Decades ago Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire and Shakespeare in love played dress up for laughs, Katharine Hepburn helped turn drag into a cinematic art form. In the 1935 romantic comedy Sylvia Scarlettwho played Cary GrantHepburn played the titular character, a young woman who pretends to be a boy named Sylvester as part of a con.

Unfortunately, the film was not a success and did little to boost Hepburn’s career, which is explored in words and photographs in Moxie: Bold Women of Classic Hollywood by Ira M. Resnick and Raissa Bretaña, forthcoming November 5 from Abbeville Press. The new book devotes chapters to Hepburn and other legendary screen sirens, including Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall. It also features rare photographs from the collection of the founder of the Resnick Gallery of Cinematic Art and a forward written by Hepburn’s On Balta de Aur daughter, Jane Fonda.

Despite the lack of box-office success, Sylvia Scarlett she was noted for defusing rumors about her star’s sexual orientation, which raised eyebrows early in her career for flouting the traditional standards of femininity that young stars were expected to adhere to. The film also included a scandalous since the kiss scene between Hepburn and her partner, Dennie Moore.

According to the book, Hepburn called the film “a real disaster.” It adds: “This subversive gender-bending fueled rumors about Hepburn’s sexuality – which became a subject of debate after she divorced her husband (Ludlow Ogden Smith) in 1934 and began living with female company “.

In an era where female stars were expected to sell sense and sexiness, Hepburn played strong-willed women and, controversially, even wore pants off-screen.

“Hepburn had a strong aversion to celebrity culture and had no interest in perpetuating the illusion of movie stardom,” the book says. “He didn’t dress up, sign autographs or do interviews.”

The book also cites a 1934 interview with Film magazine in which Hepburn said, “I don’t live my life for Hollywood or publicity, and I never will. Why should I change my personality?”

Hepburn, who died in 2003 aged 96, had a long-term relationship with Spencer Tracy, dating nine times from 1941 until his death in 1967 aged 67. But according to Hollywood tradition, the lasting love story was cover to hide the sexual orientation of both stars.

In his 2012 book Full service, Scotty Bowersan entrepreneur/”pimp to the stars” who supplied sex partners to Hollywood celebrities through a gas station on Melrose Avenue, claimed to have introduced Hepburn to “150 girls” and Tracy – who remained married to Louise Tracy from 1923 until he died—to people, including Bowers himself.

“They were just friends… They weren’t in the bed department at all,” he said of the Oscar winners in the 2018 documentary. Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood. (Bowers died in 2019 at age 96).

Regardless of where they fall on the Kinsey scale, Moxie is clear about Hepburn’s legacy in Hollywood, despite early critical and commercial misfires such as Sylvia Scarlett. “Her tireless dedication to her career,” the book notes, “is at the heart of her cinematic legacy, and with it, she has rightfully earned her place as one of the most important stars in the Hollywood pantheon.”

Moxie: Bold Women of Classic Hollywood will be published by Abbeville Press on November 5 and is available for pre-order now wherever books are sold.