Early carbon DS on onionskin, two pages, 8.5 x 11, RKO Studios letterhead, May 15, 1934. Hepburn modifies her contract with RKO, the studio that launched her stellar Hollywood career only two years earlier. In part: “The current term of your agreement of employment with us dated as of July 7, 1932 shall be suspended during the two (2) year period of employment provided for in that certain agreement. . . . Notwithstanding such suspension . . . the options granted to us shall remain in full force and effect.” After much negotiation and stringent demands (including script approval and a hefty $1,500 weekly salary), Hepburn finally agreed to make her big-screen debut for RKO, in A Bill of Divorcement (1932). In 1933, after completing filming on Little Women and Morning Glory, Hepburn had requested a release from RKO to return to Broadway. RKO refused until Hepburn completed work on the laughable Spitfire, now remembered as a mere curiousity. (Hepburn was cast as Trigger Hicks, a backwoods faith healer!) Hepburn’s eventual return to the stage later that year, in The Lake, was less than auspicious: her performance prompted one of tart-tongued Dorothy Parker’s most famous barbs, that Hepburn “ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.” By 1934, the back-to-back triumphs of Little Woman and Morning Glory afforded the strong-willed Hepburn a new measure of prestige and clout within the legendarily controlling confines of the studio system. Hepburn took home the first of her four Oscars (for Morning Glory) on March 16, 1934, just two months before she signed this document. RKO would certainly have been anxious to hold on to their newest box-office dynamo in the midst of the Depression, and though they were quick to exercise “the options granted to us” - Hepburn starred for them exclusively through 1937 - it’s easy to imagine that the studio was quite willing to keep Hepburn happy with more favorable contract terms. In fine condition, with staple holes in top margins, pencil notation to first page, tiny hole to second page, and embossed notary seal just touching the “K” in Hepburn’s bold, dark signature. R&R COA.
