KATHARINE HEPBURN | QUALITY STREET (1937) Oversized portrait

[Los Angeles: RKO Radio Pictures, 1937]. Vintage original 11 x 14″ (28 x 35 cm.) black-and-white double weight glossy silver gelatin photo. Crease at bottom right corner, minor wear. About fine.

A stunning portrait — and of the highest quality — from the golden age of Hollywood portraiture. Katharine Hepburn, wearing a period costume designed by Walter Plunkett, is in perfect characterization as the 1810s prim maid Phoebe Throssel of J. M. Barrie’s story. George Stevens directed.

RKO felt that adapting some of Barrie’s works for Hepburn would be appropriate. Audiences did not respond and, with a box office poison rating, Hepburn found herself needing to change gears. She soon did by starring, first on stage and then on screen, in The Philadelphia Story.

Photo is coded QS-36.