Tracy And Helpburn

Description for TRACY AND HEPBURN: AN INTIMATE MEMOIR by Garson Kanin:

"It was always Tracy and Hepburn," Garson Kanin recalls. The billing never changed: the gentleman preceded the lady. Once, when the celebrated author-director chided Spencer Tracy for his insistence on first billing, Spencer said, "Why not?" his face full of innocence, "Well, after all, " his friend replied, "she's the lady. Your the man, Ladies first?" "This is a movie, chowderhead," said Spence, "not a lifeboat."

They were on couple everyone knew of but no one really knew anything about. What kept these two---so opposite in taste and technique---so fiercely together for twenty-seven years?

Garson Kanin remained close to the two great stars throughout their long friendship, He has shared his experience and his affection for them with us by recounting---through personal anecdotes as unpredictable and astonishing as Tracy And Hepburn themselves--the times---troubled, hectic, or satisfying---that they spent in Hollywood, New York, London, and Paris; and how it is for Kate today.

Kanin gives us his Kate---the born eccentric, charming, brilliantly inventive, and determined---as she conquers every obstacle: getting around a no-ladies-in-trousers rule in a stuffy London hotel; dealing with a surprise "coaching: session from John Barrymore; persuading the entire crew on a New York construction site to cease drilling during her major number in the Coco matinees across the street.

Here is Spence, the greatest screen actor of his generation: sharp, magnanimous, joking, tense, he receives an unforgettable lesson in projection from Laurette Taylor, inspiration from George M Cohan; he forces the desegregation of Washington, D.C.'s National Theater; he becomes a involuntary member of an acrobatic act at the Lido in Paris.

This book is a joyous tribute to two extraordinary people.