Notes and Sources

Frequently cited archives, collections, and libraries have been identified by the following abbreviations:

AADA	American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York
AFI	Louis B. Mayer Library, American Film Institute, Los Angeles
AMPAS	Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
BT	Hall of History Collection, Boys Town, Nebraska
DOS	Donald Ogden Stewart–Ella Winter Collection, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
EH	Ernest Hemingway Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston
ES	Edward Streeter Collection, Fales Library, New York University
FOX	20th Century-Fox Collection, Theatre Arts Library, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles
FXSC	20th Century-Fox Script Collection, Cinematics Arts Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
JKA	Jane Kesner Ardmore Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
JTC	John Tracy Clinic, Los Angeles
KHLA	Katharine Hepburn Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
KHNY	Katharine Hepburn Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
LOC	Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
MGM	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer script collection at the Cinematics Arts Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
NYPL	Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
PC	Playwrights’ Company Collection, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison
RC	Ripon College Archives, Ripon, Wisconsin
SK	Stanley Kramer Papers. Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles
SLT	Spencer and Louise Tracy Collection, Los Angeles
SW	Selden West Collection, Los Angeles
TGC	Theatre Guild Correspondence, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
TH	Top Hat Productions, New York
UCLA	Film and Television Archives, University of California, Los Angeles
USC	Cinematics Arts Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
WB	Warner Bros. Archives, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

CHAPTER 1 GENERAL BUSINESS

  1 The first time: Louise Tracy interview with Jane Kesner Ardmore, 6/27/72 (JKA). See also J. P. McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?” This Week, 5/24/42.

  2 “delightfully cultured”: Undated ad, Daily Reporter (SLT).

  3 “If you saw him”: Mrs. Spencer Tracy (guest columnist), “Walter Winchell,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 7/31/39.

  4 dead center of the stage: Jules Eckert Goodman, The Man Who Came Back, unpublished playscript, 1916 (NYPL).

  5 Business improved: Details of the Wood Players in White Plains are from Variety, 4/19, 5/3, and 5/10/23; and Billboard, 6/9/23.

  6 “The way he did it”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

  7 “Great Lover type”: Walter Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2, Modern Screen, July 1934.

  8 Gedney Farm Hotel: Details of the Palace Theatre and the Gedney Farm Hotel are from Reneda Hoffman, It Happened in Old White Plains (White Plains, N.Y.: Efficiency Printing Co., 1989); and Hoffman, Yesterday in White Plains: A Picture History of a Vanished Era (Tuckahoe, N.Y.: Little Art Graphics, 2003).

  9 “Mother loved the theatre”: Louise Tracy’s history of the Treadwell family is from an interview with Jane Kesner Ardmore, 6/15/72 (JKA).

10 Campbell gave her work: Although Louise Treadwell’s film appearances were unbilled, the Bebe Daniels comedies directed by Maurice Campbell during her time in California were Two Weeks With Pay (1921), The March Hare (1921), and One Wild Week (1921). The William deMille feature was likely After the Show (1921).

11 “My father”: Ardmore, 6/15/72.

12 In Fall River: Details of the Wood Players in Fall River are from Billboard, 6/23 and 7/14/23; New York Times, 6/26/23; and Variety, 6/28 and 7/19/23.

13 “If you don’t marry”: Ramsey, “The Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

14 “dispensation”: The church required six instructions for the non-Catholic, and Louise took these in Milwaukee. John Tracy, who was upset by the requirement—thought they were being too hard on her—accompanied her.

15 “Mrs. Brown”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

16 “Arthur Hopkins”: Edward G. Robinson (with Leonard Spigelgass), All My Yesterdays (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973), p. 72.

17 “He had one line”: Ethel Barrymore, Memories (New York: Harper, 1955), p. 250.

18 “a rice pudding diet”: S. R. Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy,” Screenland, April 1942.

19 “old man”: S. R. Mook, “He’s Often Been Hungry,” Movie Mirror, August 1932.

20 “The first week”: S. R. Mook, “Spencer Tracy Talks About His Past,” Screen Book, April 1936.

21 “I went up”: Ardmore, 6/27/72 (JKA).

22 “Miss Treadwell”: Winnipeg Free Press, 1/29/24.

23 “give him credit”: Variety, 1/31/24.

24 “chairs on the stage”: Spencer Tracy, unpublished interview with Pete Martin, December 1960 (USC).

25 “generous applause”: Grand Rapids Herald, 6/17/24.

26 St. Mary’s: Details of the birth of John Tracy are from birth certificate #8152, County of Milwaukee.

27 “afraid of him”: Interview with Ardmore, undated (JKA).

28 “She is beautiful”: Grand Rapids Herald, 6/24/24.

29 Charley’s Aunt: The profitable and unprofitable plays of the 1924 season are identified in a letter from Mrs. L. S. Billman, manager of the Powers Theatre, to Clarence L. Dean, Grand Rapids Herald, 9/14/24.

30 “A lack”: Selena Royle, unpublished autobiography, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, p. 50.

31 “fitting man”: Grand Rapids Herald, 7/15/24.

32 “two minutes”: Interview with Ardmore, undated.

CHAPTER 2 A BORN ACTOR

  1 Merrill Park: My knowledge of Merrill Park comes primarily from John Gurda’s excellent book The West End (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980). Gurda also did the research and copy for a Merrill Park poster published by the city’s Discover Milwaukee project in 1983, which provides a concise historical overview of the neighborhood.

  2 St. Paul Avenue: John Tracy’s residential and work addresses are from Milwaukee City Directories, 1899–1926, and Milwaukee census records, 1900, 1910, and 1920.

  3 John D. Tracy: Details of John D. Tracy’s life are from Freeport census records, 1880; Freeport Daily Democrat, 1/30/1901; Freeport Journal-Standard, 2/11/18; and genealogical information provided by Jane Feely Desmond and Sister Ann Willitts, O.P.

  4 “Galway”: The name “Tracy” derives from the surname O’Treasant (from the Gaelic treassach, “embattled”). “O’Treasant” was established in Galway in the twelfth century. Variations include O’Trassy, O’Tressy, O’Trasey, Trassey, Tressy, Tracey, and Treacy. Although no one seems to know what John D. Tracy’s middle initial stood for, it is known that his mother’s maiden name was Donnelly, and it may well be that his full name was John Donnelly Tracy.

  5 settled in Freeport: The best single reference on Freeport and its history is Mary X. Barrett, History of Stephenson County (Freeport, Ill.: County of Stephenson, 1970). Harriett Gustason’s “Looking Back” columns for the Freeport Journal-Standard, which have been collected into a series of books by the Stephenson County Historical Society, are invaluable for preserving the recollections of Freeport’s elder citizens. Leslie T. Fargher’s manuscript Life and Times in Freeport, Illinois (1967) at the Freeport Public Library was also helpful.

  6 Caleb Brown: The Browns of Freeport are documented in Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1888); Freeport Daily Journal, 1/8/1887, 10/11/1897, and 5/18/1910; and various editions of the Freeport City Directory.

  7 “I would sit”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West, February 1992 (SW).

  8 “In accordance”: Freeport Daily Journal, 8/30/1894.

  9 Carroll Edward Tracy: Freeport Daily Democrat, 6/15/1896; and the baptismal record at the Church of St. Mary, Freeport, Illinois.

10 Dr. O’Malley: Details of the birth of Spencer Tracy are from birth certificate #3714, County of Milwaukee, and the baptismal record at the St. Rose Congregation, Milwaukee.

11 “name him”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

12 village of Bay View: My knowledge of Bay View comes principally from John Gurda, Bay View, Wis. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979); and “Walking Tours of Bay View,” a series of maps published by the Bay View Historical Society. Arthur J. Hickman’s manuscript Bay View as I Remember It (1985) at the Bay View branch of the Milwaukee Public Library was particularly helpful, as was Erwin F. Zillman, So You Will Know… (Milwaukee: Erwin F. Zillman, 1966); and Melvin A. Graffenius, A City Park for the South Side (Milwaukee: Bay View Historical Society, 1990).

13 “He’s a throwback”: Walter Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 1, Modern Screen, June 1934.

14 “He was in dresses”: Peggy Hoyt Black, “That Tough Tracy Kid,” Picture Play, February 1937.

15 kindergarten: According to archival records maintained by the Milwaukee Public School District, Spencer Bernard Tracy was registered for A.M. Kindergarten in June 1906. I am grateful to Montina Nelson of Trowbridge Elementary School of Discovery and Technology for checking this for me.

16 “signs of wanderlust”: Chicago Daily News, 12/26/36.

17 “Being sentimentally Irish”: Louis Sobol, “Voice of Broadway,” undated (NYPL).

18 “Spencer’s exploits”: Kay Proctor, “Ex-Bad Boy,” Screen Guide, April 1937.

19 “Uncle Andrew”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 2/19/04.

20 “He was terrible”: Bertha Calhoun to the author, Freeport, 7/19/06.

21 “wild ideas”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 1. The Jesse James picture was likely G. M. (later “Broncho Billy”) Anderson’s The James Boys in Missouri (1908), a particularly appealing attraction since it had been banned in Chicago. The life of Christ may have been the French import The Birth, the Life, and the Death of Christ (1906). Each film ran approximately twenty minutes.

22 “bag full of candy”: Frank Tracy to Selden West, 11/21 and 11/22/91 (SW).

23 “round him up”: Harriett Gustason, “Looking Back,” Freeport Journal-Standard, 7/14/84.

24 “all these things”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

25 “tiny lad”: Buck Herzog, “Older Brother Helped Him Over Rough Spots,” Milwaukee News-Sentinel, 8/27/38.

26 “gone back”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

27 “Spencer was always punished”: Herzog, “Older Brother Helped Him Over Rough Spots.”

28 “A tough kid”: Black, “That Tough Tracy Kid.”

29 St. John’s Cathedral: Details of the third-grade curriculum at St. John’s are from Manual of the Course of Studies for the Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Edward Keogh Press, 1903).

30 “He remembered this nun”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

31 “unlit taper”: Milwaukee News-Sentinel, 8/27/38.

32 “Admission”: “Jaunts with Jamie,” Milwaukee Sentinel, 6/28/67. The oft-repeated story of Tracy having set fire to one of his childhood homes doesn’t appear to be based in fact. It first appeared in a 1940 autobiography issued by the studio in which Tracy supposedly confessed to having “accidentally started a fire in our basement and the fire department had to be called.” In his 1962 profile of Tracy for Look, Bill Davidson ran with the incident and reported the fire as coming “close to burning down the family home.” By 1988 Davidson had decided that Tracy had deliberately started the fire after a furious argument with his father. Ten years after that, Christopher Andersen, in his book An Affair to Remember, added fresh details: “As flames shot out of the basement windows, fire trucks came roaring up the street. The entire neighborhood gathered outside on the street to watch the firemen battle the blaze for twenty minutes before finally bringing it under control. John was rigid with rage, but Carrie placed her hand on the trembling boy’s shoulder while she explained to the fire captain that Spencer had been experimenting with cigarettes in the basement.”

In 1992 Selden West spent long hours with Captain Jeff Burke of the Milwaukee Fire Department, reading the huge handwritten ledgers of Milwaukee fire calls from 1908 through 1918. Although it’s possible such an event took place prior to 1908, there was no record of a call to any of the Tracy addresses.

33 movie emporiums: My information on early Milwaukee movie theaters comes chiefly from Larry Widen and Judi Anderson, Milwaukee Movie Palaces (Milwaukee: Milwaukee County Historical Society, 1986). Individual issues of Milwaukee Journal were also consulted.

34 “the wrong kids”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

35 “a good one”: Kitty Callahan, “Spencer Tracy,” Family Circle, 6/5/42.

36 “enacting scenes”: Spencer Tracy, “Making Faces at Life” (Part I), Milwaukee Journal, 4/29/40.

37 “we have told people”: “Flo” to Carrie Tracy, 1931 (SLT).

38 “scarcely tall enough”: Carroll E. Tracy (with Fred Dudley), “The Kid Brother,” manuscript, 1943 (AMPAS).

39 Sterling Motor Truck: John Tracy joined the Sternberg Motor Truck Company sometime in 1914. The name was changed to Sterling when, due to the war in Europe, it became difficult to sell trucks bearing a German name.

40 failed spectacularly: Spencer Tracy’s grades for Wauwatosa High School were reported to Northwestern Military and Naval Academy on a form provided by the Academy in October 1919 (SW).

41 “enjoyed school”: Tom Wright, “When Spencer Tracy was Seventeen,” Movies, August 1941.

42 “badness”: “Spencer Tracy,” summary biography, 1937 (SLT).

43 “I remember Rockhurst”: Kansas City Star, 2/29/48.

44 “I started”: Richard T. English, “I’m a Mug[g] and Proud of It,” Hollywood, September 1934.

45 “clearest recollections”: Pat O’Brien (as told to S. R. Mook), “My Pal, Spencer Tracy,” Screen Book, March 1939.

46 “iron men”: A dollar was sometimes referred to as an “iron man.”

47 “All of us Catholics”: Pat O’Brien, The Wind at My Back (New York: Doubleday, 1964), p. 39.

48 “Spence and I”: Milwaukee Journal, 6/11/67.

49 “I was itching”: Spencer Tracy, “There Was a Guy…,” Screen & Radio Weekly, December 1937.

50 “Jackie” band: The term “Jackie” was widely used in the media during the Great War in lieu of the word “sailor.” It was presumably derived from the British “jack-tar.”

51 “The bands played”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 41.

52 “I was out of the house”: Tracy, “The Kid Brother.”

53 “Landsman for Electrician”: Tracy’s official military personnel record was destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in July 1973. Details of his military service are drawn from health and enlistment records at the National Archives.

54 “The training”: Wright, “When Spencer Tracy was Seventeen.”

55 “polite specimens”: Proctor, “Ex-Bad Boy.”

56 “got into the Navy”: Spencer Tracy, “Film War Too Real to Suit Private Tracy,” New York Daily Mirror, 5/8/37.

57 “turned that city over”: Wright, “When Spencer Tracy was Seventeen.” Bill Davidson’s 1988 Tracy biography Tragic Idol contains many obvious fabrications, including the memories of one Stanley Fischer, whom the author identifies as one of the men in Tracy’s unit at Norfolk. Yet a search of the U.S. Navy muster rolls at the National Archives by Rebecca Livingston of the Naval/Maritime Team established there was no one with that name stationed at either Great Lakes or Norfolk; both “Fisher” and “Fischer” were searched. (Courtesy of Tracey Johnstone.)

58 “He was a handful”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author. According to an item in the Aberdeen Daily News of August 8, 1917, “Spencer Tracy of Kansas City, Mo., has arrived in the city for a three weeks’ visit with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Feely. He will also spend some time in Ipswich with his uncle, Frank Tracy.”

59 Davidson Hall: My knowledge of Northwestern Military and Naval Academy comes from Michael J. G. Gray-Fow, Boys and Men (Lake Geneva, Wis.: Northwestern Military and Naval Academy, 1988). Conversations with Robert B. Edgers and various years of the school catalog were also helpful.

60 “college question”: H. H. Rogers, Spencer Bernard Tracy High School Credits, undated notes, circa 1920 (SW).

61 “Assuming that Spencer”: John D. Tracy to Colonel Davidson, 2/2/20 (SW).

62 “During the summer”: Lois and Kenneth Edgers, “The Spencer Tracy We Knew,” unpublished manuscript, circa, 1968 (courtesy of Robert B. Edgers).

63 “something with my hands”: Milwaukee Journal, undated clipping, 1936.

CHAPTER 3 A SISSY SORT OF THING

  1 “I remember”: H. P. Boody, “Spencer Tracy at Ripon,” The Forensic, January 1936.

  2 “most popular man”: Lola Schultz Castner to Selden West, via telephone, 3/17/92 (SW).

  3 “enjoyed the trips”: Edgers, “The Spencer Tracy We Knew.”

  4 “a fellow in our house”: Professor J. Clark Graham, as quoted in Donald Deschner, The Films of Spencer Tracy (New York: Citadel Press, 1968), p. 34.

  5 “one of the strongest actors”: Ripon College Days, 3/17/21 (RC).

  6 trip herself up: Milwaukee Journal, 7/22/45. See also Clemens E. Lueck, undated manuscript (RC).

  7 “proved himself”: Ripon College Days, 6/23/21 (RC).

  8 “My God”: Ibid.

  9 “fond of Spence”: Lorraine Foat Holmes to Selden West, Wellesley, Mass., 6/20/92 (SW).

10 “more arguments”: Sobol, “Voice of Broadway.”

11 “The Dean”: Carol Holmes Phillips to Selden West, 1/22/92 (SW).

12 “Of all the wonders”: These lines, from Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II, are reversed.

13 flunked Zoology: Spencer B. Tracy, Ripon College Student Record.

14 “The response”: H. P. Boody, Suggestions for the Actor (Ripon, Wis.: Pi Kappa Delta, 1926), p. 21.

15 Bad weather: My account of the Truth tour is drawn from Ripon College Days, 12/26/21 and 1/10/22, and Selden West’s interview with Lorraine Foat Holmes.

16 “I found”: Spencer Tracy, “Professor Boody Pointed My Nose Toward the Stage,” The Forensic, January 1936.

17 “His quiet manner”: Ripon Commonwealth, 1/17/22.

18 “As a result”: Deschner, The Films of Spencer Tracy, p. 35.

19 “There were two places”: Curtis MacDougall, “Rambling Reminiscences,” unpublished manuscript, February 1985 (SW) (courtesy of Priscilla Ruth MacDougall).

20 “home fires”: Ripon College Days, 2/22/22 (RC).

21 “anything like a skit”: Larry Swindell, Spencer Tracy (New York: World Publishing, 1969), p. 28. See also Roy Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1967), p. 144.

22 “sensitive & masculine”: Tracy’s original evaluation sheet is at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

23 “His ability”: Ripon College Days, 4/11/22 (RC).

24 Defects in speech: Details of the AADA curriculum are from the 39th Annual Catalogue of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Empire Theatre Dramatic School, 1922–23 (AADA).

25 “quite the place”: ST to Lorraine Foat, 6/2/22 (SW).

26 “very ambitious”: New Canaan Advertiser, December 1969 (SW).

27 “pulling wires”: O’Brien, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

28 “two steep shaky flights”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 55.

29 “Don’t worry”: Eleanor Cody Gould, Charles Jehlinger in Rehearsal (New York: American Academy of Dramatic Arts, 1958), pp. 1–10.

30 He wrote “good”: The original evaluation sheet for Olive Lorraine Foat is at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

31 “Pat and I”: Lloyd Shearer, “Spencer Tracy,” Parade, 12/18/55.

32 “Dear God”: Scott Eyman, “Interview with Pat O’Brien,” Films and Filming, April 1982.

33 “couldn’t afford”: Films and Filming, March 1971.

34 “I didn’t know”: Spencer Tracy, “Making Faces at Life” (Part III), Milwaukee Journal, 5/1/40.

35 “Spence and I”: Pat O’Brien, “Spencer Tracy As Is,” Screenland, November 1951.

36 “hot stuff”: Chicago Tribune, 11/14/37.

37 “I shall always be grateful”: ST to Frances Fuller, 4/3/62 (AADA).

38 “soft spot”: Sobol, “Voice of Broadway.”

CHAPTER 4 THE BEST GODDAMNED ACTOR

  1 “credit to dramatic stock”: Billboard, 10/11/24.

  2 “a hard critic”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d. (JKA).

  3 “My salary”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

  4 horrifying discovery: Louise Tracy always remembered that her son John was ten months old when she learned of his deafness, which would mean the discovery took place in April 1925. She also consistently remembered that she and her husband were planning to go out that night. In Grand Rapids, Spencer Tracy worked seven nights a week beginning April 12, 1925, so the event most likely occurred sometime between April 5, the day he began rehearsals for The Nervous Wreck (which was also his twenty-fifth birthday), and April 11, the last night he would have free.

  5 “sleeping porch”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d. (JKA).

  6 “awakening from a nightmare”: Louise Treadwell Tracy, The Story of John, unpublished manuscript, circa 1941, p. 1 (SLT).

  7 “gained in poise”: Grand Rapids Herald, 4/13/25.

  8 “hated the idea”: A. D. Rathbone IV, “Out of Spencer Tracy’s Yesterdays,” Photoplay, October 1940.

  9 “naughtiest thing”: Emily Clagett Deming to Selden West, Grand Rapids, 3/21/93 (SW). See also Grand Rapids Press, 11/20/79.

10 “inconvenient indisposition”: Grand Rapids Herald, 4/21/25.

11 “John hears”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 3.

12 “deaf and dumb”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.

13 “I was in love”: Larry Swindell to the author, Moraga, Calif., 6/28/05.

14 “Acting gave us”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 45.

15 “out of the faint”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 51.

16 “no one I wanted to act with”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 45.

17 Spence was involved with: When Selden West asked Emily Deming if Tracy had affairs with any of the other women in the company, she replied, “Well, the ingénue and he had a pretty good time together. Betty—she was the ingénue.” Betty Hanna (1903–76) joined the Broadway Players on April 5, 1925, and remained with the company for the rest of the season. Later, when asked if Hanna had been an “item” with Tracy, Deming replied, “Rather briefly, as I remember it.” Larry Swindell interviewed Louise Tracy in 1968 and noticed that she would “freeze a bit” when Selena Royle’s name was mentioned. However, in her unpublished autobiography, Royle was mystified as to why Louise was so cool to her when she arrived in Hollywood in 1944, something that likely would not have surprised her had she actually slept with Spencer Tracy.

18 “all the crazy things”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.

19 “lost her interest”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

20 “just broke down”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d. In The Story of John, Louise remembered that she told her husband of their son’s deafness in July 1925. In “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Spencer Tracy remembered it was on a Sunday. The earliest Sunday on which Tracy would not have had to give a performance would have been July 5, almost exactly three months from the time when Louise first learned of John’s deafness.

21 “Words of encouragement”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 5.

22 “pin him down”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

23 “That good-for-nothing!”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

24 “gripping”: Stamford Advocate, 10/10/25.

25 savvy notice: Variety, 10/14/25.

26 “exactness”: Trenton Times, 11/10/25.

27 “evidence of a temper”: Ethel Remey to Selden West, via telephone, 1/3/78 (SW).

28 “Fortunately for John”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 11.

29 “no kind of a life”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

30 “last stand”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 12.

31 “nice young man”: Louise Tracy to Jane Ardmore, 7/5/72 (JKA).

32 “a reprieve”: Chicago Tribune, 11/14/37.

33 “best opportunity”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 33.

34 “purposes of prestige”: Variety, 9/29/26.

35 “Lambs Club”: ST to Pete Martin.

36 “direct his shows”: John McCabe, George M. Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973), p. 205.

37 “scared to death”: ST to Pete Martin.

38 “During rehearsals”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 52. See also McCabe, George M. Cohan: “After giving an order or a change in direction,” she remembered, “he would say, ‘Gay-head, gay-head,’ which meant, ‘Go ahead, go ahead.’ We never knew why he used that particular pronunciation.”

39 Nat Goodwin: McCabe, George M. Cohan, p. 214.

40 “a wonderful night”: Tracy to Ardmore, 7/5/72.

41 “nervous theatrical dynamite”: Variety, 9/15/26.

42 “delighted the heart”: New York Journal, 9/22/26.

43 “rang the doorbell”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 27.

44 “very disturbed”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.

45 “like any father”: Barry Norman, The Hollywood Greats (New York: Franklin Watts, 1980), p. 73.

