{"id":2035048,"date":"2023-09-17T05:42:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T09:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/makings-of-a-hollywood-power-couple\/"},"modified":"2023-09-17T05:49:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T09:49:01","slug":"makings-of-a-hollywood-power-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/makings-of-a-hollywood-power-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Power Couple in the Making"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmakings-of-a-hollywood-power-couple%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2035048&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Does Humphrey Bogart Still\u200b Captivate the Imagination?<\/h2>\n<p>Does \u200bHumphrey Bogart still command the \u2063same name recognition\u2014the same \u200dmythology\u2014that \u2063he did even for decades after his death? He used to be, as William J. Mann describes in <em>Bogie &#038; Bacall<\/em>,\u200b one of the few old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lapd-reps-blast-hollywood-for-anti-police-rhetoric-at-oscars\/\" title=\"LAPD Reps Blast Hollywood For Anti-Police Rhetoric At Oscars\">movie stars<\/a> to appeal to generations\u2064 far younger than his. But that \u2064posthumous \u200dpopularity seems\u200c to have dissipated: When I first arrived at college in 2015, some of my classmates were buying posters of Marilyn Monroe, \u2064Audrey\u200b Hepburn, James Dean\u2014but\u2062 few, if any,\u2062 of Bogart. And none \u200cof the posters were of\u2064 Lauren Bacall, Bogart&#8217;s fourth wife and four-time leading \u2062lady, \u200beven though she lived until 2014.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Mythology of Humphrey Bogart<\/h3>\n<p>With the mythology on the\u2063 wane,\u2062 Mann&#8217;s book\u2014which aims \u2064at debunking, or at least \u2064bringing down to earth, the Bogart and Bacall story\u2014may seem like twisting the knife. In reality, though, Mann isn&#8217;t as tough on\u2014or as surprising about\u2014his subjects as his publisher suggests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The thread that runs through the\u200d book (one might even say its thesis) is that, as Mann writes in the preface, &#8220;<strong>the cynical, hard-hearted Humphrey Bogart was a softie \u2063when it\u2063 came to love.<\/strong>&#8221; But\u200d isn&#8217;t this part of the\u200b onscreen Bogart image? It appears in 1942&#8217;s <em>Casablanca<\/em>, of course, where \u2064Bogart&#8217;s formerly apathetic Rick famously persuades Ingrid Bergman&#8217;s Ilsa\u2064 to go with\u2064 her husband to \u2062fight the Nazis, because &#8220;<strong>I&#8217;m not good at being noble, but it doesn&#8217;t take much to see that \u2062the problems\u2062 of three little people don&#8217;t amount to a hill \u200dof beans in this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/crazy-dr-fauci-appears-to-be-vaccinated-on-live-tv-then-the-next-day-he-forgets-which-arm-received-the-shot\/\" title=\"Crazy Dr. Fauci Appears to be Vaccinated on Live TV Then the Next Day He Forgets Which Arm Received the Shot\">crazy world<\/a>.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>But this tough-guy exterior, softie interior also appears in everything from 1941&#8217;s <em>High\u2063 Sierra<\/em> \u200d(he&#8217;s a gangster with a soft side, who wants to leave crime behind) to 1948&#8217;s <em>Key Largo<\/em> (he&#8217;s a cynical\u200b soldier but, because of\u2062 the plot, rediscovers his morality) to 1951&#8217;s <em>The African Queen <\/em>(he&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/makings-of-a-hollywood-power-couple\/\" title=\"Hollywood Power Couple in the Making\">stoical \u200dsteamboat skipper<\/a> who finds \u200clove\u200b and moral responsibility thanks to\u200c missionary Katharine Hepburn),\u2064 to name just three examples.<\/p>\n<p>And\u200b Mann knows\u200c that Bogart sought\u2063 that kind of role. So why does he keep pushing this\u2063 point\u2014Bogart&#8217;s inner sentimentality\u2014as if it should \u2062surprise the Bogart fan?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Bogart-Bacall \u200dRomance<\/h3>\n<p>That\u2063 sense of\u2062 unsurprising surprise also\u200d comes\u200c through in Mann&#8217;s discussions of Bogart&#8217;s three wives \u2062before Bacall: Helen Menken, Mary Philips, and Mayo Methot. Mann rightly argues that some of Bogart&#8217;s friends and biographers have done a disservice to Methot in particular, saying that\u200c Bogart was never really in love \u2062with \u2063her and \u200dabsolving\u200d him of blame in the\u2062 marriage&#8217;s breakup. Mann also does admirable \u200bwork \u200bin sleuthing out the facts behind \u2063Warner Brothers&#8217; press\u200c releases, as well as in frankly\u2064 discussing Bogart&#8217;s affair with Verita &#8220;Pete&#8221; Peterson, which began \u200cbefore the Bogart-Bacall marriage but might have continued during it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet it is Mann, \u200drather than \u2063a Bogie buddy or a studio publicist,\u2064 who declares that the \u200cBogart-Bacall romance was &#8220;<strong>arguably Hollywood&#8217;s greatest \u2062love story,\u2063 and \u2062maybe not even so arguably.