script for our Golden Pond was a play script theatrical. to Wilmington Delaware to see it with Noah Wellman that director of several plays I did was performed by two people who were about 50 years old they were very busy being old and a little weak it was a good play at the same time I was Trying to prepare it as a movie, Jane Fonda also found it and thought it would be a perfect setting for her father Henry Fonda and for her as a daughter and for me as a mother.

I agreed, so she fixed it. Marc Riedel would be the Squam director. Lake New Hampshire, Hank's location in a mede house, me in the mead house, which belonged to mother and the mead house in the woods was our movie theater and being on the lake, in the water , I could swim every day, which I did in the morning. and at night, curious thing, when I was a child, they threw me into a cold bathtub every morning and I still swim in the winter, the summer doesn't matter and Fenwick crossed a snowy bottom with my poor feet for him, but I go in, I dive.

I swim a stroke and then I run anyway it was a great setup and it was also a lot of fun to do Jane and Hank were busy solving a pretty complicated father/daughter relationship and this was going to be the solution an ambitious father an ambitious daughter and they find their solution With me, an ambitious friend, we all had a great time at the house. I lived in what is in the most stunning location and I would often watch Henry Fonda take his nightly stroll around the base of my property and I would wonder what is he thinking about that?

I never saw him in a bathing suit, I never saw him in a bathing suit, always walking solemnly fully dressed, without rushing, going slowly thousands of miles away, he was not Arnie, he was a good painter. I never felt like I... I knew the tour, I didn't talk much and well, neither was the art at Golden Pond. It was a very good study of the relationship between husband and wife. Well, we just really like each other, Hank and I. I'm the right age we were old so we weren't busy acting old man meets one unexpectedly suddenly you well, you will lose your spring your spring in the sense of elasticity now old man you don't jump off a chair you get up it's a very different act.

Henry had lost a little more spring than I had when we were making the movie and we slipped very easily into our relationship. It was wonderful to play with him, very true, very natural, he touched me deeply in that scene when I was starting. falling apart really wasn't acting at all her daughter was very good with Jane and now I enjoyed our scenes together and at one point in the movie Jane had to do a backflip into the water from the diving board and I tortured her by saying listen, yeah You can't do it there, I'll do it for you, it's one of my specialties, you can be sure she did it herself now.

I'm going to tell you about Spencer, you might think you've waited too long, but come on. Face it, I was 33 too Spencer Tracy is a star of real quantity, he is a star actor, here is a star of the people, his quality is clear, he is direct, he asks a question, he gets an answer, without pause, without fantasy, thinking , a simple answer, speak, listen, is. It is not worthy It is not too emotional It is simple and totally honest It makes you believe what it says Take Captains Brave the Portuguese fishermen This performance is for me one of the most devastating of his career I wondered what he should do to make him stand firm As a convincing character and accent, what should I do?

Finally, he got the studio to call a real Portuguese fisherman so he could question him about this and that. Well, since it means I have to sing a song about little fishes while I sit up at night singing. to the sea and I've been wondering about this guy's accent. Take for example, the F word is age, how would you pronounce it? The fish sent a man. F is age. Well, that's a fish, isn't it, mr. Tracy, yeah, well, from the vent you wouldn't say fish, what no, no, I mean, fish is fish, I'm safe, no SSH, mr.

Tracy it was a desperate conversation Spencer ended up calling him fish seemed to fit the moment dark curly hair and fish then I saw a fury the transposition of a good man into a monster that he became a fury locked in the body of a perfectly ordinary man , a body that was suddenly too small to contain, seemed to use his body as a container, a kind of box filled with the old series of human emotions, his performance and abstraction, a manifestation of character, is so remarkable that it is so total as birth or death and needs no outer clothing, no accent, no makeup, the outer was not applied;

In other words, he automatically became the mirror of the passions that swirled within him, so for us the audience, his face would really be hindered by any makeup or answered comments. Spencer's face was his canvas and he painted it from the inside out with magic. One of the most fascinating examples of this unique quality was seen in Checkland Hard. Spencer's biggest and only real failure. -goldwyn-mayer decided to do the movie Spencer got involved, they convinced him to put on a lot of makeup to hide a wig, false teeth, all the usual fixings, this was out of character Tracy, he felt like an idiot, he was so embarrassed for all this paraphernalia he used. not driving in the limo with the blinds closed, the movie was one of the few where Spence got bad news, naturally it's very embarrassing when you make a big movie with the famous part and he failed in the famous part when I met Spence .