46 “You see, Billy”: Pat O’Brien to Ralph Story, “Spencer Tracy: An Unauthorized Biography” (Ronald Lyon Productions, 1975).

47 “very happy”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 2/28/27 (NYPL).

48 “Business is only fair”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 3/7/27 (NYPL).

49 “never believed in this”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

50 third week’s gross: Weekly figures for Ned McCobb’s Daughter are from Variety, 2/23, 3/3, 3/18, and 4/13/27.

51 “Wright’s proposition”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 3/14/27 (NYPL).

52 “One evening”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 42.

53 “to avoid thunder”: Lima Sunday News, 5/15/27.

54 “How many bankers”: Lima News, 4/12/27.

55 “Miss Louise Treadwell”: Lima News, 4/25/27.

56 “threw me a line”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

57 “Things are running along”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 5/14/27 (NYPL).

58 “specially written part”: New York Times, 10/9/27.

59 “It is the lead”: Chamberlain Brown to ST, 6/7/27 (NYPL).

60 “the big chance”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 6/10/27 (NYPL).

CHAPTER 5 DREAD

  1 “I sent your wire”: Chamberlain Brown to ST, 6/7/27 (NYPL).

  2 “this clipping”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 7/1/27 (NYPL).

  3 “terrible mess”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 9/19/27 (NYPL).

  4 “cocked my head”: ST to Pete Martin.

  5 “Listening”: “Cohan Was Original Good Listener,” undated clipping (SLT).

  6 “her latest letter”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 51 (SLT).

  7 “ ‘feel’ his lines”: Spencer Tracy, “That Grand Guy Cohan,” Modern Screen, December 1932.

  8 “look like a bum”: William F. French, “The Greatest Friendship in Hollywood,” Modern Movies, February 1938.

  9 Radio: Tracy also mentioned working in radio in a letter to a Miss Cochrane dated December 19, 1927. The only radio program sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY) during the run of The Baby Cyclone featured the close-harmony team of Gus Van and Joe Schenck, two seasoned vaudevillians who delivered “rapid-fire comedy and high-altitude records in the vocal scale” over WEAF and six stations of the National Broadcasting Company. Whether Tracy was indeed the show’s folksy announcer, known simply as “Sam the Touring Man,” is seemingly lost to memory, for the man behind the voice was never publicly identified.

10 “Florida!”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

11 “a long time”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

12 “up at your apartment”: John E. Tracy to ST, 3/1/28 (SLT).

13 “He adored this son”: Lorraine Foat Holmes to Selden West.

14 “Spence, at that time”: Charles R. Sligh, Jr., to Selden West, Delray Beach, Florida,11/23/91 (SW).

15 “a very separate part”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

16 “I am desperate”: John E. Tracy to ST and Carroll Tracy, 4/21/28 (SLT).

17 “He got sick”: Garson Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn (New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 146.

18 “Dry times or wet”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 122.

19 “Mother dear”: ST to Carrie Tracy, n.d. (SLT).

20 “An unemployed actor”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 76.

21 “I didn’t like my part”: Clark Gable (as told to James Reid), “My Pal, Spencer Tracy,” Screen Life, July 1940.

22 “The final impression”: New York Times, 3/7/29.

23 “So there we all were”: Jean Dalrymple Oral History, Columbia University, 1979.

24 “Next season”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, n.d. (NYPL).

25 “we had played together”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 53.

26 “nothing stagy”: Providence Journal, 6/25/29.

27 “Upstairs and down”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 59.

28 “The women”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 145.

29 “You’ll—never—have”: The unpublished text of Dread is in the Copyright Office’s Drama Deposits collection at the Library of Congress.

30 “spit fire”: Washington Post, 10/21/29.

31 “going to Brooklyn”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 41.

32 “parlance of the stage”: Brooklyn Standard Union, 10/30/29.

33 “most enthusiastic”: New York Herald Tribune, 5/26/40. Tracy told Broadway columnist Ed Sullivan the same thing.

34 “laugh about Dread”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 42.

35 “I don’t remember”: Jane Ardmore, “Mrs. Spencer Tracy’s Own Story,” Ladies’ Home Journal, December 1972.

36 “Louise flamed”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”

37 “a pretty disconsolate guy”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 120.

CHAPTER 6 THE LAST MILE

  1 “how it will feel”: Robert Blake, “The Law Takes Its Toll,” American Mercury, July 1929.

  2 “Blake’s sketch”: Wexley originally cut Blake’s mother in for 5 percent of the author’s royalties. Once the play hit big on Broadway, friends in Texas sent Mrs. Ella Blake to New York, where she demanded a bigger share. Eric Pinkler, Wexley’s agent, arranged to raise her share to 20 percent when it became apparent that the entire first act was derived almost entirely from Blake’s work. Subsequently she attended a performance and was introduced to the cast.

  3 “It was one o’clock”: Dallas Morning News, 4/13/41.

  4 “A few of his performances”: Chester Erskine, “Spencer Tracy: The Face of Integrity,” The Movie (UK), No. 7, 1980.

  5 “so violent”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

  6 “The sixteen”: Herman Shumlin, “Teamwork and ‘The Last Mile,’ ” New York World, 5/20/30.

  7 “cooperative and disciplined”: Chester Erskine, Spencer Tracy: A Biographical and Interpretive Symposium, treatment for a TV documentary, circa 1968, p. 15 (SLT).

  8 “I cannot remember”: Spencer Tracy, “Long Runs Wear,” New York Telegraph, 4/6/30.

  9 “rank melodrama”: Hartford Times, 2/7/30.

10 “Some individuals”: New York Sun, 3/31/30.

11 “No detail”: New York Daily News, 2/14/30.

12 “Nothing this season”: New York American, 2/14/30.

13 “I was supposed to”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 146.

14 “say I was gone”: Howard Teichmann, Smart Alec (New York: Morrow, 1976), p. 149.

15 “A prison play”: New York Evening Post, 2/14/30.

16 “desperation and fury”: New York Telegram, 2/14/30.

17 “taut, searing”: New York Times, 2/14/30.

18 “grimly effective”: New York Sun, 2/14/30.

19 “thrillingly savage”: New York World, 2/14/30.

20 “the final seal”: Commonweal, 4/9/30.

21 practically sold out: Weekly figures for The Last Mile are from Variety, 2/19, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12, 3/26, and 5/28/30.

22 “Mr. Erskine’s direction”: New York Times, 2/17/30.

23 “enthralled by the terrible”: Life, 3/7/30.

24 “Nobody ever said”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 145.

25 “doesn’t photograph well”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

26 “What have I done”: The first reel of Taxi Talks is preserved at the Library of Congress, but no audio is known to exist. A dialogue continuity for the film is in the Warner Bros. Archives at the University of Southern California.

27 “It was all strange”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 47.

28 “I liked it”: Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/16/73.

29 “I’d meet Spencer”: John Ford and Katharine Hepburn to Dan Ford, n.d., John Ford Collection, Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.

30 “ ‘I’d like to have him’ ”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 146.

31 “The producer”: Elisabeth Goldbeck, “Some New Evidence About Spencer Tracy,” Movie Classic, December 1932.

32 “AS SHOW MUST OPEN”: Tracy’s contract for Up the River is in the 20th Century-Fox collection at UCLA.

33 “Sheehan wanted”: Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 52. Variety credited the idea of the two men breaking back into the prison to a Fox publicity man named Joe Shea.

34 “I’m in Hollywood”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

35 “That’s all John needs”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 65.

36 “[Ford] called us to the studio”: Claire Luce, unpublished autobiography (courtesy of Mrs. Jeanne Selvin) (SW).

37 “It was interesting”: Joan L. Jacobsen to the author, via telephone, 5/1/07.

38 “some base color”: Michael F. Blake to the author, via e-mail, 4/23/07.

39 a new contract: A letter dated August 16, 1930, advised Tracy that the studio intended to exercise a six-month option on his services commencing June 1, 1931, as allowed in his contract.

40 “must get home”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 66.

CHAPTER 7 QUICK MILLIONS

  1 “Poor Tommy”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 77.

  2 “Well acted”: Variety, 9/3/30.

  3 “THOUGHT OF DEAR DAD”: ST to Carrie Tracy, 8/31/30 (SLT).

  4 “walking down Park”: Charles R. Sligh, Jr., to Selden West (SW).

  5 Gardner’s offer: Jack Gardner to Sol M. Wurtzel, 9/1/30 (FOX).

  6 “Forwarding you today”: Sol M. Wurtzel to ST, 9/4/30 (FOX).

  7 “magnificent and terrifying”: Deschner, The Films of Spencer Tracy, p. 20.

  8 “My Dear Mr. Wurtzel”: ST to Sol M. Wurtzel, 9/12/30 (FOX).

  9 “a pack of fools”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 69 (SLT).

10 “Sheehan refused to go”: Bogdanovich, John Ford, p. 52.

11 “Can you imagine”: New York American, 10/13/30.

12 “worst actor”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

13 “William Fox”: Details on the battle for control of Fox Film are from “The Case of William Fox,” Fortune, May 1930; and various issues of Variety.

14 “The Sheehan influence”: Motion Picture Herald, 7/28/45.

15 “The remarkable thing”: S. N. Behrman, “You Can’t Release Dante’s Inferno in the Summertime,” New York Times Magazine, 7/17/66.

16 “Terrett knew well”: Philippe Garnier, Honni Soit Qui Malibu (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1996), p. 123.

17 negative cost: The cost of Quick Millions is from the research library of Karl Thiede.

18 “Look at that man”: Lewis Yablonsky, George Raft (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974), p. 60.

19 “what a time I had”: John Ford to Dan Ford, n.d., John Ford Collection.

20 “Mr. Tracy’s performance”: New York Times, 4/18/31.

21 brutally bad: The week’s figures for Quick Millions are from Variety, 4/22 and 4/29/31.

22 flat rate: Details of the Hughes loan-out are from Tracy’s Legal Department file (FOX).

23 Armory in Culver City: The shooting schedule for Ground Hogs is in the Jack Mintz Collection (AFI). Mintz was unit manager on the picture.

24 “take three steps”: Ridgeway Callow Oral History with Rudy Behlmer, 1974 (AFI).

25 “It had always been there”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

26 “shy side”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

27 “seen a few rushes”: S. R. Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him,” Screen Book, March 1938.

28 “drink the least little bit”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

29 “direct imitation”: Variety, 6/30/31.

30 undeniable losers: Quick Millions posted a loss of just under $3,000 on worldwide rentals of $278,000. Figures for both Quick Millions and Six Cylinder Love are from the research library of Karl Thiede.

31 “most marvelous picture”: Ruth Biery, “Worry! Who—Me? Say!” Photoplay, December 1932.

32 twelve drafts: The writing of She Wanted a Millionaire is documented in the Fox script files at USC and UCLA.

33 “rather private person”: Joan Bennett (and Lois Kibbee), The Bennett Playbill (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970), p. 216.

34 lose weight: Variety, 8/11/31.

35 “YOU HAVE LOST”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 2/23/04.

CHAPTER 8 THE POWER AND THE GLORY

  1 “wild, attractive Irishman”: Bennett, The Bennett Playbill, p. 209.

  2 “Having an affair”: Rumors of Tracy’s involvement with Joan Bennett and John Considine’s jealousy are discussed by Ruth Biery in “Worry! Who—Me? Say!” although Biery says all this was going on while Tracy was still addressing the actress as “Miss Bennett.” Bennett herself, in an interview with David Heeley and Joan Kramer in 1985, said, “I didn’t know him socially at all, so I can’t account for his behavior off the set.”

  3 “my dressing room”: Doug Warren, James Cagney: The Authorized Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), p. 132.

  4 Sheehan’s attorney: Details of Winfield Sheehan’s illness are from Variety, 12/8/31, 12/22/31, and 1/12/32.

  5 Sky Devils: Details of the film’s pre-release engagements are contained in a memo from Lincoln Quarberg to Hal Horne, 1/29/32 (AMPAS). The film did equally well in New York, where brisk business was reported at the 2,200-seat Rivoli.

  6 “After the preview”: S. R. Mook, “Tough to You,” Picture Play, September 1932.

  7 “go down to the brewery”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”

  8 “ever since they can remember”: Silver Screen, July 1932.

  9 “telephone repairmen”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 156.

10 “six days off”: Dan Thomas, “Movie Colony Glimpses and Inside Stuff,” undated clipping (SLT).

11 “the picture that sold me”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”

12 “future B.O. strength”: Motion Picture Herald, 4/2/32.

13 “domestic rentals”: Worldwide rentals of $548,693 yielded a profit of $19,456 on Disorderly Conduct. According to the research library of Karl Thiede, the film’s negative cost was $298,972.

14 “The last two parts”: S. R. Mook, “Tracy Talks!” Screenland, January 1934.

15 “I could not but add up”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 123.

16 “I was so pleased”: Interview with Ardmore, 6/27/72.

17 “I was disappointed”: John Tracy, “My Complicated Life” (Part One), Volta Review, June 1946.

18 “a little more absurd”: Los Angeles Times, 6/19/32.

19 “steadfast faith”: S. R. Mook, “The Man Who’s Had Everything,” Screenland, October 1943.

20 results of a survey: Variety, 8/23/32.

21 “If pressed”: Mook, “Tough to You.”

22 considerably richer: Details of Tracy’s loan-out to Warner Bros. are from his Fox Legal Department file.

23 “going to a picture”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”

24 “every possibility”: Lewis E. Lawes to Jack L. Warner, 8/12/32 (WB).

25 Warren Hymer: Hymer’s behavior on the set of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing is documented in the film’s production file (WB). Tracy’s handling of Hymer is described in S. R. Mook, “Every-Day Tracy,” Silver Screen, January 1933.

26 “crazy about my performance”: Whitney Stine, “I’d Love to Kiss You …”: Conversations with Bette Davis (New York: Pocket Books, 1990), p. 129.

27 “only George Arliss”: Stine, “I’d Love to Kiss You,” p. 131.

28 “joked his way through it”: Joan Bennett to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 11/20/85 (TH).

29 “giving medals”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”

30 “an atrocity”: Variety, 9/27/32.

31 “something about horses”: Thomas, “Movie Colony Glimpses and Inside Stuff.”

32 “He comes home”: Mook, “Tough to You.”

33 “people he liked”: Spencer Tracy, “My Pal, Will Rogers,” Hollywood, December 1935.

34 “first to the café”: New York Times, 8/25/35.

35 “feel about nightlife”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”

36 all-time low: Me and My Gal finished its week at the Roxy with a pallid $22,000 and fared no better in general release. An exhibitor in Harrisburg, Illinois, called it a “rough and ready comedy-drama that has its moments, and at times seems to show promise of getting somewhere but never reaches there, and when it’s over you have the feeling that it was just another little picture with detectives and bad bank robbers all mixed up with the wisecracks of Tracy and Bennett. We ran it on a Sunday and Monday and were sorry, as it drew very poor on these days” (Motion Picture Herald, 4/15/33). According to the research library of Karl Thiede, worldwide rentals totaled just $391,564. With a negative cost of $308,684, the film posted a loss of $82,550.

37 “very much makeup”: New York Sun, 2/24/33.

38 “The manuscript crackled”: Jesse L. Lasky (with Don Weldon), I Blow My Own Horn (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1957), p. 246.

39 “predicate all our plans”: Variety, 1/17/33.

40 “They sent me the script”: Colleen Moore to the author, via telephone, 3/26/77.

41 “sex relationship”: Sidney Kent to Winfield Sheehan, 3/7/33.

42 “The schedule calls”: Preston Sturges to Solomon Sturges, 3/27/33, Preston Sturges Collection, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles.

43 “dialogue overlapped”: S. R. Mook, “Master Mugg,” Screenland, April 1933.

44 “This isn’t a business”: Philip Trent (Clifford Jones) to Selden West, via telephone, 9/29/93 (SW).

45 “I was 21 years old”: Lincoln W. Cromwell, M.D., Dear Spence: Letters to Spencer Tracy from His Medical Student, unpublished manuscript, 1980, preface, p. 1 (SW).

46 “four to eight films a year”: Mook, “Master Mugg.”

47 “ogling the poinsettias”: Tracy, “The Kid Brother.”

48 “go out and get drunk”: (Suspect Name Redacted), interview with victim’s former driver, 6/27/34, FBI file 7-749 (SW).

49 “the best of my recollection”: Colleen Moore to Selden West, 12/9/77 (SW).

50 “He just went on”: Colleen Moore to Selden West, via telephone, 12/15/77 (SW).

51 “when the latter picture is released”: Hollywood Reporter, 4/29/33.

52 “wandered off”: Frank Tracy to Selden West (SW).

53 “what Carroll needs”: Frank Tracy to Selden West, via telephone, February 1993 (SW).

54 “What are you dissatisfied about?”: Tracy, “Making Faces at Life” (Part V).

55 “complement his realities”: Fay Wray, On the Other Hand (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), p. 145.

56 “most daring”: Hollywood Reporter, 6/19/33.

57 “frightened us”: Ibid., 6/20/33.

58 “most in all the world”: Los Angeles Examiner, 6/23/33.

59 Sheehan got $3,000: Details of Tracy’s loan-out to Columbia are from his Fox Legal Department file.

CHAPTER 9 THE AMOUNT OF MARRIAGE WE’VE EXPERIENCED

  1 “The situation was not”: Frederick Lewis, “Spencer Tracy Conquers Himself,” Liberty, 10/9/1937.

  2 “They had decided”: Lorraine Foat Holmes to Selden West.

  3 “Borzage had a way”: James Bawden, “Loretta Young,” Films in Review, November 1987.

  4 “Irritable as a bear”: Mook, “Tough to You.”

  5 “Her diction”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

  6 “Louise and I stood up”: Carter Bruce, “I’m Glad I Married Before I Came to Hollywood,” Modern Screen, October 1933.

  7 “The papers forced us”: S. R. Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation,” Movie Mirror, November 1933.

  8 “I gave them a statement”: Mook, “Tracy Talks!”

  9 “very susceptible”: New York Times, 3/30/95.

10 “Spencer and I”: Jack Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early,” Movie Classic, March 1934.

11 “Such fire”: Bawden, “Loretta Young.”

12 “Spencer asked me”: Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early.”

13 “The story was a trifle”: Bawden, “Loretta Young.”

14 “conscious of Loretta”: Gladys Hall, “Spencer Tracy’s Love Confession,” Movie Mirror, March 1934.

15 “gorgeous person”: Howard Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy” (Part 3), Photoplay, April 1937.

16 “meant Lee Tracy”: Joan Wester Anderson, Forever Young (Allen, Tex.: Thomas More Publishing, 2000), p. 70.

17 “grows in stature”: New York American, 8/17/33.

18 “a more exacting role”: New York Daily Mirror, 8/17/33.

19 “No more convincing performance”: New York Times, 8/17/33.

20 “its first seven days”: Figures for The Power and the Glory are from Variety, 8/22, 8/29, 9/5, and 9/12/33. “A very good picture, but a box office flop,” reported an exhibitor in Elvins, Missouri. “Marvelous acting by Spencer Tracy. Too depressing and slow for the masses” (Motion Picture Herald, 11/11/33).

21 “going to the set”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

22 “Her dining tete-a-tete”: Los Angeles Examiner, 9/14/33.

23 “I’ve been in love”: Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early.”

24 Madge Evans admitted: Larry Swindell to the author.

25 “not a devout Catholic”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

26 “I hope you’re not”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West (SW).

27 “What could I say”: Leatrice Joy to Selden West, via telephone, September 1977 (SW).

28 “Securely held”: Los Angeles Examiner, 9/22/33.

29 “anything of this sort”: Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy,” Part 3.

30 “so cheesy”: Claire Trevor to Selden West, New York City, 10/4/95 (SW).

31 “He liked the way”: John Gallagher, “Claire Trevor,” Films in Review, November 1983.

32 “run a story”: S. R. Mook, “Tracy Fights Through,” Screenland, May 1935.

33 “I’d known Louise and Spencer”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”

34 “good time”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy As I Know Him.”

35 “There’s nothing about it”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”

36 “The talk”: Jack Oakie, Jack Oakie’s Double Takes (San Francisco: Strawberry Hill Press, 1980), p. 160.

37 “The studio believes”: MPPDA memorandum, 6/6/33 (AMPAS).

38 “impossible to eliminate”: Sam Briskin to Dr. James Wingate, 7/22/33 (AMPAS).

39 “a fine and tender picture”: Dr. James Wingate to Harry Cohn, 10/13/33 (AMPAS).

40 “matter-of-fact sincerity”: Hollywood Reporter, 10/11/33.

41 “enchanted with the romance”: Wray, On the Other Hand, p. 230.

42 “off-set scenes”: Undated clip, December 1933 (SLT).

43 “How could it?”: Hall, “Spencer Tracy’s Love Confession.”

44 “The superintendent”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

45 “doing arithmetic”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 112 (SLT).

46 “being deaf”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.

47 “domestic rentals”: According to the research library of Karl Thiede, domestic rentals for Man’s Castle totaled $388,000 in its initial release.

48 “the name of Spencer Tracy”: Hollywood Reporter, 1/23/34.

49 “put on the shelf”: Ibid., 1/25/34.

50 The script: Mankiewicz also received credit for adapting the play at Paramount. That version was released in 1930 under the title Men Are Like That.

51 “still married to Louise”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.

52 “Pete Are Silverton”: The full text of the extortion letter is contained in FBI file 7-749.

53 “I felt ashamed”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.

54 $2,500 option: Details of the deal between Mrs. Carolyn Rothstein Behar and Fox Film Corporation are from the Fox Legal Department file on Now I’ll Tell (FOX).

55 “Tracy does the impossible”: Hollywood Reporter, 2/22/34. The Trouble Shooter (retitled Looking for Trouble) was released the same day as The Show-Off.

56 “capital performance”: New York Times, 3/17/34.

57 “His appeal”: Evening Standard, 6/4/34.

58 bargain price: Figures for The Show-Off are from Variety, 3/20 and 3/27/34; and the Edgar J. “Eddie” Mannix ledger at the Margaret Herrick Library (AMPAS).

59 “deposited in the room”: William Bakewell, Hollywood Be Thy Name (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1991), p. 60. Wayne later told a business associate that Tracy, drunk and belligerent, had sucker punched him, and that he had reflexively—and unapologetically—knocked him out.

60 “Spence was a darling”: Judy Lewis, Uncommon Knowledge (New York: Pocket Books, 1994), p. 17.

61 “Hollywood’s too easy”: New York American, 4/22/34.

62 filled the Roxy: Box office figures for Now I’ll Tell are from Variety, 5/29, 6/5, and 6/12/34. According to data in the research library of Karl Thiede, domestic rentals just about equaled the film’s negative cost of $308,200. Foreign rentals amounted to $167,900, roughly 30 percent of the worldwide total of $472,300. It was carried on the books at a loss of $45,290.

63 “I am sure the pressure”: Anderson, Forever Young, p, 75.

CHAPTER 10 AND DOES LOVE LAST?

  1 “ ‘aren’t going to do that’ ”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

  2 “Never have I seen women”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 151.

  3 “No one asked any questions”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”

  4 “In most ways”: Louise Treadwell Tracy, The Broader Outlook, unpublished playscript, circa 1934 (SLT).

  5 “Tracy at the time was in bed”: George Wasson to Jack J. Gain, 7/2/34 (FOX).

  6 “Speaking of TRACY”: Los Angeles Examiner, 7/5/34.

  7 “mention of Loretta’s name”: Jack Grant, “Why Loretta Young Broke Up Her Romance,” Movie Mirror, October 1934.

