KH on Cavett day 1

question really me think about it I mean what scale would you possibly use that could apply through giving you the answer to whether Orson Welles was a better guest than Alfred Hitchcock or if Groucho was a better guess than Jack Benny it just they aren't comparable I guess is the thing you finally have to say but I know one thing that was known for sure the common wisdom was that no one will ever get Katharine Hepburn in front of a television camera and it was it was a it was gospel her privacy over the years when as she said she was living a life that gossip columnist would have loved and know about in Hollywood her privacy was practically enforced by the military it was total so forget about it was the word used whenever one thought of getting miss Kay H from Hartford for a show getting her was really a kind of miracle I still don't know for sure I know that Irene Selznick her great friend Irene Mayer Selznick and Lauren Bacall and urged her to do it to this day I do not know if she ever saw me on television or not but I did get her and Barbara Walters has a kind of strained look when she speaks to me still but it was a challenge and Hepburn likes a challenge and she likes something new and she likes to conquer things and that and all those other elements I guess added up to it shall I shut up now so you can just sit back and be dazzled hi I'm dick cavett one of the facts of life of doing a talk show is that some of the most interesting people in the world won't do them one of them is Katharine Hepburn she has spent most of her life avoiding the press and I wish I had a nickel for every time someone has said wouldn't it be wonderful just to be able to sit and listen to that woman talk well one afternoon recently never having been on television she agreed to come into my studio for a test only to check things out see how it looked and felt she checked the cameras the lights these chairs the temperature in the studio she pronounced the carpet ugly and then she surprised me by suddenly saying why don't we just go ahead and do it now and we did there was no audience the laughter you'll hear is from a few lucky staff members and musicians who wandered into the empty theater and were delighted to see who was sitting here at the beginning the first thing you will see some tape she allowed us to show that was made when she didn't even know the cameras were rolling so when we come back you will get a rare behind-the-scenes view of Katharine Hepburn making up her mind join us I think you're competent have a different color that gonna be with me I didn't put my glass of water and the grease and that yes I can't remember which direction I go one particular direction yes that's the way you'll discover well yes we go all right it's a little heavy and is it can we have a stationary table can we have a table that's John answers here we go business table with them that doesn't wobble here right now like ya may write down like a butterfly maybe what do you want to get up and dance what you may want to get up and moving move the table aside no I wouldn't my feet on ya it's a hell of a good idea you know this is haven't you got some point put on feet on a little no fabric pull it out just put this edge we have a card I've been the business owner from the Union that's better and better for feet I think is this all yours yeah what a nice wide usually is what it would look like sitting there yes act better that's alright that's great yeah push inside of this before where were you when I needed you well that carpet if anybody can survive that carpet you can we're doing what and I personally am gonna dye it by tomorrow morning gee whiz couldn't we prep spread a little blue or gray maybe I'll put a rug over it what is that ring 1 an actual carpet whose idea was that or I'd like no color just go into the nothing let us be the color God knows I'm reading up in the faced or what I clash with that once is too much put something over it you know I mean maybe say that we're all one color dark brown something like this dark brown don't laugh cuz I can do it and Dad I just have that here a rose yeah come and give it a fold we have a mirror no not when you've gotten this box I'm learning a lot forget it haha oh yes I've been on the dressing-table and I know every time it oh say I selected those videos for you in the mirror I never take down just see the bottles I know all your problems oh I can't wait I'll pretend that I fears everything looks loose and a half falling down you know and then I move it around okay don't tell me what's wrong just fix it and we got a rub that they could put over this thing I've got a drop cloth John golden had a great big office here here's a where was it mmm right that way you love yeah and I think or else in the thunder the front of the theater yeah and there was never any room for the actors and there still is not yet made up at home well at least I'm used to running water nicer but you're in the green room was it velasca who had a big office up in the Flies somewhere or something and used to watch the actors yeah where was that is that still in Velasco yeah theatre then what's the one that WC Fields was in that's the I don't know Amsterdam roof or something like that and Amsterdam no I don't know that I know lump khun's but this theater was the scene a book why don't they just start have they started yeah mm we'll be back after this message with Katharine Hepburn stay with us yeah that's right we'll have we have an orchestra yes just sit here dog okay that's what I feel awful about putting you through this whole thing because I know it violates your principles in some sense and I feel guilty about which principle well I guess a principle of not making a ludicrous spectacle of yourself in public you know hope you're not planning that's what I kind of hopefully get anyway then I would well my only experience in this theater I made a ludicrous spectacle of myself I played about 40 odd years ago through this theater not in this theater they wouldn't even take me in this that I had to fly out to Minneapolis to join a company of the night hostess which was being produced by John golden and windchill Smith and windchill Smith lived in Farmington Connecticut and I've been fired out of the only job I had been often and he gave me a walk-on as a hostess in a thing called night hostess that's the title I gave the workers it's never been seen cuz I was posed to be a wicked fascinator and I wasn't very wicked and I hadn't learned how to be a fascinator I never did learn that kind of a fascinator the title sounds very racy was it really a play that would raise eyebrows building and and Winchell Smith yes it was calculated to raise the eyebrows and I don't think it raised them enough I don't think it ever came to New York I get a better job and I flew back in from Minneapolis deciding that I wasn't gonna succeed that way you said you were fired that I can't imagine anybody having them no no no no I was fine from another thing yeah because I wasn't very good oh is that the only reason yeah that's usually the reason you were fired I found him I used to think it