deforest:

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall between rehearsals for a 1946 Lux Radio Theater adaptation of To Have and Have Not, in which both actors revisited their original screen roles.

babybacalling:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL

One night in 1953, Bogie, John Huston and some other friends were shooting the breeze rather tipsily about life and its meaning and the question arose as to whether there was any time of their lives they’d like to live over again. All of them except Bogie came up with cynical answers. Somebody said, “God forbid”. Somebody else: that he’d only like to cancel out a couple of times. Then Bogie spoke. “Yes, there’s a time I’d like to relive- the years that I have had with Betty.”

-Joe Hyams, Bogart & Bacall.

I was a kid in love for the first time. I was easy for me - I knew nothing about pitfalls. I was giving nothing but myself and I could do that without qualm. Never in my life had or has a man cared so much for me, wanted so much to protect me, surrond me with life’s joys, share everything. It made me want to return the care- to show him it was possiblle to be really happy with a woman, to give him children. I was determined to do that.

-Lauren Bacall

He had a great sense of humor — real, true wit, was highly intelligent — an avid reader. A total professional who had no patience with self-indulgent actors. His face had everything in it — many lines, smiles, love, wickedness, sensitivity, wisdom. The sight of Spence was always an experience. If it was unexpected, it lifted my spirits, made me feel warm; if the meeting was planned, that day was invariably a better day than the one before.

[…] I might say Spencer always affected me the way the Lincoln Memorial does — except that he was not a monument, too human, too real. But he was larger than life — a special event at all times to me, one of my life’s bonuses. — Lauren Bacall (By Myself and Then Some)

Donald O’Connor hugs Lauren Bacall during rehearsal for the Colgate Comedy Hour at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, 1953.

bettyjoansperske:

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart on the set of the 1955 live Television remake of ‘The Petrified Forest’ (which was Lauren’s television debut)

Lauren Bacall and David Lynch photographed by André Rau.

myvintagevogue:

Harper’s Bazaar May 1943 - photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe

Lauren Bacall wearing a dress by Maurice Rentner

Actors by Philippe Halsman

“This is me when I’m all by my lonesome. Maybe it’s just a hold-over from my modelling days, when I had to dress to the nines whether I felt like it or not - but I just don’t like to doll up for my own admiration.”

Ernest Hemingway and Lauren Bacall in Spain, circa late 1950s.

“The next play I saw, some years after Hamlet, was The Philadelphia Story, starring my other favorite, Katharine Hepburn. Again I was nested in the balcony, but the atmosphere in the theatre was totally different from what it had been for Gielgud. There was the excitement of seeing a movie star in the flesh — live — onstage. And because the play was billed as a comedy, the audience entered in the theatre with different attitudes.

Katharine Hepburn was mysterious, wonderful — offering her considerable self and her incredible personality that was totally there for you even in the second balcony. She was so beautiful — and so funny and so touching. And the play was good and funny. The leading men were new names to me — Joseph Cotten, Van Heflin. Shirley Booth played the second female lead. Hepburn’s clothes were floating, graceful — the theatre was filled with laughter. To be able to give such joy!

Would I ever be able to do that? It was one thing to make people in a room laugh, especially relatives. But to do the same for strangers was quite another. Katharine Hepburn that afternoon made me glad to be alive — and sure that being an actress was the only goal in life.” — Lauren Bacall

missavagardner:

“Generally women are better than men — they have more character. I prefer men for some things, obviously, but women have a greater sense of honor and are more willing to take a chance with their lives.”

— Lauren Bacall

bettyjoansperske:

The very last time I saw her, I walked right over to her in her chair in the living room, sat next to her, kissed her. She seemed to know me a little. There were two large picture books - one with a shot of Bogie from The African Queen - one of Spence. As I showed each to her and spoke to her of these two men who meant so much to her, she miraculously seemed to brighten and understand.

That day, when I was about to leave, she said: “Please stay.” After I had stayed for a half hour longer, I leant over and kissed her cheeks many times, after which she looked at me and whispered: “Thank you.” So touching - so sweet. I wondered how much she knew. It mattered not. She knew something ~ Lauren Bacall