In A. Scott Berg's book Katharine Hepburn - A personal biography I've read that Woman of the Year originally ended with another baseball scene. Does anyone know whether it has been filmed and does the record still exist? I'd be most interested...
shareAwhile back I tried to post the script of the original ending of Woman of the Year on this board but I guess it was too long because it never showed up. A little background first and then I'll describe the original ending. First there WAS an alternate ending that was filmed. The movie was previewed and the preview audience didn't like the ending. Kate Hepburn went to L B Mayer and asked him if they could re-shoot it. He agreed. The ending was then re-written to what we see today. I have no idea if the film of the original ending still exists but I assume it doesn't.
Anne Edwards, in her biography of Hepburn, started the story that the original ending of WOTY was set at a baseball game and that it was a "feminist" ending. This is not true. You really have to wonder where Edwards got her information although it's apparent that she frequently just made things up. Scott Berg, who claimed to be the authorized biographer of Hepburn, lifted the erroneous information about the original ending from Edwards. If Berg had all those conversations with Kate that he claimed, you'd think they would have discussed WOTY and the great controversy over the ending. In fact, Berg borrowed large amounts of material in his book from other biographies of Hepburn. It's easy to tell because he carries over many of the errors of those other books. Considering that he's a Pulitzer prize winning biographer, what are we to make of his research effort and his honesty?
At any rate, in brief, the original WOTY ending goes like this. The story splits off right after Tess and Sam split up over Chris, the orphan boy. Sam supposedly goes off to get drunk but he really holes up in a hotel room with a couple of language teachers and tries to learn several foreign languages. (It doesn't read funny and doesn't add anything to the plot. This plot line is quickly dropped and never heard from again.)
Tess, meanwhile, finds out that Sam is supposed to be covering the championship fight (that is mentioned a couple of times in the final version of WOTY). Sam's not around so Tess first goes to the local gym to interview the challenger in the fight. She instead meets his wife who is a dutiful loving wife. Tess realizes that she should be like this woman. She writes a saccharine article about the challenger and his family which is published under Sam's byline. Sam finds out about it, gets mad. He shows up at the actual fight to find out who wrote the article and to cover the fight. He meets up with Tess at the fight and finds out that she wrote the article. They have the exchange which is in the final version of the film about her wanting to quit her job and become just a wife. He say in response that he doesn't want her to be Mrs. Sam Craig anymore than he wants her to be Tess Harding. He wants her to be Tess Harding Craig. She agrees. The end.
So basically, the original ending is the same as the revised ending in tone but without the breakfast scene which is undoubtedly funnier than the original final scene of Tess and Sam at the boxing match. The original ending also doesn't have the wedding between Tess' father and her aunt which serves the same purpose as Tess' visit to the gym in the original ending, i.e. through these events Tess "sees the light" and decides she needs to devote herself to being a good wife. The boxing gym scene probably would have been a lot more entertaining than the wedding scene (which is pretty hokey) because the premise is that Tess is in a totally alien world where she doesn't understand what anyone is saying or doing.
The source for the original ending of WOTY is an article in the Writers Guild of America - West magazine. In the article Ring Lardner Jr. discussed the film and the script of the original ending is included. I used to have a link to the article but can't find it now. However, I do have a .pdf file of the original ending script. If you are interested in having the file, send me a private message with an email address to send it to.
That's fascinating information Lysandra; really interesting to hear about the "alternate ending". I agree that the scene at the gym probably would have been more entertaining than the wedding sequence, but on the other hand we got the hilarious kitchen sequence out of it, so on the whole I think it's a pretty even trade off. :)
share[deleted]
Oh yeah, it had been filmed.
But after the 1st viewing with the great Louie B. Mayer.
They all decided to chance the ending which was more hilarious.
I read somewhere that a lot of women were "intimidated" by the brilliant Tess Harding character, but then after the kitchen scene they were able to point out that she couldn't even make a simple breakfast. I remember also reading that Hepburn hated the kitchen scene.
shareThe comment about women being intimidated by Kate is from Joe Mankiewicz.
KH mentioned the film several times in interviews and never objected to the ending. What she said is that the original ending didn't work and that she went to LB Mayer and asked him if they could film a new ending. He agreed. The new ending is not different in tone from the original ending. It's just funnier.
A third version is to be heard here http://brisbin.net/Tracy-Hepburn/Radio/T-H/
The ending is based loosely upon the original ending of the film.
Had the text saved
Below is the original ending of Woman of the Year.
The source is the March, 1942 edition of Screen Romances, a fan magazine of the era that published pictures from and the plots of current films. Because there was a considerable lead time for publishing magazines in those days, it appears that the original ending of the film was given to the magazine rather than it's alternate ending.
"Pinkie turned up with the food, very unhappy. Sam crouched above a book oblivious, coat and necktie off, mouth grim."
(The story diverges after Sam returns Chris to the Greek orphanage.)
Sam cleared out his clothes at the apartment, and left his key on the teletype where Tess couldn't miss it. Then he went out and got drunk. So drunk that he could forget about ambassadors and wars and conferences and plaques and brillant columns and Tess Harding and the whole blasted mess.
But it didn't look much like success, that vigorous campaign of forgetting, when he started to come out of it late the next evening. He seemed to be in the apartment of a some woman named Mademoiselle Sylvia who taught French. And crumpled in one corner there seemed to be a young man quite exhausted, who taught Spanish.
Sam telephoned Pinkie's bar for sandwiches and went on with what he had been doing. Learning foreign languages, was it? All right, why not?
Pinkie turned up with the food, very unhappy. Sam crouched above a book oblivious, coat and necktie off, mouth grim. Mademoiselle, in a chair beside him, looked exhausted. It couldn't have been exactly an inspiring picture. Sam realized this slowly and glanced up.
