Call Me Kate, the Netflix doc that I finally caught last weekend, reports that upon her first meeting with Spencer Tracy in mid ’41, prior to their costarring in Woman of the Year, the 5’8″ Katharine Hepburn said, “You’re not very tall, are you?”
Tracy stood around 5’9″, or an inch taller than Hepburn so what the hell was she talking about? Tracy was four inches shorter than the 6’1″ Clark Gable, granted, but at the same time was no one’s idea of a shrimpy shortypants. He was an inch taller than Humphrey Bogart and way taller than the bowling-pin-sized Alan Ladd. Tracy was the same height as Kirk Douglas, whom I hung out with a bit in ’82 and who never struck me as height-challenged.
So where’s the wit or pizazz in Hepburn saying to Tracy “yo, bruh…how come you’re not taller?” Kind of a dumb-ass comment.
Nonetheless the line got around (i.e., was repeated during parties and story conferences) and it turned up three or four years later during the filming of The Big Sleep (’46). Twice, in fact. Martha Vickers‘ “Carmen Sternwood” says to Bogart’s Phillip Marlowe, “You’re not very tall, are you?” and Marlowe replies, “Well, I try to be.” A few minutes later Bogart/Marlowe confesses to Lauren Bacall‘s Vivian Sternwood Rutledge that he’s “not very tall…next time I’ll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.”
For the record, the classic-era stars who were, in fact, height-challenged included Mickey Rooney (5’3″), James Cagney (5’5”), Alan Ladd and Dustin Hoffman (‘5’6″), Bing Crosby, John Garfield, Gene Kelly, Stanley Kubrick and Al Pacino (5’7″) and James Dean, David Hemmings, Frank Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart (5’8″).
Among the tallest classic-era actors were Sean Connery, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, James Garner, Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster and Joel McCrea (all 6’2″), Gary Cooper (6’2 1/2″), Fred MacMurray, Gregory Peck, Randolph Scott and James Stewart (6’3″) and Clint Eastwood and John Wayne (6’4″)
Hollywood Elsewhere stands six foot and 1/2 inches. I reached that height sometime around 14 or 15. I’m taller than most other film critics and columnists, and my shoulders are also broader than most.