  8 “not an experienced actor”: Ted Perry and David Shepard, Henry King, Director: from silents to ’scope (Los Angeles: Directors Guild of America, 1995), p. 89.

  9 “Here is where”: Ted Perry, Henry King Oral History, unedited manuscript, Directors Guild of America.

10 “middle of the flight”: Robert Nott, “The Kinks of Comedy,” Filmfax, December– January 1994.

11 “I recommended”: Neil McCarthy to Alfred Wright, 4/5/39 (FOX).

12 “most severe penalty”: Variety, 9/11/34.

13 “mounted the horse”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.

14 “Immersed as we were”: Cromwell, Dear Spence, p. 38.

15 “The studio gumshoed”: Lasky, I Blow My Own Horn, p. 247.

16 “Forget what’s happened”: Mook, “Tracy Fights Through.”

17 “While discussing the contract”: Jack J. Gain to Sidney R. Kent, 11/1/34 (FOX).

18 “Spence’s naiveté”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”

19 “The drama aims”: Outline, Inferno, by Philip Klein and Rose Franken, 6/22/34 (USC).

20 “He clouts the engineer”: Eric Knight to Paul Rotha, 10/27/34, Paul Rotha Papers, Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.

21 “prove to the unsuspecting public”: Louise Treadwell Tracy, “The Women Take to Polo,” Polo, June 1935.

22 “Our shots”: Abilene Morning News, 11/23/34.

23 “Spencer Tracy reconciliation”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 12/8/34.

24 “They gave him a lot of time”: Claire Trevor to Selden West.

25 “I ran amuck”: Gladys Hall, “Why My Wife and I Are Together Again,” Movie Mirror, May 1935. Bill Davidson, in his 1988 biography of Tracy, quotes a late publicity man, one Jim Denton, as saying the actor showed up drunk one morning on the set of Dante’s Inferno and chased director Harry Lachman around the stage. Winfield Sheehan, when summoned, supposedly ordered the soundstage locked with Tracy asleep inside it. Denton went on to assert that Tracy awoke at some point and trashed the set, causing approximately $100,000 in damage.

Dante’s Inferno was shot at Western Avenue, not Fox Hills, and Sol Wurtzel would have been summoned in such an instance, not Sheehan. Claire Trevor, who would have been present, recalled no such incident, and Ralph Bellamy, who, according to Davidson, “vividly” remembered it, makes no mention of it in his 1979 autobiography. Moreover, there is nothing about Tracy damaging a set in any of the trade papers, nor in his Fox legal file, where a penalty would doubtless have been documented had Tracy caused anywhere near that much damage.

Davidson, incidentally, first reported such an incident in his 1962 profile of Tracy in Look. In that article the incident is said to have occurred in 1933, not 1935, and the alleged quotes are attributed to a “movie executive” who was a reporter at the time.

26 “finest actor”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”

27 “I am Spencer Tracy”: Los Angeles Examiner, 3/5/33.

28 “ranch life”: Hall, “Why My Wife and I Are Together Again.”

29 “They fired me”: Hollywood Citizen News, 4/14/52.

30 “Old pact”: Variety, 11/13/34.

31 “successful in securing”: Leo Morrison to ST, 4/10/35 (SLT).

32 “no question in my mind”: Astrid Allwyn Fee to Selden West via telephone, 1/9/78 (SW).

33 “half loaded”: Charles Higham, Hollywood Cameramen (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), p. 141.

34 “go off to Virginia”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

35 “drunk and resisting”: Los Angeles Times, 3/12/35. See also Los Angeles Examiner, 3/12/35.

36 “so sadly lacking”: Hollywood Reporter, 3/25/35.

37 “should rest before”: Los Angeles Examiner, 4/1/35.

38 “wounding his vanity”: Allvine, The Greatest Fox of Them All, p. 153.

CHAPTER 11 THAT DOUBLE JACKPOT

  1 “Without stars”: Irving G. Thalberg, undated draft memo to Nicholas Schenck (author’s collection).

  2 “We recognize”: Memorandum of Agreement between Spencer Tracy and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 4/2/35, Turner Entertainment/SW.

  3 “by mutual consent”: Cancellation Agreement between Spencer Tracy and Fox Film Corporation, 3/30/35 (SLT).

  4 “very flattering offer”: Los Angeles Times, 4/3/35.

  5 “most valuable stars”: Los Angeles Examiner, 3/12/44.

  6 “pieces of property”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 161.

  7 “a million dollars”: Los Angeles Examiner, 5/16/35.

  8 “first-rate yarn”: The Murder Man, synopsis by Edward Hogan, 3/21/35 (MGM).

  9 binge-drinking insomniac: In the original dialogue continuity by Tim Whelan and Guy Bolton, Steve Gray is “morose and drinks too much” but is not a binge drinker. The scene introducing Gray on the merry-go-round after a disappearance of several days first appears in a dialogue continuity by John C. Higgins dated May 22, 1935 (AMPAS).

10 “quiet, compelling conviction”: Daily Variety, 7/6/35.

11 Loew’s Capitol: Figures for The Murder Man are from Variety, 8/7/35. According to the Mannix ledger, the film cost $167,000 and returned a profit of $78,000 on total billings of $397,000.

12 “criminal reporter”: Variety, 7/31/35.

13 “fairly exciting”: New York Telegraph, 7/28/35.

14 “greedily accepted”: Screen and Radio Weekly, 8/25/35.

15 final tally: According to the research library of Karl Thiede, domestic and foreign rentals for Dante’s Inferno totaled $786,200. With a negative cost of $748,900, the film posted a loss of $269,900.

16 “went to pieces”: Scott Eyman, Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p. 149.

17 “sat around talking”: Tracy, “My Pal, Will Rogers.”

18 “my sense of humor”: Los Angeles Examiner, 8/19/35.

19 “sorry you were sick”: Judith Wood to Selden West, via telephone, 2/3/93 (SW).

20 “Tracy’s gassed”: David Stenn, Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow (New York: Doubleday, 1993), p. 195.

21 “A press agent”: Teet Carle, “Magnificent Katharine Hepburn: A Study in Magnetism,” Hollywood Studio Magazine, August 1974.

22 “wiped me out”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West, Los Angeles, 8/6/93 (SW).

23 “had me scared”: Charles Darnton, “Down With Romance!” Screenland, February 1937.

24 “contrasting me to Jean”: Myrna Loy (with James Kotsilibas-Davis), Being and Becoming (New York: Knopf, 1987), p. 122.

25 “very much surprised”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.

26 “I think every woman”: Lyn Tornabene, Long Live the King (New York: Putnam, 1976), p. 193.

27 “I called him for it”: Patrick McGilligan, Film Crazy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), p. 247.

28 “Judy Garland”: It is perhaps the existence of these innocent photographs that prompted Bill Davidson to include an assertion in his 1988 book Tragic Idol that Tracy dated Garland “who then was only fifteen.” The information supposedly came from James Cagney and, significantly, was published only after Cagney’s death. Joe Mankiewicz, who was seriously involved with Garland in the forties, characterized the story as “absolute bullshit,” as did Garland’s third husband, Sid Luft. Dependably, Christopher Andersen repeated the story, adding details. According to Andersen, the relationship began in January 1937, when Garland was only fourteen: “Jimmy Cagney warned his friend the inevitable gossip could ruin his career. [But] Tracy continued to see Garland privately, and after their romance ended, they remained close …” In Andersen’s account, Cagney’s warning is of the career-ruining potential of the “inevitable gossip” rather than the effect an arrest for statutory rape could have had on Tracy’s future. There is, of course, no evidence whatsoever that Tracy and Garland were involved at any time in their lives.

29 “Who said that?”: Undated clipping (NYPL).

30 “He shouldn’t have said that”: Dottie Wellman to Selden West, via telephone, 7/12/95 (SW).

31 “a lot of fistfights”: McGilligan, Film Crazy, p. 247.

32 “a little misunderstanding”: Los Angeles Examiner, 12/4/35.

33 “We’ve been friends”: Los Angeles Times, 12/4/35.

34 “The beaut”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 12/5/35.

35 “I told my idea”: Patrick McGilligan, ed., Backstory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), p. 219.

36 “let you make this film”: Kenneth L. Geist, Pictures Will Talk (New York: Scribners, 1978), pp. 76–77.

37 “dictate it”: Gordon Gow, “Cocking a Snook,” Films and Filming, November 1970.

38 “they killed my dog”: Norman Krasna’s original story, as dictated from memory by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, is in the M-G-M collection at USC, along with story conference notes and draft screenplays by Leonard Praskins and Bartlett Cormack.

39 “talked to Fritz”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West, Bedford, New York, 1/17/92 (SW).

40 “Sacco and Vanzetti”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 145.

41 “Tracy … is a lawyer”: Fritz Lang and Leonard Praskins, “Notes of Story Conference,” 8/31/35 (MGM).

42 “walking along the street”: Jeanette MacDonald, Oral History with Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Franklin, Columbia University, June 1959.

43 six words: Gottfried Reinhardt, Oral History with Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Franklin, Columbia University, 1959.

44 “soap opera”: Anita Loos, Kiss Hollywood Good-by (New York: Viking, 1974), p. 129.

45 “a little dubious”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

46 “an unhappy man”: John McCabe to Katharine Hepburn, 3/14/86 (KHLA).

47 “I was seventeen”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 24.

48 “awful scared”: New York Sun, undated clipping (NYPL).

49 “I’m a Roman Catholic”: Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy,” Part 3.

50 “didn’t think I ought”: “Spencer Tracy Learned a Lesson,” Picturegoer (UK), 12/11/37.

51 “Here we were”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

52 “less self-conscious”: Patrick McGilligan, Tender Comrades (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), p. 702.

53 “Lambs Club”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

54 “Gable is a mess!”: Edward Baron Turk, Hollywood Diva (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), p. 181.

55 “all the stories”: Joseph Newman to the author, via telephone, 11/25/03.

56 “I like Tracy”: Turk, Hollywood Diva, p. 181.

57 “first day’s work”: Sam Katz to Fritz Lang, 4/22/36 (AFI).

58 “peanut addict”: Gail Gardner witnessed this exchange and described it in her syndicated column of April 18, 1936.

59 “big ego”: Boston Globe, 7/7/74.

60 “Lang … would have”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 1985 (TH).

61 “He gained a lot”: Joseph Newman to the author.

62 “We were pretty serious”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

63 “Aces” Hatfield: Herman J. Mankiewicz’s partial screenplay, dated January 9, 1935, is in the Turner/M-G-M Scripts Collection (AMPAS). Anita Loos’ earliest draft of the screenplay, also incomplete, is dated April 23, 1935 (MGM).

64 “When Sylvia Sidney”: Tracy, “Making Faces at Life,” Part 4.

65 “Now figure Spence”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

66 “I can’t stand this”: Joseph Ruttenberg, American Film Institute Oral History with Bill Gleason, 1972 (AFI).

67 “In shooting”: Joseph Ruttenberg, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis.

68 “The earthquake was flat”: Los Angeles Times, 6/3/77.

69 “hell on everybody”: Scott Eyman, “Joseph Ruttenberg,” Focus on Film, spring 1976.

70 “we worked like slaves”: New York Herald Tribune, 12/20/36.

71 “bad to much worse”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer (TH).

72 “solitary salted peanut”: The Fury screenplay, by Bartlett Cormack and Fritz Lang, including deleted scenes and the original ending, can be found in John Gassner and Dudley Nichols, eds., 20 Best Film Plays (New York: Crown, 1943), pp. 521–82.

73 “A man gives a speech”: Peter Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang in America (New York: Praeger, 1969), pp. 27–28.

74 “I agree”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Fritz Lang, 4/25/36 (AFI). It should be noted that almost everything Lang had to say with regard to the genesis and editing of Fury conflicts with the archival record. “I had found a four-page story by Norman Krasna—I wanted to do that” (The Real Tinsel, p. 342). The Production Code file notes that Mankiewicz verbally outlined the story to Iselin Auster and Geoffrey Sherlock on August 21, 1935, and furnished a written treatment the next day. In separate interviews both Krasna and Mankiewicz agreed that it was Mankiewicz, and not Lang, who remembered the story and committed it to paper when Krasna himself had forgotten it.

“Mr. Mankiewicz came late to the project. It was I who chose the subject and worked on the script … During the course of shooting he became the producer” (Focus on Film, spring 1975). Notes from the first story conference between Lang and Leonard Praskins are dated August 31, 1935. Notes first showing Mankiewicz’s participation are dated September 3, 1935. When a full script (titled The Mob) was sent to the PCA for review on January 24, 1936, the cover letter clearly identified Mankiewicz as the producer. Filming began on February 20, 1936.

75 “test under fire”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer.

76 “a first preview”: Geist, Pictures Will Talk, p. 80.

77 “all very well”: “Loew’s Inc.,” Fortune, August 1939.

78 “often been asked”: Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang in America, pp. 29–30.

79 “Peter Lorre”: Geist, Pictures Will Talk, p. 78. Lang also asserted that “because he drank like a fish” Tracy’s contract with Metro provided “that if he had so much as a glass of beer they could throw him out.” There was, of course, no such clause in Tracy’s M-G-M contract, dated April 8, 1936, other than standard language regarding public behavior (the so-called morals clause) and the artist’s inability to render services by reason of mental or physical incapacitation.

80 “I don’t think Spence”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

81 “great document”: Spencer Tracy, 1936 datebook (SLT).

82 “Fritz Lang”: New York Herald Tribune, 12/20/36. Lang was born in Vienna, but made his early films in Germany.

CHAPTER 12 THE BEST YEAR

  1 “The house”: S. R. Mook, “Spencer Tracy’s Home Life,” Screenland, March 1940.

  2 “consummate exhibition”: Daily Variety, 5/19/36.

  3 “It looked hopeless”: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 5/28/36.

  4 “most courageous”: New York World-Telegram, 6/6/36.

  5 a “builder”: New York Enquirer, 6/14/36.

  6 The picture ran up: Figures for Fury are from Variety, 6/10, 6/17, and 6/24/36; and the Mannix ledger.

  7 The Plough and the Stars: Director John Ford later blamed Irving Thalberg’s death for the cancellation of Tracy’s loan-out to RKO, but Thalberg was still alive when the reversal was made public in July 1936. There is some reason to believe that Ford held Tracy personally responsible for welshing on the commitment, which would have teamed him with actress Barbara Stanwyck and a predominantly Irish cast that included Una O’Connor, Erin O’Brien Moore, Bonita Granville, Mary Gordon, and five members of the Abbey Players (imported from Dublin). Once again, actor Preston Foster was substituted for Tracy, and the resulting film was not only less than Ford had hoped, but subsequently butchered by the studio. It would be more than twenty years before Ford and Tracy would again work together on a picture.

  8 “What the movies need”: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, 2/18/36.

  9 “a truthful man”: Charles Bickford, Bulls, Balls, Bicycles & Actors (New York: Paul S. Erikson, 1965), p. 227.

10 “peered frantically”: Hollywood Citizen News, 6/25/36.

11 “most difficult role”: Variety, 7/1/36.

12 “another brilliant portrayal”: New York Times, 6/27/36.

13 “A year ago”: Ed Sullivan, “The Best Bet of the Year,” Silver Screen, September 1936.

14 “HAD WONDERFUL TRIP”: ST to Sol Wurtzel, 6/26/36 (AMPAS).

15 “You’ll never know”: Ed Sullivan, “A Prediction that Came Doubly True,” Silver Screen, April 1940.

16 “Walking on the set”: Hollywood Citizen News, 7/2/36.

17 “He moped”: Loy, Being and Becoming, p. 141.

18 “cashier’s office”: Darnton, “Down With Romance!”

19 “do his best”: Sheilah Graham, Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist (New York: Morrow, 1969), p. 37.

20 “ ‘beginning to gain weight’ ”: Kitty Callahan, “Spencer Tracy,” Family Circle, 6/5/42.

21 “an unrevealed script”: New York Times, 7/3/36.

22 “Fought against it”: Gladys Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words,” Motion Picture, November 1937.

23 “his first part”: Ida Zeitlin, “Manuel the Lovable,” Modern Screen, October 1937.

24 “every picture in town”: Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words.”

25 “So what?”: Harold Keene, “How Spencer Tracy’s Love Survived Its Greatest Test,” Movie Mirror, October 1937.

26 “Susie … was only four”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 176.

27 my hair curled: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 149.

28 “fall on your ass”: Bosley Crowther, notes, Eddie Mannix interview, May 1953, Bosley Crowther Collection, Brigham Young University.

29 the funeral: Michael Sragow, in his biography of Victor Fleming, incorrectly reports that Tracy fell off the wagon as a result of Thalberg’s death. By evidence of his own datebooks, Tracy was completely dry before and during the filming of Captains Courageous.

Bill Davidson, in Tragic Idol, asserts more generally that Tracy went on a bender during the picture, in part to put across a lurid scene at the opening of his book. Davidson quotes M-G-M publicist (and later producer) Walter Seltzer, who worked briefly under publicity chief Howard Strickling. According to Seltzer’s quote (as reported by Davidson), Tracy turned his rage on the furnishings in his sixth-floor suite at the Beverly Wilshire, heaving chairs against the walls and bringing his fists down on the surface of a small writing desk with such force that it was smashed in two. Lamps were shattered, mirrors broken, bottles flung at doors and windows. Management allegedly called Carroll, who was admitted to the locked room, then called Strickling’s office at M-G-M when the commotion went unabated. When the door to the suite was unlocked with a passkey, studio security personnel accompanying Strickling and “half of the publicity department” supposedly witnessed the sight of Tracy wrestling his brother toward an open window with the obvious intent of adding him to the topography of Wilshire Boulevard.

When queried about the quote Davidson attributes to him, Seltzer responded: “That is inaccurate. I wasn’t there and never witnessed such a thing. It might possibly have happened, but that’s something Howard never would have talked about. I don’t know where Bill got that; I knew Bill and we talked often, but that particular quote was a complete fabrication.” Walter Seltzer to the author, via telephone, 4/16/08.

30 “practicing dialect”: “Spencer Tracy’s Learned a Lesson.”

31 “Tracy was sore”: Capt. J. M. Hersey, “The Log of the We’re Here,” Woman’s Home Companion, April 1937.

32 “full schedule”: Mickey Rooney, Life Is Too Short (New York: Villard Books, 1991), p. 94.

33 “purposely set out”: Victor Fleming, “Filming Captains Courageous—A Director’s Own Story,” Captains Courageous souvenir program, 1937.

34 “put on a clean shirt”: New York Times, 12/13/36.

35 “educated Portuguese”: Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words.”

36 “warm feelings”: Freddie Bartholomew in M-G-M: When the Lion Roars (Part Two—“The Lion Reigns Supreme”), Turner Pictures/Point Blank Productions, 1992.

37 “Slick as a whistle”: Spencer Tracy, “The Log of the We’re Here,” Picturegoer, 12/11/37.

38 “There is a drawbridge”: S. R. Mook, “For More Than Money,” Screenland, May 1938.

39 “Stubby Kruger”: Hersey, “The Log of the We’re Here.”

40 “Anything for release”: Yvonne Beaudry, “Tracy and Beaudry,” Silurian News, May 1992.

41 “idealistic role”: Chicago Daily News, 5/29/37.

42 “I think of you”: ST to Lincoln Cromwell, 1/12/37.

43 “As everyone knows”: Oakland Tribune, 1/31/37.

44 “well on my way”: Los Angeles Times, 5/16/37.

45 “I’m alive today”: Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy,” Part 3.

46 thyroid: A goiter is typically the result of low iodine in the diet, a condition the body attempts to correct by stimulating the production of hormones in the thyroid gland. In the days before iodine was routinely added to table salt, goiters were common in inland areas where the soil was often deficient in iodine. In the United States, Milwaukee was considered part of the “goiter belt.”

47 “And what a storm!”: Abilene Reporter-News, 3/14/37.

48 “a beautiful kid”: McGilligan, Backstory, p. 252.

49 “got away with it”: Zeitlin, “Manuel the Lovable.”

50 “When we emerged”: Beaudry, “Tracy and Beaudry.”

CHAPTER 13 THE NEW RAGE

  1 “they hauled me out”: Spencer Tracy, “Film War Too Real to Suit ‘Private’ Tracy,” New York Daily Mirror, 5/8/37. Tracy’s datebook for 1937 shows that he completed Captains Courageous on Monday, February 15, and started They Gave Him a Gun the next day.

  2 “anti-war document”: Los Angeles Times, 5/16/37.

  3 most employees: Walter Seltzer remembered a meeting of the sixty-member M-G-M publicity staff in 1939: “Our boss, Howard Strickling, announced that through the generosity of the studio, all of us as of now are members of the Academy; he had enrolled everyone and paid the initiation fee. There was general jubilation and thanks, then he proceeded to tell us how we were to vote.” (“History of Hollywood Ups and Downs,” Associated Press, 2/23/05.)

  4 “Critics”: Hollywood Citizen News, 3/5/37.

  5 “haven’t been telling”: Howard Sharpe, “The Startling Story Behind Spencer Tracy’s Illness,” Movie Mirror, July 1937.

  6 “game of handball”: Helen Gilmore, “Spencer Tracy’s Tribute to Jean Harlow,” Liberty, spring 1972.

  7 “accept him as a heel”: Maurice Rapf to Selden West, 11/30/95 (SW).

  8 “derby hat”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 149.

  9 “stiff-shirted gentlemen”: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, 5/15/37.

10 “man to be thanked”: Los Angeles Times, 5/16/37.

11 “magnificent job”: Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words.”

12 “Fifth Avenue”: Zeitlin, “Manuel the Lovable.”

13 “publicity value”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”

14 “heavy responsibility”: Chicago Daily News, 5/28/37.

15 “She doesn’t nag”: Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words.”

16 “He saw you”: Ted Shane, “He Should Worry,” Liberty, 12/15/45.

17 “despises chi-chi”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy’s Home Life.”

18 “I can’t believe it”: Gilmore, “Spencer Tracy’s Tribute to Jean Harlow.”

19 “She meant to pull her punch”: Darnton, “Down With Romance!”

20 “He came home”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

21 “wonderful man”: Luise Rainer to the author, via telephone, 12/30/03.

22 “It isn’t worth it”: New York World-Telegram, 4/16/38.

23 “I never acted”: Marie Brenner, Great Dames (New York: Crown, 2000), p. 175.

24 “a marvelous time”: Dore Schary, Heyday (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), p. 88.

25 already seen it: The first time Johnny saw his father on-screen was in Sky Devils. “I remember him sitting there,” Louise said. “Suddenly, the first time John saw him on the screen, he just sat there and said, ‘Fa-ther.’ ” He saw Captains Courageous for the first time with his cousin Jane: “I cried and cried when he drowned, and John looked around and, even though he couldn’t hear, he could see people looking at me, so he tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry. Father dived in the water, went under the boat, and came up on the other side.’ ”

26 “staring at the screen”: Susie Tracy to the author, via telephone, 1/10/08.

27 the boat: Tracy sold the Carrie B to director Michael Curtiz for $12,000. The next time he saw the boat, it was dirty and renamed the Do De Do. Eventually ownership fell to actor Dick Powell.

28 “any kind of actor”: Mook, “For More Than Money.”

29 holding his nose: Milwaukee Sentinel, 6/28/67.

30 “spoiled it all”: Spencer Tracy, 1937 datebook (SLT).

31 “whitewashed a little”: Lucile Sullivan, “Marry for Money” coverage, 6/11/36 (MGM).

32 “Pure male”: Joan Crawford, as quoted in the program for a Tracy Retrospective at Wesleyan College, 1973.

