I saw on a few websites that Katharine is credited as Katherine Burns does anyone know why? I've never heard her mention about calling herself this, was it Kate or did someone just make a typo.
Many sites carry the info. that Kate appeared in
Night Hostess on Broadway under the stage name of Katherine Burns. Indeed she appeared in the play out of town but she claimed that she got a better job and came back to New York before the show arrived here. So she always claimed Katherine Burns was
NOT her. Many have insisted that she was
NOT telling the truth, but I find it an odd thing to have wanted to lie about, so I tend to believe her. At least I believe that though the name Katherine Burns appears in the cast list of the Broadway production of
Night Hostess, it was not her...and it was. Sound contradictory?...Here's how I came to that conclusion....Stay with me here...
Point 1:Here are some times/dates for you, all in 1928:
The Big Pond - Great Neck, late summer of 1928
Night Hostess - Broadway production, September 12-December
These Days - Previewed in Hartford Oct 25-27, performances began on Broadway on November 12 and closed sometime in November.
Kate appeared in Great Neck in
The Big Pond. She was fired from that and her next documented appearance was in what is referred to as her Broadway debut in
These Days. In both productions, she used her real name.
Point 2:In
ME, Kate writes that she went directly from being fired in
The Big Pond into rehearsals for
These Days.
Things
MAY have been done differently in those days, but to support her claim, it seems unlikely that she would have had time to rehearse and appear in
Night Hostess (Sept) in between having been fired from
The Big Pond (in late summer) and going into rehearsal for the pre-Broadway previews of
These Days (October).
Point 3:I have a 1991 letter in my collection, in which responded to someone who had questioned her about it: "I think that's the only time I used that name." She didn't elaborate. On the face of it, this would
SEEM to contradict what she wrote in
ME and everything I've just written above. But it really doesn't if looked at this way - see conclusion below
Conclusion:The theory was posed to me by someone in a position to know that she may have used the Katherine Burns pseudonym for
Night Hostess because she had signed both that contract and the one for
The Big Pond in order to hedge her bets and make sure she had a job - and then broke her
Night Hostess contract.
In other words, she was hired for
Night Hostess, probably hired to come to Broadway when it came in from out of town. She then gets
The Big Pond and decamps from
Night Hostess. She's in the embarrassing position of having committed herself to both shows. So the programs go to press - listing the long forgotten Katherine Burns - but Katharine Hepburn never actually acts in it because she has taken the part in
The Big Pond. She then gets fired from
The Big Pond in late summer and goes into rehearsals for
These Days shortly thereafter.
Who knows? Maybe she
DID make a brief appearance in
Night Hostess on Broadway in order to satisfy her contractual obligation but used the name so her own would not go on record.
BUT she claimed she did not appear in it and the fact that the timing just wasn't right is probably the most convincing evidence that she
COULDN'T have appeared in it.
So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my conclusion - arrived at from her own writing in
ME , from the standpoint of logistics (that the time frame between the three shows doesn't jibe) and from her comment in that letter that the name was actually used - if all this is true, I submit that
BOTH things are true - that she was listed in the cast when the programs went to press
AND that she never actually appeared in the play on Broadway.
Did I lose you? . . . Who said Kate Hepburn wasn't complicated.
In order to login - click at the upper right corner - use your name from the board and your password and it should be all right. If not - please let me know and I will try to help!
Jul 29, 2014 7:30:03 GMT -5
Just stumbled upon this interesting board.. Does anyone have any video interviews with KH?? Or maybe transcripts of them? I´ve been especially looking for the full version of the famous Cavett one forever and ever...
Sept 15, 2014 16:06:41 GMT -5
Sept 15, 2014 16:07:35 GMT -5
