Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. She worked in a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, which earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer.
The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey. Directed by George Cukor, the film is based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite, played by Hepburn in both productions, was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress who had married Barry's friend.
Holiday is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film which tells the story of a young man who is torn between his free-thinking lifestyle and the tradition of his wealthy fiancée's family. It stars Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames and Hedda Hopper. It was produced and released by Pathé Exchange.
Summertime is a 1955 romantic comedy drama film directed by David Lean, and starring Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Darren McGavin, and Isa Miranda. It follows a lonely middle-aged American secretary and her experiences touring Venice alone for the first time, during which she falls in love with an Italian antiques dealer. Lean co-wrote the screenplay with H.E. Bates, based on the play The Time of the Cuckoo by Arthur Laurents.
Dame Alice Ellen Terry was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Walter Plunkett was a prolific costume designer who worked on more than 150 projects throughout his career in the Hollywood film industry.
Robert Edmond Jones was an American scenic, lighting, and costume designer.
Machinal is a 1928 play by American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the real-life case of convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder. Its Broadway premiere, directed by Arthur Hopkins, is considered one of the highpoints of Expressionist theatre in history of the American stage.
Charles Henry Pywell Daniell was an English actor who had a long career in the United States on stage and in cinema. He came to prominence for his portrayal of villainous roles in films such as Camille (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Holiday (1938) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Daniell was given few opportunities to play sympathetic or 'good guy' roles; an exception was his portrayal of Franz Liszt in the biographical film of Robert and Clara Schumann, Song of Love (1947). His name is sometimes spelled "Daniel".
Philip Jerome Quinn Barry was an American dramatist best known for his plays Holiday (1928) and The Philadelphia Story (1939), which were both made into films starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Joseph Henry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director.
Donald Ogden Stewart was an American writer and screenwriter best known for his sophisticated golden age comedies and melodramas such as The Philadelphia Story, Tarnished Lady and Love Affair. Stewart worked with a number of the directors of his time, including George Cukor, Michael Curtiz and Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart was a member of the Algonquin Round Table and, with Ernest Hemingway's friend Bill Smith, the model for Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises. His 1922 parody on etiquette, Perfect Behavior, published by George H. Doran and Co., was a favourite book of P. G. Wodehouse.
Holiday is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor, a remake of the 1930 film of the same name.
Irma von Cube was a German-American screenwriter. She began as an actress and a writer for films in Germany in the early 1930s, and continued when she arrived in the United States in 1938.
Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director. In an unusual practice for the time, he served as both actor and director on several films in the early 1930s. He later turned exclusively to directing. Having scored huge successes directing the films She Done Him Wrong and Morning Glory, he was at the height of his career when he died after a brief illness.
Jean Dixon was an American stage and film actress.
Happy New Year is a musical with a book by Burt Shevelove and music and lyrics by Cole Porter.
Without Love is a 1945 romantic comedy film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Lucille Ball. Based on a 1942 play by Philip Barry, the film's screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart.
Muriel King (1900–1977) was an American fashion designer based in New York City. She was one of the first American fashion designers along with Elizabeth Hawes and Clare Potter to achieve name recognition. She also designed costumes for several major films in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mary of Scotland was a 1933 Broadway three-act play written in blank verse by Maxwell Anderson, produced by the Theatre Guild, directed by Theresa Helburn and with scenic and costume design by Robert Edmond Jones. It ran for 248 performances from November 27, 1933 to July 1934 at the Alvin Theatre. A scene between Mary and Elizabeth never actually happened as they never met. Anderson's son Quentin Anderson played a warder. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1933-1934.
