Expert: Popcorn Guy - 2/6/2005

Question
I teach a Pop Culture course in h.s. & am trying to develop a Valentines Day theme lesson.  My question -- what are the greatest on-screen (& off) romances between Hollywood's leading men & women?  Any great trivia you can pass along that would keep a 16 year-old listening would be much appreciated!

Jim

Answer
Hi, Jim...

First and foremost, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn have to be the lead story... some 30 years together, and never married due to his defunct marriage. He couldn't divorce (Catholic staunchness), but he and Kate were together even to the day he died. In fact, his hat is the one Henry Fonda wore in "On Golden Pond."

Gable and Lombard should rank high up there, too... he joined the army after she died in a plane crash, on a war-bond selling trip.

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were Hollywood's first "couple." They heled co-found United Artists, and were long considered the "perfect movie couple."

Onscreen, same story with Hepburn and Tracy. Watch any of their films together and get a lesson on how "being married" should be. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan actually had to dispell rumors that they were a couple, their chemistry onscreen was so perfect.

Hope this helps some.. .lemme know and I can add more...

PCG