Biography: In the introduction to his monumental biography of Katharine Hepburn, William J Mann promises his readers that he will not be rehashing the familiar old anecdotes or retelling the plots and the behind-the-scenes accounts of her many movies. Instead, we are to be treated to the first independent analysis of the great star's life story, replacing a number of earlier works penned by less critical authors, and Hepburn's own autobiography, Me.
By way of garnering this information, Mann raided the archives with a thoroughness that would put your average PhD student to shame. Not content with secondary sources, he interviewed legions of ageing actors, directors, publicists, managers, friends, relatives, friends of relatives and relatives of friends. His objective was ostensibly to chart the numerous volte-faces of Hepburn's career as she refashioned her image to suit changing expectations of femininity. Pre-censorship Hollywood of the 1930s revelled in a promiscuous celebration of multiple sexualities and that was what the emerging star, with her uniform of swinging trousers and tomboy androgyny gave them; when censorship entered the frame, Hepburn was labelled box-office poison. She responded with The Philadelphia Story, treating 1940s cinema-goers to an opening scene in which Cary Grant slaps his hand over her face and pushes her onto the floor. Rebel? Apparently, she just loved being humbled. Then again, the making of The African Queen in 1951 was Hepburn's chance to prove her patriotism to a nation that had recently been informed by the tabloid press that their patrician star was nothing less than a "Red Appeaser". Equally anxious to establish their credentials were her director John Huston and co-star Humphrey Bogart. Film roles, for Hepburn as for most stars, were not distinct from their real life personae but integral to them. Audiences differentiated little between the two and it is now left to the dedicated biographer to separate image from reality.
Or so we are promised. Within pages, Mann's primary concerns emerge as he commences his exploration not only of Hepburn's sexuality but that of her circle and, indeed, of everyone with whom she came into contact in the 96 years of her life. As the author of Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, Mann is on familiar territory as he decodes giveaway phrases such as "mannish", "female companion" and, ah yes, "marriage". What a front that institution was for those sexual free spirits of the classical Hollywood era. In every marital chamber there lurked a closet, and out of that closet, at any moment, a mannish female companion was liable to jump. Was Hepburn a lesbian? What about her de facto marriage with that other great screen icon of her day, Spencer Tracy? Lies and cover-ups all of it, we learn. Even if she wasn't sexually active, and even if she was occasionally attracted to gruff father figures (like, for instance, John Ford), Hepburn's real preferences are, time and again, revealed to be women, many of them discreetly companionable. When she did enter into a relationship with a man, then he was most likely to be gay or bisexual. Hence, therefore, the happy years with Spencer Tracy whose drinking is now revealed to be expiation for his gay tendencies. Picking up on Maureen O'Hara's revelation in her recent autobiography that she had found John Ford in flagrante with an unnamed male on the studio lot, Mann comes to the conclusion that Ford too spent his days battling the demons of his homosexual drive.
Those are the celebrity outings. A great deal of Kate is devoted to exploring every passing "friendship" of Hepburn's, no matter how insignificant. The result is a doorstop of a book that is so over-freighted with trivia that its real value, as a social history of Hollywood, is lost in the relentless layering of detail. From it, Hepburn emerges as a strong-willed, often imperious and manipulative high-achiever of some sexual ambiguity. In the time taken to achieve this analysis one could, for instance, have watched Sylvia Scarlett, Bringing Up Baby and Holiday; and probably reached much the same conclusion.
Ruth Barton is senior research fellow in the school of languages, literatures and film at UCD. Her most recent book, Acting Irish in Hollywood: From Fitzgerald to Farrell, was published earlier this year by Irish Academic Press
Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn By William J Mann Faber & Faber, 621pp. £18.99