Golden Age of Hollywood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Golden Age of Hollywood - Essay Example Katharine Hepburn was born in May 12, 1907, growing up in Hartford environs, Connecticut in a loving family, she attended her primary education at the Kingswood-Oxford School located in Hartford and later she attended college at Bryn Mawr. She in history and philosophy in the year and it is here she knew and later married Ludlow Ogden Smith, Katharine’s acting interest developed from college by participating in plays. Immediately after graduating, the next day she travelled to Baltimore where she met a producer, Eddie Knopf who cast her to play in various local routine productions. This marked as her start in professional acting and by 1928; she began to be known in Broadway in the plays like â€Å"These Days.† During this period, Katharine appeared in several plays but she developed a reputation of arguing with directors and was therefore, dismissed from several productions (Edwards 125).  Ã‚  Katharine’s success in the studio system came in 1932 when she play ed Amazon princess in a lead role in the play â€Å"The Warrior’s Husband.† George Cukor a director from Radio-Keith-Orpheum pictures was excited on how she played this role and decided to give her first role in a movie. She accepted to work with him and demanded a high salary in the film â€Å"A Bill of Divorcement† where Katharine’s performance was highly praised. She worked with Cukor in many other movies and therefore, raising to stardom. In 1933, Katharine won her first Oscar.... That same year she had an astounding performance as Jo in the successful screen adaptation of â€Å"Little Women.† Further, she had her second Oscar nomination in 1935 after appearing in the film â€Å"Alice Adams† and she became a rising star (Edwards 177). However, after her success, Katharine had a series of box-office failures threatening her career. The films â€Å"Spitfire,† and â€Å"Break of Hearts† in 1934 failed in box office while in 1935 â€Å"Sylvia Scarlett† did not do well. Further, â€Å"Mary of Scotland† in 1936 and â€Å"Quality Street† made in 1937 failed to succeed. It is was disappointing that even the film â€Å"Bringing Up Baby† created in 1938 that paired Katharine with the star Cary Grant as a comedy was not appreciated by the public although today it is honored as a comedy classic. In 1938, Katharine failures continued as she was voted â€Å"Box Office Poison† in 1938, which was largely because o f her reputation of failing to follow the behavior expected of super stars. She often refused to put on makeup, she wore trousers at the time when they were not fashionable for women, she did not want to give autographs or pose for photographs, and refused to talk to reporters (Edwards 224). Katharine fought to bring back her career success and she left Hollywood to find a stage project. She accepted an offer to star in Philip Barry’s play â€Å"The Philadelphia Story† that highlighted a character incorporating humor, aggression, nervousness, and vulnerability. She financed part of the play together with Howard Hughes and bought the film rights that were used in its creation. The play came out in 1940, it was an immediate success going for two fruitful tours, and Katharine