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walk to the ambulance—he refused to lie down—and, accompanied by his brother Carroll, was delivered to St. Vincent’s Hospital at approximately 2:30 p.m. Early that evening Dr. Lewis announced that he had suffered “a little congestion of the lungs” and developed shortness of breathing. “He is recovering, improving, and feeling fine.” Later, Louise, who left the hospital shortly before midnight, told reporters, “He is doing as well as can be expected. He seems to be coming along very nicely. We hope he will be able to come home in two or three days.” In the news reports, it was invariably noted that Louise Tracy and her husband had been “estranged for many years.” The Los Angeles Times added the seemingly gratuitous information that Katharine Hepburn was “a divorcee.”

Shielding himself from news photographers as he is wheeled into St. Vincent’s Hospital. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)

Letters came from all over the world, and wires arrived from friends and professional acquaintances as diverse as Betty Bacall, Lew Douglas and his family, Earl Kramer (Stanley being in Europe), and Buddy Hackett. Judy Garland sent flowers, George Cukor a scold:

SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU EXPOSE YOURSELF TO THAT FRESH SEA AIR? COME BACK TO THE DANK SMOG OF ST IVES AND YOULL BE OKAY FOREVER

From his hospital bed, Tracy dictated replies, Hepburn faithfully taking them down in longhand. By July 23—two days after the attack—he was reported as feeling fine, sitting up and eating well. Dr. Lewis told the press that Tracy was suffering from pulmonary edema, the inability of the heart to pump effectively, thus causing an accumulation of fluid in the lungs. A spokesman for St. Vincent’s added that he would remain in the hospital for “a few days while they are making tests.” When he did finally leave, Carroll at his side, Tracy had been hospitalized for twelve days. Telling the nurses he was “feeling fine,” he was driven home to St. Ives, where Kate had effectively taken up residence. A new phone line had been installed for her personal use, leaving the original to serve as Spence’s direct line to Louise.

“I have been thinking about Spencer,” Tim Durant wrote Kate, “and the possibility of getting him to start riding again. Let’s face it, at our age it is the mildest but most complete of all forms of exercise. Every muscle is in use but the horse does the hard work. You can choose your own gait and one has the therapy of a massage with the esthetics of being out of doors. I have a very quiet horse which he could start on. He used to be a good rider, and I sincerely feel if he took it up again it would be a great thing for him as it has for me. The ranch has complete privacy and is easily accessible.”

But Tracy’s blood pressure was now dangerously high, aggravated by anxiety, and the notion of putting him on a horse—even a “very quiet” one—was unthinkable. He was, in fact, back in the hospital “just to have some tests made” by the end of the month, and he remained there through the middle of September. “Katharine Hepburn could have her choice of several important Broadway plays,” Dorothy Kilgallen told her readers, “but she’s turning down all New York offers to stay near ailing Spencer Tracy in Hollywood. Her devotion to him for more than two decades has been absolutely selfless.”6

While Tracy was in the hospital, he confessed to Kate that when he got out he wanted a snappy little sports car. “But then he said, ‘It wouldn’t do, would it—with the white hair and everything?’ And I said ‘Shoot, if it’s what you want, get it.’ So he ordered it and it was delivered to the hospital the day he got out and we went down together and there it was at the curb.” It was a dark blue Jaguar XK-E two-door convertible, one of the sexiest (and most powerful) production cars on the road. “All the nurses were leaning out of the windows, watching us. So he got behind the wheel and I got in beside him and he tried to start the motor and it wouldn’t start. And it wouldn’t start. So I jumped out, opened the hood, took a bobby pin out of my hair, and in two minutes flat I had