33 “an absolute muddle”: Roy Newquist, Conversations with Joan Crawford (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1980), p. 81.

34 “For crissake”: Bob Thomas, Joan Crawford (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), p. 125.

35 “hot fudge sundaes”: Alice Mannix to the author, via telephone, 8/2/06.

36 “what kind of ice cream”: Jean Wright to the author, via telephone, 9/21/06.

37 “Voting contests”: Chicago Tribune, 11/14/37.

38 “most attractive”: Hall, “You Can’t Put Spencer Tracy into Words.”

39 “The characters are excellent”: Joe Richardson, “Wings of Tomorrow” coverage, 1/27/36 (MGM).

40 “King” and “Queen”: The voting tallies are from the Hollywood Citizen News, 12/7/37.

41 “big plush crowns”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

42 “That broadcast tonight”: Hollywood Citizen News, 12/11/37.

43 “our would-be coronation”: Loy, Being and Becoming, p. 152.

44 “From start to finish”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

45 “went off for lunch”: Marshall Schlom to the author, Brea, Calif., 8/14/06.

46 “be my best”: John Lee Mahin to Lyn Tornabene, 10/17/73 (AMPAS).

47 “Directors’ Table”: Howard Strickling to Lyn Tornabene, 10/25/73 (AMPAS).

48 “Any other star”: Jean Garceau (with Inez Cocke), “Dear Mr. G——” (Boston: Little, Brown, 1961), p. 76.

49 “I noticed that the fliers”: Loy, Being and Becoming, pp. 152–54.

50 “That plane was used”: Laraine Day, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis, 7/17/79.

51 “We saw each other”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West (SW).

52 “come home at night”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, p. 78.

53 “in the guest room”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer.

54 “very attractive woman”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West, Bedford, New York, 10/3/91 (SW).

55 “I wear this Irish costume”: Hollywood Citizen News, 2/4/38.

56 “achieving dramatic effect”: Los Angeles Examiner, 11/3/36.

57 “open approbation”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, p. 77. Tracy told a version of the story to Garson Kanin that suggests purposeful avoidance of the banquet, claiming that Dr. Dennis had merely told him he had an “incipient hernia” and that the surgery was entirely elective. However, Tracy’s 1937 datebook makes it clear that the diagnosis was conclusive. “Have definite hernia,” he wrote on December 17, long before his Best Actor nomination for Captains Courageous. “Should be operated upon.”

58 “I had to get home”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

59 “an Academy renaissance”: Hollywood Citizen News, 3/11/38.

60 “If you have to go up”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

CHAPTER 14 ENOUGH TO SHINE EVEN THROUGH ME

  1 “the pattern of Oliver Twist”: Monsignor E. J. Flanagan, “The Story Behind Boys Town,” Photoplay, November 1938.

  2 “After reading”: Schary, Heyday, p. 93.

  3 “I expected robes”: McGilligan, Film Crazy, p. 194.

  4 “just a straight man”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

  5 “grimly alone”: Beaudry, “Tracy and Beaudry.”

  6 “written in gold”: Rev. E. J. Flanagan to ST, 2/4/38 (BT).

  7 “win space”: Rev. E. J. Flanagan to John Considine, Jr., 2/12/38 (BT).

  8 “All actors”: Rt. Rev. Edward J. Flanagan, “I Meet Myself in Spencer Tracy,” Liberty, 10/8/38.

  9 “do him good”: Variety, 4/27/38.

10 “the restless type”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

11 discovered bleeding: Details of William Powell’s 1938 battle with cancer are from an interview with the actor in Time, 5/10/63.

12 “pretty blue”: Spencer Tracy, 1938 datebook (SLT).

13 “what was left”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 146.

14 “I was sick”: Franc Dillon, “Meet Father Tracy,” Picture Play, December 1938.

15 “saw a figure coming”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 152.

16 “Tracy will sail”: Los Angeles Times, 4/17/38.

17 “huge supply of liquor”: David Wayne to James Fisher, 12/14/92, as quoted in James Fisher, Spencer Tracy: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 17.

18 “should not see”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 153.

19 a private plane: Details of Tracy’s evacuation from New York are in notes taken from Spencer Tracy’s M-G-M personnel files by Selden West in 1992, Turner Entertainment/SW. The same day, according to Lambs Club records, Tracy was suspended from the privileges of the club for violation of House Rule #13 “pending action by the Council.” A violation of House Rule #13 was “conduct unbecoming a member” (NYPL).

20 “able to find him”: Dore Schary in M-G-M: When the Lion Roars (Part Two—“The Lion Reigns Supreme”).

21 “Unfortunately”: John Considine, Jr., to Rev. E. J. Flanagan, 4/27/38 (BT).

22 “Mickey Rooney … was a pretty cocky”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer.

23 “darn near died”: James Reid, “Even Barrymore Calls Him the Best,” Motion Picture, November 1938.

24 “He was artless”: Gene Reynolds to the author, via telephone, 2/6/06.

25 “eyes bore into mine”: Dickie Moore, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), p. 161.

26 “one of the first scenes”: Tom and Jim Goldrup, Growing Up on the Set (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002), p. 306.

27 “can’t explain it”: Moore, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, p. 73.

28 “During lunch”: “The Story Behind the Movie: Alumni Remember Boys Town,” posted at boystownmovie.org.

29 “Tracy off the booze”: Beth Day Romulo to Selden West, 10/17/92 (SW).

30 “schooling was insufficient”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.

31 “that’s the worst picture”: Robbin Coons, “Plain Guy,” Screen Guide, February 1948.

32 “Washington—no!”: Rev. E. J. Flanagan to Frank Whitbeck, 8/12/38 (BT).

33 “There was applause”: Motion Picture Herald, 9/10/38.

34 “Pure sentiment”: Daily Variety, 9/2/38.

35 “brilliant, restrained performance”: Hollywood Reporter, 9/2/38.

36 “dying hog”: Omaha Morning World-Herald, 9/8/38.

37 “If you have a diamond”: Howard Strickling to Lyn Tornabene, 10/25/73 (AMPAS).

38 “Early on”: Gary Carey, All the Stars in Heaven (New York: Dutton, 1981), p. 108.

39 “an honest question”: Washington Star, 9/17/40.

40 “like the children”: Hall, “Spencer Tracy Speaks His Mind.”

41 “world unto itself”: Maureen O’Sullivan in M-G-M: When the Lion Roars (Part Two—“The Lion Reigns Supreme”).

42 “In Howard’s book”: Ann Straus, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis.

43 “made it difficult”: June Caldwell to the author, Culver City, Calif., 9/22/04.

44 “I have often wondered”: Rev. E. J. Flanagan to ST, 11/1/38 (BT).

45 “Each detail of this film”: Josef von Sternberg, Fun in a Chinese Laundry (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p. 277.

46 “He wouldn’t stand”: Laraine Day to Barbara Hall, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oral History, January–March 1997 (AMPAS).

47 “There’s no mistaking”: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, 11/26/38.

48 “I Take This Woman”: Dallas Morning News, 12/27/38.

49 “Just imagine”: Dallas Morning News, 3/8/39.

50 “Humph!”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

51 “in a wheelchair”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

52 “highway accident”: New York Times, 9/9/38.

53 “The omission”: Los Angeles Times, 1/13/39.

54 “it is disrespectful”: Dillon, “Meet Father Tracy.”

55 “I could tell”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

56 “I honestly do not feel”: Hollywood Citizen News, 2/24/39. The story that the name on the Oscar, due to an engraving error, was “Dick” Tracy instead of “Spencer” is apparently untrue. The origin of the story is unknown.

57 “all primed”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

58 “I didn’t see Boys Town”: ST to Pete Martin.

59 “Not dramatized enough”: Story conference notes, 6/16/37 (USC).

60 “Forget the silly business”: Philip Dunne, Take Two (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), p. 58.

61 loose loan-out: In a letter dated 9/2/39, 20th Century-Fox agreed to compensate Loew’s Incorporated $75,111.11 for the loan of Tracy (FOX).

62 “He came to me”: King to Perry, Directors Guild Oral History.

63 “In vino veritas”: Henry King, as quoted by Larry Swindell to the author. The old Irish equivalent: “Alcohol takes the varnish off anything.”

64 “soundproof stages”: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, 3/18/39.

65 “I’m slowly improving”: Reid, “Even Barrymore Calls Him the Best.”

66 “tuck in his chin”: Hall, “You Can Only Defeat Yourself.”

67 “Do you realize”: Dallas Morning News, 3/8/39.

CHAPTER 15 A BUOYANT EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCE

  1 “Next time I come”: New York Times, 11/1/38.

  2 “The crowd that charged”: New York Times, 5/14/39.

  3 “What am I doing in London?”: Unidentified clipping, 4/27/39 (SLT).

  4 “think fast”: Film Weekly, 5/6/39.

  5 “All the Kennedys”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p.65.

  6 “Grapes of Wrath”: Hollywood Citizen News, 5/29/39.

  7 “I had wires”: New York World-Telegram, 4/16/38.

  8 “hope to do more”: Mook, “For More Than Money.”

  9 “And it occurred”: Theresa Helburn to ST, 5/25/39 (TGC).

10 “motion picture business”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

11 “Don’t worry”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 7/31/39.

12 “well taken care of”: Nancy Dowd and David Shepard, King Vidor: A Directors Guild of America Oral History (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1988), p. 180.

13 “I’ll play him”: Sullivan, “A Prediction That Came Doubly True.”

14 “Hunt Stromberg”: Dowd and Shepard, King Vidor, p. 182.

15 “no complete story line”: King Vidor to Eddie Mannix, 5/17/39, as quoted in Rudy Behlmer, “To the Wilderness for Northwest Passage,” American Cinematographer, November 1987.

16 “At this time”: Dowd and Shepard, King Vidor, p. 182.

17 “unsavory characters”: Harrold A. Weinberger, unpublished autobiography, circa 1972 (USC).

18 “renovated camp”: Leonard Maltin, “Conversations: Robert Young,” Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy, spring 2003.

19 “include me out”: Walter Brennan, Oral History with Charles Higham, Columbia University, 8/11/71.

20 “Young, Brennan and I”: Hall, “You Can Only Defeat Yourself.”

21 “wearing buckskin”: Maltin, “Conversations: Robert Young.”

22 “He becomes so thoroughly”: John R. Wolfenden, “Spencer Tracy as Seen by His Best Friends,” Australian Women’s Weekly, 1/6/40.

23 “marvelous performance”: King Vidor to Selden West, Los Angeles, December 1977 (SW).

24 “SERIOUS CHANGES”: ST to Eddie Mannix, 7/20/39, as quoted in “To the Wilderness for Northwest Passage.”

25 “He had an expression”: King Vidor to Selden West.

26 “AGREE WITH YOU”: Hunt Stromberg to King Vidor, 8/3/39, King Vidor Papers, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

27 “HAVE SCREENED”: Hunt Stromberg to ST, 8/4/39, King Vidor Papers.

28 “he blamed himself”: David Caldwell to the author, via telephone, 11/4/06.

29 “a close friend”: Interview with Ardmore, 8/1/72 (JKA).

30 he was so “nervous”: Spencer Tracy, 1939 datebook (SLT).

31 “a very good eye”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d. (JKA).

32 “motor running”: Frank Tracy to Selden West (SW).

33 “I was sorry”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

34 “It would be wonderful”: Reid, “Even Barrymore Calls Him the Best.”

35 “you seemed upset”: ST to Eddie Mannix, 8/24/39 (SLT).

36 “very intuitive”: Maltin, “Conversations: Robert Young.”

37 “big tow line”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, 2/23/04.

38 “I couldn’t do that”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

39 “Frank NEVER asked”: Dorothy McHugh to Selden West, Cos Cob, Conn., 1/31/92 (SW).

40 “Spence was at M-G-M”: Frank McHugh to Ralph Bellamy, 7/5/77, Ralph Bellamy Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

41 “There was no thought”: James Cagney to Selden West, 2/11/78 (SW).

42 “I did the entire picture”: Dowd and Shepard, King Vidor, p. 182.

43 “historical character”: Grace Wilcox, “Injuns!” Sunday Magazine, Detroit Free Press, 2/4/40.

44 “THE PREVIEW”: Kenneth Macgowan to ST, 7/11/39, Kenneth Macgowan Papers, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

45 “severely scholarly”: Hollywood Reporter, 8/1/39.

46 “Comes the revolution!”: Los Angeles Times, 8/27/39.

47 survey by Elmo Roper: Full results of the survey can be found in Fortune, November 1939.

CHAPTER 16 SOMEONE’S IDEA OF REALITY

  1 “make these changes”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 10/27/39.

  2 “believe everything”: Flo Marshall, “Six Characters in Search of Spencer Tracy,” Movies, November 1940.

  3 “civilized comedy”: Ben Hecht, Charlie (New York: Harper, 1957), p. 160.

  4 “They didn’t want me”: Hedy Lamarr, Ecstasy and Me (New York: Bartholomew House, 1966), p. 71.

  5 “did one rehearsal”: Laraine Day to Barbara Hall.

  6 “was an alcoholic”: Lawrence Weingarten, American Film Institute Seminar with James Powers, 1/23/74 (AFI).

  7 Tracy was “onto him”: Bosley Crowther, notes, Spencer Tracy interview, 5/10/53, Bosley Crowther Collection, Brigham Young University.

  8 “a very prayerful guy”: Adela Rogers St. Johns to Ralph Story, Spencer Tracy: An Unauthorized Biography.

  9 a “quickie” questionnaire: Hall, “You Can Only Defeat Yourself.”

10 “a bet I had”: Dallas Morning News, 1/25/40.

11 “the kind of stuff”: Daily Variety, 2/8/40.

12 humiliation: While Tracy’s personal reviews were good, I Take This Woman was variously described in the press as “lame and inept,” a “pretty sorry affair,” and an “amazing blend of tedium and trash.” Stubbornly, the studio booked it into Radio City Music Hall—a real shocker for the industry, given the picture’s almost legendary status—and the results were predictably disastrous. It did well enough in playoffs, however, to hold the overall loss to $325,000 on a final cost of nearly $1.3 million.

13 “They spent half their time”: Adela Rogers St. Johns to Ralph Story, “Spencer Tracy.”

14 “THIS YEAR’S GREATEST”: Gable, “My Pal, Spencer Tracy.”

15 “thought I was crazy when”: Callahan, “Spencer Tracy.”

16 “Can you imagine that?”: Harry Evans, “Hollywood Diary,” Family Circle, 8/23/40.

17 “One evening”: Stewart Granger, Sparks Fly Upward (New York: Putnam, 1981), pp. 348–49.

18 “ideas of experience”: John Erskine, “The Private Mind of Spencer Tracy,” Liberty, 8/24/40.

19 “What’ll you have”: Milwaukee Journal, 6/10/40.

20 “Today marks”: The Ripon Alumnus, June 1940.

21 “Roosevelt”: Louise, a Republican, supported Willkie in the election.

22 “Another picture”: Washington D.C. News, 9/13/40.

23 “you got a rotten deal”: Gene Buck to Rev. E. J. Flanagan, 8/23/39 (BT).

24 “step out”: Boys Town Times, 2/23/40.

25 “stuffy”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

26 “You would not be good”: Frank McHugh to Ralph Bellamy.

27 “never forget”: Adela Rogers St. Johns to Ralph Story, “Spencer Tracy.”

28 “always been fascinated”: Katharine Hepburn, Me (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 274.

29 “Barrymore”: Richard Mansfield, who predated Tracy’s theatergoing years, was also reputed to have accomplished the transformation sans makeup.

30 “the change”: Unidentified clipping, January 1941 (SW).

31 “tests without makeup”: J. D. Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon (Tempe, Ariz.: Phoenix House, 1978), p. 31.

32 “Ingrid came to Fleming”: Roy Mosley, Evergreen: Victor Saville in His Own Words (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), p. 146.

33 Men of Boys Town: A mechanical affair, the Boys Town sequel lacked the sincerity and emotional heart of the original. (Bobs Watson to director Norman Taurog: “Do you want halfway down tears or all the way down tears?”) Father Flanagan went through the same promotional motions as for Boys Town, coming to California for another “tribute” luncheon, this one broadcast live over NBC, but privately he thought the film fell “far below” the standard of the original. When the picture opened sluggishly, Louise wrote Spence from New York: “Got quite a few of the papers with the Boys Town notices. Considine should go out and stay drunk after those.”

34 “Which one”: This famous anecdote has been repeated dozens of times, usually portraying Maugham as having watched a scene of Tracy as Mr. Hyde. Its earliest telling, however, is in “Hollywood’s New Bogey Man” (Hollywood, July 1941), in which writer Tom De Vane places himself on the set of the dinner scene after four days of shooting. Tracy tells the story on himself, pinpointing it as having occurred the previous day. Garson Kanin later quotes him as telling it, considerably embellished, in Remembering Mr. Maugham, pp. 121–23.

35 “The Hyde part”: Chicago Tribune, 2/22/41.

36 “Ingrid … came to my office”: Mosley, Evergreen: Victor Saville in His Own Words, p. 146.

37 first dined together: Tracy’s relationship with Ingrid Bergman is documented in his 1941 datebook (SLT).

38 “I watched her relationship”: Laurence Leamer, As Time Goes By (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), p. 72.

39 “six sets of teeth”: Mosley, Evergreen: Victor Saville in His Own Words, p. 146.

40 “emotionally upset”: Silver Screen, August 1941.

41 “that of star”: Contract between Loew’s Incorporated and ST, 4/15/41, Turner Entertainment/SW.

42 “tests of clothes”: Sidney Franklin to Chester Franklin, 3/28/41, as quoted in Sidney Franklin’s unpublished memoir, We Laughed and We Cried, p. 365 (courtesy of Kevin Brownlow).

43 “I remember Victor Fleming”: Eugene Eckman to the author, via telephone, 7/28/04.

44 “what a pleasure”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West.

45 “violently pro-Nazi”: Anne Revere to Selden West, circa 1978 (SW).

46 “hardest-working man”: New York World-Telegram, 5/17/41.

47 “on the set”: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings to Beatrice H. McNeill, 6/24/41, as quoted in Gordon E. Bigelow and Laura V. Monti, eds., The Selected Letters of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1983), pp. 204–05.

48 “How can I”: Louis D. Lighton to Elia Kazan, as quoted in Elia Kazan, Kazan: A Life (New York: Knopf, 1988), p. 311.

49 “we dissolved”: Joseph Ruttenberg, American Film Institute Oral History.

50 “master screen work”: Hollywood Reporter, 7/22/41.

51 “They laugh”: P.M., 8/13/41.

52 Abbott and Costello: New York Mirror, 8/13/41. “I remember Spencer talking about those bad reviews,” actress-playwright Katharine Houghton wrote in an e-mail. “They still rankled so many years later primarily because he hadn’t wanted to wear the makeup and did so against his better judgment. He was mad mostly at himself for caving in.”

53 “BIGGEST BUSINESS”: Nicholas Schenck to ST, 8/13/41 (SLT).

54 “It wasn’t the awards”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”

CHAPTER 17 WOMAN OF THE YEAR

  1 “have trouble finding”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy’s Home Life.”

  2 “I could see a change”: Charles R. Sligh, Jr., to Selden West.

  3 “the name Feely”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

  4 “two or three months”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

  5 Peggy Gough: The studio’s fan mail department took care of mail for stars and contract players who didn’t have secretaries of their own (or whose secretaries didn’t handle fan mail). Generally speaking, fan letters weren’t answered. Those requesting photos got a postcard listing the price of a picture (which, according to Peggy Gough, annoyed a good many people). Besides Tracy, the stars at M-G-M who had secretaries of their own to deal with fan mail were Robert Taylor, Robert Montgomery, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Crawford, and the Marx Brothers. See also: “Calling All Secretaries,” Modern Screen, June 1940.

  6 “very charitable”: Peggy Gough to Mrs. Frances Rasinen, 11/11/40 (courtesy of Patricia Mahon).

  7 “ ‘doing anything else’ ”: Frank Tracy to Selden West. In the book Tragic Idol, author Bill Davidson quotes Carroll Tracy as supposedly saying that one of John Tracy’s “greatest hopes” was that one of his sons would become a priest. Both Jane Feely Desmond and Frank Tracy doubted the quote was genuine. “I can’t imagine Carroll emoting that much about anything. Really,” Frank told Selden West in 1991.

  8 “impression of Spence”: David Caldwell to the author.

  9 “clash in print”: Garson Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn (New York: Viking, 1972), p. 80.

10 “Gar … had decided”: Ring Lardner, Jr., I’d Hate Myself in the Morning (Emeryville, Calif.: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2000), p. 91.

11 “Garson … probably sent it”: Patrick McGilligan, ed., Backstory 3 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p. 203.

12 “They made a mistake”: Dallas Morning News, 10/6/41.

13 “a very good time”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to George Stevens, Jr., 11/3/82, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey Collection, AMPAS.

14 “I was terrified”: Lupton A. Wilkinson and J. Bryan III, “The Hepburn Story” (Part 1), Saturday Evening Post, 11/29/41.

15 “We would have been lucky”: Jim Murray, “Kate, the Untamed Shrew,” draft Time cover story and interview transcripts, 1952, Time Magazine Morgue/SW. Although both Ring Lardner and Michael Kanin confirmed the $100,000 sale to Metro, the August 1, 1941 agreement transferring ownership of the property to Loew’s Incorporated specified a payment of $40,000 for the rights to the story. The $100,000 figure was to include all work on the screenplay as well as the story rights. Garson Kanin later described working on the script with his brother, Lardner, and Hepburn in a suite at the Garden of Allah. Kanin was in uniform, on a short leave. Food and drink, he recalled, were sent over from Chasen’s.

16 “George Cukor”: Katharine Hepburn to George Stevens, Jr., 11/3/82, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey Collection (AMPAS).

17 “Kate called on me”: George Stevens to Charles Higham, circa 1974, Charles Higham Collection, USC.

18 “Gable was more likely”: Doug McGrath, “Ring Lardner, Jr./Maurice Rapf,” On Writing, August 1997.

19 “brilliant actor”: Katharine Hepburn to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 9/5/85 (TH).

20 “I don’t think Spencer”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

21 lesbian: Hepburn, Me, p. 400.

22 “masculine drive”: Murray, “Kate, the Untamed Shrew.”

23 “She stopped”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer, New York, 1985 (TH).

24 “Spencer was five-eleven”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer. Although Hepburn claimed to be taller, her 1927 passport, issued when she was twenty years of age, gave her height as five feet six inches, and her niece, Katharine Houghton, believes this to be correct.

25 “dumb enough”: Ibid.

26 “think of anything to say”: Katharine Hepburn in The Spencer Tracy Legacy, WNET/MGM/UA Entertainment, 1986.

27 “eyeing her”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer.

28 “I was awful”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

29 “There they were”: “The Hepburn Story,” Time, 9/1/52.

30 “too sweet”: New York Times, 2/21/43.

31 “crossing your legs”: Harry Evans, “Hollywood Diary,” Family Circle, 6/26/42.

32 “Acting to me”: Gregory J. M. Catsgs, “Sylvia Sidney,” Filmfax, November 1990.

33 “We never rehearsed”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

34 “Very interesting”: Hepburn, Me, p. 274.

35 “ears stuck out”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

36 “very unlikely thing”: McGrath, “Ring Lardner, Jr./Maurice Rapf.”

37 “wastes no time”: Los Angeles Times, 9/13/41.

38 “he was so steady”: A. Scott Berg, Kate Remembered, p. 194.

39 “new friendly feud”: New York Daily News, 9/13/41.

