Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn would make eight more films together -- Keeper of the Flame (1942), Without Love (1945), The Sea of Grass (1947), State of the Union (1948), Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). They also narrated a short for the American Cancer Society in 1946.

Although made before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Woman of the Year, released in January 1942, was very much a World War II film. In many ways, the war made Hepburn's once iconoclastic image socially acceptable. As women went to work in factories while their boyfriends and husbands were fighting overseas, Hepburn's mannish slacks became the fashion of necessity, while her strength and independence struck a cord with working women during the war years.

Tracy and Hepburn made their only radio appearance together in a half-hour version of Woman of the Year presented on Screen Guild Theatre in 1943.

In the '70s, McCall's Magazine created an annual Woman of the Year award. Hepburn was the first recipient.

Woman of the Year was remade as a television movie in 1976 with husband-and-wife actors Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor in the lead roles.

Tracy and Hepburn's first meeting on the set was dramatized in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biography The Aviator. Cate Blanchett won an Oscar® for her performance as Hepburn, with Kevin O'Rourke as Tracy.

A musical version of Woman of the Year opened on Broadway in 1981, with book by Peter Stone and songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Lauren Bacall won a Tony Award for her performance as Tess, with John Guardino as Sam. The show ran for almost two years, with Raquel Welch and later Debbie Reynolds taking over the female lead.

The musical version of Woman of the Year was filmed for television by original book writer Peter Stone in 1984. Barbara Eden and Don Chastain starred.

by Frank Miller