Friday, March 27, 2009

Guest Blogger Kevin: Bogie & Bacall Trivia

My good friend Kevin recently did a lecture on Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall at a local Adult Education Center. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend this time but I was absolutely sure his lecture would be a hit. And of course it was! Kevin was willing to share with me the trivia and fact sheet he passed out to the lecture attendees. Here it is below. If you'd like to read about Kevin's past lectures, please take this opportunity to look at my posts about his Otto Preminger lecture and his Elian Kazan lecture. Enjoy!

Starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall:

To Have and Have Not (1944)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Dark Passage (1947)
Key Largo (1948)

Other Great Humphrey Bogart Films:

The Petrified Forest (1936)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The African Queen (1951)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Other Great Lauren Bacall Films:

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Written on the Wind (1956)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Dogville (2003)



Facts and Trivia about Bogie and Bacall


Lauren Bacall's birth name is Betty Perske. After her father abandoned her and her mother, she took her mother's maiden name, Bacal. An extra "L" was added upon her entrance into Hollywood, and she was given the name "Lauren" by director Howard Hawks.

Humphrey Bogart's full name was Humphrey DeForest Bogart – made up of three family surnames.

Back when she was a self-described gawky teenager, Bacall met her hero, actress Bette Davis, in a hotel room meeting arranged by her uncle, who had connections in show business. Bacall later played Davis's famous Margo Channing character from the movie All About Eve in a stage adaptation re-titled Applause.

Bogart briefly attended Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. He was expelled.

Bacall's rather auspicious debut at age 19 in To Have and Have Not contrasted greatly to Bogart's own career trajectory. Despite a great role in the 1936 film The Petrified Forest as gangster, Duke Mantee, his stardom didn't become cemented until he was in his early forties, when he starred in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.

During their courtship, Bogie and Bacall liked to call each other "Slim" and "Steve" after their characters' nicknames in To Have and Have Not. "Slim" and "Steve" were also the nicknames of director Howard Hawks and his wife, Nancy.

Bogart was 25 years older than Bacall and had been married three times by the time he met her.

Both Bogie and Bacall were models before they were actors. Bogart's mother was Maud Humphrey, a successful commercial artist. She drew sketches of him when he was an infant which became product advertisements. For this reason, Bogart is referred to as "the Maud Humphrey Baby". Bacall's exotic good looks attracted the attention of famous fashion magazine editor, Diana Vreeland. Bacall's pictorial in Harper's Bazaar summarily led to her discovery by Howard Hawks's wife, Nancy "Slim" Hawks.

Bogart and Bacall named their daughter Leslie, after actor Leslie Howard. Bogart felt forever indebted to Howard for helping him land his breakthrough role as gangster, Duke Mantee, in the 1936 film The Petrified Forest.

Shortly after they got married, Bogart presented Bacall with a mink coat. Bacall promptly threw the coat onto the floor and proceeded to walk on it with her bare feet, reveling that she had always wanted to walk on mink.

Bogart was the founding member of the Fifties "The Rat Pack", a phrase coined by Bacall after he and some friends returned home from a late night in Las Vegas. "You look like a goddamn rat pack", she's reported to have said. The members included friends like Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Nathaniel Benchley, Judy Garland, Sid Luft, Frank Sinatra, and David Niven.

Both liberal Democrats, Bogie and Bacall were strong supporters of Adlai Stevenson, during his Presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956.

Bogart and Bacall were clearly each other's greatest loves. Bogart practically risked his life in divorcing his then volatile wife, Mayo Methot, to marry Bacall. After Bogart's death, Bacall later married actor Jason Robards. Many people have noted the strong physical resemblance between the two actors.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It's Coming...

Norma Shearer Week
Sunday March 29th to Saturday April 4th
on Out of the Past ~ A Classic Film Blog


To celebrate my queen, for no reason other than I want to, I'm dedicating an entire week to her. Every day, I'll have a new post on Norma Shearer. It's all Norma, all week long!

Such adoration makes the Queen of MGM very happy...

Over the years that I have been watching Norma Shearer's films, it has been easier and easier to get access to them. Several films have become available on DVD and TCM has heard my pleas (along with everyone else's) for more Norma Shearer! Below is a list of availability of Norma Shearer films for your viewing pleasure.