would be nice to know why you were fired and somebody told me once and I've decided it's much better to feel that you were put upon when you were fired that way you tell yourself in order to keep going I told that's what I always told myself well I told myself as having a few months ago when I was five but I've been constantly fired and you've been on this ferry so I would appreciate it if you fire me now something well if you make up no I had a very funny experience actually mm-hmm I came here to this particular theater from playing the leading part in a thing called the big pond do you want to hear this my life I presume that's why I'm here sure as well Jamie I started my life so I went out to Great Neck to play in the in the big pond and I have started out as an understudy and I was always a pretty good flash actor I could read a part if without knowing what I was doing better than anyone in over I mean I can laugh and cry and I can always get the pause first time first time never can keep it they got on to me after a while my boys fall down get red in the face talk too fast and couldn't act because they were all sitting out there just petrified me I understand that you know I you know that I acted I love these terrible situations you see that I'm in now wondering how I'm going to escape it's the sort of criminal instinct know something yeah it's a challenge for you I know and but that is a challenge I would bet that you've had a bad dream about how this would go in the last couple of nights no no I've had bad dream my whole life about everything I'm and how everything would go turned out to be a bad dream and this is only part of it this is the end can you remember your drink and you remember your dressing room in this theatre and did they have this carpeting you mean can I remember your dressing room and hoping you weren't gonna we're gonna mention that yeah the dressing room in this theatre Ida dressing room I know about in the dressing room and it said because I never played in it but I had a dressing room with a man named Alfred de la agra who became a very well-known producer and he and I shared about a shared a bathroom we had no bathroom shared shared a dressing room at the Maxine Elliot theatre which was I think I'm 38 for ninth Street 3813 41st Street now torn down wonderful theatre and we were up on the fifth floor together and I was on when he was off and vice versa so we had a great time and he sure did also share an apartment no no no no we didn't we didn't look bad no no that would have looked bad like in those days but this was accepted and what did you mean I mean ever I mean you know sometimes people anyone some what you used to just I share I've shared apartments with people I wasn't prime probing I'm sorry I don't understand the question mr. Kennedy you okay and about what would you mean well I mean well since you said yes I'll say yes to yes well we leave it with the usual self take it any way you like it but anyway I played you you keep interrupting the long story of my life if you just shut up ha I'd be able to learn I won't speak again for the next hour that'll be the day but anyway which story do you want to hear anything I think but now I tell you the story about the big pond because this was very profound and this was my start in life I went into this show as an understudy and I had worked two weeks for a man named Edwin Knopf who's the brother of Alfred Knopf in a very sweet and distinguished man who gave me my first job after I graduated from bregma and he said write me a letter and I will tell you whether we can use you or not so my father said never write go and appear in person so I went down to Baltimore and I appeared I didn't even know there was a stage door in a theatre and I went in and I sat down and I watched her her so it was a very distinguished company Mary Boleyn Elliott Cabot Kenneth McGowan you know and they're a really good company and they were doing a thing called the czarina the following week and nobody told me to leave so I sat down in the audience and I waited and waited and waited and finally five hours passed and I nearly died I got excited I had to go to the John it was pitch dark I felt like I'm trying to find the ladies room finally did came back sat down and Eddie Knopf was always sitting right up in the front of the audience watching this dress rehearsal and finally just walked by me and said report for us on Monday and that's how you that's how I got my job I didn't say how much or anything so I got my job in the end was given a nice little part in the czarina went for the costume thing at the end of the week and they said come at 10 to pick your costume so I got there at quarter 10 I thought boy I'm being smart all the girls were there all the good clothes were gone and it was you know sort of bouffant skirts yeah and I was a lady in may take see I'm a bit nervous do believe I may be lady-in-waiting do I believe in you couldn't keep quiet I know I believed in Freudian slips when you said that but good carry on yes I do relating and waiting and slips well and there was no Freudian slip for me that wasn't this sure so a little girl in the company came up to me and she said Catherine I got here at nine o'clock and I have the best costume and I think you're someday going to be a big star and I'm gonna get married in two weeks and I want you to take my costume because the one you have looks silly on you and I nearly fainted and I looked at her and I thought if you have any character you'll say you're terribly sweet but I can't do it but I didn't I said do you mean that she said yes I said thank you very much let me try it often and I took it who was that woman I don't know a great story isn't that a wonderful story to this day but to this day see people have been terribly sweet to me but that was really kind because I was stuck with something that I had a long scrawny nap then still worse night and uh you know I was told and I looked like a perfect fool and I could have tried to fix it up but I couldn't and I got very good notices in a small part then I had to play something like the night hostess in a thing torchbearers played a you know a wicked woman and was a big flop and thought let it go and learned to talk because I would get so excited that my voice would shoot way up in the top of my head and I wouldn't know what I could do I could start but I couldn't who just went up up up you know and I'd lost total control and went one ounce of encouragement from the audience I talked so fast that nobody could understand a word I said well when was it you actually studied at I never started out well I studied with a quite a number of people I studied with Francis Robinson dove in New York I studied voice and you used to blow a candle out so you'd have to and feel her diaphragm go in and never understood a word of it I'd blow and I was so excited I blow from here and I'd lose my voice every time I played because I was petrified I did too and I kept the way I can help you I could see that by your dressing table we're feeling we're gonna get her after their tragic remedies the actors big lorry you know which is can