Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [399]
He stayed at Claridge’s, Hepburn around the corner at the Connaught. They made no show of their time together but neither could they count on Howard Strickling’s stifling of the press as they had in California. Their behavior patterns were largely dictated by Hepburn’s management of the circumstances. “She once told us that she and Tracy had never spent the night together under the same roof,” remembered Sandy Sturges, who was in town with her husband Preston and their young son. Kate maintained it was Tracy’s tossing and turning that was, at least in part, responsible: “I think Spencer found life very difficult and I found him very fascinating. So he couldn’t sleep. Well, I don’t want to sleep in a bed with someone who can’t sleep.”
Eddie Dmytryk, who was in London making a picture for producer David Lewis, observed their routine:
On our first evening, Tracy, Hepburn, Ambassador Douglas (whom I had met in Arizona), and I had dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant in Soho. We dined well and stayed late, then walked back to the Claridge, where Spence and I were staying. On arriving at the hotel, Douglas excused himself, and Spence went up to his room while I took Miss Hepburn around to the tradesman’s entrance at the rear of the building.3 We took the freight elevator up to Tracy’s floor (the operator knew her well) and joined Spence in his suite. There Katy made coffee for him and we chatted until it was time for her to say good night. Again, I escorted her to the freight elevator, through the rear entrance, and a block or so down the street to the Connaught, where she was staying.
On May 30, Tracy went to Mass and took a long walk through London on his own. Sometime during the course of the day, he discovered that The People, a Sunday tabloid with a circulation in excess of five million, had devoted half a page to an article with the following headline: “For 12 years they’ve kept Hollywood’s gossips at bay—Now LOGAN GOURLAY reveals the secret romance of Spencer and Katie.”
Veiled references to the relationship from American columnists—Sheilah Graham, Winchell, Kilgallen in particular—stretched back to Woman of the Year, but never before had a mass-circulation publication so blatantly fingered them.
For more than 12 years they have succeeded in remaining “just friends, that’s all, just friends” though it may not always look that way [Gourlay wrote]. Indeed, there are all the signs of the usual Hollywood affair. They have popped up together in several of the world’s capitals. At the moment they are here in London, not entirely by coincidence. In 1952, when she was appearing in The Millionairess on the London stage, he flew over from America. Each night he had a box reserved at the theatre. Each night he sent her a bouquet. While Hepburn was filming The African Queen here, Tracy turned up conveniently for a holiday. Yet this is the first time the newspaper spotlight has been turned on their relationship. How have they kept out of the headlines all this time? One answer is—discretion.
Gourlay went on to skirt the onerous English libel laws by branding the relationship “a genuine platonic friendship” while letting the tone and substance of the article speak for themselves. There were a few howlers—Gourlay had Hepburn entering into three separate marriages, the second with Howard Hughes—but most of the observational details were accurate.
Throughout the years they have remained reticent, shunning publicity. When I met him last year in Hollywood, all he would say was: “Yes, I know Katie very well.” She has always restricted herself publicly to saying that “Spencer is one of my closest friends.” (On less public occasions she calls him “Spence.”) The other night on one of their few public appearances together in London during their current visit, I saw them leaving one