What made Katharine Hepburn Nervous?

Katharine Hepburn was 62 years old when she tackled her first (and last) Broadway musical.

Katharine Hepburn met Coco Chanel before she portrayed her on stage. The meeting made Hepburn nervous—come on the tour and we’ll tell you the whole story!

Not many things made Katharine Hepburn nervous, but the prospect of meeting French fashion icon Coco Chanel had her worried.

Got Style?

Muriel King designed the costumes for Stage Door and Katharine Hepburn looks beautiful in this flowing dress. She’s stealing a scene with veteran actress Constance Collier in this still from the film.

Jean Druesedow, Director of the Kent State University Museum and curator of the exhibit had to recreate the belt for this dress—and it involved not only sewing skills, but some detective work!

Katharine Hepburn was stunning wearing this grey silk marquisette gown in Stage Door (1937), but the beautiful draping of organza and chiffon of silk crepe de chine is just the start of the story this dress tells about how movies were made in the 1930s and how museums research and restore the items in their collections. Why does this grey dress appear white in the still photograph from the film? Why is the belt magenta when the publicity poster for the movie shows it is blue?

What is this?

Our exhibit, Making Connecticut, showcases over 500 objects, images, and documents from the CHS collection. “What is this?” posts will highlight an object from the exhibit and explore its importance in Connecticut history every other week. What is this object? What is the story behind it? To find out more,

Reflecting on the year 1965

One of the longest diary runs we have were written by Thomas John Crockett, a Unionville resident and United States diplomat; the diaries date from 1954 to 2009. Following a brief career at the Hartford Times and in the Army, Crockett joined the Department of State where he served for 40 years. Stationed throughout eastern Europe from 1947 until the early 1960’s, he also served in the Philippines during the Vietnam War and in Tunisia and Israel during the 1970’s. The focus in his career was the diplomatic value of American culture and the liberating value of truthful reporting, and he served in the early years of the Voice of America, the U.S. Information Agency, the U. S. Information Service, and related agencies. From his experiences, he developed and nurtured a profound love of art, of music and of languages.

While I was in the stacks last week, I chose one of these diaries at random—1965 to be exact—to see what Crockett might have been up to on New Year’s Eve, since he was such a fascination person. It turns out, not much.

Hepburn Exhibition Coming This Spring

Despite the fact that tomorrow is the first day of winter(!), some of us here at CHS are already planning for the spring. Just last week, we signed a contract with the Kent State University Museum to bring the blockbuster traveling exhibition Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen to Connecticut in April 2014 for its only scheduled New England appearance.