I talk can I walk can I move so I've gotten to the can I move in real life that's amazing how grateful you are you can just do what you're supposed to do just the minimum things move talking well and the trouble is you can't breathe you know and and this would terrify me when I went and I decided I would study with Francis Robinson dove and my father who had no interest at all in a theatrical career he said you're awful good off the tee at golf but those people are watching you so you show off but joy you're no good up near the green because the audience is gone and I said well daddy I don't think this is that and he said well he said it's one step from the streets as far as I'm concerned and he said it's an unhealthy profession so when I took this job I had no money so when I wanted to have lessons I had no money and they were you know was about 10 bucks an hour or something like that it was quite expensive Frances Duff she was the best teacher there was and so I wrote that and said would you back me when lessons and he wrote me and said doesn't that he was making a certain amount of money winning bets on the golf course and he considered that that was bad money so he'd send it to me and he didn't try to discourage you because the business was immoral and he see me he didn't certainly encourage me he didn't say honey I think you're gonna be a great star you think I think mother was glad to see me do something rather than Mary it was a real feminist and she thought you know we're on did she actually carry placards and get arrested and all that's how I can see her from whatever ads yeah yes and have you have you been encouraged by the women's movement to get out on the streets and carry the sign no because we did that you know a very very long time ago yeah and it's I think that is a strange situation because women and men simply are not the same they're just not the same and women unfortunately have to bear the children and what are you gonna do with them and I think they're they're men we're all the same and all well and then there are there are women like me who have lived like men knew what you were I knew I was brought up in a big family and I was brought up great just bought up great iron up for the personating mother a fascinating father and a wonderful childhood I really did and I have a wonderful family now and I have my roots in the same place that I was brought up and I'm extraordinarily lucky you know and that's just luck it's isn't it it's just luck that's the thing about you you know I have a feeling that millions of people think the following about you she knows how she wants to live her life she succeeded at it it's all worked out she got what she wanted and they feel you probably have some guiding principles some secret that if only they knew them they could be successful and as content as you seem to be but you say it's luck that there are two or three yeah well yeah I think it's in the first place it's lucky if you have an intelligent and we an inspiring father and mother and it's lucky if you've had experiences before the age of 15 which Treacher which teacher excuse me which teach you not to be afraid because fear is what we all suffer from I mean fears what you and I suffer from trying to be fascinating which was as an astronaut in position for the earth you know really Here I am an odd I great to Bob underneath it's embarrassing yeah and you're never sure that you can do it but if you're if you have been taught basic freedom from fear and a basic belief in what you're doing that is sufficient to carry you when everyone in his uncle thinks you're wrong and you still think well god damn it I don't think I'm wrong I think I'm right and I'm gonna do it or if you are you know sort of inspired by something for instance doing this now I disapprove of doing this I think the story of my life is you know I hope they help could I tell the story my life I can't tell you the things that wouldn't think of it that have made me do this or this or they're said certain periods because then I would be fixing it so that you knew my secret yeah and my secret is what pushes me on and each one of us has a secret you know and you go to mom talk and you try to rebuild your secret and I go to the mouth of the Connecticut River and my childhood and and I try to rebuild mine all to give us confidence to to push on now I say lucky because I was born with them energy I was I was lucky to be born with a combination of qualities that were apparently interesting in the early 30s when I began to sort of look around and be noticed yeah and even before that you know when I was a kid in a golf tournament and I've sunburned a lot and got blisters and I had to have two caddies one to carry an umbrella and I've you know I'd get the headline on the sport page Hartford youngster do you know what I mean I was just lucky no apparently me colorful and you have this thing about being able to conquer fear if you have a lot of fear though it is a scary decision it terrifies anybody who's intelligent to do anything I think I've been absolutely petrified all my life and as I'm totally one-track I look at the thing and just hope I'm gonna drop dead before it happens how I ever opened in KOCO I don't know and in the lake in 1933 which I came back to kind of punish myself because I have a sort of Puritan streak and think you know if it hurts it's doing you good or if it's hard it's better feel character or some cool cool thing builds character builds character yes you know and I had hit it lucky in the movies and I had a wonderful part a wonderful director and an angel Jack Barrymore who just would push me toward the camera in a pop that everybody had made a hit in I was just lucky you know I mean how the hell can you call it anything else a lot of people will be damn glad to know that you've been afraid of things because they're human race is petrified I'm not gonna cover up up we have to take a message we'll be right back I keep I should tell us I suppose when I talk to you on the phone the other day you suggested that I take a boat into New York as I was out of town yeah and you said because there's always the chance you'll drown and I mean didn't really really want to go on television like that and then you said if then there's a chance that you would be killed and then I could get a lot of people together to say how sweet you are how sweet I am I'm willing to say you know oh I'm here but I'm rather drop dead any minute oh I'll put it in writing if you'd like that but I know that one of the reasons you were willing to put yourself through it was the American film theater aft I guess people are going to call it yeah and I happen to know that you did a movie for them and that this is a revolutionary idea really that a man named Eli Landau seems to dream death yeah and people stop me if I'm wrong people all around the country will get a chance to subscribe in 400 I think there are five hundred theaters four hundred faces in 400 cities five hundred theaters yeah and they will get to see eight movies that's right it's something like $30 remarkable movies remarkable actors and you did one at a price