Bogie and Betty: The Lives and Legacies of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2014-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5: Bogie Meets Betty

Following Casablanca, Bogart finally broke his streak of successes by acting in four films of relatively minor acclaim, and his next significant film would not come until years later with To Have and Have Not (1944), a film that was directed by Howard Hawks and co-starred his future wife, Lauren Bacall.

It was thanks to Hawks that Bogart was even in position to meet Bacall, and one of the great ironies of Bacall’s career is that it was not her theatrical work but rather her modeling that facilitated her entry into the film industry. In 1943, she had the good fortune of being placed on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar after Diane Vreeland, the fashion director for the publication, became entranced by her extraordinarily sensual and exotic look. (Wagman-Geller). Being placed on the cover of such a major publication gave Bacall a greater forum than she had received to this point, and she caught the attention of Nancy Hawks, the wife of famous Hollywood director Howard Hawks. Nancy recommended to her husband that she arrange for Bacall to have a screen test, which eventually led to her being invited to travel to Hollywood (Wagman-Geller). After her screen test was successful, she signed a seven-year deal paying her $100 per week, substantially more than she had made even while modeling for David Crystal.

Over the last several decades, Howard Hawks has acquired a reputation placing him nearly on the same level as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and other directors at the very top of the Hollywood pantheon, but when Bacall signed her contract in 1943, Hawks had not yet acquired the acclaim he would later enjoy. Still, he already held considerable clout, and it’s not difficult to see why Bacall was drawn to working for him; after all, he had directed His Girl Friday one year prior. Still, working for Hawks meant submitting to his every whim, and the notoriously meddlesome director essentially assumed total control over her career. Bacall’s role was basically that of an indentured servant, although it should be noted that this was not entirely dissimilar from the status most actors had at the height of the studio era.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.