"Hiyah, Pinkie? Thanks. Just put the stuff on the table."
"What gives out here?" Pinkie demanded "Sam, the fight! The World's Championship! You're supposed to be there, man!"
"Let me get this straight," Sam turned back to Mademoiselle, indicating Pinkie with a jerk. "He's a friend of mine, see? So I don't use the vous on him, I give him the tu? Right?"
"Thirteen hours, Mr. Craig!" the woman moaned. "After so long, it is difficult to assimilate. You ---"
"But you are important, Sammy!" Pinkie protested. "That fight --"
"That stuff's all over with! In a year, maybe less -- I'll have people hanging on my words like mesmerized grapes. I want to be important! All right, Mademosielle let's have it again!"
"I knew it! howled Pinkie, suddenly, "He's crazy! I knew somethin' was wrong when I read in his column how he picked Dunlap to win!"
Sam whirled, "Column? What column? Who picked Dunlap?"
"The stuff you wrote today. Don't you ever read it? " Pinkie thrust a crumpled sports page toward him. "You know guy's washed up. So --"
LITTLE WOMAN"S FAITH WILL WIN FOR DUNLAP, SAYS CRAIG
There it was, right in front of his eyes. There in cold print!
LOVE AND THE COMEBACK TRY
"Who did it?" Sam shrieked. "Who wrote that tripe?"
"Who wrote it? Don't do this to me Sammy!"
But Sam was headed for the door already, dragging Pinkie behind him. They were on their way to the big fight. And whoever in the press section had signed Sam Craig's name to this bilge was going to pay plenty!
The boys pulled no punches as Sam shoved through the crowd at the Garden on the way to his seat. An uncertain baritone hummed Hearts and Flowers in the background and hard-bitten newsmen began to dab handkerchiefs at their eyes. Burning, Sam couldn't blame them.
"Al Dunlap will whip the Champ tonight. As surely as the puny power of muscle must always bow to that invincible spirit which springs from the tender, constant devotion of a woman to her man ---"
Cripes! Whoever wrote that tripe had certainly hated Sam Craig. But who could it --- Sam tried to stop thinking. The crowd was on its feet. The big scrap was on. Al Dunlap rushed from his corner with such speed and force that the Champ was taken off guard. The first four blows were Dunlap's and the last of them took the favorite off his feet to kiss the canvas. All along the row, astonished writers twisted to stare at Sam again. And Sam stared back at them, the most astonished man of all.
Now the Champ was up again. But a soft voice, speaking in Sam's ear, had made him forget there was a ring. "Hello, Mr. Craig."
"Aren't you a little off your beat?", he grated.
"No, I'm exactly where I should be." Tess sank into half a space beside him. "Isn't it wonderful -- about Dunlap's winning, I mean? It certainly makes you a pretty smart picker, doesn't it?"
"Oh, so you read the column," Sam swallowed grimly. "Probably the first column of mine you ever read and you had to pick that one. I did not pick Dunlap. And I wouldn't have written that tear-jerking hokum at the point of a gun!"
"What do you mean, hokum?" Tess gasped. "Sam -- I wrote it."
He could only stare at her, cold in his anger. "Why?"
"We didn't know where you were. It had to be written -- I -- I knew one of the boys could cover for you. But it wasn't their job. It was mine." her eyes were shining. The perfect little woman of fiction!
"Take it easy, Tess," Sam warned, still not believing this was happening. "You're still writing that -- that column."
She shook her head. "No darling, no! I'm trying to live it now. I went out to Dunlap's training quarters, and there was Mrs. Dunlap -- knitting for him. I talked to her, and she told me all about how she gets behind him and makes him believe in himself even when everyone else thinks he's a has-been, and suddenly -- oh, everything became so clear to me! I haven't been a woman or a wife or anything!"
The crowd was going crazy at whatever was happening in the ring. But Sam couldn't be bothered to watch it. "And now you know?"
"We'll move out of the apartment and get a little house out of town somewhere. I'll learn how to take care of it, and you."
"You're not talking sense," Sam muttered. "You can't fix you and me up with an apron and a dusting cap. You can't make it work."
Tess tossed her lovely head. "I will too make it work! It'll work just as sure as Al Dunlap will win this fight!"
The words mingled with a rising roar as the figure of Dunlap came hurtling through the ropes and sprawled unconscious at their feet. Tess stared down at it, shocked horror in her eyes. Suddenly, she covered her face with her hands. They were shaking pitifully. Sam scarcely knew just how it was that his arms got around her. But there it was.
"Look, honey. Al will have a headache tomorrow. But a nice piece of change goes with it. He and Mrs. Al are going to buy a farm up-country and live up there -- where they belong."
He turned her toward him gently. "Why do you have to go to extremes? First you wanted to be just Tess Harding. Now you want to be just Mrs. Sam Craig. What's wrong with Tess Hardin Graig?"
She looked up at him, understanding slowly. "Sam -- I think it's a wonderful name! Kiss me, darling! It's a wonderful name!"
Your version is from a movie magazine that did synopsis of new movies. The interesting thing about this is, of course, that the movie magazine had the original ending. I assume that's because in those days there was a long lead time for magazine publishing so this is what MGM submitted to them. I have this but I also have the original script version.
shareI think this is the pdf-file you are talking about http://brisbin.net/Tracy-Hepburn/Articles/T-H/Retrospective/thumbnails/origWOTYending.pdf
shareMemory can be a tricky thing, so we can never be sure what you read or where.
But I like to think you're remembering correctly. Hepburn was way ahead of her time where gender roles are concerned. It makes me happy to think she anticipated how clunky this would look to modern eyes almost a century later.
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Nothing to see here, move along.