40 “I knew Spence”: George Stevens to Charles Higham.

41 “Mike Kanin”: Lardner, I’d Hate Myself in the Morning, p. 95.

42 “a complete account”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 117.

43 discuss “future roles”: Leamer, As Time Goes By, p. 73.

44 Tracy’s “business”: George Stevens, unpublished interview with Pete Martin, December 1960 (USC).

45 “a lot of confusion”: Katharine Hepburn to George Stevens, Jr.

46 “the definitive play”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Heeley and Kramer.

47 “too feminist”: McGilligan, Backstory 3, p. 204.

48 “Mayer was away”: Ibid., p. 249.

49 “meaty hunk of business”: Evans, “Hollywood Diary.”

50 “the kind of looks”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to George Stevens, Jr.

51 “great unity”: John Steinbeck to ST, 1/9/40 (SLT).

52 “peculiar and strong affection”: John Steinbeck to ST, 1/9/40 (SLT).

53 “a great heart”: Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, eds., Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (New York, Viking Press, 1975), p. 216.

54 “a little afraid”: Ibid., p. 224.

55 “don’t want money”: Ibid., p. 225.

56 “charming bosses”: John Steinbeck to ST, 6/12/41 (SLT).

57 screen rights: Paramount purchased the rights to Tortilla Flat at the behest of writer-producer Benjamin “Barney” Glazer, but the project went nowhere after George Raft declined the role of Danny. Glazer subsequently acquired the rights from Paramount when he moved to Warner Bros. in 1938. Paul Muni, who expressed a keen interest in doing the film, asked Steinbeck to write the screenplay, an offer which met with much the same answer that Metro received a few years later. Glazer sold the rights to M-G-M for $65,000 in April 1940.

58 “butched it up”: New York Times, 11/30/41.

59 “a lot more fun”: Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon, p. 32.

60 “kind of truth”: Erskine, “The Private Mind of Spencer Tracy.”

CHAPTER 18 I’VE FOUND THE WOMAN I WANT

  1 Katharine Houghton Hepburn: For details on the history of the Hepburn family that differ from other published sources, I am grateful to Katharine Houghton.

  2 “I’ve never discovered”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 11/3/06.

  3 “Leland and Howard”: Myrna Blyth, “Kate Talks Straight,” Ladies’ Home Journal, October, 1991.

  4 “The best”: Brooke Hayward, Haywire (New York: Knopf, 1977), p. 317.

  5 “Why in the world”: Hepburn, Me, pp. 89–90.

  6 “liked bad eggs”: Ralph G. Martin, “Kate Hepburn: My Life and Loves,” Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1975.

  7 “our first picture”: Hepburn, Me, p. 395.

  8 “off their feet”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

  9 “outdo me”: Emily Torchia to Selden West, via telephone, 8/2/93.

10 “line of conquests”: Claire Trevor to Selden West (SW).

11 “something you didn’t print”: Sheilah Graham Oral History, Columbia University.

12 “a great artist”: Tim Durant to Katharine Hepburn, 1967 (KHLA).

13 the Tracy-Hepburn affair: Norman Lloyd to the author, Studio City, 9/4/06.

14 “imagined I was a lesbian”: Hepburn, Me, p. 400.

15 “the only two men”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 5/7/08.

16 like Louise: It’s interesting to note that both women played The Man Who Came Back in stock—Louise in 1923, Hepburn in 1930.

17 “appearing at gunpoint”: Ingrid Bergman (with Alan Burgess), Ingrid Bergman, My Story (New York: Delacorte Press, 1980), p. 108.

18 “never have a year”: Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 188.

19 “he isn’t on the radio”: Peggy Gough to Mrs. Frances Rasinen, 12/1/41 (courtesy of Patricia Mahon).

20 “We of America”: Los Angeles Examiner, 1/12/42.

21 “suited to each other”: Spencer Tracy (as told to James Reid), “My Pal, Clark Gable,” Screen Life, May 1940.

22 “a very big star”: Adela Rogers St. Johns, Love, Laughter and Tears (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978), p. 329.

23 Mt. Potosi: Locals knew the mountain as Double Up Peak, after the Double Up Mine on its eastern face. In news accounts of the time, the crash scene was erroneously identified as “Double or Nothing” or Table Mountain. One later account mysteriously placed the crash at Mt. Olcott.

24 “pretty upset”: Peggy Gough to Mrs. Frances Rasinen, 3/23/42 (courtesy of Patricia Mahon).

25 “Clark, beyond consolation”: Loy, Being and Becoming, p. 169.

26 “People were clustered”: Harriett Gustason, “Looking Back,” Freeport Journal-Standard, 6/23/84.

27 “just as common”: Ibid.

28 capacity business: Figures for Woman of the Year are from Variety, 2/11 and 2/18/42; and the Mannix ledger.

29 “new Music Hall offering”: New York World-Telegram, 2/6/42.

30 “tossing his old hat”: New York Times, 2/6/42.

31 “The boy had told me”: Matie E. Winston to Louise Tracy, circa June 1967 (SLT).

32 “He can’t see your lips!”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.

33 “mistaken idea”: Howard Dietz, Dancing in the Dark (New York: Quadrangle, 1974), p. 280.

34 “Benny Thau called”: Loy, Being and Becoming, p. 154.

35 Bonaventure: Milwaukee County Certificate of Birth No. 3714, corrected 8/24/42 “by order of State Board of Health.”

36 “They were exhausted”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West.

37 “no condition”: F. L. Hendrickson, internal memo, 3/12/42, Turner Entertainment/SW.

38 “I’d been picked up”: Granger, Sparks Fly Upward, p. 283.

39 “Kate … was miserable”: Charles Higham, Kate (New York: Norton, 1975), p. 117.

40 “just stopped off”: Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, 5/12/42.

41 “Mr. Tracy said he”: Pittsburgh Press, 5/12/42.

42 “His symptoms”: Johns Hopkins Hospital, History No. 260076, May 1942 (SW).

43 The property: The New York Times reported that M-G-M acquired the rights to the story from RKO for $50,000, but the studio script files at USC show the book was submitted for consideration by the Frank W. Vincent Agency.

44 Hepburn committed: As late as April 10, Hepburn was expected to appear in Frenchman’s Creek at Paramount. The first mention of her doing Keeper of the Flame appeared in Edwin Schallert’s column of April 18. Her twelve-page contract for the picture, calling for a fee of $100,000, was dated July 18, 1942.

45 “I’m most anxious”: Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/5/42.

46 “She is a woman”: Dorothy Manners, “La Hepburn Chooses to Ignore Stage-or-Screen Enigma,” n.d.

47 “impotent eunuch”: Donald Ogden Stewart to Ella Winter, as quoted in Patrick McGilligan, George Cukor: A Double Life (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), p. 168.

48 “We assume”: Joseph I. Breen to Louis B. Mayer, 5/2/42 (AMPAS).

49 “A full conference”: Mosley, Evergreen: Victor Saville in His Own Words, pp. 156–57.

50 “another flier”: Matie E. Winston to Louise Tracy, 7/5/42 (SLT).

51 “Christine is guilty”: Joseph I. Breen to Louis B. Mayer, 7/7/42 (AMPAS).

52 change pages: The writing of Keeper of the Flame is documented in the M-G-M script files at USC and AMPAS.

53 “open set”: Emily Torchia to Selden West.

54 “hundreds of suggestions”: Gavin Lambert, On Cukor (New York: Putnam, 1972), p. 101.

55 “take one”: Darryl Hickman to the author, via telephone, 11/21/05.

56 “she finally carried”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 172.

57 “What are you up to”: Theresa Helburn to Katharine Hepburn, 8/9/42 (TGC).

58 Appear on the set: As Darryl Hickman said, “He was clearly not a happy man. He would come in in the morning and he would be so shut down. It was so strange. Personally he was that way, but when the camera rolled, whatever was there would open up and he would use it.”

59 “He felt the miseries”: Katharine Hepburn to Phil Donahue, Donahue, Transcript #3358, 12/13/91.

60 “I MUST ADVISE YOU”: Theresa Helburn to Katharine Hepburn, 9/1/42 (TGC).

61 “I want to talk to you”: Katharine Hepburn to Theresa Helburn, Lawrence Langner, and Philip Barry, 9/7/42, Philip Barry Papers, Georgetown University. A preliminary draft of this letter, minus the “for personal reasons” appeal, is preserved in the Katharine Hepburn collection at New York Public Library.

62 “you are in pain”: Theresa Helburn, undated notes (TGC).

63 “A SHOCK”: Theresa Helburn to Katharine Hepburn, 9/13/42 (TGC).

64 “insomnia”: Johns Hopkins Hospital, History No. 260076, November 1942 (SW).

CHAPTER 19 NOT THE GUY THEY SEE UP THERE ON THE SCREEN

  1 “have a project”: Ardmore, “Clinic,” 7/20/72 (JKA).

  2 The meeting took place: Minutes of Mothers’ Meeting, 7/18/42 (JTC). See also Louise Tracy to Neil S. McCarthy, 7/20/43 (JTC).

  3 “got my wits”: Ardmore, “Clinic.”

  4 The first meeting of the Mothers: Minutes, 10/17/42 (JTC). The $5 check came from a doctor at L.A.’s Orthopedic Hospital. The $1,000 check likely came from Louise herself.

  5 “rest cure”: Lowell Sun, 1/18/43.

  6 “Miss Hepburn is Hepburn”: Variety, 12/16/42.

  7 “garden-variety love story”: New York Times, 2/21/43.

  8 “most important”: New York Times, 2/21/43.

  9 “horrible scenes”: Katharine Hepburn to Donald Ogden Stewart, 12/15/42 (DOS).

10 “can’t vouch”: “Donald Ogden Stewart,” Focus on Film, November–December 1970.

11 “It was winter”: James Harvey, “Irene Dunne Remembers,” Film Comment, January– February 1980.

12 Tracy’s relationship: In 1971 Irene Dunne told Roddy McDowell that Tracy was difficult at the start of A Guy Named Joe “because he wanted Kate.” McDowell repeated what she said to Selden West in a phone conversation on 2/23/97 (SW). Given her prior commitments, it is unlikely that Hepburn could have done the film; she was appearing on Broadway in Without Love when Dunne’s casting was announced in December 1942.

13 “first few days”: James Bawden, “A Visit with Irene Dunne,” American Classic Screen, September–October 1977.

14 “too old”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 3/13/43.

15 “As the star appeared”: New York Times, 8/6/67.

16 “refusal to rehearse”: Harvey, “Irene Dunne Remembers.”

17 “always boss”: Los Angeles Times, 3/16/73.

18 “enjoyed working”: Ibid. Dunne told David Chierichetti she thought A Guy Named Joe was “one of the finest pictures I ever made.”

19 “walking trip”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West.

20 “We’re alike”: “A Director Named Fleming,” The Lion’s Roar, January 1944.

21 “the first take”: Van Johnson in Spencer Tracy: Triumph and Turmoil, Peter Jones Productions/A&E Network, 1999.

22 “liked young actors”: Barry Nelson, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis.

23 “My face”: Pete Martin, “Bobby-Sox Blitzer,” Saturday Evening Post, 6/30/45.

24 “Hollywood Presbyterian”: Van Johnson, undated interview clip for Turner Classic Movies.

25 “I can remember Mr. Tracy”: Doris Chambers to Jane Ardmore, 7/10/72 (JKA).

26 “a great mistake”: Ardmore, “Clinic.”

27 “dirty floors”: Ogden Standard-Examiner, 4/7/43.

28 “She would put my hand”: Carol Lee Barnes to the author, via e-mail, 6/16/05.

29 “give all this money”: Ardmore, “Clinic.”

30 “off the sauce”: Doug Warren (with James Cagney), James Cagney: The Authorized Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), p. 132.

31 “never announced”: Frank McHugh to Ralph Bellamy.

32 “All the wives”: Dorothy McHugh to Selden West.

33 “lived the characters”: David Chierichetti, “Irene Dunne Today,” Film Fan Monthly, February 1971.

34 “art of reacting”: Barry Nelson Oral History.

35 “seldom lost myself”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

36 “I’m no good”: Adela Rogers St. Johns, “Man of Conflict,” Photoplay, February 1945.

37 “Here’s Kenny”: Edgers, “The Spencer Tracy We Knew.”

38 “no saying no”: Cromwell, Dear Spence, p. 298.

39 “ ‘What do you expect’ ”: Katharine Hepburn to Phil Donahue.

40 “All of my men”: William Self to Selden West, Beverly Hills, 8/3/93 (SW).

41 “destroyed Spencer”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West, Fenwick, 10/18/91 (SW).

42 “dessert with rum”: David Caldwell to the author.

43 “intimate relationship”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, p. 83.

44 “We spent the night”: Cromwell, Dear Spence, p. 301.

45 “never met him”: Hal Elias, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oral History (AMPAS).

46 “hovering ghosts”: Edward L. Munson, Jr., as quoted in American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films 1941–1950, Film Entries A–L, p. 967.

47 “lighting took hours”: Hume Cronyn, A Terrible Liar (New York: William Morris, 1991), p. 168.

48 “Freund was anything”: Fred Zinnemann, An Autobiography (New York: Scribner, 1992), p. 52.

49 “Zinnemann was first chosen”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

50 “very important”: Gabriel Miller, ed., Fred Zinnemann Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), p. 58.

51 “feeling morose”: Cronyn, A Terrible Liar, pp. 169–70.

52 “he’d had a few”: Katharine Hepburn to Phil Donahue.

53 “done two things”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

54 “I have no idea”: Hepburn, Me, p. 396.

55 “fiercely jealous”: Katharine Houghton’s memory of what stylist Helen Hunt told her during the making of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is from a conversation with the author, New York City, 5/4/06.

56 “afraid of emotion”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, p. 89.

57 “lower his libido”: Eugene Kennedy to the author, via e-mail, 6/29/07.

58 The original Sheilah Graham story, a discussion of the stars on the top-ten list of the Motion Picture Herald, ran in January 1943. “Spencer Tracy has already been mentioned as Number 10,” Graham wrote. “He used to be higher on the list. Spencer is losing out because he is losing interest in his film career, putting private affairs in top place.” The following month, Tracy berated Graham on the set of A Guy Named Joe for writing about his personal life. “No one is interested in that,” he said. “There’s so much else going on in life, who cares what I do on my own time? And even if they did, it’s none of your business … Mind you, I’m not saying yes and I’m not saying no in regard to some of the things you implied. That’s beside the point, which is that you shouldn’t have mentioned my private life at all.” Graham was so unnerved by the exchange that she devoted her entire column of February 24 to it.

59 “M-G-M grapevine”: Zinnemann, An Autobiography, pp. 50–51.

60 “easiest thing”: Signe Hasso to James Fisher, 7/29/93 (SW).

61 “happy all the time”: New York Morning Telegraph, 1/21/44.

62 “virtually explode”: Spokane Spokesman-Review, 5/7/44.

63 “there can be debates”: Hollywood Reporter, 12/24/43.

64 “foolish”: New York Times, 12/24/43.

65 total billings: According to the Mannix ledger, A Guy Named Joe cost $2,627,000 and returned a profit of $1,066,000.

66 “eleven straight months”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 1/10/44.

67 “certain number of weeks”: F. L. Hendrickson, internal memo, 2/5/44 (Turner Entertainment/SW).

68 “Anybody could go on”: Ardmore, “Tracy.”

69 “smart boy”: Los Angeles Examiner, 11/20/43.

CHAPTER 20 THE BIG DRUNK

  1 “bronzed from his first”: Milwaukee Sentinel, 5/19/44.

  2 “I did”: Sister Ann Willits, OP, to the author, via e-mail, 8/11/05.

  3 New York: M-G-M records show that Tracy returned to the studio at some point during his vacation period to do one additional day of retakes on Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo, but exactly when this occurred is unknown.

  4 “closest three people”: Bertha Calhoun to the author.

  5 “having to meet Spencer”: Fay Kanin to the author, Santa Monica, 1/9/07.

  6 “member of the family”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 78.

  7 “she had a friend”: Katie Treat to Conrad Oakerwohl, 7/1/85, SobrietyTalks.com. Mrs. Treat remembered that Nancy Davis was in her early twenties at the time. Born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921, Davis (the future Mrs. Reagan) would have been twenty-two years old in May 1944.

  8 “certain people”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West (SW).

  9 “very private floor”: Bob Colacello, Ronnie and Nancy (New York: Warner Books, 2004), p. 182.

10 “artistic success”: Baltimore Sun, 5/21/44.

11 “two weeks”: Port Arthur News, 8/19/44.

12 “I recall the liquor”: Dan Alexander to Katharine Hepburn, 9/29/91 (SW).

13 “song and dance”: Los Angeles Examiner, 10/19/44.

14 “he believed”: St. Johns, “Man of Conflict.”

15 “All the film companies”: Time, 6/14/43.

16 “submerging herself”: Dr. Robert Hepburn in Katharine Hepburn: On Her Own Terms, CBS News Productions/A&E Network, 1995.

17 “begin shooting next week”: Katharine Hepburn to Theresa Helburn, n.d. (TGC).

18 “As always”: Higham, Kate, p. 126.

19 “we stopped”: Patricia Morison to the author, via telephone, 7/17/04.

20 “I lay on the floor”: Katharine Hepburn to Phil Donahue.

21 “finish the picture”: Katharine Hepburn to Ellen Barry, n.d., Philip Barry Papers, Georgetown University.

22 “practical man”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

23 “didn’t publicize him”: June Dunham to the author, via telephone, 3/30/05.

24 “What goes on”: Chicago Daily News, 12/4/44.

25 “I don’t frighten”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

26 “fiendish night”: A. Scott Berg, Kate Remembered (New York: Putnam, 2003), p. 212.

27 “expressed surprise”: Martin Gottfried to Selden West, 5/25/99 (SW).

28 “beaten hell”: Millard Kaufman to the author, Brentwood, 10/14/03.

29 “once told me”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 7/28/08.

30 “he’d ever hurt anyone”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

31 “February 1”: According to studio records, when Bucquet needed a shot of Pat entering Jamie’s home in Washington, D.C., it was Carroll who doubled for his brother. The shot was made on February 7, 1945; Tracy was already in New York.

32 “delightful and amusing”: Playwrights’ Company, unpublished write-up for Elliott Norton, Boston Post, n.d., Playwrights’ Company Collection, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

33 “first place”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

34 “new characterization”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

35 tried to choke her: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

36 “Some sort of fight”: Katharine Houghton in an e-mail to the author, 12/4/09.

37 “got so loaded”: Dr. Robert Hepburn to the author, via telephone, 4/11/05.

38 “write another play”: Playwrights’ Company, write-up for Elliot Norton.

39 “I’ve got to go back”: Earl Wilson, Hot Times (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1984), p. 41.

40 “called upon”: ST to Robert Emmet Sherwood, 4/13/45, Robert Emmet Sherwood Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

41 “off the screen”: Los Angeles Examiner, 4/17/45.

42 Tracy objecting: Details of Leo Morrison’s talks with the studio are from F. L. Hendrickson, internal memos, 4/18/45 and 4/28/45, Turner Entertainment/SW.

43 “I couldn’t understand”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 64.

44 “Sherry-Netherland”: Dietz, Dancing in the Dark, pp. 280–81.

45 Agent Harold Rose’s: Suzanne Antles to the author.

CHAPTER 21 THE RUGGED PATH

  1 cold-turkey detox: Details of Tracy’s stay are from Doctors Hospital Admission Record No. 61253, May 1945, Beth Israel Hospital/SW. In a telephone interview with Selden West on 2/7/96, actor Don Taylor repudiated Bill Davidson’s embroidered account of Taylor’s having seen Tracy at Doctors Hospital, calling it “melodramatic horse manure.” Taylor heard that Tracy had been admitted in restraints but emphasized that he never personally witnessed such a scene.

  2 “finding his way”: Arthur Hopkins to Katharine Hepburn, 6/12/45 (KHNY).

  3 “My best bet”: Travis Bogard and Jackson R. Bryer, eds., Selected Letters of Eugene O’Neill (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 548.

  4 “ten times”: Lawrence Langner to Katharine Hepburn, 3/20/44 (TGC).

  5 “things to say”: Eugene Kinkead, “The Rugged Path,” New Yorker, 11/24/45.

  6 “making a mistake”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 96.

  7 “going to work”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

  8 escape clause: Out of town Tracy could leave the play for any reason with a two-week notice. In New York he would be able to give notice if the gross dipped below $16,000 for any three consecutive weeks.

  9 “foolish question”: New York Times, 2/21/43.

10 “One of the banes”: Garson Kanin to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 1985 (TH).

11 a 25 percent stake: Rubin may have suggested the cut Tracy was taking in his weekly income more than justified an equity stake in the production. At capacity, Tracy’s 15 percent of the gross would have brought him roughly $3,900 a week, about $1,400 less per week than he would have made under the terms of his M-G-M contract. Later, when business slipped, he would have been earning closer to $3,000 a week, which put him on a par with Elliott Nugent, who was getting about the same for his turn in Voice of the Turtle. Frank Fay, by comparison, was making $2,500 to $3,000 a week in Harvey, a terrific hit, while Walter Abel was reportedly collecting $2,000 a week in The Mermaids Singing, a flop.

12 “quite friendly”: Victor Samrock to Robert E. Sherwood, 9/17/45 (PC).

13 “imaginative, resourceful”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 96.

14 “look ridiculous”: Garson Kanin, Together Again! (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981), p. 89.

15 “sold out”: ST to Pete Martin.

16 “not calculated”: John F. Wharton, Life Among the Playwrights (New York: Quadrangle/New York Times, 1974), p. 137.

17 “Spencer was superb”: S. N. Behrman, People in a Diary: A Memoir (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972), pp. 226–27.

18 “something was amiss”: Wharton, Life Among the Playwrights, p. 137.

19 “iron this out”: Los Angeles Daily News, 2/16/46.

20 “never nervous”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

21 “delivers the goods”: Katharine Hepburn to Emil Levigne, n.d. (courtesy of Judy Samelson).

22 “party going on”: Irene Mayer Selznick, A Private View (New York: Knopf, 1983), p. 278.

23 “didn’t amount”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

24 “ten days”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 97.

25 “basket case”: ST to Pete Martin.

26 “She and Spencer”: Katharine Hepburn to Charles Higham, circa 1975 (Charles Higham Collection, USC).

27 “It touched him”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

28 “Spencer rose”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 98.

29 “No newspaper man”: New York Times, 11/12/45.

30 “mistaken a stage”: The New York dailies all ran their reviews of The Rugged Path on 11/12/45. The Time notice appeared in its issue of 11/19/45.

31 Andrew Tracy: Frank Tracy to Selden West, 10/18/95 (SW).

32 “same goddamn lines”: Edward Dmytryk, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis, 12/2/79.

33 “worst blows”: Robert E. Sherwood to Victor Samrock, 1/11/46 (PC).

34 Poverty: Sherwood put $18,000 into The Rugged Path, a 25 percent stake in the production. In a statement to him dated April 30, 1946, the play showed losses and expenses of $87,476.66 and an operating profit on Broadway of $18,671.01. Sherwood’s share of the loss amounted to $17,201.41; for his investment he received a refund of $798.59. See also Ed Sullivan’s column of 11/25/55.

35 “legitimate gross”: Robert E. Sherwood to ST, 12/12/45 (PC).

36 “your problems”: Robert E. Sherwood to ST, 12/18/45 (PC).

37 top five stars: Bing Crosby headed the list again, as he had in 1944. Van Johnson appeared in second place, Greer Garson in third, and Betty Grable in fourth.

