Post by guesttoo on Jul 23, 2005 23:42:14 GMT -5
From a 1995 Liz Smith column:
Katharine Houghton is a fine actress and playwright who first distinguished herself playing the daughter of Katharine Hepburn in the 1967 film ``Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?''
In real life, Houghton is the niece of Hepburn. She and other Hepburn-Houghton family members, as well as members of the John Ford and Spencer Tracy families -- and assorted friends -- are outraged over Barbara Leaming's new biography ``Katharine Hepburn.''
This column wrote a rave for Leaming's book. I find myself now with second thoughts and questions.
Katharine Houghton speaks: ``I have had the opportunity to see firsthand a number of Leaming's sources and to check her tale with others within the Hepburn, Tracy and Ford families. You, Liz, referred to `the entirely new and surprising' romance between Hepburn and the famous director John Ford. This turns out to have been wildly exaggerated. Ms. Leaming implies she found a treasure trove of `love letters.' I have now been sent copies of these letters. There are only six letters and two jokey telegrams written from Hepburn to Ford during the 1930s, and only two letters (from 1937) could possibly be considered romantic. . . . The sensational story that Hepburn offered Ford's wife $150,000 to give him his freedom turns out to be reckless reporting. It is based on an old rumor . . . to date, no biographer of Ford has taken this rumor seriously enough to include it in a book.
``As for the supposed rivalry between Ford and Spencer Tracy for the love of Hepburn, Leaming neglects to tell us that John Ford described Tracy as his `good friend' and that in tape-recorded conversations between Hepburn and Ford (that Leaming claims to have memorized), Hepburn talks openly and often about Spencer -- hardly the behavior of a woman discussing, as Ms. Leaming would have us believe, Ford's `rival in love.'
``One wonders if we can trust anything Ms. Leaming writes about Spencer Tracy, who comes across as her greatest villain. She implies cowardice when he chooses not to go on a spur-of- the-moment, four-month cruise with John Ford, not telling the reader that Tracy has just signed a five-year studio contract and that at home his small son is recovering from a near-fatal case of polio and his mother is suffering from a broken back. Instead, Ms. Leaming accuses him of horrible acts and thoughts and says he suffered from venereal disease. (Ms. Leaming provides no source for this slur.)
``She paints a terrible picture of the legendary Tracy-Hepburn love story: `Full of self-loathing as he was, he seemed to enjoy humiliating Kate by bringing her down to his level.' Anyone who has read `Tracy and Hepburn,' Garson Kanin's eyewitness memoir of this relationship, knows how distorted Leaming's picture is.
``There also seems to be no foundation for Ms. Leaming's thesis that the suicide of her brother Tom and others in the Hepburn-Houghton clan form any kind of leitmotif of Hepburn's life. (She was not close to the others who committed suicide.) Ms. Leaming tries to persuade us that having failed to `save' her brother Tom, Hepburn was determined to save Tracy, no matter what the cost. Knowing Hepburn's penchant for not suffering fools gladly, I think this interpretation bears little resemblance to the truth. Tracy apparently had problems with both alcoholism and depression, but was not the spiteful, pathetic and selfish man Leaming portrays. . . . ``Though Ms. Leaming implies Hepburn's cooperation and authorization, Leaming actually quotes fewer than 20 words from her own `interviews' with Hepburn. This fraudulent book is completely unauthorized. The definitive Hepburn biography has yet to be written.''
So there are the feelings -- the very strong feelings! -- of Katharine Houghton and others who I believe do know the legendary actress best. The great Kate herself is, characteristically, silent.
Katharine Houghton is a fine actress and playwright who first distinguished herself playing the daughter of Katharine Hepburn in the 1967 film ``Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?''
In real life, Houghton is the niece of Hepburn. She and other Hepburn-Houghton family members, as well as members of the John Ford and Spencer Tracy families -- and assorted friends -- are outraged over Barbara Leaming's new biography ``Katharine Hepburn.''
This column wrote a rave for Leaming's book. I find myself now with second thoughts and questions.
Katharine Houghton speaks: ``I have had the opportunity to see firsthand a number of Leaming's sources and to check her tale with others within the Hepburn, Tracy and Ford families. You, Liz, referred to `the entirely new and surprising' romance between Hepburn and the famous director John Ford. This turns out to have been wildly exaggerated. Ms. Leaming implies she found a treasure trove of `love letters.' I have now been sent copies of these letters. There are only six letters and two jokey telegrams written from Hepburn to Ford during the 1930s, and only two letters (from 1937) could possibly be considered romantic. . . . The sensational story that Hepburn offered Ford's wife $150,000 to give him his freedom turns out to be reckless reporting. It is based on an old rumor . . . to date, no biographer of Ford has taken this rumor seriously enough to include it in a book.
``As for the supposed rivalry between Ford and Spencer Tracy for the love of Hepburn, Leaming neglects to tell us that John Ford described Tracy as his `good friend' and that in tape-recorded conversations between Hepburn and Ford (that Leaming claims to have memorized), Hepburn talks openly and often about Spencer -- hardly the behavior of a woman discussing, as Ms. Leaming would have us believe, Ford's `rival in love.'
``One wonders if we can trust anything Ms. Leaming writes about Spencer Tracy, who comes across as her greatest villain. She implies cowardice when he chooses not to go on a spur-of- the-moment, four-month cruise with John Ford, not telling the reader that Tracy has just signed a five-year studio contract and that at home his small son is recovering from a near-fatal case of polio and his mother is suffering from a broken back. Instead, Ms. Leaming accuses him of horrible acts and thoughts and says he suffered from venereal disease. (Ms. Leaming provides no source for this slur.)
``She paints a terrible picture of the legendary Tracy-Hepburn love story: `Full of self-loathing as he was, he seemed to enjoy humiliating Kate by bringing her down to his level.' Anyone who has read `Tracy and Hepburn,' Garson Kanin's eyewitness memoir of this relationship, knows how distorted Leaming's picture is.
``There also seems to be no foundation for Ms. Leaming's thesis that the suicide of her brother Tom and others in the Hepburn-Houghton clan form any kind of leitmotif of Hepburn's life. (She was not close to the others who committed suicide.) Ms. Leaming tries to persuade us that having failed to `save' her brother Tom, Hepburn was determined to save Tracy, no matter what the cost. Knowing Hepburn's penchant for not suffering fools gladly, I think this interpretation bears little resemblance to the truth. Tracy apparently had problems with both alcoholism and depression, but was not the spiteful, pathetic and selfish man Leaming portrays. . . . ``Though Ms. Leaming implies Hepburn's cooperation and authorization, Leaming actually quotes fewer than 20 words from her own `interviews' with Hepburn. This fraudulent book is completely unauthorized. The definitive Hepburn biography has yet to be written.''
So there are the feelings -- the very strong feelings! -- of Katharine Houghton and others who I believe do know the legendary actress best. The great Kate herself is, characteristically, silent.