that your agent must have fainted you know what I that's not a new tool for me I've done I don't if it interests you they don't need to pay you it's a fascinating business anyway it's very nice to be paid but when you do thrilling material it's like buying a piece of furniture that's really good when you buy it and it's great you'll get enormous pleasure out of seeing it and you never remember how much it costs that's the one thing you really forget I always never buy it I always go the other way and regret it I'm glad yes well that's not stupid but these yeah thank you yes ma'am I wish I'd met you years ago I'd have done a lot of things yeah well you'd have a lot of good furniture when you could get it for a small price I have to say you can get these movies yeah they will be shown for performances two matinees into evenings each month yeah one picture two pictures three pictures four pictures over a period of eight months one of those I'm in so I hope you'll go and see that look and that's a delicate balance could all be zombies play and it's a plate which ordinarily wouldn't be done it's a part which ordinarily one would not get an opportunity to play which is true of all the properties which Elias Collette did and I have the feeling that the American audience is not so stupid that they like constantly to be played down to and you know fed the same old junk time after time which is going further and further and further in what direction nobody knows but that is not necessarily the product of the brilliant writers in this country and other countries who are available and also of actors now you can hire any actor for a brilliant part for a little amount of money but you're anyone I don't know the agents even have finally come to that and I do think that it is terribly important in our country to try to improve the product improve our products so that an audience can go in and and say well yes I've seen his place I've seen her place I've seen this one's place and I've seen so and so and so and so and so and so in them their movie productions they're brilliant directors they're brilliant properties they're wonderful parts and they are thrilling what a first-rate boom make sense maybe that's a disadvantage today I don't know when I first heard about it I was afraid it was one of those things they always seem to experiment with where they try to film a play on this no no no no not no let me like two little Delphia story I've done a million off the bill of divorcement Philadelphia story I've done many many plays but you know what I mean is if they set a camera out there yes I would that can be done and I think it can be static but are these not have not been done that way yeah but I mean to be interested otherwise you and I've been wasting a lot of time because we've been sitting here talking now either we're bores because they can turn us off but but if we've been interesting I don't really care whether I'm standing up or sitting down in a scene if the material is interesting enough for people to look at I really don't think I have to shoot you dead maybe I should have it excited you're here now you don't have to my stuff you don't have to do away what is that is that a drum I like I'll reveal what it is somebody but they have very very interesting products I work for Eli through the years so he and I are old friends and he's done me a few favors one of the reasons I felt I should do this and I don't know why I couldn't think of any good reason not to appear on television so now I've appeared on television I've crossed that bridge but Eli didn't something very kind to me nothing to do with anything but he did me a real favor and I thought how do you pay back a real favor pay back a real favor by doing a favor you know we've take a pause we will be right back after this pause stay with us I guess I got a kind of kick when you said Jack Barrymore because it means you really knew him and if I say Jack Barrymore it sounds silly because I never even saw him he was nice to you he was absolutely sweet yeah as has been every act I've ever met in my life that's what I wondered about it you know coming to Hollywood it has to be a threat to the old heads out there you know and I wondered if they would really help you or if they would look like they were helping you but not give you their real secrets like keep one eye this way or I think everybody has brains enough to be aware of the threat sure sure you know and and that people now for instance in odd mrs. boss bottle which was which I which was by Ben levy in which I was fired and then they looked at every other a new in town and came back to me and rehired me and I made him raise my pay 25 bucks a week for putting as they assaulted me you know Jane cowl must have known that the ash no part was a million times better than the star part she carried it and I took it yeah you know and there was no sabotage she was an absolute angel everybody said she waved her handkerchief you know and did a lot of things like your wiggling that fight foot but I'm trying to but it's she didn't and she was if she made me up yeah it was terribly nice I didn't used to wear any makeup and then living didn't like my looks at all he thought I was absolutely awful in this part and he said my god what does she do polish her face with yellow kitchen soap every morning and she took me in and she said he's used to English girls you know who present themselves in a softer way so she tried to soften me up but I got fired anyway we've always heard stories about powerful leading ladies who said get rid of that new kid Leslie Howard fired me he said get rid of that kid fast what'd you do I know well I didn't do anything to him but I was an inch taller I took off my shoes and sort of bent my knees but I didn't know enough to support someone it was a I was out for myself yeah yeah and when a big star plays something they want a little support does the way you and I now we're buying a chat with each other because you have the responsibility of coming back next week and I'm bound I'm gonna snag this week it's a you know it's a question of sort of mind you it's your business to present someone sure but it's also the business about group of actors to sort of cater to the central character as they very charmingly did in Coke oh yeah you know what I mean the setup it's a setup are you telling me to find smart I'll keep quiet and not move no with Jack Graham or funny was he a funny man well when when I don't see I don't stick to the subject you see I was embroidering either do it when I met out to California I was on a train and it took three or four days to get there in those days and I went out on the back platform to look at the moon and I got a steel filing and one eye which immediately became bright red and was it had a piece of filing in in the white of the eye now I'm sort of blondie red so my eyes are very very sensitive and they get red if you think red you know now I was thinking red all the time so this I then went and when I got off the train I had a very fancy costume on the first pancake half-dead straight hair two bloodshot eyes and I thought the place was