In Tracing Katharine Hepburn's Life, One Line Passes Through Sandy Hook

By Shannon Hicks

While the world began mourning over the quiet passing on Sunday afternoon of the legendary actress Katharine Hepburn, members of one Sandy Hook family once again looked outside the windows of their home and tried to imagine what a few days during the summer of 1949 must have been like on their property.

Ms Hepburn, as many have been reminded this week, lived most of her life on a family estate in Old Saybrook. It was at the estate, called Fenwick, that Ms Hepburn died on June 29 surrounded by family and close friends. Famous for her movie roles as well as making it fashionable for women to wear pants for most occasions, Ms Hepburn had fans of all ages around the world. Residents may not realize it, but Sandy Hook has a small connection to Ms Hepburn's life and one of her films.

A favorite film for many of Ms Hepburn's fans, Adam's Rib tells the story of one New York City-based couple — both lawyers — and the legal battle that nearly tears apart their marriage. Katharine Hepburn plays Attorney Amanda Bonner and Spencer Tracy is her onscreen husband, Assistant District Attorney Adam Bonner.

Early in the film the Bonners host a dinner party during which they show some home film of their just-purchased farm in Connecticut.

The home film opens with exterior shots of the Connecticut house and then guests are treated to scenes of Mrs Bonner playing tennis, Mr Bonner kneeling poolside with the couple's dogs, the couple running into a barn, paddling on a calm pond, and generally mugging for the camera.

The couple is also seen gleefully accepting from their banker the now paid-off mortgage note for their new piece of property, which they have named Bonner Hill.

Another exterior shot of the farm toward the end of the film shows a view of the main house at Bonner Hill at dusk.

What many people in this area may not know (or remember) is that the property depicted in Adam's Rib as Bonner Hill was Far Away Meadows, the Sandy Hook estate of the married actors-turned-screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. The property is also well-known as the former home of the opera singer Grace Moore. Ten years ago Tim and Elin Hayes purchased the Sandy Hook property.

Mrs Hayes visited The Bee offices this week to share a photo showing Katharine Hepburn and Sadie Kanin, Garson's sister, sitting on the steps of a porch at Far Away Meadows. It's a black and white photo with a quarter-inch border, very typical of a photograph style that used to be popular during the 1950s and later. The undated photo measures approximately two by three inches.

The two women are sitting side-by-side, with shoulders touching. They're looking at each other and smiling. Ms Kanin is wearing a dress. Katharine Hepburn, of course, is in pants.

While Adam's Rib was not the first onscreen pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (that honor went to the 1942 comedy Woman of The Year), it was one of the finest.

The film shows a young Hepburn at her spunkiest. She verbally spars with her husband both in and out of court, being at appropriate times charming and witty, playful, intelligent, and strong of spirit and convictions. These traits, which were drafted into a script written with Ms Hepburn in mind, are some of the same traits generations of Ms Hepburn's fans cite for their adoration of her.

The actress was a good friend and show business associate of Mr Kanin and Ms Gordon, as was her longtime love, Spencer Tracy, and visited Far Away Farms on several occasions. Adam's Rib was one of five films Mr Kanin and Ms Gordon wrote together, and one of two that starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The second was Pat and Mike (1952). In his 1971 book Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir, Garson Kanin wrote of how he and wife Ruth Gordon developed the story for Adam's Rib while driving to Far Away Meadows in the winter of 1947.

"Ruth and I were driving up to our place in Sandy Hook, Connecticut," he wrote, "for the weekend. The rain held intimations of snow, and the murky Merritt Parkway was beginning to have slippery spots."

Mr Kanin tries to get his wife's mind off the road by suggesting she tell him "something fascinating." When she begins to tell him about a pair of couples where partners end up consulting each other for advice on separation and divorce, the conversation continued longer than expected thanks to Mr Kanin's continued questions and conjecture. Along the way the screenwriters brought in the idea of battling attorneys.

"The idea of a pair of married lawyers as adversaries in a case was instantly promising from a dramatic point of view," Mr Kanin's recollection continued.

"Shortly after dinner, we began to talk it out and did not stop until almost four in the morning.

"We awoke to find that the idea still seemed good, and we continued to amplify it during the weekend. In development, it seemed that the contest should involve some sort of male-female dispute, such as an application of the double standard.

"Automatically, we found ourselves referring to the husband of our pair as 'Spence,' while 'Kate' became the name of his spouse."

While most filming for Adam's Rib was done on location in Manhattan during the summer of 1949, the screenwriters also opened their Sandy Hook estate for filming of the outdoor/home films scenes that year. Adam's Rib opened during the Christmas season that year.

According to Elin Hayes, a 1985 movie called That's Dancing! also features footage of Tracy and Hepburn dancing on the patio at Far Away Meadows. Mrs Hayes believes that footage was likely shot at the time of the filming of the outdoor scenes for Adam's Rib.

When Tim and Elin Hayes purchased their current home, it needed a lot of work. It also came with a lot of history that they did not yet know about. It was not until word started getting out about the young couple and their ambitious plans for the house that they began learning about the property's previous owners.

"We didn't even know about Grace Moore when we moved in here, never mind the Adam's Rib connection," Mrs Hayes said this week. "We had no clue. Tim just fell in love with the house. He was absolutely captured by the potential of the house. This house was really falling down, but he saw what it could become.

"The daughter of some of the people who used to work here while the house was owned by Grace Moore and then the Kanins, she contacted us shortly after we purchased the house," she continued. "I believe I got the Kanins' address from her, and I wrote to Garson Kanin to tell him about the renovations we were doing and to share with him a copy of an article that ran in The Bee all about the renovations.

"I didn't hear anything for quite some time," Mrs Hayes added, "but I was able to say 'Oh well, at least I tried.'"

By 1993 Ruth Gordon had died and Mr Kanin had remarried, to the actress Marian Seldes.

"All of a sudden I got this envelope in the mail and it was filled with photos from the period when Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon lived at Far Away Meadows [which they moved out of by July 1952]. It was from Marian Seldes, and it included a lovely note. She apologized for the delayed response, and said she wanted us to have these photos."

The collection included a number of scenes of the property. There are also snapshots of visiting friends, among them the playwright Thornton Wilder and the novelist and screenwriter Anita Loos as well as the accompanying photo of Katharine Hepburn and Sadie Kanin.

"It was a thrill to open it up and have that stuff shared with us," Mrs Hayes said. "To get it from that direct connection was really exciting."

As they continue to reside at Far Away Meadows, the Hayeses continue to learn more about their property's history and meet people who have worked for or been friends of previous owners.

"It's been like having a puzzle and receiving the pieces," Mrs Hayes said. "There's been so much to learn about this house.

"You know how you buy an old house and people say 'If these walls could talk... ' Well we've been hearing the stories."

Mrs Hayes says she saw in Katharine Hepburn "a presence on the screen that very few people come close to, past or present. I think she was an absolutely incredible person. I'm definitely a fan of her work, and I think she was a really neat lady."

The library of films at Far Away Meadows includes a copy of Adam's Rib.

"Oh yes, we have that," Mrs Hayes laughed. "We take it out about once a year to watch it. It's a good, fun film."