The Katharine Hepburn Flop That ‘Fueled Rumors’ About Her Sexuality

Decades prior to Tootsie,Mrs Doubtfire and Shakespeare in Love played cross-dressing for laughs, Katharine Hepburn was aiding to transform drag right into a film art type. In the 1935 enchanting funny Sylvia Scarlett, which costarred Cary Grant, Hepburn played the titular personality, a girl that claims to be a child called Sylvester as component of a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, the film was not a success and really did not do much to increase Hepburn’s profession, which is checked out in words and pictures in Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood by Ira M. Resnick and Raissa Breta ña, due outNov 5 fromAbbeville Press The brand-new publication dedicates phases to Hepburn and various other fabulous display alarms, consisting of Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis andLauren Bacall It additionally provides uncommon pictures from the collection of Motion Picture Arts Gallery owner Resnick and an ahead composed by Hepburn’s On Golden Pond little girl,Jane Fonda

Despite it’s absence of box-office success, Sylvia Scarlett was significant for obtaining the report mill spinning concerning the sexual preference of its celebrity, that elevated brows early in her profession for disregarding the standard feminineness criteria to which young starlets were anticipated to stick. The movie additionally consisted of a then-scandalous kissing scene in between Hepburn and her women costarDennie Moore

According to guide, Hepburn called the movie “a real disaster.” It includes, “This subversive gender-bending fueled rumors about Hepburn’s sexuality — which became a topic of debate after she divorced her husband [Ludlow Ogden Smith] in 1934 and began living with a female companion.”

In an age where women celebrities were anticipated to market sultry and hot, Hepburn played stubborn females and, controversially, also put on pants offscreen.

“Hepburn had a strong aversion to celebrity culture and had no interest in perpetuating the illusion of movie stardom,” guide provides. “She didn’t dress glamorously, didn’t sign autographs, and didn’t give interviews.”

The publication additionally mentions a 1934 meeting with Motion Picture Magazine in which Hepburn claimed, “I’m not living my life for Hollywood or publicity, and I never will. Why should I have to change my personality?”

Hepburn, that passed away in 2003 at age 96, notoriously had a long-lasting connection with her nine-time costar Spencer Tracy, from 1941 up until his fatality in 1967 at age 67. But according to Hollywood tradition, the sustaining romance was a cover to conceal the sexual preference of both celebrities.

In his 2012 publication Full Service, Scotty Bowers, a business owner/”pimp to the stars” that provided Hollywood celebs with sex-related companions with a gasoline station on Melrose Avenue, asserted to have actually presented Hepburn to “150 girls” and Tracy– that stayed wedded to Louise Tracy from 1923 up until he passed away– to males, consisting of Bowers himself.

“They were merely friends … They were not in the bed department at all,” he claimed of the Oscar champions in the 2018 docudramaScotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Bowers passed away in 2019 at 96).

Regardless of where she suited on the Kinsey range, Moxie is clear on Hepburn’s tradition in Hollywood, regardless of very early vital and business misfires likeSylvia Scarlett Her “tireless dedication to her career,” guide observes, “is at the core of her cinematic legacy, and with it, she has rightfully earned her place as one of the foremost stars in the Hollywood pantheon.”

Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood will certainly be released by Abbeville Press onNov 5 and is readily available for preorder currently, any place publications are marketed.