the queerest place for the forbidden my life so I went to George Cukor's office who was directing George Cukor works directing mill of divorcement and Jack Barrymore came to the office and he looked at me and he looked me dead in the eyes and he said come out here with me Catherine so I went out into the hall and he said you did a wonderful test you're gonna be a big star and then he looked at me and he took me by the top of the arms and he said I have that trouble too and I said miss Barrymore I have something in my eyes said yes yes I know honey just two drops of this and nobody will know a thing did you ever convince him you were alive I don't know we never just got it again we know that was terribly funny that's right we have take a message and then we'll be right back can you remember time when you didn't want to be an actress or did it hit you over the head of early age well I wanted a doctor a surgeon because my father was a surgeon yeah and then I didn't go to school about five years before I went to Bryn Mawr i tutored because I'd like to play golf and I would drive all around hard for the various tutors and I couldn't pass physics and in those days you Anna Bryn Mawr would accept college boards plus extra points and I studied I got about 55 in the physics exam I was fair in the other things cuz my mind was absolutely I didn't know where I was you know I was just flying through the air from the time I was about 12 doing good time man you know just a super son of George and I studied all summer long on physics and improve seven points and got a 62 one was let into Bryn Mawr 60 was passing 60 was passed in those days and then I did my first year and I was really mediocre and I had never been with girls before and I was absolutely petrified and I can remember I was from a small town and I had a modest amount of money and I had really been brought up pretty much with adults because we had an interesting family you know and we'd sit around I had an older brother who had died and then myself and I used to sit around with the family and we I never spoke you'd never gather that from the way I'm with my dad's know everybody was quiet but those they're really interesting people spoke and I didn't have anything to say that was considered too interesting you know I don't know why I picture the hepburn dinner table in those days as being debates going on yes I think that I think there was but I think there were a hell of a lot of other people there at the same time you know we encourage to argue with your parents yes I think so but not not idiotically especially and I think a lot of the kids today are pump us to a degree because they don't listen at all now I think by the same token I had the nerve to go out and do something on my own but you've gotta listen and nobody listens people are so anxious to talk I've only got a few more years left to talk in so I'm doing the best I mean if you start talking at 14 then you can't be listening at 14 can you that's right it's a fine 9 and anyway I've been mouthing in my sophomore year I had a burst appendix sort of very bad appendix that had to be operated on and my marks went down we didn't have to go down far and the Helland half man who was the Dean wrote that and said I would advise you to take cash out of college I don't think it suits up and daddy wrote back and said if I had a patient in the hospital who was ill and I didn't know what the matter was I wouldn't send her home no they can't make it I wondered if you were a good student and no bad student because I was so thrilled with life that I couldn't concentrate and and and I find that now I can concentrate on you know certain things that interest me enormous say but I'm totally one-track can't cut straight of things you should have concentrated on then can you now read a book that seemed boring than or a study physics with a certain in yes yes yeah yes I feel that way too if one can make the connection you say then it's enormous they vivid to me and otherwise I'm in a sort of a daze but there's so much you know the world so full of fascination Rhea campus never or given demerits were you one of those people who didn't like Authority yes I was yes I was now what do they call it not five not expelled the temporary thing put on probation for smoking I Fanny I didn't smoke so I didn't know the rules about smoking I wouldn't have thought I'm smoking and somebody gave me a package of perfume cigarettes and I thought I wonder what these are like i sat in there smoking and somebody came up to me and said haven't you something to say I know what they were talking about the first crime II was not my first crime that was my second crime Oh my first crime was breaking into houses you - I left to break in - yes absolutely fascinated me I could get in anywhere I've got the only time I nearly lost my life was dropping through a skylight and I damn near dropped from the top of the roof and it was a three-story house hide down to the first floor that was my first mistake you didn't know it was there no I was I was I didn't see it clearly yeah well they used to have icebox entrances you know for the Iceman to put the ice through that was a very vulnerable point how recently was this well this was when I was a child that wasn't yesterday so well I was about 15 and I had a friend a girl and I used to dare do anything with her she had great nerves she just sort of do things and I'd get excited and I was the second-story man I could climb anything you see and get in and open the door but she was the you know the sort of head of the Mafia she was the real she had nerve to burn she'd do anything then she got a bowl and the bow was a bad lot and the bow we had a house we couldn't get into so he joined us and said we'll break down the door I said you can't break down the door that's destruction he said you want to get in break down the door if you can't get in any other way when we let ourselves be persuaded of course the neighbors next door in our house my sister now lives in heard this terrible noise and we've seen a big log and running against the back door in sanity and we finally built the thing down and went in and took a great big box of body powder with a one of those feathered puffs and threw it all around went man and then left all observed by the cook next door so when I put on my bathing suit and nothing was said for a week and I thought boy then I don't know yet but there it's a mess so they're gonna see it and all the other places were neat they were back I still one thing and one of the places and then I put it back cuz guilt overcame me and that was a wooden crocodile it was about this long but I saw we used to use this place as a sort of office because it was easy to get into and it was a carved crocodile and you screwed up the tail and it cracked a nut and I thought it was thrilling and I stole it and then I couldn't think of anything but that foolish crocodile didn't sleep and I took it and put it back but this boy you see it engaged us in a real crime so finally I saw the sister of the owner of the house coming toward me as I walked down toward the pier for Sunday swim and she