The topic was on his mind since he didn't know it. I was careful to see him in every photo he had taken and that included dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde, very interesting. I told him no, no, I don't know, nothing was rotten. I just can't do that kind of thing. He said it's like building a doll and then trying to bring it to life. I like to be the doll and then. They force people to believe that I am what I want them to believe from the inside out instead of the outside without makeup. Well, it was too late, but believe it or not, when they first mentioned Jekyll and Hyde, I was excited to have been it forever.

I was fascinated by his story and saw it as a story of two sides of one man. I felt that Jekyll was a very respectable doctor, a good member of society. He would propose to a lovely girl who was about to marry her. So there was another side to the story. The man, from time to time, the inspector would go on a trip and, whether it was because of drink or drugs or who knows, he would become or should I say he would become the lord. Hyde would later, in a town or neighborhood where he was totally unknown, perform incredible acts of cruelty and vulgarity, Jekyll's emotional side was obviously extremely disturbed, the girl since his fiancée is a proper lady, but like his horror fantasy, the girl coincided with her master.

Hyde, she would be capable of the lowest behavior, the two girls would have to be played by the same actress and the two men would be me, interestingly when he had this notion, I was the girl he had in mind at the time, we never met we met, I was wondering. why had he come up with this notion for Jekyll and Hyde that notion I couldn't get it out of my mind there was some very personal connotation the complication of our nature certainly seemed to be infinite a dose of this a dose of that commotion up and out we became the most of us all tied to ourselves the actor has an advantage here the actor can escape creation the perfect actor in my opinion Spencer Tracy could follow his own steps and change before your very eyes without utensils with magic and the electricity of his thoughts He became someone else He made you laugh He terrified you He made you cry He convinced you that he was the man outside of himself But that left him alone Isn't that who he was?

I never really knew. He had closed the door to the inner room. I have no idea if he even had the key himself. I just suspected that inside that room there was a powerful engine running 24 hours a day at full speed and it turned out that there were some notable people, yes, all of those. Different people someone asked me when I fell in love with Spencer. Well, I can remember it was immediately. He should think immediately. We started our first movie together and I knew it in a way that I thought was irresistible. It seems exactly that irresistible to me.

I discovered. With Spencer, what I love you really means is that I put you, your interests, and your comfort above my own interest and my own comfort, because I love you. There's a huge difference between love and, as we normally use the word love, when we really mean, I think very few people ever want to say love. Love has nothing to do with what you hope to get, it only has to do with what you expected to give, which is all you will receive in return, it varies, but it really has no connection with what you give, you give because you love and not you can avoid giving, if you are very lucky, they may love you.

This is delicious, but it doesn't necessarily happen. It really involves total and total devotionIt encompasses all that good of yours. The bad thing about you, I am aware that I must include the bad. I love Spencer Tracy. He, his interests and his demands came first. This wasn't easy for me because he was definitely a mimimi person. It was a unique feeling he had for Spencer. I would have done anything for him, anything, my feelings, how can you describe them? The door between us was always open, there were no reservations of any kind, he didn't like this or that I changed this and that could be qualities that I personally valued it didn't matter I changed them food network what he liked we did what he liked we lived a life that he liked this gave me great pleasure the idea that he liked this I certainly hadn't felt that way about myself on the boat was I was waiting for him to please me.

What was it about Spencer that fascinated me? It is not a difficult question to answer. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He was Irish to the tips of his fingers. He could laugh and he could create laughter. He had a fun character. way of looking at things some things I should say people have asked me what made Spence stay with him for almost 30 years and this is somehow good, it's impossible for me to answer. Honestly I don't know I can only say I could never have left him he was there I was his I wanted him to be happy safe comfortable I like to wait how he would like to listen to him I can feed him talk to him work for him I tried not to bother him irritate him bother him worry him bother him when he was at end of his life his last six or seven years I practically left work just to be there so he wouldn't worry or feel alone.

I was happy to do this. I painted our path I was at peace and I hoped they lived forever what it was I found it totally totally totally I really liked him deep down and I wanted him to be happy I don't think he was very happy I don't think so it means he did or said something to indicate he was okay what is happy I have a happy nature I like the rain I like the sun I like the heat the cold the mountains the sea the flowers I like life and I have been so lucky, why shouldn't I be happy?

Spencer didn't like the cold, there's too much heat in life, well he liked comfort, I think that state said he was a great actor, simple, he could just do it, never over the top, just perfection, someone asked me why . I said Spencer Chase was like a baked potato. I think it's because I think he was very basic as an actor. He was there in the performance of it. He was cooked and ready to eat. The only person he can be compared to is. Lauren Taylor I must now add that the description of the baked potato only refers to the incredible perfection of their performances in their lives, well Spencer was as far from a baked potato as possible, he was as complicated as a human being could be, Right?

