Charlotte Chandler - I Know Where Im Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography

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Copyright 2010 by Charlotte Chandler

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Designed by Jill Putorti

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chandler, Charlotte.

I know where Im going: Katharine Hepburn, a personal biography / Charlotte Chandler.

p. cm.

1. Hepburn, Katharine, 19072003. 2. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

PN2287.H45C43 2010

791.43028092-dc22

[B] 2009034060

ISBN 9781439149287

ISBN 9781439153222 (ebook)

With special appreciation

Bob Bender, Ben Carbonetto, George Cukor, David Lean, Joseph Mankiewicz, Christopher Reeve, David Rosenthal, Liz Smith, and Dan Woodruff.

With appreciation

Michael Accordino, Edward Albee, Angela Allen, Linda Ayton, Lucille Ball, Marcella Berger, Charles William Bush, Jack Cardiff, Fred Chase, George Christy, Gypsy da Silva, Mitch Douglas, Patty Doherty, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Marie Florio, Jane Fonda, Joan Fontaine, Joe Franklin, Steve Friedeman, Tom Gates, Bob Gazzale, Elliott Gould, Cary Grant, Tracey Guest, Guy Hamilton, Bob Hope, Anthony Hopkins, Peter Johnson, Van Johnson, Garson Kanin, Michael Kanin, Elia Kazan, Alexander Kordonsky, Karen Sharpe Kramer, Ted Landry, Jerome Lawrence, Johanna Li, Groucho Marx, Jackie Mavrovic, Jane Merrow, Walter Mirisch, Bill Molesky, Sheridan Morley, Paul Morrissey, Jeremiah Newton, Arthur Novell, Laurence Olivier, Dale Olson, Marvin Paige, Sidney Poitier, Jill Putorti, Luise Rainer, Ginger Rogers, George Rose, Robert Rosen, Marian Seldes, Daniel Selznick, Jeff Stafford, James Stewart, Kevin Thomas, Brian Ulicky, Billy Wilder, Billy Williams, Emlyn Williams, Tennessee Williams, Will Willoughby, and Robert Wise.

The American Film Institute, the Ben Carbonetto Photo Archives, the Mitch Douglas Archives, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Museum of Television and Radio, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and UCLA Department of Theater, Film, and Television.

To Kate

Enjoy your success. When youre successful, eat it up.
You never know when the famine is coming.

KATHARINE HEPBURN

Onliness is my word for what I call my philosophy of life, Katharine Hepburn told me. Its a word I made up for myself when my teenage brother hanged himself.

What I meant by it was that I wanted to be independent, to separate myself from all the others and never again to care so much about another person, so I would never feel the pain I felt when Tom left me.

I was almost fourteen when Tom, my absolute herowhom I loved and worshippedhad, what I call in my head, his accident. I was the only one who believed it was an accident. I believed it because I couldnt bear to believe otherwise.

I had a wonderfully warm feeling in my soul. I felt it so deeply that he would be there for me, that I could always count on him. It made me feel very secure. And then, suddenly, he wasnt there for me. He wasnt there for himself.

If something had made him so unhappy that he no longer wanted to live, why hadnt he shared his trouble with me? I could have helped him. We were so close, how could I not have shared his pain? I couldnt bear it. I thought we were like twins, even though he was two years older. It was a nightmare that was real, and I was never going to wake up from it. I understood that now is forever.

Tom was my best friend from the first moment I can remember. He never regarded me as the little sister he had to drag along. The opposite. At two, two and a half, I remember him holding my hand and showing me the ropes and how to swing on them, how to get along in life. When I was just barely walking, he was running with me. I wanted so to keep up with his long-legged strides. I wanted to run fast into life, not just to walk, and I wanted to run toward life with Tom.

He had not yet had his sixteenth birthday. For the Easter school vacation, Tom and I were given a trip to visit a dear friend of Mothers who had been at Bryn Mawr with her. After we celebrated Easter with our family, we went to New York to stay with Aunt Mary Towle, who was a lawyer and had her own lovely little house in Greenwich Village. She wasnt really our aunt, but wed always called her Auntie. Whenever we visited her, it meant seeing many plays, seeing all the wondrous sights of New York City, and eating in lovely restaurants. We would dress up for our excursions.

It was a darling house, not big. It was just right for Auntie Mary, who never married. She had her lovely room, and I stayed in the guest room. My brother had a cot in her attic, which was filled with trunks of books and everything she stored there. Sometimes girls have privileges, but I wouldnt have minded being in the attic. Im sure Tom didnt. He was always protecting me, and being chivalrous.

Although Kate loved her visits to New York City, and so did Tom, she couldnt imagine herself living in New York. Tom said hed love to be right in New York City, especially in Greenwich Village, which we knew best.

Until then, their mother had always gone with them and stayed. She enjoyed the visit with Auntie Mary and with Auntie Marys law partner, Bertha, who had become a judge and was also a good friend of Mothers at Bryn Mawr. Auntie Bertha lived next door. This year, Mother had some other plan, and it was deemed we were old enough to make the short trip from Connecticut to Greenwich Village, where we would be chaperoned by Auntie Mary, who had known us since we were born. Wed been going to visit her at her Greenwich Village townhouse since before Tom and I could remember. We found the Village fascinating, walking around for hours. It was so different from where we lived.

I dont know which one of us was more excited. It was a tie. I was always the more emotional one, jumping with glee. Tom was more composed, in a masculine, older-brother way. But I could tell how excited he was, because we had an almost telepathic bond between us.

We went with Auntie Mary to see A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court