Kate Remembered, Signed to Jeanne Cooper
[Signed Presentation to Jeanne Cooper] Berg, A. Scott. Kate Remembered. First Edition. 2003. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is warmly inscribed, “Happy Birthday to my new friend Jeanne—who, like my old friend Kate—knows a thing or two about sustaining a career—with admiration … and thanks for countless hours of viewing pleasure, Scott (once young, still restless), Los Angeles, 2008.” Laid in is a notecard, “Happy Birthday, Jeanne! from Alex’s friend Scott.”
In this copy’s inscription, Scott Berg refers to himself as “once young, still restless.” It is a sly nod to the television program on which this copy’s recipient starred for four decades, The Young and the Restless. The “old friend Kate” to whom the inscription refers is Katharine Hepburn, who befriended Berg in 1982 when he interviewed her for a (never published) profile in Esquire magazine. As the years pass, it becomes clear that Hepburn knows Berg will write a posthumous book about her and when with him, had her legacy in mind. That begs the question: Did Berg observe the real Katharine Hepburn or was this another Oscar-worthy performance? Moreover, at this point in her life, did Hepburn herself understand the difference? Added to the mix is the intuitive and exceptionally brilliant Irene Mayer Selznick, friend to both Berg and Hepburn, who becomes increasingly disenchanted with the woman she once affectionally called “Sister Kate.” Selznick is particularly appalled by Hepburn’s gauche dinner guest Michael Jackson (whom Hepburn met via Jane Fonda), which Berg recounts in surreal detail. At Hepburn’s insistence, Jackson only reluctantly removes his sunglasses at the dinner table. Jackson proclaims Hepburn is favorite actresses, but when asked, can name only one of her movies. There are more serious moments as well, with much on Hepburn’s relationship with Spencer Tracy. Was it really a romance for the ages? Berg seems to think so, but this book was published a decade before Scotty Bowers’ tell-all memoir presented a more nuanced portrait.
“The greatest movie stars, the few genuine icons of the cinema, become so because we believe they are sharing actual pieces of themselves on the screen, a delusion fans nurse to heighten the fantasy.”
--A. Scott Berg