Lauren Bacall, Hollywood’s Sultry Legend
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in 1924 to Jewish Romanian immigrant parents. Known for her smoky voice and mysterious persona, she was discovered by the wife of director Howard Hawks who saw her on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. In 1944, Hawks brought Bacall to Hollywood to audition for the film To Have And Have Not. Nervous and quivering during the screen test, Bacall pressed her chin against her chest and tilted her eyes upward. This became known as “The Look,” Bacall’s trademark.
Hawks asked Bacall to choose between Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart as leading men. Bacall chose Grant but Hawks overruled her. When Bacall and Bogart first met, Bacall said, “There was no clap of thunder, no lightning bolt.” But as Bacall wrote in her 1978 memoir Lauren Bacall: By Myself, the two soon fell in love. Three weeks into shooting, “He was standing behind me — we were joking as usual — when suddenly he leaned over, put his hand under my chin and kissed me.” Bacall was 19, Bogart 44. Their romance was kept secret from Mayo Methot, Bogart’s wife, who was given to jealous rages and once stabbed Bogart with a knife. (They were known as the “Battling Bogarts.”)
Bacall and Bogart met in quiet cafes and dark hotel bars. Their affair nearly cost Bacall her studio contract with Warner Brothers. It took Bogart six months to extract himself from his marriage…
