Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Katharine Hepburn in Mary of Scotland (1936, dir. John Ford) (via)

Katharine Hepburn in Mary of Scotland (1936, dir. John Ford) (via)

Katharine Hepburn as Clara Schumann in Song of Love (1947, dir. Clarence Brown) (via)

Katharine Hepburn as Clara Schumann in Song of Love (1947, dir. Clarence Brown) (via)

Katharine Hepburn in The Sea of Grass (1947, dir. Elia Kazan) (via)

Katharine Hepburn in The Sea of Grass (1947, dir. Elia Kazan) (via)

Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in the theater program for the Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story (1939)

Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in the theater program for the Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story (1939)

Katharine Hepburn & Montgomery Clift on the set of Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Photographer: Burt Glinn (via)

Katharine Hepburn & Montgomery Clift on the set of Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Photographer: Burt Glinn (via)

Katharine Hepburn on the set of Sylvia Scarlett (1935, dir. George Cukor) (via)

Katharine Hepburn on the set of Sylvia Scarlett (1935, dir. George Cukor) (via)

From Katharine Hepburn’s 1981 interview with Barbara Walters:  Hepburn: “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man…I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.” Walters: “Is that why also you wear pants?” Hepburn: “No, I just wore pants because they’re comfortable.” Walters: “Do you ever wear a skirt, by the way?” Hepburn: “I have one.” Walters: “You have one.” Hepburn: “I’ll wear it to your funeral.” (via/photo via)

From Katharine Hepburn’s 1981 interview with Barbara Walters: 

Hepburn: “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man…I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.”

Walters: “Is that why also you wear pants?”

Hepburn: “No, I just wore pants because they’re comfortable.”

Walters: “Do you ever wear a skirt, by the way?”

Hepburn: “I have one.”

Walters: “You have one.”

Hepburn: “I’ll wear it to your funeral.”

(via/photo via)

“I was never a victim of the times I lived in. In fact, I was a success because of the times I lived in. My style of personality became the style. I was sort of the New Woman at a very early point. I was fortunate to be born with the characteristics that were in the public vogue. I think that if you’re lucky enough to belong to an era that you live in, in a very strong way, as I did, then you’re lucky. So I’m lucky.” -Katharine Hepburn (photo by Florence Vandamm, 1939)

“I was never a victim of the times I lived in. In fact, I was a success because of the times I lived in. My style of personality became the style. I was sort of the New Woman at a very early point.

I was fortunate to be born with the characteristics that were in the public vogue. I think that if you’re lucky enough to belong to an era that you live in, in a very strong way, as I did, then you’re lucky. So I’m lucky.”

-Katharine Hepburn (photo by Florence Vandamm, 1939)

Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn on the set of Bringing Up Baby (1937, dir. Howard Hawks) “This script was a good one. Cary Grant was really wonderful in it. And I was good too. And the leopard was excellent. Cary had always refused to work with the leopard. Didn’t care for it at all. Once, to torture him, we dropped a stuffed leopard through the vent in the top of his dressing room. Wow! He was out of there like lightning.” -Hepburn in her autobiography, Me

Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn on the set of Bringing Up Baby (1937, dir. Howard Hawks)

“This script was a good one. Cary Grant was really wonderful in it. And I was good too. And the leopard was excellent. Cary had always refused to work with the leopard. Didn’t care for it at all. Once, to torture him, we dropped a stuffed leopard through the vent in the top of his dressing room. Wow! He was out of there like lightning.”

-Hepburn in her autobiography, Me

Katharine Hepburn on the MGM lot during the filming of Without Love (1945) Calvin Klein: Your style, did it come from you? Or was it someone else that influenced you? KH: No, no one influenced me. I think that I must have been very self-conscious about my appearance, that I wanted to present something that looked as though it had just come out of the woods or something, and everyone thought, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before.’ I liked to look as if I didn’t give a damn. I think you should pretend you don’t care … but it’s the most outrageous pretense. I said to Garbo once, ‘I bet it takes us longer to look as if we hadn’t made any effort than it does someone else to come in beautifully dressed.’ CK: Were you influenced by any of the men you knew at that time? KH: No! I never dressed up for any man. If I thought he cared how I looked, I would have thought he was a fool. I really would have. The men dressed for me, you know. Nobody ever made a pass at me unless I fully expected them to and welcomed the notion. CK: Good for you. KH: I’m rather a forbidding character. -excerpted from Washington Post Magazine interview (March 9th, 1986)

Katharine Hepburn on the MGM lot during the filming of Without Love (1945)

Calvin Klein: Your style, did it come from you? Or was it someone else that influenced you?

KH: No, no one influenced me. I think that I must have been very self-conscious about my appearance, that I wanted to present something that looked as though it had just come out of the woods or something, and everyone thought, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before.’

I liked to look as if I didn’t give a damn. I think you should pretend you don’t care … but it’s the most outrageous pretense. I said to Garbo once, ‘I bet it takes us longer to look as if we hadn’t made any effort than it does someone else to come in beautifully dressed.’

CK: Were you influenced by any of the men you knew at that time?

KH: No! I never dressed up for any man. If I thought he cared how I looked, I would have thought he was a fool. I really would have.

The men dressed for me, you know. Nobody ever made a pass at me unless I fully expected them to and welcomed the notion.

CK: Good for you.

KH: I’m rather a forbidding character.

-excerpted from Washington Post Magazine interview (March 9th, 1986)

Katharine Hepburn & Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940, dir. George Cukor) (via drmacro) “I loved working with Katharine. She was fun…but she was very serious about the film. She was almost the producer, and when I had to do a scene in a bathing suit…well, I just told Katharine that I looked ridiculous in a bathing suit because my legs were just so thin. She said, ‘Show me your legs,’ and she said it with such authority that I hoisted my pants up until she could see my knees. And she took one look and said, ‘You’re right. Those are just the worst legs I’ve ever seen!’ And so she talked [The Philadelphia Story director George] Cukor into letting me do the scene in a bathrobe”. -Stewart on Hepburn, his gams, and filming The Philadelphia Story (quoted in Michael Munn’s Jimmy Stewart)

Katharine Hepburn & Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940, dir. George Cukor) (via drmacro)

“I loved working with Katharine. She was fun…but she was very serious about the film. She was almost the producer, and when I had to do a scene in a bathing suit…well, I just told Katharine that I looked ridiculous in a bathing suit because my legs were just so thin. She said, ‘Show me your legs,’ and she said it with such authority that I hoisted my pants up until she could see my knees. And she took one look and said, ‘You’re right. Those are just the worst legs I’ve ever seen!’ And so she talked [The Philadelphia Story director George] Cukor into letting me do the scene in a bathrobe”.

-Stewart on Hepburn, his gams, and filming The Philadelphia Story (quoted in Michael Munn’s Jimmy Stewart)

Humphrey Bogart & Katharine Hepburn at a press reception at Claridges (London 1951, via popperfoto) “That woman is sensational. I’ll tell you frankly, she used to irritate the bejeepers out of me with all that ‘mahvelous’ talk. But when I got to know her I found out she’s one helluva dame.” -Bogart on Hepburn

Humphrey Bogart & Katharine Hepburn at a press reception at Claridges (London 1951, via popperfoto)

“That woman is sensational. I’ll tell you frankly, she used to irritate the bejeepers out of me with all that ‘mahvelous’ talk. But when I got to know her I found out she’s one helluva dame.”

-Bogart on Hepburn