Katharine Hepburn Theater Collection Comes
to the NYPL
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn was one of the world's
most beloved film stars, but not everybody
knows she began her brilliant acting career
on stage, and continued to perform on Broadway
and in touring plays throughout her career.
The late actress left behind a treasure
trove of journals, photographs, scrapbooks,
scripts, playbills, fan mail and cast lists
relating to more than five decades of theatre
work. Highlights include admiring letters
from famous fans like Sir Laurence Olivier,
Judy Garland and Charlton Heston, and personal
accounts of her adventures on the road – particularly
a hilarious description of her arrest for
speeding in Kansas while on tour with As
You Like It, told in the actress' fearlessly
honest voice.
News that Miss Hepburn’s papers were
donated to The New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts at Lincoln
Center headlined reports by The
New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New
York Post, Daily
News,
New York Sun, Associated Press, and
Reuters earlier this week. These materials
are now part of The
Billy Rose Theater Collection, the
largest and most comprehensive archive
devoted to the theatrical arts.
"Many people are unaware that Ms.
Hepburn's career as an actress really
took hold first on the stage," said
Bob Taylor, the division's Curator. "The
stage was not only her training ground, but
also the place where she experienced some
of her greatest successes. We couldn't
feel more privileged to have been selected
as the custodians of that portion of her
personal papers that covers her stage career."
The boxes include memorabilia from a little-known
early performance as a senior at Bryn
Mawr College in the late 1920s to her many
appearances in Shakespeare productions to
her later work in Coco,
A Matter of Gravity and West
Side Waltz.
In early 2008, the Performing Arts Library will present a series of free public programs celebrating the donation of the Katharine Hepburn Papers to the Library's Theatre Division. Participants include Zoe Caldwell, Dick Cavett, Anthony Harvey, Katharine Houghton, Charlotte Moore, Marian Seldes, Sam Waterston, and others.
Listen to a wnyc.org audio clip
about the Katharine
Hepburn papers:
