Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [527]
One who did remain dry-eyed through that evocation of gallantry and emotional loyalty was Louise Tracy, who was given a private screening in a projection room at Columbia Pictures. With her were John and Susie, Carroll and Dorothy, her sister Eleanor, others from the extended family. Susie found her father’s summation “very difficult” to watch and was concerned for her mother, but Louise remained quiet and impassive throughout. “I liked him very much,” Louise said years later of her husband’s final performance. “I didn’t like the picture. He shouldn’t have done that picture.”
Columbia’s ad campaign was dominated by the full-figure images of Poitier and Houghton walking arm in arm, the catch line “A love story of today” clearly putting the emphasis on Poitier and the miscegenation theme. Tracy and Hepburn were shown in subordinate positions, almost as afterthoughts. Upon its release in December 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was an immediate sensation, breaking the all-time single-week records at both the Victoria and the boutique Beekman in New York City. The story was the same in Los Angeles, where it promptly broke the house record at the venerable Westwood Village. Kramer flogged the film exhaustively, eventually putting in appearances on college campuses to stir up discussion and prompt word of mouth, a goal ultimately crushed by the same generational disconnect the movie depicted. There were other hit films in the marketplace—Wait Until Dark, Valley of the Dolls, Camelot, the upstart Graduate—but none dimmed the broad appeal of Kramer’s now-famous gamble. In two years domestic rentals would exceed $22 million, making it the most successful picture in Columbia’s history.
The film’s commercial fortunes were compounded by an astounding ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture. The Tracy family attended the Oscar ceremony on April 10, 1968, at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, with Louise planning to go up to the podium were Spence actually to win, just as she had done exactly thirty years earlier for Captains Courageous. In the long runup to the major prizes that evening, they saw the film shut out in nearly every category, with only William Rose scoring a win for his original story and screenplay. Hepburn took the Oscar for Best Actress, a big surprise, clearing the way for the Best Actor statuette to go to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night. Sidney Poitier, who had starred in three smash hits that year, wasn’t nominated for any of them.
Kate chose to take her award—which George Cukor accepted on her behalf—as “a nice affectionate pat on the back for us both—very touching.” Sometimes, though, she privately admitted that she was “disgusted” that Tracy didn’t also win an Oscar.
“I think very often about Spence,” Stanley Kramer reflected in a letter. “I guess, in recent years, I never really considered a project in which he didn’t participate in my thoughts. I miss so much the feeling he always gave me of a confidence in me—and how my ego really swelled when he would tell somebody how he felt about me. I really did love him. I came to him—and he to me—so late. But I never wanted to make it easier for anyone to be as great as he always was. I guess he made it seem so easy—and it isn’t, God knows.”
A few days after Tracy’s death, the phone rang on Tower Road. The housekeeper announced that Miss Hepburn was calling, and Louise