said Kathy and until something you'd like to tell me and I looked at her and my heart sank and I said no I have nothing to tell you and I ran out at the end of the fair my friend was out on the raft and I dove in swam over and I said they've caught us swim for sure Nana caused a dad to pay the bill that was your first clue was that but that was the first crime that was discovered yes and back talking to you Katherine Hepburn a promising actress who recently had a job with the American film theatre I keep thinking about you going alone to Hollywood at what age did you're trying to pin me down between between what you were you're quite a young woman to be a catch into a sinful place like Hollywood did you have a protector I had a great friend Laura Harding who went with me yeah just eat my poetry did your parents give you any advice like don't accept rides from strangers or any other don't know my family never gave me any of that sort of advice they weren't worried about what no they thought if I hadn't brains enough to handle myself it was just too bad yeah listen this may be an impossible kind of question but that's doing what I think my mother only just didn't want me to get married and wanted me to you know yeah see what I was worth in the world she was very active with Margaret Sanger and yes control and all cells woman suffrage and dad was very was one of the real starters of the Social Hygiene movement in America which was the fight against venereal disease yes and no I think my goodness at that at that age you know it wouldn't even be a point of discussion mm-hmm I think they were there to get me out of trouble if I was dumb enough to get into trouble you know there was no weeping about your going away and no no no no no no no no but I mean they were all the the I can't stress enough the the the strength that gives a kid to have someone interested and the strength that gives me to have someone interested I'm not Phyllis who's interested and I've got my brothers and sisters but my mother and father were always there at tea time when I came back and what did you do where did you go what happened then but they neither of them ever came to Hollywood they never butted him it was just there to say my gosh you're fascinating aren't you wonderful you know isn't it great what you're doing and you always knew he had a bedroom back home if you wanted to come home in there yes and and the first week or two that I was in Hollywood I've got all my money in cash and I put it in a barrel tour and I spend it all and dad said where's the money we'd better put it in the back and I said it's gone so he said you better have them send it to me so until the day he died he took my money and sent me an allowance oh yeah yes he died in 1962 what were the traps for an actress in those days because a lot of people went under and under that I was a girl named I played in a thing called the Warriors husband and I made a big hit for Broadway yes and the play itself was so-so and it was bad times 32 and I had had a lot of movie offers as I was lucky enough to photograph quite well and in the big pond that I told you I was kicked out of my pictures came to New York with the big pond and I've been playing a leading part so that I was seen by all the New York producers who saw shows in and a lot of the move heads of the movie companies here who saw shows in Great Neck and I played it one night was bounced but so I had the attention of a lot of important people I mean photograph said you came to photograph something came to New York yeah and they were charming I'll send you so much anyway hilarious but they were okay you know okay before we go on who was it who referred to your cheekbones is the greatest calcium deposits this site of Dover don't tell me I'm telling you that for the first time I've never heard it well I I heard a knock I said it let's go to the Martin Beck theater this was him the Bakke let's see gate F and run the mutt G a mu T TT TT of emotion from A to B one of the great foot downs of all the time how did you have the nerve to go on the next night or did you ignore that I hardly did that was the most petrifying experience I have and now that was interesting because I had done four pictures in one year in Hollywood and they said duza burn up this wonderful beautiful young thing who's in our midst you know and I could do no wrong I'd won the Academy Award and I had sent them a wire through my agent Leland Haven to say that I didn't leave an awards and that I you know I really didn't feel that I should compete some pompous asinine thing No and he just put them wire in his pocket and said thank you very much that I was deeply honored so there I was he just changed the wire yep cuz he thought it was childish you never see have you ever picked up an Oscar in person no to got this won't go well to godness yes you don't scorn me award I wouldn't win it it must be that more than I have no dress there are rumors that you have no dress I have no dress but I know you do cuz I'd seen no dress and it's my father said about his children is that my children are very shy they when they go to a party and this would include that they're afraid that going to be neither the bride nor the corpse this is your book of your father's most common mother's quote oh I'm when we come back I'm gonna bring you back to the traps for a young girl in Hollywood in those days we have a message won't be right back no traps by me I guess what it's trying to kind of ask there was a why you held body and soul all together in Hollywood were so many ended up tragically well I think I was on a firm foundation and and you know what goes in it has to come out where people you cannot have it at all you see I mean then if you achieve achieve success you have to maintain it if you fail then you have to try to succeed and you certainly can never be helped by liquor and you never can be helped I don't you just can't be and if you haven't got help I don't care what profession you're in I mean all of us just think think of your own profession and if you're a good wandering around in a stupa and have five minutes where you feel fascinating and you're a bore to the man who's sober I don't see the point in that you know I mean you have to here we are we're given this now here I am and I've been here quite a long time you're too young to to look at yourself and say well the feet have a few more steps in them one legs a bit shaky you know I'll keep bumping myself I don't know what that means I need is now to see certain things have maintained themselves from a teeth I'm pretty good but I'm still here I can see pretty well and I still seem to have whole wild amount of energy it shakes the boat a bit of good style but I can still go on now I maintain that machine as well as I could possibly maintain it and I've tried deliberately this was in the beginning I said don't get spoiled don't dress up don't get an expensive car don't get a lot of fancy habits that you can't maintain if you flop but there's the contrast then you're gonna have to carry they've kept it simple like a wardrobe I kept it yeah well the wardrobe there's our self-indulgence