38 “the great man tonight”: Victor Samrock to Robert E. Sherwood, 1/2/46 (PC).

39 “My record is good”: Variety, 1/9/46.

40 “increase business”: Victor Samrock to Robert E. Sherwood, 1/9/46 (PC).

41 “notable achievements”: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., My Dinner of Herbs (New York: Limelight Editions, 2003), p. 59.

42 “full impact”: Victor Samrock to Robert E. Sherwood, 1/21/46 (PC).

43 “I appreciate it”: Robert E. Sherwood to Victor Samrock and William Fields, 1/24/46 (PC).

CHAPTER 22 STATE OF THE UNION

  1 “very happy”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

  2 “I got tired”: John Tracy, “My Complicated Life” (Part Two), Volta Review, July 1946.

  3 “the BEST story”: R. B. Wills, “The Sea of Grass” coverage, 9/18/36 (MGM).

  4 “Its Western setting”: Loy, Being and Becoming, p. 192.

  5 “worked with Hepburn”: McGilligan, Tender Comrades, p. 578.

  6 “fascinating and unusual”: New York Times, 4/21/46.

  7 “bad at negotiating”: Robert M.W. Vogel Oral History (AMPAS).

  8 “pretty good businessman”: Hall, “Spencer Tracy Faces Forty.”

  9 “just a chance”: Zeitlin, “Manuel the Lovable.”

10 “every charitable organization”: Dorothy Gopadze, “Pardon My Pink Slip,” unpublished manuscript, n.d. (courtesy of Tina Gopadze Smith).

11 “very handsome”: Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald, 2/21/47.

12 “not lost weight”: Elia Kazan, Kazan: A Life (New York: Knopf, 1988), p. 309.

13 “watch Her Highness?”: Wilson, Hot Times, p. 38.

14 “in take one”: Jeff Young, Kazan: The Master Discusses His Films (New York: Newmarket Press, 1999), p. 31.

15 “bursts of energy”: Melvyn Douglas and Tom Arthur, See You at the Movies (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1986), p. 149.

16 “lovers”: Young, Kazan, p. 31.

17 “don’t sell yourself”: Lawrence Langner to Katharine Hepburn, 5/18/46 (TGC).

18 “Everyone here is talking”: Lawrence Langner to ST, 6/6/46 (TGC).

19 “under obligation”: F. L. Hendrickson, internal memo, 6/25/46, Turner Entertainment/SW.

20 “going very well”: ST to Lawrence Langner, 7/15/46 (TGC).

21 “Mrs. Spencer Tracy”: Tina Gopadze Smith to the author, Milwaukee, 7/9/06.

22 “I can’t live”: William Self to the author, Los Angeles, 2/20/04.

23 “two years hence”: Los Angeles Times, 8/11/46.

24 “come on the set”: Paul Henreid, Ladies Man (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), p. 178.

25 “I find my feeling”: New Republic, 3/17/47.

26 “not all great”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

27 “unsuccessful screenplay”: Arthur Hornblow, Jr., Columbia University Oral History, March 1959.

28 “falls in love”: Donald Ogden Stewart, By a Stroke of Luck (New York: Paddington Press, 1975), p. 285.

29 “Tracy wants”: Harold Hecht to Donald Ogden Stewart, 4/13/47 (DOS).

30 “Tracy … had refused”: Ella Winter to Jessie Weingarten, n.d. (DOS).

31 “In the book”: New York Sun, 9/10/47.

32 “their baby’s perambulator”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 55.

33 “I’m getting old”: Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title (New York: Macmillan, 1971), p. 388.

34 “plenty of suits”: Larry Keethe, “I Call It Heart,” Photoplay, September 1948.

35 “very tricky scene”: Angela Lansbury to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/13/85 (TH).

36 “I was backstage”: McGilligan, Tender Comrades, p. 413.

37 “she got mad”: Murray, “Kate, the Untamed Shrew.”

38 “the speech that almost”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 66.

39 Hedda Hopper took care: Los Angeles Times, 9/1/47.

40 “had a real peeve on”: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, 9/9/47. By December the studio was denying rumors that Hepburn’s contract had been abrogated. “Don’t be surprised,” wrote Harrison Carroll, “if she comes out with a statement similar to the one made by Humphrey Bogart. She has already stated her views in an interview with a radio commentator a few days ago, in which she said she was not a communist sympathizer.”

41 “What the hell happened?”: Higham, Kate, p. 132.

42 “Claudette I knew”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

43 “No contract”: Higham, Kate, p. 133.

44 “We all knew”: Al Weisel, “An Uncommon Woman,” Premiere, September 2003.

45 “ ‘bag of bones’ ”: Capra, The Name Above the Title, p. 390.

46 “Their personalities”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 208.

47 “Bob Thomas worked”: Emily Torchia to Selden West (SW).

48 “surprise of the picture”: Variety, 11/5/47.

49 “Mr. Tracy never talked”: Emily Torchia to Selden West.

CHAPTER 23 ADAM’S RIB

  1 “He read that play”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

  2 “live through”: Arthur and Barbara Gelb, O’Neill (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), p. 885.

  3 “red hot”: Variety, 3/24/48.

  4 “President Truman”: Variety, 1/5/49.

  5 “more attractive-looking”: New York Times, 4/23/48.

  6 “ ‘He’s a prick’ ”: ST to Pete Martin.

  7 “If somebody approached”: June Caldwell to the author.

  8 “dinner meeting”: Ardmore, “Clinic.”

  9 “very attracted”: Dr. Alathena Smith to Jane Ardmore, 7/26/72 (JKA).

10 “I watched my father”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

11 “I’m not going to be”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

12 “NOT MUCH I CAN SAY”: ST to Patrick Norton, 5/19/48 (BT).

13 “I’ve come to work”: Daily Express, 5/28/48.

14 “appeared grumpy”: Eric Braun, Deborah Kerr (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978), p. 118.

15 “disconcerting to me”: Richard Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies (New York: Atheneum, 1975), p. 177.

16 “largely Spencer”: George Cukor to Signe Hasso, 7/13/48 (AMPAS).

17 “long takes”: Freddie Young, Seventy Light Years (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), p. 74.

18 “do you mind”: Emanuel Levy, George Cukor: Hollywood’s Legendary Director and His Stars (New York: Morrow, 1994), p. 171.

19 “thrilled”: Katharine Hepburn to George Cukor, 8/10/48.

20 “real dirt”: Ibid.

21 “remember me”: Schary, Heyday, p. 180.

22 “wore himself out”: Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, My Story, p. 181.

23 “Mike Romanoff”: Susie Tracy to the author, Brentwood, 12/15/04.

24 “He and Gable”: Darryl Hickman to the author.

25 “That’s all right”: New York Daily News, 7/9/49.

26 “all hands and feet”: Sidney Fields, “Stewart Sticks to Movies,” undated clipping (SW).

27 “This normally would be”: Undated clipping (SW).

28 “Can you see it”: Garson Kanin, “Adam’s Rib: The Genesis,” Memories, October– November 1989.

29 “first time in thirty years”: Higham, Kate, p. 135. Technically, this could be correct, in that Woman of the Year was still unfinished when the studio bought it in July 1941.

30 “The Kanins would do”: George Stevens, Jr., Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age (New York: Knopf, 2006), p. 284.

31 “Some of the things Kate”: Crowther, notes, Tracy interview.

32 “whole tradition”: Kenneth Tynan, “Katharine Hepburn,” Everybody’s Magazine, 6/28/52.

33 “It was human”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 201.

34 “the film represents”: Katharine Houghton in an e-mail to the author, 10/14/08.

35 “Spence and I”: Tynan, “Katharine Hepburn.”

36 “In the course of the shooting”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, pp. 157–58.

37 “She was wonderful”: Charles Higham, Celebrity Circus (New York: Delacorte, 1979), p. 47.

38 “Damn it, George”: David Wayne to Selden West, 9/21/93 (SW).

39 “in a kind of wonderment”: Fisher, Spencer Tracy: A Bio-Bibliography, p. 47.

40 “ ‘Yes, George’ ”: Marvin Kaplan to the author, via telephone, 11/19/06.

41 “a lot of stuff”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

42 “drained of its most”: New York Times, 6/3/49.

43 “hopeless miscasting”: New Yorker, 6/11/49.

44 “I did it myself”: Robert Morley and Sewell Stokes, A Reluctant Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966), p. 207.

45 “nearly 40 films”: Daily Express, 5/28/48.

CHAPTER 24 FATHER OF THE BRIDE

  1 “acting in Hollywood”: William Self to the author.

  2 “so dense”: Katharine Hepburn to Selden West.

  3 “round the three up”: Charles R. Sligh, Jr., to Selden West.

  4 “couldn’t have left me”: Myrna Blyth, “Kate Talks Straight,” Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1991.

  5 “the works”: Tracy’s stay at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital is documented in his 1949 pocket datebook (SLT).

  6 “I remember him standing”: Katharine Houghton to the author.

  7 “tortured soul”: Seymour Gray to Selden West, 2/14/92.

  8 “mediocre successes”: Lawrence Weingarten, AFI seminar.

  9 “Mrs. Feely”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

10 “such a big deal”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 3/29/04.

11 “Spence came in”: Frank Tracy to Selden West (SW).

12 “blood-red bleeding heart”: Dr. Alathena Smith to Jane Ardmore.

13 “we sat near her”: Lenore Coffee, Storyline (London: Cassell, 1973), p. 118.

14 “live in small places”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 13.

15 comedian Jack Benny: Pandro S. Berman, undated interview, Vincente Minnelli autobiography files (AMPAS).

16 “there would be reservations”: Schary, Heyday, pp. 217–18.

17 “my brainchild”: Edward Streeter to Frances Goodrich Hackett, 1/24/49 (ES).

18 “the one I wanted”: Edward Streeter to Frances Goodrich Hackett, 7/18/49 (ES).

19 “little classic of comedy”: Vincente Minnelli (with Hector Arce), I Remember It Well (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974), p. 218.

20 “We talked”: Don Taylor to Selden West, via telephone, 2/7/96 (SW).

21 “not quite as jovial”: Joan Bennett to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 11/20/85 (TH).

22 “Even at eighteen”: Elizabeth Taylor to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/17/85 (TH).

23 “going to drive”: William Self to the author.

24 “limousine”: According to Edward Dmytryk, Tracy once asked Hepburn why she continued to work for M-G-M, a studio that was “far too patronizing” for her tastes. “It’s worth it when you go through Chicago,” she said.

25 assembled and previewed: Details of the initial preview for Father of the Bride are from the film’s script file at USC.

26 “I know you will realize”: Frances Goodrich Hackett to Edward Streeter, n.d. (ES).

27 “greatest set of legs”: Norman Lloyd to the author.

28 “I was O.K.”: Hepburn, Me, p. 267.

29 the film surpassed: Figures for Father of the Bride are from the Mannix ledger.

30 “No one”: Edward Streeter to ST, 5/4/50 (SLT).

31 “utterly impossible”: ST to Edward Streeter, 5/16/50 (ES).

32 “equally wonderful”: New York Times, 5/19/50.

33 “Tracy didn’t want”: Berman, undated interview, Minnelli files.

34 “In her practical way”: Minnelli, I Remember It Well, p. 238.

35 “Am very happy”: Pandro S. Berman to ST, 9/13/50, Turner Entertainment/SW.

36 “YOU MAY FORGET”: ST to Katharine Hepburn, undated telegram (KHLA).

37 outed the relationship: A 1948 profile in Movieland detailed “the most incredible sort of rumors” about Hepburn. “In Hartford, Connecticut, Miss Hepburn’s home town, a typist who works for the Aetna Life Insurance Company told me, ‘You know, of course, that she’s been madly in love with Spencer Tracy for years. Everyone knows that. But Mrs. Tracy won’t give him a divorce.’ ” But Richard Gehman’s 1950 assertions weren’t labeled as rumors.

38 “They are together”: Richard Gehman, “Hepburn,” Flair, December 1950.

39 “We started the evening”: Milwaukee Sentinel, 6/12/67.

40 “my first party”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, Monday (NYPL).

41 “anything was wrong”: Don Taylor to Selden West.

42 “last three comedies”: Arthur Frudenfeld, “Tracy Got Best Breaks on Walker Date at Cox.” Unidentified clipping (NYPL).

43 “not too successful”: W. Kendall Jones, “Pat and Mike” coverage, 3/4/50 (MGM).

44 “machinery of justice”: Eleazar Lipsky, “Johnny O’Hara’s Life,” story outline, 5/13/49 (MGM).

45 “It was traditional”: John Sturges to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/13/85 (TH).

46 “Five years later”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, p. 90.

47 “chortled and howled”: Lawrence Weingarten to Dore Schary, 1/5/51, Turner Entertainment/SW.

CHAPTER 25 ROUGH PATCH

  1 “great to see you”: John Tracy to Selden West, via fax, n.d. (SW).

  2 “I kind of scouted”: William Self to the author.

  3 “terrible little apartment”: Hepburn, Me, p. 398.

  4 “Did Spence come?”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, Sunday (KHNY).

  5 “I don’t know”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 1/13/51 (KHNY).

  6 “There was a time”: Darryl Hickman to the author, via e-mail, 4/5/07.

  7 “By prearrangement”: William O. Douglas, Go East, Young Man (New York: Random House, 1974), p. 432.

  8 “bane of my life”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

  9 “When he came”: Jimmy Lydon to the author, via telephone, 1/16/06.

10 “the Spence I knew”: Norman, The Hollywood Greats, pp. 81–82.

11 “I was confronted”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 308.

12 “all business”: James Arness to the author, via telephone, 2/14/04.

13 “The thing I remember”: John Sturges to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/13/85 (TH).

14 “truly the culmination”: ST to Jenny Feely, Tuesday.

15 “received me”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 7/8/51.

16 “I’m just a white-haired”: Daily Mirror (London), 5/28/51.

17 “awfully tough time”: Constance Collier to Theresa Helburn, 6/8/51 (TGC).

18 “M-G-M have a picture”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 5/29/51 (KHNY).

19 “many nights”: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Knopf, 1980), p. 202.

20 “terribly good friends”: Joan Fontaine to Anne Edwards, as quoted in A Remarkable Woman (New York: Morrow, 1985), p. 279.

21 “rough patch”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 11/4/06.

22 “Spence’s ulcer”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 6/6/51 (KHNY).

23 “Dore Schary was sort of”: Lucinda Ballard, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis.

24 “Since Schary took over”: Vincent Sherman, Studio Affairs (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), p. 227.

25 “I’ve been waiting”: Mervyn LeRoy, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis, 5/16/77.

26 “seeing her in Paris”: Lauren Bacall, By Myself and Then Some (New York: Harper Entertainment, 2005), p. 495.

27 “She plays tennis”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 169.

28 “intimately discussed”: John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 338.

29 “all I need”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 177.

30 “He asked me”: Los Angeles Times, 4/6/52.

31 “an agony”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

32 “Too many pictures”: New York Times, 1/20/52.

33 “those conferences”: Kobal, People Will Talk, p. 338.

34 “put his glasses on”: Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, The Celluloid Muse (London: Angus and Robertson, 1969), p. 64.

35 “atomic bomb”: The Daily Record (Stroudsburg, Pa.), 11/6/51.

36 “paint the sea”: Spencer Tracy, 1951 datebook (SLT).

37 Millionairess: Hepburn was reported to be reading the play in April 1941, when she was considering doing it on Broadway. In a 1975 interview she spoke of Shaw having wanted her to do a movie of it. “I read it aloud and thought the first act was good, the second act was worse, and the third act was absolutely hopeless. So I said no.”

38 “touring actress”: George Cukor to “Corse,” 2/8/51 (AMPAS).

39 “written a line”: Higham, Kate, p. 150. In early drafts, the exact line is “She is beautyfully stacked, that kid.” In the draft of November 28, 1951, the word “stacked” was changed to “packed.” The word “choice” does not appear as “cherce” in any draft of the script. It is still “choice” in actor Chuck Connors’ copy of the script at USC, which contains changes to December 27.

40 “just flattened out”: Robert Emmet Long, ed., George Cukor: Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001), p. 148.

41 “Spence would say”: William Self to the author.

42 “batted ideas”: Higham, Kate, p. 150.

43 “Spencer massaged”: Ibid.

44 “a big brother”: Levy, George Cukor, p. 206.

45 “dinner with Spence”: William Self to the author.

46 “Lawford … was never”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

47 “got me a part”: William Self to the author.

48 “ ‘old Mayer group’ ”: Hollywood Reporter, 5/7/52.

49 “this nuisance”: Dore Schary to ST, 5/7/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

50 “When my mood was high”: Gene Tierney (with Mickey Herskowitz), Self-Portrait (New York: Wyden Books, 1979), p. 173.

51 “happened so quickly”: Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), p. 170.

52 “making love”: Los Angeles Times, 5/29/52.

CHAPTER 26 AT LOOSE ENDS

  1 “one occasion”: This film is archived at John Tracy Clinic. Coverage of the dedication was published in the Los Angeles Times, 5/4/52.

  2 “do anything much”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

  3 “Dad was kidding”: Diane Disney Miller to the author.

  4 “My mother thought”: Tierney, Self-Portrait, p. 173.

  5 “excessively brutal”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/18/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

  6 “Unable to understand”: ST to Garson Kanin, 7/30/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

  7 “thrilling”: ST to Garson Kanin, 7/30/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

  8 “fulfilled my contract”: Albuquerque Tribune, 8/6/52.

  9 “at loose ends”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 9/5/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

10 “needed a friend”: Garson Kanin to ST, 9/4/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

11 “appointed time”: June Dally-Watkins, The Secrets Behind My Smile (Cambelwell, Victoria, Australia: Viking, 2002), p. 99.

12 “twenty-five”: June Dally-Watkins to the author, via telephone, 8/25/06.

13 “Remaining here”: ST to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/9/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

14 “subdued and effeminate”: Time interview transcripts, 1952.

15 “Bogart and Tracy”: Peter Viertel, Dangerous Friends (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 238.

16 “It’s the parts”: Dallas Morning News, 4/13/52.

17 “marvelous actor”: Lauren Bacall to the author, via telephone, 2/10/06.

18 “You and Spence”: Emily Perkins to Katharine Hepburn, 8/22/52 (KHLA).

19 “goddamn silly”: George Cukor to Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, 9/11/52 (AMPAS).

20 “run off”: ST to Garson Kanin, 10/1/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

21 “I was surprised”: William Self to the author.

22 “I can’t tell you”: Constance Collier to George Cukor, 10/13/52.

23 “I stood”: Hepburn, Me, p. 48.

24 “understood clearly”: New York Times, 10/18/52.

25 “fine spirits”: George Cukor to Constance Collier, 10/23/52 (AMPAS).

26 “NO REPORT”: ST to Garson Kanin, 11/1/52 (LOC).

27 “facing a decision”: Lowell Sun, 10/31/52.

28 “special dispensation”: Charleston Daily Mail, 11/26/52.

29 “very close”: Time interview transcripts, 1952.

30 “Don’t ever leave me”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d. When later asked about this particular quote, Chuck Sligh replied, “I could easily imagine that he said that. I don’t know, but I could imagine. He NEEDED her. You know, these daily telephone calls and so on. I think that all indicated a need for her help. Whether she was still his wife actually or not.”

31 “good-bye Charlie”: Garson Kanin to ST, 12/1/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

32 “difficult to get information”: ST to Ruth Gordon, n.d. (LOC).

33 “not my best”: Scott Eyman, “Clarence Brown: Garbo and Beyond,” Velvet Light Trap, spring 1978.

34 “cards wonderful”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/23/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

35 “simply great”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/31/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

36 “thoroughly respectful”: New York Times, 11/14/52.

37 “the kind of film”: New York Herald Tribune, 11/14/52.

38 total billings: The figures for Plymouth Adventure are from the Mannix ledger.

39 “It sank!”: Dore Schary to Selden West, New York, 1/5/78 (SW).

40 “not at all convinced”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 8/18/51, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

41 shot a test: Reynolds’ test was shot on the fly, sandwiched between rehearsals of the musical numbers for I Love Melvin (1953).

42 “exceptional enough”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/26/52 (LOC).

43 “superficial nonsense”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 12/10/52 (AMPAS).

44 “MEETING”: ST to Garson Kanin, 11/19/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

45 “sense of humor”: Jean Simmons to the author, via telephone, 1/10/05.

46 “MAD”: Ruth Gordon to George Cukor, 11/27/52 (AMPAS).

47 “extremely interested”: Garson Kanin to ST, 7/9/51, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

48 “have some edge”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon, 10/10/52 (AMPAS).

49 “a lot of talk”: Levy, George Cukor, p. 210.

50 “wonderful woman”: George Cukor to Charles Higham, Time-Life History of the Movies, 6/22/71, Columbia University.

51 “going along well”: ST to Garson Kanin, 12/21/52 (LOC).

52 “pretty deep stuff”: Garson Kanin to ST, 9/25/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

53 “organized my hotel”: Dally-Watkins, The Secrets Behind My Smile, p. 104.

54 “Talk about people”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 212.

55 “He loved”: Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 177.

56 “In the play”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/26/52 (LOC).

57 “devastating”: Richard Burton to Dick Cavett, September 1980.

58 “Evelyn Keyes”: Garson Kanin to ST, 1/1/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

59 “stinkin’ ”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 3/10/53 (EH).

60 “disturbing element”: Lawrence Weingarten to George Cukor, 2/25/53 (AMPAS).

61 clashed bitterly: Cukor’s objections are outlined in a letter to Weingarten, 3/2/53 (AMPAS).

62 “At first they think”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 4/24/53 (LOC).

63 “Hollywood people”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 12/3/52 (NYPL).

64 “he looks great”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 1/16/53 (NYPL).

65 The deal: Details of the agreement to film The Old Man and the Sea are contained in a letter to Leland Hayward from Robert M. Coryell of the William Morris Agency, 3/2/53 (NYPL); and in an M-G-M meeting memorandum by F. L. Hendrickson, 8/12/53, Turner Entertainment/SW.

66 “talk things over”: Ernest Hemingway to Leland Hayward, 3/15/53 (EH).

67 “Hemingway … was afraid”: Dallas Morning News, 11/13/55.

68 “big fight”: Carlos Baker, ed., Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917–1961 (New York: Scribner, 1981), p. 817.

69 “practical time”: Ernest Hemingway to Leland Hayward, 4/23/53 (NYPL).

70 “He believes”: Faith Service, “His Son Made Spencer Tracy What He Is Today!” Movie Classic, August 1933.

71 “people thought”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.

72 “I only saw him”: Seymour Gray to Selden West.

73 “I went to Las Vegas”: Susie Tracy to the author, Brentwood, 1/28/05.

74 “STILL HERE”: ST to Ruth Gordon, 4/13/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

75 “he was joking”: Gottfried Reinhardt to Garson Kanin, 4/27/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

76 “on a European train”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 217.

77 “real, honest story”: Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 235.

78 “absolutely convinced”: Garson Kanin to Robert E. Sherwood, 7/16/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

79 “long and happy”: Los Angeles Examiner, 8/10/53.

80 “co-starring days”: Los Angeles Times, 8/13/53.

81 “one word of French”: Garson Kanin, “I Remember Spence and Kate,” Center for Cassette Studies, West Hollywood.

82 “Old Florentine”: ST to Louise Tracy, n.d. (SLT).

83 “shocking routine”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 9/17/53 (AMPAS). Where Kanin’s account of Tracy’s visit to Cap Ferrat differs in his book Tracy and Hepburn, I have chosen to regard this letter, written within days of the actual events, as likely the more accurate of the two.

