Katharine Hepburn and Me

In high school, I lived in Palo Alto, and my mom and I often went over to the Stanford Theater, where they play films that were made prior to 1963. At some point, we saw something with Katharine Hepburn in it, possibly Bringing Up Baby (this picture is from that film) or The Philadelphia Story or maybe even Holiday. Altogether, I was smitten, and after printing out a list of her films from a fledgling IMDB, my mom and I went to the video store at the end of our street. Unfortunately, the list had printed new to old, so the first movie I checked out was Love Story. It was okay, but she's only in it for a bit.

I borrowed her autobiography and biographies from the library. I remember reading them in the hammock in the front yard. She fascinated me. She's part of the reason I can sit here typing in pants. I know there's more to the woman's movement than just her, but she wore trousers on screen, which is basically just a big 'screw you' to menfolk.

Her affairs were interesting. Howard Hughes was quite smitten by her, but she just wasn't interested in marrying him.

I named my first car, a 1985 Volvo, after her, because my car gave me independence, just like how she was an independent woman.

It's been around fifteen years since my interest in this woman began, and I have yet to see more than half her films. I'll get around to them. In some ways, I don't really want to finish them.

I remember that I was in Vegas when she died. I couldn't necessarily be upset about it, but it was sad nonetheless.

Someone did a one woman show on her at the Falcon Theatre in Toluca Lake a year or so ago. That was really fascinating. I didn't think I would learn anything, but the actress had a lot of insights.

I recently bought her book about The African Queen - I look forward to reading it again and crossing the threshold of viewing more than half her films.