05 AUGUST, 2003
Kate Remembered as never before- Now That's Entertainment . . .
By Joseph Planta
(This piece originally was published on Now That's Entertainment . . . )
VANCOUVER – Days after the death of Katharine Hepburn, word began filtering through the publishing and entertainment worlds that Putnam would be soon rushing to print, what was described then, as a memoir of Hepburn's final years, which would also contain anecdotes heretofore deemed unpublishable by Hepburn herself, until her death. It was therefore most surprising that this book, which author A. Scott Berg had been working on for years, was able to be kept under wraps for so long. Word has it that barely a handful of staffers and editors at Putnam knew of the book's existence. Less than two weeks after Hepburn's death, Kate Remembered was released. It has quickly become a bestseller, finally knocking off Hillary Clinton's 5-week reign as the New York Times's # one bestseller. And all, no thanks to Oprah or Don Imus.
Berg, a biographer of some note (he won a Pulitzer Prize for his study of Charles Lindbergh), spent nearly 20 years as a close friend and confidante to the four-time Academy Award winning actress. He came to know Hepburn during a visit to her Manhattan apartment for an interview for a feature in Esquire magazine. Soon enough, the feature fell through but Berg and Hepburn fell in for each other and she entrusted Berg with her reflections and recollections on her life, over many a dinner and double scotch's, always neat. He promised he would publish those in a book upon her death.
It's not as if Hepburn was a total enigma. Unlike Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, she kept on working well into her late '80s. Her film career spanned seven decades and she also published her own memoir just over a decade ago entitled, Me: Stories of My Life. It too quickly became a bestseller, and like so many of her film roles before, it enshrined her place amongst filmdom's most visible icons. Interestingly enough, she was a film legend with perhaps one of the lowest of profiles. She detested pretension and the spotlight, almost always refusing to do publicity for her films or attending their premieres. As mentioned previously, she was the Academy Awards's most honoured performer, yet she never attended any of the Oscar ceremonies in which she was nominated (12 times).
There have been many books written about Katharine Hepburn. Whether biographies, or memoirs, or critical studies of the woman's work, there is probably no one else, with the exception of Marilyn Monroe or John Wayne, whose life has warranted such attention. Kate Remembered, because of its proximity to Hepburn's death, is a great addition to that collection of literature already written on the actress. It is also a welcome addition, because there are many insights that have heretofore been unknown. Berg got great access to Hepburn, and even got to see her a couple of months ago. He got her at her most introspective and at her most revealing, as he began seeing her just after she nearly cheated death in a near fatal car crash in the early 1980s. Hepburn began opening up more and more, and it was Berg who was taking down the notes.
In Kate Remembered you don't get a straight up biography of Katharine Hepburn. What makes this book special is that you've got that narration, married in between Berg's own experiences with the actress. You have a memoir of Berg's, essentially infused and interspersed with Hepburn's often revealing and definitely candid confessions. Everything from her love of Spencer Tracy to his love of imbuing booze, to her love of the outdoors, her affair with Howard Hughes, adventure, and why she never bothered to accept her Oscars.
Howard Hughes, easily one of the 20th century's more eccentric and innovative characters was a lover of Hepburn's, and it was Hughes who, as a gift, purchased the screen rights to The Philadelphia Story, which single handily resurrected her flagging film career in 1941. And why didn't she accept her Oscars? Well, selfishness could be the main reason. She had this fear of losing and one would surmise that she wouldn't have enjoyed sitting in the audience had her name not been called. One detects regret in her saying that she should have gone to her business's biggest night, she of course being one in its employ.
When the book came out less than a month ago, the media focussed on the anecdote that a drunken Spencer Tracy had struck her once in a drunken stupor. She and Tracy never married, as he was a Catholic and his wife had refused to grant him a divorce. Hepburn never considered leaving him, choosing to stay, because if they had broken up, they'd have been both inconsolable with misery. What I did find most interesting about this highly readable tome is how profoundly affected Hepburn was upon the death of her brother, when both were in their early teens. His accidental death by hanging would affect Hepburn well into her old age. As well, her marriage, early in her life, which is dissected and uncovered for meaning, makes for interesting reading.
What is also interesting is Berg's discussion of Hepburn's relationship with her long time secretary. It wasn't an Alice B. Toklas-Gertrude Lawrence type relationship, but it was one of great affection and closeness. Phyllis Wilbourn had worked for Hepburn as her secretary for nearly 50 years. Eventually she became a caregiver to Hepburn, and vice versa, as Phyllis was actually older than Hepburn. As they both grew older together, Hepburn would go on to regard her as family, as did the rest of the Hepburn clan up in the family home of Fenwick, on the eastern seaboard. (One can read more about Phyllis and Kate in James Prideaux's book, Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences.)
I really enjoyed Kate Remembered. It's a well-written book, by an accomplished author, about a remarkable person, both on and off the screen. The way it is written lends for a distinct flavour that makes it as much a biography as it is a memoir, as it is a colourful show business schmooze fest. Rather than, as some books do, read rather awkwardly in an effort to infuse all elements of writing, this book does just that, yet does so rather flawlessly. Detail about Hepburn's life isn't exhaustive, which it shouldn't be in this book, because you may choose to delve into a more biographical book later. Berg's purpose is to allow us into a side of Hepburn we haven't seen or couldn't understand. Like the great lady herself, it's damn near-perfect and most remarkable. It makes for satisfying reading.
It isn't just for film fans or Hepburn afficionados. Fans of the memoir genre will want to read this, for its unique marriage of elements of storytelling, biography, remembering and narration. If you're looking for a good read, or just a good book about a life that lives up to the superlatives and hyperbole we've heard when the lady was alive, and since her death, this is it. It is highly recommended, and it would be folly to pass it up.
Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg is published by Putnam, and is $38.00.*************************
©2003 Joseph Planta.