CHAPTER 27 A GRANITE-LIKE WEDGE OF A MAN

  1 “That film”: Lawrence Weingarten, AFI seminar.

  2 “I have a hunch”: Los Angeles Times, 5/9/52.

  3 “For the vitality”: New York Times, 10/25/53.

  4 a loss: The Mannix ledger shows a cost of $1,424,000 for The Actress, and domestic billings of just $594,000. It was the first Tracy picture since Whipsaw to post total billings of under $1 million.

  5 “Failure … is a more common”: Schary, Heyday, p. 258.

  6 “adhered too closely”: Darryl F. Zanuck to Sol Siegel and Richard Murphy, 8/21/53 (USC).

  7 “STARTED NEW YEAR”: ST to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 1/11/54, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.

  8 “not going”: Emily Torchia to Selden West.

  9 “newest admirer”: Lowell Sun, 2/5/54.

10 “beginning of the end”: Eyman, “Clarence Brown: Garbo and Beyond.”

11 “disgusted, upset”: Tornabene, Long Live the King, p. 345.

12 “He saw me”: Robert Wagner to the author, Brentwood, 8/29/05.

13 “He’d agonize”: “Edward Dmytryk,” Films in Review, December 1985.

14 “Spence did everything”: Edward Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living (New York: Times Books, 1978), p. 182.

15 “pissed off”: Hugh O’Brien to the author, via telephone, 5/1/05.

16 “down-to-earth”: Ronald Neame (with Barbara Roisman Cooper), Straight from the Horse’s Mouth (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2003), p. 145.

17 “diffident at working”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 185.

18 “I told Tracy”: “Richard Widmark Part II,” Films in Review, May 1986.

19 “one thing pleased me”: Hollywood Citizen-News, 4/14/52.

20 Tracy’s guests: Tracy made careful note of his drug and alcohol intake in his 1955 datebook.

21 “she and Tracy”: Sandy Sturges to the author, via telephone, 3/30/04.

22 “our first evening”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 201. In his book Dmytryk has this taking place in August 1955, when he and Tracy were on their way to France to make The Mountain. But Tracy’s datebooks show that he flew directly to Paris for the start of that film and that Hepburn was still touring Australia at the time. Dmytryk dined with Tracy and Hepburn on May 11, 1954.

23 “Years ago”: Los Angeles Times, 1/31/54.

24 “go to London”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 3/29/04.

25 “granite-like wedge”: Bad Day at Parma, incomplete screenplay by Millard Kaufman, 8/26/53 (MGM).

26 “Daddy loves”: Jill Schary Zimmer, With a Cast of Thousands (New York: Stein and Day, 1963), p. 50.

27 “liked the idea”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

28 “We simplified it”: Dore Schary, Oral History with Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Franklin, Columbia University, November 1958.

29 “his opinion”: Ibid.

30 “people at Metro”: John Sturges commentary track, Bad Day at Black Rock, laserdisc edition, Criterion Collection, 1991.

31 “an idea”: Joseph J. Cohn Oral History with Rudy Behlmer, August–November 1987 (AMPAS).

32 “new boy”: Schary, Heyday, p. 279. Schary describes this exchange as taking place the Friday before the start of shooting, which would have been July 16, 1954. However, Tracy’s datebook shows their last meeting as having occurred a week earlier, on July 9, 1954.

33 “I anticipated”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.

34 “hardly had it altered”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

35 “ ‘I figure’ ”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.

36 “My first scene”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman, via telephone, 3/4/08 (courtesy of Scott Eyman).

37 “form of torture”: Anne Francis, interviewed in Spencer Tracy: Triumph and Turmoil, Peter Jones Productions/A&E Network, 1999.

38 “He said that Katie”: Anne Francis, quoted in Glenn Lovell, Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), p. 103.

39 “disturbing observation”: Millard Kaufman, “A Vehicle for Tracy: The Road to Black Rock,” Hopkins Review, Winter 2008.

40 “never rehearsed”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman.

41 “on the porch”: John Ericson to the author, via telephone, 6/24/05.

42 “Ryan is bristling”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

43 “great script”: John Ericson to the author.

44 “a grownup CinemaScope”: Variety, 7/28/54.

45 “my old man”: Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon, p. 252.

46 “almost no film”: Sturges commentary track.

47 “rather apologetic”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

48 “I wondered”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman.

49 “We were interested”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.

50 “He listened”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

51 “ ‘ideas in your head’ ”: John Ericson to the author.

52 “a smoker”: Millard Kaufman to the author.

53 “winning streak”: Leo Durocher (with Ed Lynn), Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), p. 327.

54 “been on the trip”: King Vidor to Selden West.

55 “Perfect!”: Spencer Tracy, 1954 datebook (SLT).

56 “I was there”: Susie Tracy to the author, via telephone, 1/31/08.

57 “ ‘wonderful place’ ”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

58 “firm offer”: Bert Allenberg to Eddie Mannix, 1/7/55, Turner Entertainment/SW.

59 “one of the finest”: John O’Hara, “Appointment with O’Hara,” Collier’s, 3/18/55.

60 “selling me”: Robert Wise to Selden West, via telephone, 4/30/96 (SW).

61 “not trying to be difficult”: Los Angeles Times, 3/8/55.

62 “Poor Spence”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 4/2/55 (KHLA).

63 “talked to Spence”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 4/16/55 (KHNY).

64 “almost impossible”: Kevin Brownlow, David Lean (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), p. 486.

65 “Wonderful set”: Spencer Tracy, 1955 datebook (SLT).

66 “no merit”: Katharine Hepburn to Phyllis Wilbourn, n.d. (KHLA).

67 “in a better position”: F. L. Hendrickson, memorandum, 6/14/55, Turner Entertainment/SW.

68 “arranged our shooting”: Sergio Leemann, Robert Wise on His Films (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1995), p. 131.

69 “That’s crazy”: Dore Schary to Selden West.

70 “take it down”: Joseph J. Cohn Oral History.

CHAPTER 28 THE MOUNTAIN

  1 “I bet”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

  2 “interested in working”: “Cagney”: James Cagney, Cagney by Cagney (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), p. 146.

  3 “Who cares?”: Spencer Tracy, 1955 datebook (SLT).

  4 “Is there a romance”: Sydney Sun, 6/5/55 (courtesy of Kerrie Tickner).

  5 “I saw a report”: Sun Herald, 8/5/55 (courtesy of Kerrie Tickner).

  6 “first waking thought”: Brisbane Telegraph, 7/18/55.

  7 “We miss Constance”: Theresa Helburn to Katharine Hepburn, 6/29/55 (TGC).

  8 “the next day”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 4/6/04.

  9 “simple story”: Harry Mines, draft press release, n.d. (AMPAS).

10 “a primal contest”: Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon, p. 308.

11 “a good relationship”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 200.

12 “extraordinary”: Robert Wagner to the author.

13 “I can’t do it”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 201.

14 “He wore it”: Robert Wagner, “My Hat’s Off to Spencer Tracy,” Movie Mirror, July 1956.

15 “He was leaving”: Bert Allenberg to Katharine Hepburn, 8/22/55 (KHLA).

16 “very unhappy”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 8/20/55 (AMPAS).

17 “Our unit”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 8/22/55 (AMPAS).

18 “giving them trouble”: Robert Wagner to the author.

19 “short line”: Margaret Shipway to Katharine Hepburn, 8/29/55 (KHLA).

20 “Those damn things”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 204.

21 “From our viewpoint”: Frank Westmore (with Muriel Davidson), The Westmores of Hollywood (New York: Lippincott, 1976), p. 188.

22 “Conditions”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 9/3/55 (AMPAS).

23 “the word ‘job’ ”: Lloyd Shearer, “Spencer Tracy: Hollywood’s Least-Known Star,” Parade, 12/11/55.

24 “Young man”: Edward Dmytryk, as quoted in Close Up: The Contract Director (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976), p. 365.

25 “Only parts”: Fisher, Spencer Tracy: A Bio-Bibliography, p. 56.

26 “quite a wingding”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 205.

27 “first inkling”: Susie Tracy to the author.

28 “next six days”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 206. Tracy’s datebook indicates three days “on the town,” not six as Dmytryk remembered it. On day four (not seven) Tracy was under a doctor’s care. He did, however, resume work on the fourteenth, just as Dmytryk has it in his book.

29 “an old bastard”: Jack Hirshberg, questionnaire for Spencer Tracy (AMPAS).

30 “prompted the tops”: Carle, “Magnificent Katharine Hepburn.”

31 “I’m not retiring”: Shearer, “Spencer Tracy: Hollywood’s Least-Known Star.”

32 “whole thing evaporated”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

33 “terrible picture”: Gallagher, “Claire Trevor.”

34 “older brother”: “Edward Dmytryk.”

35 “long scene”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 205.

36 “What’s the matter?”: Rosemary Clooney, Girl Singer (New York: Doubleday, 1999), p. 141.

37 “good feeling”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 12/23/55 (AMPAS).

38 “some sort of shape”: Ernest Hemingway to Fred Zinnemann, 1/3/56 (NYPL).

39 “near Katharine Hepburn”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 12/23/55 (AMPAS).

40 “disappointed”: Spencer Tracy, 1956 datebook (SLT).

41 “He said he didn’t know”: Don Page to Charles Greenlaw, 4/17/56, Jack Warner Collection, Cinematic Arts Library, University of Southern California.

42 “behaving fairly well”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 4/24/56 (AMPAS).

43 “LOOKED EXCELLENT”: Jack L. Warner to Fred Zinnemann, 5/1/56, Jack Warner Collection, University of Southern California.

44 “We notify you”: Leland Hayward to ST, 5/12/56 (NYPL).

45 “BYGONES”: Leland Hayward, ST, and Fred Zinnemann to Steve Trilling, 5/14/56, Jack Warner Collection.

46 “triumph of man’s spirit”: Fred Zinnemann, A Life in Movies: An Autobiography (New York: Scribner, 1992), p. 148.

47 “Hemingway hated it”: Ibid, p. 150.

48 “tadpole”: Viertel, Dangerous Friends, p. 279.

49 “some difficulty”: Baker, Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, p. 855.

50 “most certainly a problem”: Fred Zinnemann to Selden West, 5/20/92 (SW).

51 “He seemed malevolent”: Fred Zinnemann to Selden West, 9/9/92 (SW).

52 “SAW DAILIES”: Jack L. Warner to Fred Zinnemann, 6/15/56 (AMPAS).

53 “studio tank”: Zinnemann, A Life in Movies, p. 150.

54 “argument had nothing”: Los Angeles Examiner, 6/23/56.

55 “One time at Romanoff’s”: Jean Porter Dmytryk to the author, Encino, 11/17/04.

56 “one damned thing”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 108.

57 “My elusive tenant”: George Cukor to Katharine Hepburn, 2/26/54 (AMPAS).

58 “He knew the way”: Katharine Hepburn, at “A Tribute to Spencer Tracy,” Majestic Theatre, New York, 3/3/86 (courtesy of American Academy of Dramatic Arts).

59 “Kate very attractive”: Joseph L. Mankiewicz to Selden West.

60 “little wop”: Rex Harrison, Rex (London: Macmillan, 1974), p. 173.

61 “lifted a few”: Frank Sinatra, at “A Tribute to Spencer Tracy.”

62 “in a sailor suit”: Frank Sinatra to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/12/85 (TH).

63 “he did love her”: Seymour Gray to Selden West.

CHAPTER 29 THE LAST HURRAH

  1 “no more than adequate”: Daily Variety, 9/27/56.

  2 “an actor”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 206.

  3 “hard to determine”: New York Times, 11/15/56.

  4 “We made inquiries”: Carle, “Magnificent Katharine Hepburn.”

  5 “It is regrettable”: Los Angeles Times, 8/26/56.

  6 “That morning”: Henry Ephron, We Thought We Could Do Anything (New York: Norton, 1977), p. 184.

  7 “great with Bogie”: Lauren Bacall to the author.

  8 “For one thing”: Los Angeles Times, 11/25/56.

  9 “the whole scene”: Ephron, We Thought We Could Do Anything, p. 188.

10 “desperately ill”: Katharine Hepburn in Bacall on Bogart, Educational Broadcasting Corporation/Turner Entertainment Co., 1988.

11 “deliver the eulogy”: Lauren Bacall to the author.

12 “blocking and rehearsing”: Dina Merrill to Scott Eyman, 4/12/05 (courtesy of Scott Eyman).

13 “remarkable example”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

14 “You don’t know”: Joel Greenberg, “The Other Lang,” Focus on Film, summer 1974.

15 “reading a magazine”: Dina Merrill commentary track, Desk Set, DVD edition, 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment, 2004.

16 “Shut your mouth”: Greenberg, “The Other Lang.”

17 “gave it to her”: Dina Merrill to Scott Eyman.

18 “mischievous kid”: Ephron, We Thought We Could Do Anything, p. 191.

19 “didn’t even go”: Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, 2/27/57.

20 obvious jab: Ingrid Bergman did indeed win the Best Actress Oscar for Anastasia.

21 “felt he was too old”: Greenberg, “The Other Lang.”

22 “schoolgirl crush”: Henry Ephron to Charles Higham, circa 1975 (USC).

23 “They got mixed up”: Paul Mayersberg, Hollywood, the Haunted House (London: Penguin, 1967), p. 93.

24 “powerful generators”: James Wong Howe, “Necessary to Hide Evidences of ‘Fixed Light’ in Film on Sea,” Film and A-V World, August 1960.

25 “my life’s work”: Dallas Morning News, 7/29/57.

26 “make money”: Ernest Hemingway to Leland Hayward, 7/5/57 (EH).

27 “very appealing”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 8/9/57 (NYPL).

28 “Maybe Zinnemann”: New York Post, 8/12/57.

29 “Tracy’s performance”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 8/9/57 (NYPL).

30 “repulsed her”: Fresno Bee, 8/29/57. See also Los Angeles Times, 8/29/57.

31 “She spoke of him”: John Houseman, Final Dress (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 81.

32 “sensed an affinity”: Laurence Olivier to Katharine Hepburn, 7/10/67 (KHLA).

33 “a party to celebrate”: London Sunday Express, 5/21/61.

34 “first citizen”: Philip Dunne, n.d., Philip Dunne Collection, University of Southern California.

35 “out of the black”: Katharine Hepburn to Ella Winter, 11/13/57, Ella Winter Collection, Columbia University.

36 “There were giants”: Los Angeles Examiner, 11/1/57.

37 “BRILLIANT DIRECTOR”: ST to Leland Hayward, 6/28/54 (NYPL).

38 “theory about acting”: Shearer, “Spencer Tracy.”

39 “The wake is as obsolete”: Los Angeles Examiner, 5/4/58.

40 “strong habits”: Katharine Hepburn to Dan Ford, n.d., John Ford Collection.

41 voice of the Old Man: John Sturges didn’t want Tracy to attempt an accent. “We used Hemingway’s trick, which is to drop in a Spanish word once in a while, but when a Spanish person or Cuban speaks to another Cuban, they don’t have an accent. And that was Hemingway’s approach to doing that.” John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.

42 “Worth all the agony”: Louise Tracy to Mary Kennedy Taylor, 1/12/58, Taylor Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

43 “emotional quality”: Leland Hayward as reported to Jack L. Warner by Steve Trilling, 3/10/58, Jack Warner Collection, University of Southern California.

44 “went to the preview”: Lauren Bacall to the author.

45 “twenty-eight years”: New York Times, 3/16/58.

CHAPTER 30 OUR GREATEST ACTOR

  1 “Irish revolutionary”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.

  2 Gersten reported: Houseman, Final Dress, p. 123.

  3 “meek and motherly”: Graham, Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist, p. 38.

  4 “utterly dependent”: Betsy Drake to the author, via telephone, 10/29/05.

  5 “She was abject”: Sally Erskine to Selden West, 12/5/91 (SW).

  6 “Spence was down”: Chester Erskine to Katharine Hepburn, 5/27/58 (KHNY).

  7 “He would come up”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West.

  8 “a beautiful piece”: Hollywood Reporter, 5/19/58.

  9 “remarkable achievements”: Daily Variety, 5/21/58.

10 “pay was low”: Donald Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker (New York: Putnam, 1978), p. 23.

11 vacationing in Europe: After March’s turndown, Shumlin got Melvyn Douglas to fill in for Paul Muni.

12 “enough trouble”: Stanley Kramer to Selden West, Los Angeles, n.d. (SW).

13 “Everyone identified”: George Stevens, Jr., Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age, p. 569.

14 “Kramer said”: William Weber Johnson, rough notes of an unpublished Tracy interview for Time, 10/14/58 (KHLA).

15 price tag: To be exact, the negative cost of The Old Man and the Sea was $5,487,000.

16 “arrange for someone”: Johnson, notes for Time.

17 “all that schmaltz”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.

18 “getting old”: Johnson, notes for Time.

19 “ ‘Kate’ ”: Dina Merrill to Scott Eyman, 4/12/05. In her column of March 28, Dorothy Kilgallen erroneously reported that Hepburn and her “long-time Great Love” had been “making the scene on the tropical island of Martinique.”

20 “new low”: New York Herald Tribune, 12/29/59.

21 “I earn”: Dallas Morning News, 1/8/60.

22 “The young actors”: Johnson, notes for Time.

23 “really gifted”: Higham and Greenberg, The Celluloid Muse, p. 56.

24 “a sort of slightly affected”: Cukor to Higham, Time-Life History of the Movies.

25 “Our company”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 205.

26 “He covers up”: Ezra Goodman, The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961), p. 269.

27 “an actor is normally trained”: Laraine Day to Barbara Hall.

28 “easy to imitate”: John McCabe, Cagney (New York: Knopf, 1997), p. 256.

29 “the kind of actor”: Truman Capote, “The Duke in His Domain,” New Yorker, 11/9/57.

30 back to the original: First published by the National Book Company of Cincinnati in 1925, the transcripts of “the world’s most famous court trial” were readily available.

31 “improve and sharpen”: Stanley Kramer to Fredric March, 9/8/59, Fredric March Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.

32 “more topical”: Walter Wagner, You Must Remember This (New York: Putnam, 1975), pp. 289–90.

33 supporting cast: Dick York was a last-minute choice for the role of Cates. Kramer originally envisioned Anthony Perkins in the part, later Roddy McDowell.

34 “first exchange”: New York Times, 11/1/59.

35 “We were rehearsing”: Stanley Kramer, unpublished interview with Pete Martin, December 1960 (USC).

36 “doing waltzes”: Donna Anderson to the author, Los Angeles, 1/16/05.

37 “fine powder”: Stanley Kramer, Southern Methodist University Oral History with Ronald L. Davis.

38 “I had been warned”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

39 “sort of petrified”: Jimmy Boyd to the author, via telephone, 8/27/05.

40 “extras as spectators”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

41 “Better stand up”: New York Herald Tribune, 12/29/59.

42 “fucking fan”: Robert Wagner to Scott Eyman.

43 “lot of fun”: ST to Pete Martin.

44 “I could understand”: Clive Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), p. 229.

45 “quite a system”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

46 “Tracy was so good”: Elliott Reid to the author, Los Angeles, 10/21/03.

47 “very funny”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

48 “At one performance”: Lauren Bacall, By Myself (New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 301.

49 “a pair of hands”: Martin Gottfried to Selden West.

50 “struck me as fantastic”: Abby Mann, Judgment at Nuremberg (London: Cassell, 1961), p. v.

51 “Kate … was out”: Philip Langner to the author, via telephone, 3/31/05.

52 “tremendous responsibility”: New York Times, 1/31/60.

53 “our greatest actor”: Newsweek, 6/13/60.

54 “the thing she didn’t admire”: William Self to the author.

55 “Mervyn LeRoy said to me”: Frank Sinatra to Heeley and Kramer.

56 “a certain amount”: Bertha Calhoun to the author.

57 “ringing phrases”: Hollywood Reporter, 6/28/60.

58 “casting genius”: Daily Variety, 6/29/60.

59 “reviews I could have written”: Stanley Kramer to Heeley and Kramer.

60 “enjoyed the movie”: John T. Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), p. 270.

61 “reprehensible”: Los Angeles Times, 2/9/60.

62 “The first day”: Kerwin Matthews to the author, 2/26/04.

63 “never interfered”: Mervyn LeRoy, Mervyn LeRoy: Take One (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974), p. 211.

64 “near perfect”: Gregoire Aslan, unpublished interview with Pete Martin, December 1960 (USC).

65 “Tracy’s turn”: Bob Yager, unpublished interview with Pete Martin, December 1960 (USC).

66 “The problem”: Jean-Pierre Aumont, Sun and Shadow (New York: Norton, 1977), p. 198.

67 “particularly horny”: George Jacobs and William Stadiem, Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra (New York: Harper Entertainment, 2003), p. 212.

68 “brilliant and engrossing”: New York Times, 10/13/60.

69 “first run houses”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

70 “double disappointment”: Stanley Kramer, American Film Institute Seminar with James Powers, 2/1/77 (AFI).

71 flop: According to records in the Stanley Kramer collection at UCLA, Inherit the Wind had a domestic gross of $1,100,000. In April 1962 it became one of the recent releases acquired by the American Broadcasting Company for its new Sunday night movie slot.

72 “good reporter”: Joe Hyams to Selden West, via telephone, 12/15/93.

73 “thought about directing”: New York Times, 11/3/60.

74 “rare exception”: Beverly Hills Citizen, 6/11/59.

75 “wonderful people”: Los Angeles Mirror, 12/5/60.

76 “By the end”: Kerwin Matthews to the author, 3/14/05.

77 “a lovely set”: LeRoy, Mervyn LeRoy: Take One, p. 211.

78 “I called him”: Stanley Kramer to Pete Martin.

79 “the boy’s big chance”: ST to Pete Martin.

80 “half a million”: Despite Kate Buford’s assertion in her biography of Lancaster that he was paid his usual fee of $750,000 for Judgment at Nuremberg, the actor’s contract in the Stanley Kramer collection shows that he was paid $500,000 and a percentage of the gross. Tracy’s compensation was adjusted to $375,000 to accommodate Lancaster’s percentage. Kramer himself took a producer’s fee of $75,000, deferring the $50,000 he was due as director of the picture.

81 “Frank wasn’t there”: ST to Pete Martin.

CHAPTER 31 THE VALUE OF A SINGLE HUMAN BEING

  1 “Dorothy and Louise were two”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

  2 “Being Mrs. Spencer Tracy publicly”: Larry Swindell to the author.

  3 “a saint”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West.

  4 “trailing the Clinic”: Louise Tracy to Mary Kennedy Taylor, 1/12/58, Taylor Collection.

  5 “very gratified”: Dr. Edgar Lowell to Jane Ardmore, 8/2/72 (JKA).

  6 “absorb my life”: Ardmore, “Clinic,” 7/20/72.

  7 “first person”: A kinescope of Louise Tracy’s remarks is at John Tracy Clinic.

  8 “go to the back”: Ardmore, “Clinic.”

  9 “art director”: William Self to the author.

10 “a lot of things”: Ruthie Thompson to the author.

11 “his eye trouble”: Ardmore, “John.” Although John Tracy Clinic was strictly oralist during Louise Tracy’s lifetime, many graduates of the program went on to learn American Sign Language (ASL), using speech and lipreading to communicate with the hearing world and ASL to talk with their deaf friends (and those hearing friends who knew ASL). Sign is almost universally regarded as more precise than lipreading.

12 “distribution objection”: Steven Bach, Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend (New York: Morrow, 1992), p. 407.

