Bogart: In Search of My Father by Stephen Humphrey Bogart

Author:Stephen Humphrey Bogart [Bogart, Stephen Humphrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, BAM, Biography, General
ISBN: 9780452277045
Google: xm8GAAAACAAJ
Publisher: Plume
Published: 1995-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

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6

Bogie was the most professional actor I have ever worked with. But his contract said he was off duty at six o’clock, and if it was six o’clock and we were in the middle of the scene, he was gone. He’d say, “It’s six o’clock, we’ll finish the scene tomorrow.” Then he would go and have a drink.

—ROD STEIGER

When I began to write about my father I guess I believed that every major aspect of his life would cast light on my own, that I could easily find the ways in which I was, or was not, my father’s son. His use of alcohol might say something about my use of drugs. His experience in private school might somehow preview my own trouble in private school. And I guess I thought that in looking at his career, in the way he conducted it, and the way he felt about his work, I might learn something about my feelings toward work.

Maybe. But the truth is there is little to be said about my work life. It’s been like everybody else’s, some highs, some lows. To go into my various jobs at length would be both boring and pretentious, sins which neither I nor my father would tolerate from someone else.

The most striking difference between my father and me on the matter of work is that he really cared about his craft. He was dedicated and, I think, he put work first. I, on the other hand, have enjoyed my jobs in television, and I think I have been good at them, but I have never really focused on work. I have always put family and friends above what I did for a living. Maybe if I had grown up with a father, and had not gone away to school, I would feel less strongly about the need for family life, and more strongly about career. Perhaps that is the way in which my father has really influenced me.

My father had no big career plan when he got out of the navy. He bounced around for a while. He worked at a biscuit company, then he had a job inspecting tugboats. He worked at other jobs, which didn’t last long. The young Bogie had no idea of what he wanted to do with his life. He spent a lot of time horseback riding with friends in Central Park.

Though Bogie’s parents were, supposedly, washing their hands of him, it is probably not a coincidence that he was hired as a runner for the Wall Street brokerage firm that managed their money. And it was while he was at that job that Bogie came under the wing of Bill Brady, Sr., the father of his long-time buddy Bill Brady. Brady senior was already an established producer of stage plays. Specifically, Dad said, “I got subway-sick one day in New York when I was running messages for the brokerage house and staggered off the subway near William Brady’s theatrical offices—and, in a moment of desperation, asked for a job.

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