Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [555]
9 “naughtiest thing”: Emily Clagett Deming to Selden West, Grand Rapids, 3/21/93 (SW). See also Grand Rapids Press, 11/20/79.
10 “inconvenient indisposition”: Grand Rapids Herald, 4/21/25.
11 “John hears”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 3.
12 “deaf and dumb”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.
13 “I was in love”: Larry Swindell to the author, Moraga, Calif., 6/28/05.
14 “Acting gave us”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 45.
15 “out of the faint”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 51.
16 “no one I wanted to act with”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 45.
17 Spence was involved with: When Selden West asked Emily Deming if Tracy had affairs with any of the other women in the company, she replied, “Well, the ingénue and he had a pretty good time together. Betty—she was the ingénue.” Betty Hanna (1903–76) joined the Broadway Players on April 5, 1925, and remained with the company for the rest of the season. Later, when asked if Hanna had been an “item” with Tracy, Deming replied, “Rather briefly, as I remember it.” Larry Swindell interviewed Louise Tracy in 1968 and noticed that she would “freeze a bit” when Selena Royle’s name was mentioned. However, in her unpublished autobiography, Royle was mystified as to why Louise was so cool to her when she arrived in Hollywood in 1944, something that likely would not have surprised her had she actually slept with Spencer Tracy.
18 “all the crazy things”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.
19 “lost her interest”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.
20 “just broke down”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d. In The Story of John, Louise remembered that she told her husband of their son’s deafness in July 1925. In “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Spencer Tracy remembered it was on a Sunday. The earliest Sunday on which Tracy would not have had to give a performance would have been July 5, almost exactly three months from the time when Louise first learned of John’s deafness.
21 “Words of encouragement”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 5.
22 “pin him down”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
23 “That good-for-nothing!”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”
24 “gripping”: Stamford Advocate, 10/10/25.
25 savvy notice: Variety, 10/14/25.
26 “exactness”: Trenton Times, 11/10/25.
27 “evidence of a temper”: Ethel Remey to Selden West, via telephone, 1/3/78 (SW).
28 “Fortunately for John”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 11.
29 “no kind of a life”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
30 “last stand”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 12.
31 “nice young man”: Louise Tracy to Jane Ardmore, 7/5/72 (JKA).
32 “a reprieve”: Chicago Tribune, 11/14/37.
33 “best opportunity”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 33.
34 “purposes of prestige”: Variety, 9/29/26.
35 “Lambs Club”: ST to Pete Martin.
36 “direct his shows”: John McCabe, George M. Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973), p. 205.
37 “scared to death”: ST to Pete Martin.
38 “During rehearsals”: Royle, unpublished autobiography, p. 52. See also McCabe, George M. Cohan: “After giving an order or a change in direction,” she remembered, “he would say, ‘Gay-head, gay-head,’ which meant, ‘Go ahead, go ahead.’ We never knew why he used that particular pronunciation.”
39 Nat Goodwin: McCabe, George M. Cohan, p. 214.
40 “a wonderful night”: Tracy to Ardmore, 7/5/72.
41 “nervous theatrical dynamite”: Variety, 9/15/26.
42 “delighted the heart”: New York Journal, 9/22/26.
43 “rang the doorbell”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 27.
44 “very disturbed”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.
45 “like any father”: Barry Norman, The Hollywood Greats (New York: Franklin Watts, 1980), p. 73.
46 “You see, Billy”: Pat O’Brien to Ralph Story, “Spencer Tracy: An Unauthorized Biography” (Ronald Lyon Productions, 1975).
47 “very happy”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 2/28/27 (NYPL).
48 “Business is only fair”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 3/7/27 (NYPL).
49 “never believed in this”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
50 third week’s gross: Weekly figures for Ned McCobb’s Daughter are from Variety, 2/23, 3/3, 3/18, and 4/13/27.
51 “Wright’s proposition”: ST to Chamberlain Brown, 3/14/27 (NYPL).