Spencer Tracy and I

I have a thing for him. He looked like my father. He played characters I admired like Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind and the good guy in Keeper of the Flame and again in Bad Day At Blackrock. I don’t think he ever played the villain. He seemed to always exude wisdom and courage with a self-assured and even temperament.

As a young and innocent moviegoer, it was hard to separate the actor from the real character. In fact, Tracy was a guilt-ridden alcoholic. Unbeknownst to those in my generation he was also a redhead. When Technicolor came in his hair had turned white.

Why the guilt? Partially because of his long relationship with Katharine Hepburn while still married to Louise Tracy. The other reason is where it gets personal for me.

Spencer Tracy had a son, John, who was born profoundly deaf.  In 1942 his mother founded the preschool educational center, named John Tracy Clinic. The guiding principle was to teach children how to lip-read and speak, rather than signing.

My daughter Janice was born in 1962, congenitally deaf.  My wife and I sought help from the Tracy Clinic. They offered a program for parents to work with their children to teach oralism as their first language. A group of twelve families were chosen for a special place in what they called the Demonstration Nursery. These twelve were afforded intense tutoring by student-teachers from USC. This was a coveted position and how we got it begins another act in this drama.

In the late 1950s I was befriended by a man about ten years older than I. We seemed to meet in terms of left-wing politics and as a foursome with our wives. I introduced Fred Keavy to some of my other radical friends and he accompanied me to regular Tuesday night meetings featuring a speaker.

Going back to the Tracy Clinic I should add that it was largely supported by movie people. When the time came to plead for entrance into their special program I called upon Lee Keavy, Fred's wife. Her mother was the sister of Bob Hope’s wife. And so it was that a letter from Dolores Hope to Louise Tracy is how we were awarded a place among the anointed twelve families. Janice speaks and lipreads so well today because of their program and the hard work my wife and I put in with lessons. 

As an aside, each family was expected to contribute our time and service for the Clinic. I wrote their newsletter. Just as Janice was gaining her speech I was finding my voice on the page. 

But wait, there’s more. Returning back to Fred Keavy, the host of our Tuesday meetings had taken me aside to voice his warnings about my friend. He didn’t trust Fred and thought he might be an FBI informer. Looking back, I believe he probably was hired to infiltrate our group… as if we were going to topple the order. The notion that a few compassionate progressives posed a danger was dangerous nonsense. However these were the times where sniffing out subversives was the national pastime.

So it was that Fred used me and I used him and Spencer Tracy never knew any of this. He was too busy getting drunk and living with Katharine and probably going to confession.