isn't it that everybody has been smart enough to copy but self-indulgence yeah cuz it is comfortable then it's nice to be comfortable I'm clean my track be clean he looked clean well it's all washable watchable wash drip dry you don't smoke I don't smoke now I did smoke there's a heavy smoker you know yes that's what started me being a smoker I'm never smoked before I smoked in one picture became an absolute chain smoker overnight loved it loved how does that fit in with your health theory uh well I was younger then maybe I didn't have so many health fairies you see then you begin to get help theories when you realize it could go bad but I maintained I had to maintain my vitality because I hate the feeling of being kind of and doing half as well as I can do I'd love I mean perfection is thrilling and you practically never achieve it I mean you I can look back on my career now and say well lucky lucky lucky pretty good not bad you know moments of really real interest how'd you quit smoking I just stopped he said a day no no no I didn't set any day I began to realize in the first place when I was a kid in smoke and I started to play tennis in California and I was real tennis addict I noticed that I couldn't really keep it up you know and if I didn't smoke at all during the day I could play six seven hours and it didn't bother me at all and we used to play all Sunday I was a golfer by trade because I was a trained dolphin I was pretty good when I was about 14 but then in California they didn't allow ladies on the court on the course on Sunday and I used to belong to a thing called bel-air and I'd go on Sunday anyway and say throw me off you know it's my only free day so they'd let me play they defied them beside them and then then I thought well this takes too long so I turned to tennis and I love tennis I think it's a great game you couldn't just you know play yourself into exhaustion I've seen before it is fascinating yes not very good you don't know this but I saw you play there's a hotel that you play behind I won't reveal which way mm you I watched you for a long time yeah they're not improved well you were good enough that day and I came by and I noticed your car was no I'm not good now tell you how you know when you're good and when you're not good you're a little choppy a little no I the terrible thing is in sports people will people to look at me along the street and everything and oh you're so fascinating but they look at you on the tennis court for about 2 seconds and they'll say oh she can't play absolutely faster they feel a wonder they feel they feel a lot better but it's a sensational game but I noticed that I didn't last then and then when I began to play Shakespeare I noticed that I didn't have the what it takes oh I didn't have it I couldn't last and if anybody if I was taking care of anybody and I had to really last and maybe be up all night not get any sleep I noticed that if I took no liquor and no cigarettes I could get 2 hours sleep and be absolutely wake up fresh and be alive so I think it's mothers you now I don't think it's mothers everybody I don't press this but millions of people are trying to quit and probably we'd love to know how you did did you have the pen oh yes no I I cut it out I never smoked before breakfast in my life and cut it out first I cut out the cigarette after breakfast then I cut out the cigarette after lunch then I cut out until teatime then I cut out until after dinner then when I was playing a heavy pot I cut out until after the show but minute minute I started like a box of candy I couldn't stop it was absolute dope fiend smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke couldn't stop had to go to bed couldn't even I'd look at you and I'd think oh boy one more I want a smoke and then I just stopped I thought this is so asinine but it did begin to affect me now I smoked when I was with people so I did all the difficult parts I cut out on an interview I would smoke I cut that out any 50 meters anyway I needed it most I'd cut it out yeah and then I just stopped let's hope you've helped some people with that we have a message we'll be right back except bring their are there secrets of screen acting they're talking about that earlier when your niece made a film for example are there mysterious little things you can say like keep your downstage eye away from you at all times no I don't think so I think just concentration like any anything else concentration and truth and Spencer was the great artist of that his concentration was pure my concentration was very conscious of an audience for a long long long long time he criticized you on this no he didn't mention it but I mean I was aware of a certain sort of cheapness in what I did because my concentration was not anywhere near as good as his way that do you mean the people I think had the greatest they were remarkable both Irish and a remarkable capacity to concentrate I heard an actor who played a scene with Tracy once say it was his first film this actors and he said when the camera started rolling I went blank because when Tracy spoke I thought he was still talking to me yes but I think that's true of a lot of people but funny funny story when Spencer was doing guess who's coming to dinner and I don't think Sidney Poitier would mind my telling this story but Sidney and I had already done a scene together several scenes and Sidney wasn't in the least nervous and we were both excited but not you know anything then he had to go in and ask for the girl's hand in marriage and Spencer was sitting at his desk and I was sitting on a bookcase sort of thought of this thing in back of him and Sidney came in and he was a tremendous fan of Spencer's as most actors well Charles you know they really knew that he knew what he was doing and everybody you had a lot to learn I learned a tremendous amount from them and that is to use the protection of concentration to just do it you know don't don't embroider it do it well Sydney came on and he looked at Spencer Spencer was just looking at him and he went higher than a kite just from that and then came on and he did finally did about 15 times and he could not now he has a brilliant memory so this was just so finally Stanley Prima said well would do it tomorrow so in the morning I call Spencer and I said can I pick you up and he said well you're a bit early aren't you and I said well it's the first scene they're gonna redo the thing and I think he said I think Sydney would be a little happier without those two old owls looking at him wrong so I said I'm going down so I went down but Spencer was usually right about things so I sent in a note to Stanley Kramer at 5 minutes to 9:00 sing I'm ready and I'm here do you wish me to come on the stage or stay in the building and he wrote that quickly stay away first because they were doing a big ad close of event and I know just how he felt it's agony if you work with someone whom you think is the real master of something and they're watching you over you and the purity of that concentration because if the material is wonderful then I'd I learned this playing certain scenes in Shakespeare