Looking for a good read? Here is a recommendation. I have an unusual approach to reviewing books. I review books I feel merit a review. Each review is an opportunity to recommend a book. If I do not think a book is worth reading, I find another book to review. You do not have to agree with everything every author has written (I do not), but the fiction I review is entertaining (and often thought-provoking) and the non-fiction contain ideas worth reading.
Book Review
Hollywood’s Greatest Romance
Reviewed by Mark Lardas
November 17, 2024
“The Real Bogie and Bacall,” by Catherine Curzon, White Owl, 2024, 224 pages, $36.95 (Hardcover), $16.99 (Ebook)
It was the most famous romance in Hollywood, a town filled with famous romances. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Bogie and Bacall, transcended the rest. It remains a byword for romance to this day, after many other Hollywood romances have become long forgotten.
“The Real Bogie and Bacall,” by Catherine Curzon tells their story. It is a joint biography and an account of their love and life together.
They shared similarities. Both were natives of New York City, happy in an urban environment. They were consummate and talented theater professionals. They were both willing to take the world in both arms and run with it. Yet there were significant differences, starting with a twenty-year age gap between them.
Bogart grew up rich but unloved. His distant parents largely ignored him, except as a model for his mother’s artwork. (As a child Bogart was the Gerber Baby.) Bacall grew up poor but deeply loved. Her mother raised her to believe she could achieve anything.
Bogart fell into acting, experiencing failure before success. He took up acting reluctantly, after failing at several others. Only after a bad review did he pursue acting seriously to show the critic was wrong. Bacall grew up determined to be an actress. She pursued the theater with a single-minded determination, and succeeded early.
Bogart was an indifferent student. Bacall the star pupil. Finally, Bogart had been married three times before they met (and married when they met). She had never been kissed.
She was unimpressed with him before she was cast in her first movie (and her first movie working with him), “To Have and Have Not.” Yet when they met he bowled her over. She created famous Bacall look, where she tucked her chin in her shoulder, to keep from shaking in his presence.
Curzon tells their story superbly. She start with Bogart, following him through youth, into the Navy in World War I and then onto the stage. She shows his marriages and the slow progression of his career to stardom.
She then introduces Betty Bacall (renamed Lauren for the theater) following a rocketing progression to “To Have and Have Not.” From there Curzon shows how the sparks flew and how both, initially reluctantly, began a romance and finally a life together.
“The Real Bogie and Bacall” is entertaining and informative. It offers insight and some surprising revelations about Bogie and Bacall, explaining why their story is remembered today.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.