Repertory and community theatres are ofttimes training grounds for future film actors and actresses. Connecticut-born and raised Katherine Hepburn learned the stagecraft in her state's small theatres. Ann Harding, an Academy Awards Best Actress nominee, found her "home theater" at the Hedgerow Theater just outside of Philadelphia, and returned there and other small live venues in the Pittsburgh area repeatedly to retain her acting skills.
A number of threads tie Hepburn to Harding in more ways than to perform in front of live audiences. Harding, marking her movie debut in 1929's 'Paris Bound' with actor Fredric March, played Linda Seton in July 1930's "Holiday." She's the freewheeling sister, Linda, to Julie (Mary Astor), who's fiancee, Johnny Case (Robert Ames) is brought to the family's palatial mansion to introduce him to her father, Edward (William Holden-not the more famous younger actor). Linda is attracted to Johnny because he's not the materialistic opportunist that runs deep in her family. Wealthy in his own right by wheeling and dealing in the stock market (this was right before the Market Crash in late 1929), Johnny wants to experience the world before settling down to a permanent job.
If this plot sounds familiar, Hepburn played Linda in the more famous 1938 version of "Holiday," opposite Cary Grant. The movie was based on the 1928 Broadway play by Phillip Barry. The understudy for actress Hope Williams, who played Linda on the stage, was none other than Katherine Hepburn. Playwright Barry became good friends with Hepburn when she was part of the acting troupe. When the actress was labeled 'box office poison' in the late 1930s and was unable to secure good movie roles, Barry came to the rescue and composed "The Philadelphia Story," written specifically for Hepburn.
Harding's Academy Award nomination boasted her career in film. She was very busy until she met and married in 1937 musical composer Werner Janssen, a six-time Academy Award nominee. The actress claims Werner was a controlling husband who discouraged her from the Hollywood scene. Harding picked up her movie appearances in 1942, and later concentrated on television roles up until the mid-1960s with spot parts in 'Dr. Kildare' and 'Ben Casey.'
Another Hepburn link to Harding and the movie "Holiday" was Robert Ames, who played Johnny. The Hartford, Connecticut, born and raised silent movie actor from the early 1920s, he seemed to be successful in making the transition to talkies. But he was under tremendous strain in his love relationships. A lawsuit by his nightclub entertainer mistress for $200,000 alleged the actor promised to marry her after his 1930 divorce to socialite Muriel Oakes. A heavy drinker, Ames was under a doctor's medication to help him alleviate his withdrawal from alcohol. While on a Thanksgiving break in New York City with his family, he died at the Hotel Delmonico. The cause of death at 42 years of age was an acute reaction of abstaining from alcohol. He's buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut, the same cemetery as Katherine Hepburn is buried with her family.
