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Post by mariluna on May 27, 2005 17:41:55 GMT -5
Do you remember when did you get hooked on this Hepburn drug, and why? I can only remember me watching “The Philadelphia Story” when I was about eleven or twelve, and asking my mother about this actress. She told me about a certain love story that intrigued me very much. This is the only true fact I remember. Well, there is another fact, a visit to the Book Fair in town, and an english book (I live in Spain) about her, the Homer Dickens’, very strange book in the Spain of the 70’s. My father bought me the book, after a good argument. I don´t know what happened after this. I only know that KH has been a recurrent issue in my life. And she has been a great help when life seemed to be hard going.
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Post by smith on May 27, 2005 17:56:53 GMT -5
I got hooked on Katharine when I was at university - I saw some of WOTY and the same week I saw the Donahue interview .
At the time I was quite down - a member of my family had recently died and there was something wonderful about seeing an older woman with such energy and zest who had been through a similar if worse situation than myself . She was amazing in the Donahue interview.
One should never underestimate the power of imagination . I had never seen a movie with Katharine or Spencer or even knew who they were but she just grabbed my attention.
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Post by Cate on May 28, 2005 14:28:22 GMT -5
I've always liked classic movies because I grew up with them. Whenever I visited my dad we would watch them. Bringing Up Baby, Father Goose, Easter Holiday, all the Shirley Temple movies, Yours, Mine and Ours... I didn't really get into Kate until about three months ago when I read the A. Scott Berg biography (recommended by my dad). After that I was captivated by this woman who somehow always found life fascinating even though she lived for almost a century. She lived independently and sometimes selfishly (which a person has to do every now and then) and just did what she wanted to do. So, I picked up every biography I could find and rented every KH movie I could find (I think I've seen something like 26 out of 43 (?) now). Yeah, I get a bit obsessive when I'm interested in something And I get very excited when I go to rent a movie and I see a Kate movie I haven't seen before. I'm a geek. Catherine
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Post by alucino on May 30, 2005 9:55:33 GMT -5
I think it all begun with "On Golden Pond" (the first movie I saw with her) which I first saw a couple of years ago. It was my gradmother that insisted me to watch it with her since I just recently had started to be intersted in old black and white movies (not that common in my age...). She said that katharine Hepburn was one of the best ever and that I really should see it. And she sure was right. The first impression I got of her though was some resemblences with a great teacher I had (mostly the shaking head...) but as the movie went by, I liked her more and more. I don't know what, but it was just something about her. Then I wanted to see and hear more of her, but unfortunately it is really hard to find KH movies around here so I wasn't able to see any other of her work in quite awhile. But then eventually I got the chance to see "The African Queen" and then I got REALLY hooked. She made such an impression on me in that movie. And when I then found out of her impressing personality from my grandmother and mother, books and everything else I could get info from, I became an addict. Because I like her personality as much as her actings and movies. To me she is so much more than a great actor.
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Post by Shaun on May 30, 2005 15:34:59 GMT -5
My Kate addiction began back in 2003 after her death. I knew nothing of this marvelous woman until I stumbled upon a tribute article in TV Guide. It spoke of how spectacular an actress she was and how there would never be another to match her. I even clipped out a picture of her from the magazine and saved it (circa Woman of the Year) because of her gorgeous profile. I still hadn't seen any of her movies until "On Golden Pond" aired on television. Immediately I became captivated by this awesome talent and yearned to see more of her work. Not only do I admire her great talent but I also adore her intriguing personality. If only I could meet a woman like her!
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Post by Judy on May 30, 2005 15:57:16 GMT -5
Hi, Shaun:
As someone who has been a Kate lover for the past 38 years and who still gets quite sad when I think about her being gone - it makes me so happy to read of someone like you who is just in the infancy of their Kate addiction.
I don't mean that in an insulting way and I hope you don't take it that way. In fact, I envy you. I envy the fact that now that you ARE hooked you will be discovering her films for the first time.
I remember what that felt like when I was only 13 and discovered her myself. That was when GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER was released and I went to see it in a local movie theatre. Like a lot of young girls my age who loved the movies, I was in love with Sidney Poitier. So as far as I was concerned, I was going to see a Poitier movie with these two older stars in it....Since Kate's last movie prior to that had been in '62 (when I was 8), and since LONG DAY'S JOURNEY was not exactly the type of movie my parents would take their 8-year old to see, there was no way I would've been familiar with her work. I watched and loved old movies on television, but I tended to gravitate to the stars my mother and older sister loved. My mother loved Ingrid Bergman, so I did, too. My sister loved Bette Davis, so I did, too. I was familiar with them.
But Kate? She was never really on their radar. (And love them as I do, I ask myself every day - are these people related to ME? :-) How could they not have told me about Hepburn?
When I left the theatre that day, all I could talk about and think about was this woman. Who was she? Why had I not heard of her before? What was I doing for the first 13 years of my life? :-)
I then made it my goal to learn all about her, see all her films, see her onstage - fortunately, I was able to see her in COCO, GRAVITY and WEST SIDE WALTZ, in addition to seeing her at the ST LEGACY screening, the Cukor tribute at Lincoln Center, Night of 100 Stars at Radio City - all of these in NYC - and to meet her, if only briefly backstage.
I've seen all her films and know them by heart - as so many here do.....
You have so much to look forward to as you start to watch them all - and they are all available, or at least most of them are.
So, like I said, I envy you....Keep us posted on your progress!
JS
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Post by Judy on May 30, 2005 16:01:52 GMT -5
Well...for some reason, my last message got posted twice...And it was boring enough the first time...Sorry about that! JS
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Post by karina on May 31, 2005 11:58:27 GMT -5
Like Judy, I'm so happy that there are all these young Kate fans around, just starting on the wonderful journey to discovering her greatness. I too, was brought up on a heavy diet of classic black & white movies - mainly Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant - but somehow I didn't become aware of Katharine until my late teens. (Judy, maybe they just didn't show KH films on TV as much back then? Can't believe both our families kept her hidden from us. Then one day, a family friend mentioned in passing that "they don't make them like Katharine Hepburn any more" and hard as it seems to believe it now, I just wondered "who's he talking about?" Finally I caught BUB midway through and never looked back. I started watching as many of her films & TV interviews as possible, read any article I could lay my hands on, bought or borrowed virtually all the biographies and even spent days in libraries and bookshops looking up cross- references in the index of other film books. (replaced nowadays by browsing internet search engines). Talk about being addicted! Unfortunately, I can't yet claim to have seen every single one of her films, but only 8 to go (including 4 of her TV films). A couple of DVDs are on their way to me, so hopefully it won't be too long before I can join ranks with those privileged to have seen all her performances. My one regret - there's nothing I can do now about seeing her live on stage
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Post by Richard on Jun 11, 2005 12:45:38 GMT -5
It all started with 'Bringing Up Baby'. I don't want to get into specific details but that same year I watched over a dozen of her films.
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