<\/strong>&#8221; For all that he redeems the images of Menken, Philips, \u2064and Methot, and delves into Peterson&#8217;s story, he structures his book to make the reader\u2064 think that the Bogart-Bacall marriage was the central\u2064 event in both stars&#8217; lives, the moment to \u2062which everything prior had been leading \u200dup. When Mann \u2064talks \u2062about\u200c Bogart&#8217;s death (in 1957, \u200cof cancer after years of hard drinking and \u2062smoking), he goes so far \u2062as to\u200c hope that, because Bacall was by Bogart&#8217;s \u2064side, &#8220;<strong>some of the old demons were at last chased \u200baway and Bogie finally understood what it felt like to be loved.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the book only\u200d really comes alive when Bacall enters, at the 226-page mark.\u2064 Bacall\u200d was only 19 \u2064when she met the then-44-year-old Bogart, on \u2064the set of 1944&#8217;s <em>To Have and Have Not<\/em>, and that\u2063 May-December difference in their ages means that Mann \u200bmust devote \u200chundreds of pages to Bogart before Bacall&#8217;s birth and to Bacall after Bogart&#8217;s death. The birth years in some ways force the structure of \u2062the book, but that just \u200cgoes to show that maybe a dual biography of\u2063 Bogart and Bacall is \u200ctoo much for one book \u2064to handle, even at\u2063 over 500 pages.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Hollywood Cinderella Story<\/h3>\n<p>Bacall,\u2064 born \u200bBetty Perske to Romanian and Russian Jewish immigrants (and known by\u2062 all, Mann \u200creveals, as\u2063 Betty, despite the press&#8217;s claim that\u2063 Bogart called her &#8220;Baby&#8221;),\u200b livens up the book\u2014and brings \u2064out\u200c Mann&#8217;s best \u200cwriting. Admittedly, \u2062she does have the Hollywood Cinderella story: Producer-director Howard Hawks&#8217;s wife saw Bacall, then \u2063a model, in a magazine photo shoot and showed the pictures to her \u200bhusband. Hawks offered Bacall a contract sight unseen\u2014though only, \u2062Mann clarifies, for a screen test. The rest, one might \u200csay, is history, though in fact Bacall&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/princess-bride-star-tells-cruz-he-has-contempt-for-him-cruz-fires-back-photo-that-star-signed-to-him\/\" title=\"\u2018Princess Bride\u2019 Star Tells Cruz He Has \u2018Contempt\u2019 For Him. Cruz Fires Back Photo That Star Signed To Him.\">film career<\/a> was rocky throughout the &#8217;50s and \u200d&#8217;60s (one reason that she left Hollywood for Broadway,\u200d as Mann documents).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps because of Bacall&#8217;s liveliness, Mann lets her tell a significant part of her story through her memoirs (1978 and 1994). That may give the reader pause, especially after \u200bMann spends so much time investigating whether Bogart&#8217;s words about his life were accurate. To be sure,\u2062 Mann doesn&#8217;t allow Bacall free rein; he does fact-check her\u2014but it&#8217;s usually a gentle fact-checking. He calls Bacall&#8217;s memoirs &#8220;<strong>honest \u200dand straightforward,<\/strong>&#8221; for example, \u200dthough he allows that she was \u2064&#8221;<strong>interested \u2063in constructing a legend<\/strong>&#8221; \u200daround herself and Bogart.<\/p>\n<p>Mann is at his best when he&#8217;s not straining to \u2064demythologize\u200b that legend (or speculate about\u2064 Bogart&#8217;s mental state) but rather simply \u200dto\u200b share\u200b true\u200d stories about\u2063 his two subjects. The chapters\u2064 on \u200bBogart and Bacall&#8217;s fight against McCarthyism are consistently interesting and \u2063reveal Bogart&#8217;s deep opposition to being\u200c told\u200d what to do\u2062 or think.\u200b Mann&#8217;s argument that Bogart&#8217;s 1947 statement \u2064against Communism represented &#8220;<strong>the decision to capitulate,<\/strong>&#8221; however, is unconvincing: It is more than possible to oppose both McCarthyism and Communism, and Bogart&#8217;s politics extended no \u2064further\u2064 left than New Deal liberalism.