God or Spencer?

With Loretta Young being my star of the month, I thought it was the perfect time to read her authorized biography, Forever Young, the Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend.  I am halfway finished with it, and all I can say is that it is a fascinating, delightful, and very interesting read.  Miss Young was a devout Catholic, and her commitment to God and His ways was the ruling factor in her life.  No, Loretta wasn't perfect, nor was her life without its share of mistakes, but the longing to live a life pleasing to God was at the very core of her being, and never was that more apparent than in her relationship with Spencer Tracy.

Until my reading of this book, I never knew that Miss Young and Mr. Tracy were ever "an item."  All I've heard for years is that Katharine Hepburn was the love of Spencer Tracy's life.  However, Forever Young reveals that Spencer also had another great love in his life---and that love was Loretta Young.

In 1933, Loretta and Spencer were paired together in Man's Castle, and during production of the film, they soon became involved with one another.  According to Miss Young's biography, "Tracy had a way of focusing all his attention on Loretta, and seemed to find absolute joy in her presence.  For Loretta, it was a time of romance unlike anything she had ever experienced."

Though they were in love with one another, it was, apparently, a chaste relationship...."Couples in love, practicing restraint, and not "going all the way" was fairly conventional behavior, fitting the mores of that time."  Even without anything physical between them, though, Loretta became ashamed of dating another woman's husband.  She knew there could never be anything permanent between them, as Spencer was married and was not allowed by the Church to divorce his wife and re-marry Loretta within it.  For Loretta's part, having married once outside the Church (to Grant Withers in 1930) and feeling estranged from God as a result, another marriage outside the church was out of the question.  The two of them went to Confession each week (Spencer was also a Catholic), but instead of the absolution she longed for, Loretta was told by her priest that she must break off the relationship, for unless the confessor was willing to end his or her sinful behavior, they would  not experience God's forgiveness. Loretta knew she faced the big question:  Did she love Spencer more?  Or did she love God more?

In the end, though she "loved everything about him," Loretta chose to break things off with Spencer, something she did through a letter.  Her commitment to God and His ways had trumped her love for Spencer.

Many years later, Loretta would have tea with Spencer's daughter, Susan, and be presented with the break-up letter she had given to Spencer all those years before.  Though Loretta had signed the letter simply "Me," Susan knew who its author was, for, as she told Loretta during their time together, " ...there were only two women in my father's life...my mother and you."   While Katharine Hepburn may have been a great love in Spencer Tracy's life, so, too, was Loretta Young.  That surely was news to me!


NOTE:  All information and direct quotations derived from Forever Young, the Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend, by Joan Wester Anderson, Thomas More Publishing, 2000.