13 “Tracy’s no lodestone”: Abby Mann to the author, via telephone, 1/23/05.

14 “character was guilty”: Kate Buford, Burt Lancaster: An American Life (New York: Knopf, 2000), p. 212.

15 “single scene”: Patricia Bosworth, Montgomery Clift (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 359. According to his friend Jack Larson, Clift was offered $200,000 to play Colonel Lawson, the part subsequently played in the film by Richard Widmark. Evidently Clift found the role of Petersen more interesting from an actor’s perspective and agreed to do it for expenses alone. “He had a car and driver on call twenty-four hours a day,” Larson recalled. “I’m sure they ended up spending more than $10,000 on his expenses.”

16 “ ‘pace-setting’ ”: Daily Variety, 2/20/61.

17 “hard ticket”: Variety, 3/8/61.

18 “still in use”: Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker, p. 229.

19 “Max Schell arrived”: Marshall Schlom to the author, Brea, Calif., 8/11/05.

20 “I acted less”: New York Herald Tribune, 12/6/60.

21 “An actor’s personality”: James Zunner, “Tracy: The Great Stone Face,” Cue, 7/12/58.

22 “what he really meant”: Erskine, Spencer Tracy: A Biographical and Interpretive Symposium, p. 15.

23 “he could play anything”: John Ford to Katharine Hepburn, n.d., John Ford Collection.

24 “Everyone in the crew”: Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker, p. 231.

25 “All you can do”: New York Times, 4/30/61.

26 “She was nice”: “Richard Widmark Part II,” Films in Review, May 1986.

27 “good character shots”: Bob Yager to Pete Martin.

28 “Cook County”: ST to Fredric March, 3/3/61, Fredric March Papers.

29 “I care about”: ST to Pete Martin.

30 “I can’t really answer”: Los Angeles Times, 3/19/61.

31 “very low point”: Richard Widmark to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 12/17/85 (TH).

32 “greatest reactor”: Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, p. 360.

33 “If I remember”: Erskine, Spencer Tracy: A Biographical and Interpretive Symposium, p. 60.

34 adjusted his dialogue: The blue pages for Judgment at Nuremberg are in the Montgomery Clift Collection at New York Public Library.

35 “a better job”: Marshall Schlom to the author, via e-mail, 4/10/09.

36 “Julie Harris”: Hollywood Citizen News, 3/22/61.

37 “cliché come true”: Ibid.

38 “It meant a lot”: “Richard Widmark Part II.”

39 “a performance!”: Hollywood Citizen News, 3/22/61.

40 “almost a symbol”: New York Times, 4/30/61.

41 “laughed a lot”: Marlene Dietrich, Marlene (New York: Grove Press, 1989), p. 110.

42 “not my type”: Bach, Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend, p. 408.

43 “very lonely man”: Dietrich, Marlene, p. 242.

44 dissenting opinion: It’s interesting to note that Judge Kenneth Norris, the third member of the tribunal, was played by actor-director Kenneth MacKenna. In 1928 MacKenna was, very briefly, Katharine Hepburn’s leading man in The Big Pond. For years he was also head of the Story and Scenario Department at M-G-M. In 1941 it was MacKenna who handled the purchase of Woman of the Year.

45 “During rehearsals”: Los Angeles Times, 8/28/61.

46 Lancaster approached: Erskine, Spencer Tracy: A Biographical and Interpretive Symposium, p. 71.

47 “almost conked”: Ft. Pierce (Fla.) News Tribune, 5/15/61.

48 “What a bore”: Sunday Express, 5/21/61.

49 “ ‘look at these pictures’ ”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

50 “Every writer ought”: Abby Mann to ST, 7/10/61, Abby Mann Collection, USC.

51 “AFTER FINISHING NUREMBERG”: ST to Abby Mann, 7/18/61 (courtesy of Abby Mann).

52 set a budget: Cost figures on The Devil at 4 O’Clock are from the Mervyn LeRoy Collection (AMPAS).

53 “Kate’s the lunatic”: Higham, Kate, p. 191.

54 “I wanted Spencer”: Ibid., p. 188.

55 “she got him set up”: Stanley Kramer to Heeley and Kramer.

56 press conference: Details of the world premiere in Berlin are from Los Angeles Times, 12/14 and 12/24/61; New York Times, 12/15/61; and Variety, 12/27/61. See also Bob Considine, “ ‘Judgment’ is Potent,” New York Journal American, 12/18/61.

57 “There was a buffet”: Stanley Kramer to Heeley and Kramer. “At the end of the screening the applause came almost exclusively from the foreign element in the theater,” Harold Myers reported in Variety, “and it seemed as if the locals were stunned into silence.”

58 “fair and human”: Variety, 12/27/61.

59 “reservations”: Variety, 10/18/61.

60 “raw force”: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “Movies: Judgment at Nuremberg,” Show, December 1961.

61 “I had a friend”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

62 “quite disturbed”: Eddie Lawrence to Selden West.

63 “Tracy is ornery”: Bill Davidson, “Spencer Tracy,” Look, 1/30/62.

64 “Kate, my Kate”: Bill Davidson, Spencer Tracy: Tragic Idol (New York: Dutton, 1988), p. 145. Tracy did indeed submit to an interview with Bill Davidson (likely in 1960, rather than 1959 as the author states). However, Davidson used very few direct quotes from Tracy in his Look profile, and the “interview” recounted in his book is fascinating in its clumsy inventions. The suggestion that Tracy would sit for an on-the-record interview with an unfamiliar journalist and refer to Hepburn as “Kate, my Kate” is, in itself, ridiculous. Davidson quotes Tracy (supposedly in 1959) on the subject of his daughter, Susie: “Would you believe it but that little button wrote herself the cutest little book about a little girl teaching a deaf cat to cope, and she got it published. And she’s also turning into one helluva little photographer.” In reality, Susie Tracy never picked up a camera until two years after her father’s death. Moreover, the book Tracy allegedly refers to, Pritt, wasn’t published until 1982—more than twenty years after Davidson’s one interview with Tracy occurred. Indeed, the cat the book is about hadn’t even been born yet.

65 no memory: Pat Newcomb to Selden West, via telephone, 7/16/93 (SW). Newcomb said that she would have remembered any talk of Hepburn “because everyone was interested in that.”

66 “local reporters”: Joe Hyams to Selden West.

67 “You son of a bitch!”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 153.

68 Produced on a budget: Figures on Judgment at Nuremberg are from the Stanley Kramer Collection. As of May 11, 1966, United Artists was showing a loss of $1,585,900 for the picture.

CHAPTER 32 SOMETHING A LITTLE LESS SERIOUS

  1 “tired of controversy”: Newsweek, 10/17/60.

  2 “less serious”: According to Karen Kramer, it was Bosley Crowther who made the suggestion.

  3 “monster chase story”: New York Times, 11/17/63.

  4 “weeks and weeks”: Tania Rose to Stanley Kramer, n.d. (SK).

  5 “From the onset”: New York Times, 11/17/63.

  6 “The script and the casting”: New York Times, 11/17/63.

  7 “I am eager”: Stanley Kramer to William Rose, 6/14/62, (SK).

  8 “Tracy has never appeared”: Stanley Kramer to William Rose, 7/11/62 (SK).

  9 “staring contest”: New York Times, 11/17/63.

10 “too much, too strenuous”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.

11 The deal: According to production records, Milton Berle and Ethel Merman were the highest-paid cast members apart from Tracy—each got $155,000 for doing the film. Sid Caesar was paid $135,000, Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney $105,000 each.

12 “We didn’t know”: Los Angeles Times, 3/29/01.

13 “The comedians”: Marshall Schlom to the author.

14 “made me flash back”: Sid Caesar (with Eddy Friedfeld), Caesar’s Hours (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), p. 276.

15 “Everyone knew”: Dorothy Provine to the author, via telephone, 11/17/05.

16 “Monroe had died”: Caesar, Caesar’s Hours, p. 276.

17 “We had rubber masks”: Los Angeles Times, 12/3/63.

18 “During the filming”: Deschner, The Films of Spencer Tracy, p. 17.

19 “The people whose memories”: ST to Pete Martin.

20 “It had been budgeted”: Marshall Schlom to the author, via e-mail, 12/16/07.

21 Youngstein: In Berlin, Max Youngstein told the assembled press that Kramer possessed the simple idea that a picture could be good and yet be successful. “We are a world-wide industry,” he said. “We must get smart and back the Stanley Kramers of the world, who have more guts and talent than the others put together.”

22 “get rid of the comics”: Los Angeles Times, 11/18/62.

23 “a project”: According to clinic records, Tracy donated $32,650 for the year 1962. In the years 1963 and 1964—years in which he did not work—his contributions amounted to $16,800 and $19,300, respectively.

24 “He smiled”: Hepburn, Me, pp. 56–57.

25 “specific memories”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 4/11/09.

26 “enjoying the rain”: Katharine Hepburn to Ella Winter, “Christmas” [1962], Ella Winter Collection, Columbia University.

27 “read a great deal”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

28 “greatly calmed”: Brownlow, David Lean, pp. 485–86.

29 “should have quit”: Ardmore, “Tracy.”

30 “It was so hard”: Kennedy, “Spencer Called Her Kath.”

31 “I would appreciate”: John Ford to ST, 6/10/63 (SLT).

32 “very quiet”: Katharine Hepburn to Ella Winter, 6/2/63, Ella Winter Collection.

33 “Be calm”: Details of Tracy’s edema attack are from Los Angeles Times, 7/22, 7/23, 7/24, and 8/3/63; Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 7/22 and 8/2/63; and Selden West’s interview with Sally Erskine.

34 “SEE WHAT HAPPENS”: George Cukor to ST, 7/23/63 (SLT).

35 “thinking about Spencer”: Tim Durant to Katharine Hepburn, 8/7/63 (KHLA).

36 “have her choice”: New Castle News, 9/14/63.

37 “It wouldn’t do”: James Prideaux, Knowing Hepburn (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 23.

38 “soccer players”: Frank Sinatra, at “A Tribute to Spencer Tracy,” Majestic Theatre, New York, 3/3/86 (courtesy of American Academy of Dramatic Arts).

39 “Mr. Tracy is funny”: New York Times, 11/19/63.

40 “director’s chair”: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 6/24/64.

41 “dropped 35 pounds”: Yuma Daily Sun, 7/7/64.

42 “good or better”: Newark Evening News, 7/14/64.

43 “I’m from M-G-M”: Marshall Schlom to the author, via e-mail, 8/15/06.

44 “feel of a western”: David Weddle, If They Move … Kill ’Em! (New York: Grove Press, 1994), p. 257.

45 “in his dressing gown”: Ring Lardner, Jr., to Charles Higham.

46 “bellyache”: Spencer Tracy, 1964 datebook (in Katharine Hepburn’s hand) (SLT).

47 “disquieting”: George Cukor to Katharine Hepburn, 9/30/64 (KHLA).

48 “hard to know”: Tracy, 1964 datebook (in Katharine Hepburn’s hand).

49 “Spence very thrown”: Ibid.

50 “Don’t EVER do this”: Susie Tracy to the author.

51 “always some reason”: Dr. Mitchel Covel to Selden West, 8/18/92 (SW).

52 “familiar grin”: Jared Brown, Alan J. Pakula: His Films and His Life (New York: Back Stage Books, 2005), pp. 64–65.

53 “tiny little life”: Hepburn, Me, pp. 405–06.

54 Tracy was groggy: Dr. Covel consulted his notes to provide details on Tracy’s worsening condition.

CHAPTER 33 A LION IN A CAGE

  1 “We needed prayers”: Louise Tracy to Mary Kennedy Taylor, 9/22/65, Taylor Collection.

  2 “When Louise would come”: Dr. Mitchel Covel to Selden West.

  3 “hated to be sick”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

  4 “bumped into her”: Virginia Thielman to Jane Ardmore, 8/1/72 (JKA).

  5 “shake hands”: John Tracy to Selden West, via fax, 3/23/98 (SW).

  6 “If I hadn’t known”: Frank Tracy to Selden West, via telephone, October 1995 (SW).

  7 “sort of an invalid”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 8/12/08.

  8 “all major problems”: Dr. Mitchel Covel to Selden West. It should be noted that Dr. Covel did not consider his patient a hypochondriac. “A hypochondriac is somebody who imagines they have illness,” he said. “He had illness, and would react violently to some of his symptoms. But, mind you, he had a lot of problems, a lot of physical problems. His heart, diabetes.”

  9 “Bullshit”: McCabe, Cagney, p. 330.

10 “Your letter”: Eugene Cullen Kennedy, “Just Above Sunset, Off Doheny,” unpublished manuscript (courtesy of Eugene Kennedy).

11 “The substance”: Deposition of Stanley Kramer in Joseph Than and Elick Moll v. Columbia Pictures Corp., etc., Stanley Kramer, Sidney Poitier, William Rose, et al., 1/20/69, (SK).

12 “they budgeted it”: Stanley Kramer to Heeley and Kramer.

13 “I pointed out”: Deposition of William Arthur Rose in Joseph Than and Elick Moll v. Columbia Pictures Corp., etc., Stanley Kramer, Sidney Poitier, William Rose, et al.

14 “He took the ball”: Stanley Kramer deposition.

15 “Stanley, who was in California”: William Arthur Rose deposition.

16 “My suggestions”: Stanley Kramer deposition.

17 “One of the things”: William Arthur Rose deposition.

18 “first ‘live’ time”: ST to William Dozier, 8/26/66.

19 “I’ll do a Batman”: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 9/26/66.

20 “now president of Fox”: William Self to the author.

21 “no thought of going”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 263.

22 “The anticipation”: Stanley Kramer deposition.

23 “I feel great”: Details of the news conference are from Los Angeles Times, 9/26/66; Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 9/26/66; and Long Beach Independent, 9/26/66.

24 “a gasp”: Laraine Day to Barbara Hall.

25 “taken aback”: Susie Tracy to the author, Brentwood, 5/13/05.

26 “see my niece”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, pp. 42–43.

27 “my trepidation”: Stanley Kramer deposition.

28 “ ‘can she act?’ ”: Karen Kramer to the author, North Hollywood, 7/21/04.

29 “lucky girl”: Los Angeles Times, 2/3/67.

30 “pretty well controlled”: Dr. Mitchel Covel to Selden West.

31 “When I arrived”: Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2000), pp. 121–22.

32 “colored person”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, pp. 91–92.

33 “decent folks”: Poitier, The Measure of a Man, pp. 122–23.

34 “delicious meal”: Sidney Poitier, This Life (New York: Knopf, 1980), pp. 285–86.

35 “once-over”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 5/29/09.

36 “chopping block”: Higham, Kate, p. 198.

37 “His idea”: Marshall Schlom to the author.

38 makeup test: According to Michael Blake, this was a common practice in color filmmaking through the mid-1970s, when film speeds got faster and less light was necessary to bring out the features of darker skin. Without makeup, lighter-skinned actors would typically wash out. “As for the correct term, we would say ‘bump up their color,’ which means take them a bit darker than their natural skin tone.” Cinematographer Sam Leavitt, who had shot the black-and-white Defiant Ones for Kramer, favored TV-style lighting for much of the picture, possibly to minimize problems of skin tone and contrast, possibly to shoot more quickly at times when Tracy was available. A trade item in the Reporter noted that Leavitt, at Kramer’s request, had suspended all the lighting needed to illuminate the set from above—no floor lamps or fill lights—so that Kramer could make circular shots if he wished.

39 “In the rehearsals”: Higham, Kate, p. 200.

40 “My aunt”: Katharine Houghton to the author, Sherman Oaks, 3/1/05.

41 “The key to Spencer”: Jack Hamilton, “A Last Visit with Two Undimmed Stars,” Look, 7/11/67.

42 “all the words”: Sidney Poitier to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, Los Angeles, 1986 (TH).

43 “quite a few scenes”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer. In his autobiography Poitier remembers asking Kramer to send them home, and the production report for that day appears to bear that out: Tracy and Hepburn finished at 4:50 p.m., while Poitier remained on the set until 6:45.

44 “play tennis”: Leah Bernstein to the author, Los Angeles, 9/14/04.

45 “strange relationship”: Higham, Kate, p. 201.

46 “Your job”: Katharine Houghton to the author.

47 “he was embarrassed”: Marshall Schlom to the author.

48 “tried to work him”: Katharine Houghton to the author.

49 “Milkman”: Hamilton, “A Last Visit with Two Undimmed Stars.”

50 “best actor”: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 4/30/67.

51 “my last picture”: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 5/10/67.

52 “I miss M-G-M”: Spencer Tracy interview with Roy Newquist, cassette tape, n.d. (courtesy of Susie Tracy).

53 “Uncle Spencer?”: Bobs Watson to Selden West, via telephone, 7/9/91 (SW).

54 “go visit him”: Jean Simmons to the author.

55 “Please wait”: A. C. Lyles to the author.

56 “love of your life”: Katharine Houghton in A Special Kind of Love, Sony Home Entertainment, 2007.

57 “One night”: Katharine Houghton to the author.

58 “Watch out for Kate”: Katharine Houghton to the author, New York, 4/25/08.

59 “walked into this house”: Katharine Houghton to the author, New York, 3/1/05.

60 “the summation”: Stanley Kramer to Heeley and Kramer.

61 “tenser than tense”: Mark Harris, Pictures at a Revolution (New York: Penguin, 2008), p. 322.

62 after some preliminaries: Tracy may well have delivered the entire speech on set before any film got exposed, as there are witnesses who recall that he did it straight through. “As I remember it,” said Katharine Houghton, “he did the whole damn thing from beginning to end.” An examination of the film establishes, however, that it could not have been shot in one take, and the daily production reports clearly show the scene took five days to complete.

63 “first day’s work: Details of the production of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner are from the daily production reports in the Stanley Kramer Collection at UCLA.

64 “I came to visit”: Karen Kramer to the author.

65 “Our reaction shots”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 7/24/05.

66 “superb, moving”: Los Angeles Times, 6/12/67.

67 “Every person”: Poitier, This Life, pp. 286–87.

68 “very relieved”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 7/24/05.

69 “You know, Kiddo”: Wagner, You Must Remember This, p. 293.

70 “He didn’t know”: Tina Smith to the author, Milwaukee, 7/9/06.

71 “I rehearsed”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

72 “shot the scene”: Marshall Schlom to the author, via e-mail, 4/10/09.

73 “rehearsed quite a bit”: D’Urville Martin to Selden West, 12/27/77 (SW).

74 Ivan Volkman: Details of Tracy’s last shot on the picture are from Marshall Schlom. It was customary for the assistant director to make such an announcement, but Marshall Schlom remembered that Volkman, who had been Kramer’s A.D. until he was promoted to production manager on Ship of Fools, claimed the privilege for himself on this occasion.

75 “made me wild”: Katharine Hepburn to Heeley and Kramer.

76 “The party”: Details of the party are from Daily Variety, 5/29/67; Los Angeles Times, 6/12/67; and Bob Thomas’ AP dispatch, 5/31/67.

77 “Finished!”: New York Times, 6/25/67.

78 “very pleased”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

79 “No bunk”: Miscellaneous handwritten notes for Chester Erskine’s proposed documentary on Tracy, evidently made between June and December 1967 (KHLA).

80 “Eddie Leonard”: Los Angeles Times, 6/12/67.

81 “I went to see him”: Dr. Mitchel Covel to Selden West.

82 “He would wear”: Susie Tracy to the author.

83 “Sometimes he would carry”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

84 “give it a push”: Hepburn, Me, p. 402.

85 the phone rang: Susie Tracy to the author, Brentwood, 5/13/05.

86 “peculiar spot”: Hepburn, Me, p. 404.

87 “Some idiot called”: Jean Simmons to the author.

88 “up to par”: Jean Porter Dmytryk to the author.

89 “state of shock”: Milwaukee Journal, 6/11/67.

90 “true to himself”: Dallas Morning News, 6/15/67.

CHAPTER 34 A HUMBLE MAN

  1 “seen his face”: Hepburn, Me, p. 408.

  2 “Nobody gets out”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.

  3 “don’t like anything”: Newsweek, 6/19/67.

  4 “strong and vibrant”: New York Times, 6/18/67.

  5 “I can’t explain”: Stanley Kramer, “He Could Wither You With a Glance,” Life, 6/30/67.

  6 “fine example”: Katharine Hepburn to William O. Douglas, 6/18/67 (LOC).

  7 “What can one say”: Katharine Hepburn to Joan Blondell, 6/23/67 (courtesy of Judy Samelson).

  8 “unique creature”: Katharine Hepburn to Anne Pearce Kramer, 6/17/67 (courtesy of Judy Samelson).

  9 “there is silence”: Katharine Hepburn to Jack Hamilton, 6/27/67 (courtesy of Judy Samelson).

10 “Do you remember”: Dorothy Gopadze to Katharine Hepburn, 6/14/67 (KHLA).

11 “DEAREST GIRL”: Vivien Leigh to Katharine Hepburn, 6/10/67 (KHLA).

12 “blinded with sorrow”: Vivien Leigh to Katharine Hepburn, Saturday (KHLA).

13 “wholehearted devotion”: J. J. Cohn to Katharine Hepburn, 6/13/67 (KHLA).

14 “Your letter”: Katharine Hepburn to J. J. Cohn, 6/12/67 (courtesy of Judy Samelson).

15 “The estate”: Details of the Tracy estate are from Los Angeles Probate File P523809.

16 “terrible shock”: Carroll Tracy to Katharine Hepburn, 3/11/68 (KHLA).

17 “run out of gas”: Robert C. Jones to the author, via telephone, 5/20/09.

18 “How possible”: Sidney Poitier, in AFI’s 100 Years 100 Cheers (Gary Smith Company), 2006.

19 “Who says”: Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker, p. 277.

20 “I’m getting nicer”: New York Times, 10/27/67.

21 “one of the finest”: Los Angeles Times, 11/26/67.

22 “HOW WONDERFUL”: Barry Day, ed., The Letters of Noël Coward (New York: Knopf, 2007), p. 747.

23 “torrid b.o.”: Variety, 12/6/67.

24 “glisten with style”: Harper’s Magazine, January 1968.

25 “faultless”: New Yorker, 12/16/67.

26 “gives his blessings”: Newsweek, 12/25/67.

27 “repeats the charge”: Village Voice, 12/6/67.

28 “I liked him”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.

29 “pat on the back”: Katharine Hepburn to Lewis W. Douglas, 5/5/68, Lewis W. Douglas Collection, University of Arizona, Tucson.

30 “disgusted”: Katharine Hepburn to Ella Winter, n.d., Ella Winter Collection.

31 “I think”: Stanley Kramer to Katharine Hepburn, 5/7/68 (KHLA).

32 “can be friends”: Details of the call are from Hepburn, Me, p. 407; and Susie Tracy, who remembered her mother’s account of it.

33 “straighten things out”: Hepburn, Me, p. 407.

34 “Spencer’s faith”: Eugene Kennedy to the author, via e-mail, 2/3/10.

35 “always thrilled”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 2/18/10.

36 “enormously vulnerable”: Anthony Harvey to the author, via phone, 10/25/07.

37 “fulfilled something deep”: Katharine Houghton to the author.

38 “last speech”: Katharine Houghton to the author, via e-mail, 10/4/05.

39 “Is anyone coming?”: Hepburn, Me, p. 409.

40 “fuss”: In interviews, Katharine Hepburn always maintained that she never had any intention of attending Tracy’s funeral. Within days of his death, however, she told Bill Self that she and Phyllis had indeed started for the church “and then decided not to go. She didn’t want any fuss, she said. No doubt her appearance would have caused one.”