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Enduring Mythology of Bogie and Bacall<\/h3>\n<p>As \u2064much as Mann is aiming for a warts-and-all biography, his affection for\u200c the Bogart-Bacall romance shines through.\u200c That affection, more than anything else, is\u2064 what keeps the reader \u200dturning pages. Ultimately, Mann&#8217;s book shows, Bogie \u2062and Bacall\u2062 merit their mythology. That&#8217;s why they deserve even more than dorm-room\u200c posters: They deserve to be remembered, with their movies\u2063 watched, rewatched, and loved by old and new fans alike.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Bogie &#038; Bacall:\u2063 The Surprising True Story of Hollywood&#8217;s Greatest Love Affair<\/em><br \/>  \u2064 by William J. Mann<br \/> \u2062Harper, 656 pp., $40<\/p>\n<p><em>Karl Salzmann is an assistant editor at the<\/em> Washington \u2063Free Beacon<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2>Another question \u200bto consider is: Does Mann&#8217;s \u200dattempt to revive the\u2062 mythology\u2062 surrounding\u2062 Bogart through debunking the Bogart and Bacall story effectively reintroduce him to \u200ca younger generation?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  \u200b Her \u2062tumultuous film\u200d career, Bacall&#8217;s presence in the book\u200d is more exciting and captivating than\u200c Bogart&#8217;s. Mann&#8217;s writing becomes more \u200dvibrant and engaging when he delves\u2064 into Bacall&#8217;s life and career. However, this raises the question: does Bogart still captivate the imagination as\u200d much \u2064as Bacall\u200d does?<\/p>\n<p>It seems that the answer\u2064 to\u200c this question is no.\u2062 While Bacall&#8217;s allure and\u200c talent\u200d continue to captivate audiences, Bogart&#8217;s popularity has diminished over\u200b the years. The \u2063decline\u200c in\u200b his name recognition and mythology can be seen in the lack of Bogart posters\u200c among younger\u2062 generations. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and \u2062James Dean\u2062 remain popular\u2063 choices for \u200bdorm room\u200b decorations, \u200dbut\u2064 Bogart \u2064is noticeably absent.<\/p>\n<p>Mann&#8217;s book attempts \u200dto\u200b revive the mythology surrounding\u2063 Bogart by debunking the Bogart and Bacall \u200dstory, but it falls short of providing any surprising revelations. The notion that Bogart, the tough-guy \u2063onscreen, had a soft\u2063 side when it came to love \u2062is not a new revelation. It is a characteristic that\u2064 is evident in many of his \u2063iconic\u200b roles, from &#8220;Casablanca&#8221; to\u200b &#8220;The African\u200b Queen.&#8221; Therefore, Mann&#8217;s emphasis on Bogart&#8217;s\u2064 inner\u2062 sentimentality as a surprising aspect of his personality\u200b seems \u200bunnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>Mann&#8217;s discussions of Bogart&#8217;s previous marriages and affairs are informative, but it is his exploration of the Bogart-Bacall romance that truly shines. He presents it as Hollywood&#8217;s greatest love story, positioning it \u2063as the central event in both\u2064 stars&#8217; lives. However, \u200cthis focus on their relationship \u200cand the \u200dsubsequent chapters dedicated to Bacall&#8217;s\u2064 life before and after Bogart&#8217;s \u200cdeath suggest\u2062 that a\u200c dual biography of Bogart and Bacall \u200dmay have been too ambitious for one book.<\/p>\n<p>Bacall&#8217;s Hollywood \u2063Cinderella story, from her \u2064discovery by Howard Hawks to her rocky film career, adds \u200can exciting element\u2064 to the book. \u2062Mann&#8217;s \u200bwriting becomes \u200bmore animated\u200d when discussing her life, further highlighting her continued\u2063 ability to\u2064 captivate audiences.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, while Bacall&#8217;s presence in Mann&#8217;s book is captivating and vibrant,\u2063 Bogart&#8217;s allure seems to have faded over \u2062time. His name recognition and mythology no \u200clonger hold the same\u200c fascination as\u2063 they\u200b once did, which is evident in the \u2062lack of Bogart \u200bposters among \u200cyounger generations. Ultimately,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does Humphrey Bogart still hold the same iconic status and allure that he did for years after his passing? According to William J. Mann&#8217;s Bogie &amp; Bacall, he was one of the rare classic film stars who captivated even younger generations. However, it appears that his popularity among the posthumous audience has waned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":2035049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2035049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}