that if I could really and truly concentrate and if I could really speak English and with truth mind truth and hearts truth hand a scene to an audience that if they were concentrating they would just take it and I wasn't him doing a lot of fancy stuff you know so I think really it's a it's it's like any other form of art truly to me the kind of thing that I like is unemployed and has hearts truth so that it strikes right through when you say oh I understand what you mean and you can apply it the different which is why we like the theater that you can take it from the actors and get something out of it you can understand it and the minute you hit for a long time I was too egotistical I suppose and too frightened to accept the fact that the audience after all these years had given me this and they've given me their friendship their undiluted just friendship we like you you're nice you know and this was occasionally our in not until cocoa not in del Coco did I really understand I thought they were my natural enemy and waiting for and you fall down a brakeman egg or be a flop sure and I think that's what we all think don't let them trip you up you know get there do it I don't think that's true it certainly hasn't been true with me from the time of that little girl they've met they've tried to help me yeah they tried to help me and they they they now of course um I say I'm like an old ashcan every day okay grateful and they remove it you say we didn't want a new ashcan masters perfectly good that old thing will take that concentration you talked about though it seemed that Tracy had it more than almost anybody there did I don't think you can find an altar moment in his career in the screen it was the truth and I think he just did it I think he found life extremely difficult as most of the Irish to you know their Norma stay imaginative and then he spoke with his heart and he spoke with with tremendous simplicity you know he played villains bogie played bogey played mothers darling with the briefcase and going home to mama and giving her a salary check and Spencer played villains the truth there's yes the the picture that he did with Jack Ford Jack Ford gave Spencer his first job Jack Ford died on Friday and yes he died he died after his you know his he and Voki just died like gentlemen you know with great courage and great distinction and he was a remarkable man and he came in he saw Spencer and Spencer had been tested by everyone in his uncle so they he said my god they said you can't take him he's a great actor but is he'll stick out his nose is too big and he just you can't photograph him and Ford said well I can look at him why can't I photograph him and they say well you put a makeup on him and he's absolutely hopeless and they said well why put the makeup on he had an answer for so so II didn't dispense it wasn't wearing makeup on the stage and a man named Chester Erskine who had produced the last mile which Ford saw Spencer in didn't have any of the actors wearing makeup those men said never wore makeup sometimes the simplest answer is the best I see that he said to Mary was because their method was totally different and I think Larry Olivier each one brilliant and Spencer said to Larry who do you think they're gonna think you are Larry and this was really this was too different meaning meaning they'll know you're on oh yeah yeah thank you know who's doing any water you know but it was two brilliant performances was the whole range of what an actor can do would be and you have to find the thing that suits you I think and then there's an audience you find the thing that you can connect with well obviously you can connect with someone who's familiar to you can't you if they're totally different you really don't but if you feel oh that might be me and I think the reason people have an affection for me now is that in a kind of way I must have lived a life a lot of women think would be a nice life to have lived yes they think it's dignified but they think it's free and they think it's I've done what I wanted to they don't bother to think that they may have five children that I haven't had brains enough to know you can't have it all because I was brought up in a very happy family and I thought if my concentration is going to be in the theater and there's a business career I cannot have any children because I was brought up when brother was there as I said telling me how wonderful I was you didn't want to be I was telling her how wonderful I was I hope you can stay the rest of the week we'll be right back after this message should I envy people who had brothers and sisters yes yes yes envy them I do I'm sorry anyway my brother told me not to appear on this show he said they'll find out the dura boa they go great don't expose yourself well I'm sorry cuz he said you really have small face silly ideas of it then it's worth it always they'll let turmoil when you go through this you go through as a kid and you know what he thought was Montauk escapes me no but he said where does he live doesn't he live a talk talk so rather fended by there all right no I guess as a kid I always sort of liked the idea of kids having to compete with their brothers and sisters and being able to compare notes and how you feel about your parents and that sort of stuff keeps you very realistic yeah I think it would it makes you a little tougher that think than it would do you do have that but well they're not to think you'll too thrilling yeah they're sweet but I mean done big they cut you down to size yeah I think so I mean you're one of a group you're one of a group so that you don't go away from that you know you remain the sister in in this in my instance I remain the older sister iris I remain aunt Kat to practically over them yeah cuz I was sort of a loner so I was on path to even advice to my sisters not to my brothers but to my sisters who were like my daughters I'm the missing link I am I don't throw anyway I'm not my father and mothers I don't know what the extra one you know but I wasn't a child I was it was a funny arrangement are you considered the oddball of the family no no no that all my daughter than I am they're arresting one of them right now terrific it's one of the things we deal with in this theatre we get the firehouse across the street wonderful consideration for the performance there's only gonna be one yeah I'm just waiting to cut and waiting for the siren day stop oh is the ambulance coming for me you drive yourself yes I don't yeah I've seen you on the highway well I'm on the highway but I'd love to drive in New York City yeah great place to drive it's another challenge well it is yes Jay this is I hate to say this but we've come to the end of the time where you have tonight you mean I'm finished I can go well I hate to I've had a lovely time bye-bye but I can't you wait till I say good night I I can tell you this she will be back tomorrow night join us good night

Channel: Beth Palucka

Views: 678,392

Rating: 4.737011 out of 5

Keywords: katharine hepburn, katherine hepburn

Id: 8y631paPoPA

Length: 69min 5sec (4145 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2015