It didn't protect. himself, I think most of us have a kind of self-protective shell that we can hide behind even when we act, whatever the circumstance we can protect ourselves. Spencer couldn't, he couldn't, he didn't have any shell, maybe that's why at his most vulnerable age he liked to drink and he drank too much sometimes he had a strong character he could stop and then sometimes he didn't drink for a long time here two three four and then but he stopped and finally he didn't. Don't do it anymore, he didn't allow himself to get into situations that tormented him Spencer, now I took nine photos together woman, is he, yes, guardian of the loveless flame, sea of ​​grass?

State of the Union Adam's rib, Patten Mike, death, guess who he is. coming to dinner was never worse at home we never used to discuss the script he was curious I always loved working on the script without Spence he dreams something he said yes or he said no that was it someone asked me what's up Spence, mom and dad, well, Of course they met, we went to Fenwick several times, but they were never close. I think they liked that Spence was a little uncomfortable with the well, after all he was a married man I don't think.

The father and mother were too upset about this, but it was as far as the fence went and he was uncomfortable and relaxed, so we were rarely together when he went home. I have no idea how Spence felt about me. I can only say that if I hadn't liked him enough when I had been with him, as simple as that, he didn't talk about it and I didn't talk about it, we just spent 27 years together and what for me was absolute happiness It's called love, dear Spence, whoever thought that. I would write you a letter, you died on June 10, 1967, that guy Spence, that was twenty-four years ago, that's a long time, are you happy, finally, it's a nice home yesterday, having made up for all your moves and turns in life ?

You know, I never believed you when you said you just couldn't fall asleep. I thought sleep would come to you. If I said you should sleep, you'd be dead. You would be so exhausted. Then remember that night when, oh, no. I don't know that you felt so disturbed and I said, well, come in, go and go to bed. Go to bed and now I'll lie down on the floor. I'll make you talk to sleep. I just talk and talk and you'll get really bored. I was meant to fall asleep, well I came in and I didn't have a pillow and Wolf the dog and I just stood there looking at you and petting the old dog.

He was talking about you and the movie we just finished. Guess who's coming to dinner and my studio and your new one. tweed coat in the garden and all the good topics for sleeping and cooking and not gossiping, but you'll never stop throwing yourself left and right at the pillows, put on the blankets, finally, really, finally, no, just then you calmed down. I waited a while, I waited, and then I crept out. You told me the truth, didn't you, Spence? You could really doubt the dream and I used to wonder why then and I still wonder if you took those pills, they were pretty strong, I guess you would.

I have to say, otherwise you would never have slept through. Living was not easy for you. What did you like to do? He loved sailing, especially in stormy weather, he loved polo, but then they killed Will Rogers with that airplane accent you never played. polo and never again never tennis golf no, actually, you have some balls there you were I don't think even Swanger got his swang a word swimming Willa you didn't like walking in cold water No, and on social media that was one of those things that you could think about at the same time about this or that about what Spence or what was something specific like your son Johnny was deaf or was Catholic and you felt like a bad Catholic without consolation without consolation I remember the cyclical father telling you that you were concentrating on all the bad and none of the good things that your religion had to offer, it must have been something very fundamental and always present and the incredible fact that you were actually the best movie actor there. because it is so, and I have also heard many other prominent people in their business say it Olivier Lee Strasberg David Lean, you could do it and you could do it with that glory of simplicity and directness, you just could do it, but you couldn't. enter your own life you could become someone else you were a murderer a priest and a fisherman sports journalist judge a journalist you were that in a second you barely had to study you learned the lines in a short time what a relief you play someone else for a while you were not yuria I was safe.

You loved to laugh, didn't you? you never missed those individual comics Jimmy Durante Phil Silvers Fanny Brice downright kills Mickey Rooney Jack Benny Burns and Allen Smith and Dale and your favorite funny Brett Williams stories you could tell them and brilliantly you could laugh at yourself you really enjoyed the French of an admiration for people like the canons Frank Sinatra bogie Betty towards Kyoko Vic Fleming Stanley Kramer the Kennedys harry truman lou douglas you had fun with them you had fun with them you felt safe with them and then you returned to the trials of life, he will have a drink, no, yes , maybe then you'll stop taking the drink, you were good, you spent it, you're great, you could just stop how I respected you for that unusual thing, well, you. said on this topic, you're never safe until you're six feet under, but why the escape hatch?

What did you say? I can not hear you.