Entertainment :: Books
Author explores Katharine Hepburn’s celluloid closet by Sam Baltrusis
EDGE ContributorThursday Dec 13, 2007The one thing author-historian William J. Mann learned from his exhaustive research digging up the skeletons in Katharine Hepburn’s closet is that it doesn’t make sense trying to pigeonhole the late, great film icon with modern labels of sexual and gender identity.
In fact, Hepburn’s male alter ego "Jimmy" probably would’ve scoffed at the idea.
"She saw the world as a man did in many ways," says Mann, phoning from the lecture halls of Yale in New Haven, Conn. "She felt more comfortable thinking of herself as ’Jimmy,’ who was her childhood alter ego. And she often used the male pronoun when she described herself."
But the author of "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn," in Boston recently to promote the national paperback release of his biography, insists that he’s not claiming that Academy Award winner was transgender or a man trapped in a woman’s body.
"Labels don’t fit for her," he shoots back. "People ask if I’m calling her transgender. No, I’m not. Any label that we’ve coined today really doesn’t fit for someone who lived decades ago and didn’t have the full context of the social and political definitions of those words."
Mann continues, "She certainly wouldn’t have thought of herself as transgender. And she definitely wouldn’t have thought of herself as bisexual or lesbian. She was just herself."
The 43-year-old author known for his work chronicling gay Hollywood in tomes like "Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines" spends much of the acclaimed biography subtly dissecting the rumors surrounding Hepburn’s tomboyish ways and alleged lesbianism.
However, it’s not the dirt Mann digs up on the actress that has been raising eyebrows in Hollywood--it’s Hepburn’s penchant to glamorize her relationships with the alcoholic, closeted men in her life including her legendary romance with actor Spencer Tracy.
"She was always best when she played herself. Her range wasn’t as great as some of her contemporaries but when she got the right role she could be magnificent." In "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn," Mann suggests that Tracy regularly interacted with a mystery man named Scotty, who worked at a Los Angeles garage and served as old Hollywood’s gay version of Heidi Fleiss.
"The truth is never inappropriate as long as you do it in a way that’s not for the sake of being sensational," he remarks. "To understand Tracy and their relationship we had to understand the conflict he was living with and I believe sexuality was a big part of that conflict."
Mann says it was important to portray all facets of both Hepburn and Tracy to truly understand their epic, and seemingly complex, relationship.
"In some previous books, he comes across as a mean-spirited womanizer ... just this angry, abusive man," the author adds. "He comes across as more sympathetic in my book because we understand what he’s going through. He was married and lived this very traditionally masculine life but had these conflicting feelings."
As far as the book’s whistleblower, Scotty, Mann says he’s a reliable source offering juicy, behind-the-scenes tales from Hollywood’s closeted past.
"Scotty is one of the great characters of Hollywood and he’s still out there," he confirms. "In fact, someone just told me that he was at a party that he bartended. I’ve known about Scotty since I began writing about Hollywood 10 years ago and I’ve always tried to get to him but never could."
Mann adds, "He’s a legend in underground circles in Hollywood and he knows where all of the bodies are buried. There’s enough material he’s told me--and stuff that he hasn’t told me--for many other books."
When it comes to the icon’s illustrious film career, Mann says without hesitation that his favorite Hepburn movie is "The African Queen."
"She was always best when she played herself," Mann concludes. "Her range wasn’t as great as some of her contemporaries but when she got the right role she could be magnificent."
Sam Baltrusis has worked for WHDH-TV, CW56, MTV, VH1, Seventeen, Newsweek and as a regional stringer for The New York Times. He’s currently a full-time freelance editor/writer based in Boston. Check out his blog at loadedgunboston.blogspot.com.
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