By Heidi Simmons
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Kate Remembered
by A. Scott Berg
Biography
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There is no doubt that good friends and lasting relationships make life full and beautiful. Experts say if you have just two close friends you are very lucky. In A. Scott Berg’s, Kate Remembered (Putnam, 370 pages) the author shares his remarkable friendship with the great actress, Katherine Hepburn.
Kate Remembered is less biography and more memoire – Berg’s that is. Knowing the famous icon for two decades, Berg recounts their time together during which Hepburn freely reminisced and confided details about her personal and professional life. The book is a tribute to the woman who enchanted and amazed him. They shared a mutual bond of admiration and respect. Berg fondly remembers his friend and sets the record straight about the Kate Hepburn he knew.
Having completed his first biography on Maxwell Perkins and starting his second biography on Samuel Goldwyn, Berg was asked to be one of the writers for the fiftieth anniversary issue of “Esquire” magazine. The assignment was to write about one of the fifty people in the last half-century who had made a difference by the way they had lived. He chose Kate Hepburn, but the editor didn’t want movie stars — or women.
Berg argued that he wouldn’t do it if women were not included in the issue. He pointed out that Hepburn’s career spanned five decades. The year she won her first Academy Award© was the year “Esquire” started and she had just won her fourth Oscar©. He told them she was a role model, “even a hero” for women. Berg argued that as a person, Hepburn made the biggest difference in the way men thought about working women. The editors eventually agreed. Hepburn would be the only actor in the issue.
Hepburn was a very private person and rarely gave interviews. Through a friend, Berg arranged to see her. He was 33 years old and Hepburn was 75. They met in her New York brownstone. They both drank scotch and soda. She showed him around her upstairs living space pointing out artwork and sharing stories about her collectables. Their friendly banter was clever and witty. She liked him. She wanted him to stay for dinner, but didn’t want to run out of things to talk about. He was invited to come back the next day.
Berg and Hepburn had plenty to talk about. They discussed her entire career from stage to screen. Hepburn was in fifty movies, two-dozen plays and a dozen television movies. As an actor, she had been nominated ten times by the Academy of Motion Pictures and won four Oscars©. She was candid and forthcoming. Hepburn eventually shared everything about her past friends and lovers. It was just the beginning of Berg’s long friendship with Hepburn.
“Esquire” reneged on their deal regarding Hepburn’s interview as the only actor, and since Berg hadn’t been paid, he refused to turn in his article. Hepburn appreciated his integrity. She continued to spend time with Berg. He became her confidant. She introduced Berg to her family as her biographer, although nothing was ever said about him writing her life story. He frequently joined her at her childhood summer home in Fenwick, Connecticut.
Hepburn was born in 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her father was a doctor and her parents met in college. There were six children. Katherine was the second born and the eldest girl. They were brought up to question everything and encouraged to play and work hard.
Hepburn never felt less than equal to her brothers or male playmates. She was a tomboy and could do everything they could. She loved swimming and tennis. Her mother was a feminist and activist. However, the family was considered outsiders and oddballs. Hepburn decided to embrace that perception and held her head high.
After discovering acting in college, she moved to New York to pursue the theater. Soon she was in Hollywood making pictures. She negotiated her own salary for “Morning Glory.” Only an ingénue, she demand $15,000 and got it. When RKO wanted to sign her to a long-term contract, she refused because she wanted more options. When she was no longer the top actress in Hollywood, she became box office poison. So Hepburn simply returned to the theater.
“The Philadelphia Story” would be Hepburn’s come back. Her friend, Philip Barry wrote it for her. It was a successful play and Hollywood wanted to make it into a film. Once again, she negotiated her deal. Howard Hughes, her lover at the time, bought the rights and gave them to her as a gift — keeping just a small percentage for himself. She produced the film, chose her costars and director. The successful film put her back on top.
Kate Remembered is filled with wonderful anecdotes and incredible Hollywood stories. Berg quotes Hepburn beautifully, catching her voice and attitude perfectly. He moves between her Hollywood history and their personal relationship seamlessly, capturing Hepburn’s life and death in 2003 at age 96.
Though many thought Hepburn was a lesbian, Berg lists only her many male lovers. She married once, but never wanted children. She made her career to come first. About her relationship with Spencer Tracy, she said: “I truly learned that it was more important to love than to be loved.” Though they kept separate homes, they were together 30 years.
After Tracy died, Hepburn called his wife and said that they should be friends. It turned out that Mrs. Tracy had actually believed that her husband’s relationship with Hepburn was just a rumor.
One of the strangest moments in the book is when Hepburn, Berg and a few guests had drinks and dinner with Michael Jackson in Hepburn’s New York home. Berg was often asked to attend to help with dinner conversation and to render his opinion on matters. When asked what movies Jackson like best of Hepburn’s, he hadn’t seen any! But he offered that he loved Spencer Tracy in “Captains Courageous.” Jackson said he related to the kindness Tracy’s character showed the young cabin boy.
Berg honors Hepburn as he remembers. It is a friendship of equals. Although Berg is a central character in the narrative of Kate Remembered, the reader mostly gets to know him through her eyes. He never reveals much about himself. We only know enough to know he indeed was a good friend.
Scott Berg will be speaking at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival in January. His other books include: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, Goldwyn: A Biography, Lindbergh and Wilson. He won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Lindbergh.
