Katharine Hepburn
The Untold Story
By James Robert Parish
328 pages
Advocate Books, New York, 2005
Katharine Hepburn was truly an actress. Not only on the stage and screen, but in every waking moment of her life.
After reading James Robert Parish’s Katharine Hepburn: The Untold Story one wonders at how little is really known of who the film star and legend really was, and further, how little interest Ms. Hepburn had in coming to truly know herself.
Parish’s book takes us from the very beginning of Katharine Hepburn’s life to its very end. The book’s thirty chapters follow her struggles to fit into the conservative Connecticut community of her birth; her bohemian summers at her family’s retreat in Fenwick; her theatrical debuts and of course, her 26-year relationship with Spencer Tracy. Throughout this work, Parish also alludes to, speculates and ponders Ms. Hepburn’s predisposition to bisexuality and lesbianism.
While rumors run rampant in Hollywood – in its heyday – and certainly now, the speculation of Ms. Hepburn’s homosexuality continues to remain nothing more than rumor and speculation even with her death.
From her earliest days, Hepburn expressed an unmistakable preference for the company of women. Yet, masterful actress that she was, Hepburn managed to keep her relationships - many lasting decades – in the closet and convince the movie-going public that she was every bit like them – albeit with a stronger, Yankee temperament that simply projected itself in unconventional mannerisms, speech patterns and fashion sense.
Probably the most convincing and lengthiest role that Hepburn played throughout her life was that of paramour to Spencer Tracy. While there’s no denying that there was a certain chemistry between the two screen legends, there’s also the question of the precise level of intimacy between the two.
It is general knowledge that Spencer Tracy was both a married man and a very troubled alcoholic. Anyone who has had any experience with an alcoholic will immediately question Hepburn’s claims of great intimacy and romance between her and Tracy. To begin, there is no intimacy with an alcoholic; for their greatest concern is only for themselves and their next drink. As for sexual encounters and romance with an alcoholic, well dream on, for even if they are coherent enough to formulate the emotions of romance, the debilitating effects of alcohol abuse certainly include impotence.
So, while Hepburn and Tracy without a doubt had an on-screen relationship that oozed chemistry and sexual tension, once the stage lights were extinguished and their relationship was smacked with the harsh light of day, the reality is that their relationship was nothing more than one more role to be played out. Close friends and acquaintances, alike, never questioned whether there was love and admiration between the two; but most will attest that the true bond which tied them together all those years was simple co-dependence. Tracy needed someone to care for him and keep him on track and on the wagon so that he could continue acting his role of leading man and movie legend. Hepburn needed Tracy to fulfill her need to care for and nurture his wounded psyche, but of greatest consequence, she needed Tracy to stifle the rumors and pull attention away from her very closeted alternative lifestyle.
