1955. Katherine Hepburn takes an unplanned swim in the canals of Venice

    by battybitchyboy

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    1. Summertime. Great movie. Katherine was unwilling to do this stunt herself for good reason. She suffered from conjunctivitis after this for the rest of her life.

    2. This is a scene from the 1955 film *Summertime*, directed by David Lean (*Lawrence of Arabia*, *The Bridge on the River Kwai*). Both Hepburn and Lean were nominated for Academy Awards.

      Katharine Hepburn (her first name is spelled with two a’s) played a lonely 40-year-old secretary from Akron, Ohio who spends her life savings on a trip to Venice, Italy. They did three takes of her falling into a canal in Campo San Barnaba, and she said she got an eye infection.

      The film was in Technicolor, but publicity photos were often shot in black and white.

      The boy in the striped shirt is Gaetano Autiero, who played Mauro, a “street urchin”.

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