Katherine Hepburn Through A Child’s Eyes

Book on Katherine Hepburn titled, “At Home With Kate: Growing Up in Katharine Hepburn’s Household”,“, a smorgasbord of recollections about the Oscar-winning actress as well as tasty recipes for everything from “Kate’s Brownies” to “Stephen Sondheim’s gazpacho.” The writer of this book is the daughter of Katherine’s cook and friend of thirty years, Eileen Considine-Meara.

The book sounds like it will depict Katherine, as she really was, a “demanding boss, but always a generous one.” The writer grew up in Katherine’s home. She saw all the mundane daily routines of this star. Off the camera and out in the open. I think we some times perceive these stars to almost be like gods, but they are only human like us, with a job to make us believe they are bigger than life. We will learn of things like how Katherine felt about family and friends. Her relationship with her cook. The guests she entertained, the food she liked. We will even get the recipes. We will learn of the celebrities that visited with Kate, celebrities like Michael Jackson, and Martina Navratilova.

Seeing Katherine through this author’s eyes will prove to be a most truthful story. This is a woman that saw Katherine through a child’s eyes right on to her adult years. Children are very receptive and it sounds like Katherine made quite an impression on this author. Like the author stated in an article in newsday.com: “She was very beautiful. She had style, and to a young, impressionable girl that stood out. I thought she seemed to have so much freedom, she was her own boss,” Considine-Meara said. “She was an interesting role model. A whole house of people who revolved around her. It really was another world.”

You can watch Katherine in her rarely seen first movie, George Cukor’s, “A Bill For Divorcement,” (1932) on TCM on 1/28 7:15 am EST. In this movie Katherine plays a daughter of a madman. When she finds out that she may inherit her father’s mental illness, she makes the ultimate decision.