- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes with the Waltons."
In this case, it's kind of "Ask Judy"
going down a slightly different avenue as we ask John Dayton
about his wonderful, long-standing relationship
with the legend, Katharine Hepburn.
- Oh, I'm gonna answer your question here.
From her books, I said, "She was direct,
with a sharp wit, confident, but not arrogant, no-nonsense.
Was this the same in real life?"
Yes, it was, but I would list funny first.
It was hilarious, and it was weird
because we both had the same sense of humor.
It was a little bit on the sarcastic side, you know,
and I would answer her back, and I don't think she was
quite used to that, but she loved it.
Here's an example of her humor:
we ended up leaving the studio in the car.
I'm driving, and I thought, "Hmm,
how would you like to go to MGM?"
Now, I hadn't made any arrangements or anything,
and she said, "Okay."
So I drove down to MGM, and as we're pulling
into the main gate, there is this, I don't know,
20-foot by 40-foot poster right over the main gate with her,
and I said, "Kate, look at that," and she went, "Oh."
So now, I'm at the gate.
They have no idea who I am right now.
(Judy giggling)
And luckily, I had worked on "Dallas,"
which was on the lot, and I'd been in and out,
and Kenny, the guard, kinda knew me,
and I said, "Kenny, can you do me a huge favor?"
I said, "I have Katharine Hepburn sitting next to me,"
and his eyes went like that. (chuckles)
I said, "Could you please don't tell anybody?
I don't want anybody to know that she's here."
I thought, (whooshes) you know,
try to keep a secret like that.
We walked through the studio,
and we turned a corner,
and there was these big buildings,
and one said "The Judy Garland Building,"
and right next to it said, "The Katharine Hepburn Building."
(Judy grunting)
(laughing) And she looked at me,
and she said, "Oh, look, my building is bigger than hers."
(both laughing)
And it shouldn't mean, it wasn't mean-spirited,
but it was like, those were the little,
and I broke up, you know.
Eventually, someone somewhere found out that she was there,
and we actually had to, I mean, I had to leave,
but yes, I will tell you one thing:
she was never a diva, ever.
She was on the set early for her whole career.
She was on the set early.
She stayed for behind the camera
dialogue for, always, always. - The off camera dialogue, yeah.
- And she was a, just a lovely, down-to-earth lady.
Now, she went in great detail with me about RKO
and her first picture there.
Never been to California before,
getting off the train in Hollywood.
It was all crazy, and her first day of work, she showed up.
They did the makeup, the hair, and she said,
"Trying to change me into something I wasn't,"
you know, but she went along with it.
And George Cukor was the director,
which was great, because he was the one
who decided to give her a break.
Her screen test was awful, (chuckling) just awful,
but George said, "I like the way
she picked up the bowl of sugar."
There's a bowl of sugar on the table,
and she picked it up like this, and that impressed George.
He said, "There's something different about her."
Try to keep me from running down rabbit holes here, but.
- (laughs) That's okay, so I asked at one point,
did she have a favorite film of hers?
- You know, I think, she never said,
"This is my favorite film," but I believe that, you know,
all those years I knew me, I don't think 10 minutes went by
where she didn't talk about Spencer Tracy.
And because "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
was the last of his films, you know,
and he died about 10 days after wrap.
And Kate got the Academy Award for Best Female Performance.
That was her fourth.
Anytime we would talk about her Oscar,
she would say, "You know, you know, this is for both of us."
When we were together, which was a lot,
we had this routine
that at 5:00, we would have tea,
which was scotch and water.
And Famous Grouse,
and she said, the first time we did it,
she said, "Famous Grouse only.
That was Spencer's favorite."
And so first time I made one, ours,
she said, "Ice first, then the alcohol, then the water."
And to this day, if I was gonna make a cocktail,
I'd have to put the ice in first
because that's what Kate said.
She told me how to dress.
She told me how to cut my hair.
I just wrote down some things that,
I have 'em on tape, that Kate said to me.
- Ah, okay. - That I thought were,
you know, and some during Scotch. (laughs)
(Judy chuckling)
So "I didn't go to the Oscars
because I was afraid I would lose."
- Huh. - And she never went.
She was invited one time, and she accepted,
to give the award to Larry Weingarten,
who was, other than me, (giggles) her favorite producer.
Here's another one: "The secret."
This was Scotch.
"The secret of life is how you survive failure."
(Judy grunting) That great?
She was fired so many times, I mean,
not from movies, but from Broadway plays,
and given such horrible reviews.
Another, "Acting is a silly profession." (chuckles)
(Judy giggling) (laughs) Yeah, I agree.
I just wanted to show the human side of her.
"Older people are not used."
Oh, and we know that, you know.
We're put out to pasture, you know.
And it starts young for women,
if you're an actress, as you know.
- Yeah, from what I've seen, I always thought
that her take on herself and life
and her career was just pragmatic,
and, you know, I didn't get the sense
that she spent a lotta time wallowing
or feeling sorry for herself.
She just struck me as someone - Never!
- who kind of got on with it, you know?
- Never, and so let me
give you her exact words.
"There's that creature up, up,
up on the silver screen,
the creature, and then there's me."
So she knew the difference.
Cary Grant said, "She's the most honest person
I've ever met in my life," because Kate would just say it.
She was, I mean, nothing.
She never lived luxuriously,
although she had the ability.
The brownstone in New York was very simple.
I was called upon to fix the plumbing a couple times,
you know, and her home
in Old Saybrook, which was really the home
that her dad had built, was also nothing fancy.
It was just practical, and that was Kate.
And I have to laugh.
She would do the wash, and she would take the sheets
and go outside and shake 'em out and lay them on the grass
because she wanted the aroma, you know, of the grass.
They smelled so sweet. That's how she did that.
I wanna read you something.
This is in her book.
"Don't give in. Fight for your future.
Independence is the only solution.
Women are as good as men. Onward.
Don't moan. Don't complain.
Think positively."
- Thank you so much, John, for sharing
all those incredible behind-the-scenes stories
about your time in the industry
and particularly with the amazing Katharine Hepburn.
I will be back with more "Behind the Scenes
with the Waltons" and more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching.