Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity.

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  • Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (Kate Smith was a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage. Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the stage play of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me. Ludlow was president of Ogden Ludlow Inc. and the creator of the "Ludlow Formula", a precursor to computerized systems in financial institutions.
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  • Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity.
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  • Ludlow Ogden Smith
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