Coming up on Turner Classic Movies

Escape (1940) ~ April 13th
The Divorcee (1930) ~ April 14th & June 30th
Lady of the Night (1925) ~ April 15th
The Women (1939) ~ April 21st & May 14th & June 28th
Marie Antoinette (1938) ~ May 5th & June 24th


Available on DVD


Available through the new Warner Bros. Archive

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Food from the Great Depression

I was watching the early talkie Our Blushing Brides (1930) the other day and one particular scene that left an impression on me. Three young ladies, mannequins at a swanky lingerie shop, Gerry (Joan Crawford), Frankie (Dorothy Sebastian), and Connie (Anita Page) are roommates, all still single and despereately poor. The three gals sit down to dinner which consists of canned salmon , bread, potatoes and some over-brewed coffee. Frankie groans at the sight of salmon yet again while Gerry says it can't be all foie gras at the Ritz. All three girls have prospective rich beaus and ruminating about their current situation just shows them how desperately they want an out.

Movies from the Great Depression are filled with scenes like this. I often remember a scene in Gold Diggers of 1933 where the roommates have a breakfast of stale bread and stolen milk. It's enough to make any dame want to be a gold digger. And how!

So how did people plan meals in the Great Depression? They had to be very creative. Not only did they have to make meals out of what was available but they also had to make do without a lot of basics that we today take for granted. Meals had to be very simple and with few ingredients.

A little while ago I found a series of YouTube videos about Depression-era cooking. A sweet 93-year old woman who lived through the Depression shares her recipes, stories and photographs in little installments called Great Depression Cooking with Clara. They are simply wonderful and I beg you to watch them. Here is one of the episodes:

Poorman's Feast





I decided to make this for my Sunday dinner and here is the result:


This was a rather inexpensive meal to make. I got a bag of lentils for $2, sandwich steak for $1.92, 1 head of romaine for $1 and a lemon for $0.40. The rice and olive oil I already had in my pantry. In the end, this meal cost me less than $6. The lentils and rice and meat will be my lunch tomorrow, so I got two meals for less than $3 each. Pretty good. Plus it was absolutely delicious!

Attention Vegetarians/Vegans! The rice & lentils are hearty enough that with the salad it's still a full meal. You can always add a simple dessert to round it off.

For more on classic films and the Great Depression, be sure to check out Katie's excellent post on Obscure Classics. (I swear, I thought of my post before Katie posted hers! Great minds think alike).

Friday, March 20, 2009

No One Ever Thinks of Susan Peters

Susan Peters (1921-1952) has a soft spot in my heart. I may have been the only one who participated in the 20 Actresses Movie meme to have chosen her as one of my top faves. Susan Peters had a soft, unassuming quality that made her mesmerizing yet approachable. She was a quintessential 1940's beauty with gentle features, glistening eyes and soft pouty lips. She had an aura of innocence, understanding and sadness that intrigues me. She always manages to fascinate me whenever she graced the screen. Susan Peters worked with big names such as Olivia DeHavilland, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Greer Garson and Ronald Colman yet in her own quiet way was never overshadowed by these brighter stars.

Peters had a short-lived career with various films in the 1940s. She started off with small roles in 1940 and 1941 under her real name Suzanne Carnahan. She switched to the more Hollywood-friendly name of Susan Peters and in 1942 made a formidable impression on the industry in her role in Random Harvest (1942), a role which got her a nomination for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. This was the first film I had seen her in and I was immediately drawn to her.

The height of Susan Peter's career was 1942-1944 . Within that time she married film director Richard Quine and folks in the industry saw her as a young star on the rise with lots of potential. She made several films, a few of which got her top billing. In 1944 she filmed Keep Your Powder Dry (1945), a WWII movie about 3 very different young women who join the Women Army Corps (WACS) while the men are off at war. It's a very sweet film about patriotism, love, friendship and self-sacrifice. This just happens to be the favorite of the Susan Peters films I have seen because it showcases her at her most genuine. It also happens to be Susan Peters last hurrah.

Shortly after filming ended, Susan Peters became paralyzed from the waist down, an unfortunate result from a hunting accident, and was wheel-chair bound. Peters made one more film The Sign of the Ram (1948), played Elizabeth Barrett Browning in a stage production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street and was in the 1951 TV series Miss Susan. All of these were valiant attempts to keep her career going despite her disability. However, she went into deep depression, her marriage with Richard Quine ended and her contract with MGM was terminated. She died in 1952 of what most people say was a long, slow suicide in which she lost the will to live and succumbed to starvation.

I often think of what she could have been if the accident hadn't happened, but I don't think her life be overshadowed by her tragic demise. It's really her career and wonderful films that should be celebrated. I hope you will watch one of her films if you haven't already. Luckily, there are several opportunities for you to do this.

Turner Classic Movies (US) is showing 5 of her films in the next few months. Here is the line-up.

Santa Fe Trail (1940) - March 25
Meet John Doe (1941) - April 16
Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942) - April 28
The Sign of the Ram (1948) - May 10
Random Harvest (1942) - June 20

Some of Susan Peter's films are on DVD too.

Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Meet John Doe (1941)
Random Harvest (1942)

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