News
This week 61 years ago The Treasure of the Sierra Madre premiered ()
-January 06, 2009
This week in 1957 Bogart died. He was ill since March 1956, but he did not change the habits of a lifetime and continued to smoke and drink whiskey. He had just turned 57 and weighed 80 pounds (36 kg) when he died.
-December 27, 2008
74 years ago (January 7, 1935) Humphrey played for the first time the role of the psychotic killer Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest on Broadway. Bogart would give 181 performances. Original cast member Leslie Howard would also appear in the filmed version in 1936.
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-December 26, 2008
60 years ago (January 6th, 1949) Humphrey and Lauren Bacall got their first child Stephen.
-December 03, 2008
Now in shops: The Casablanca: Ultimate Collector's Edition on Blu-ray. Extras are: A pair of audio commentaries, the TCM movie special Bacall on Bogart a pair of featurettes and much more.
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Trivia
1. Before he became a star Humphrey’s birthday was given as January 23, 1899. In 1936 Warner Bros changed this to December 25, 1900. A couple of years later Bogart changed this again in December 1899.
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2. Bogart told reporters: “The honest way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win.” However, when he won an Oscar for The African Queen (1951) he said something different: “It’s a long way from the heart of the Belgian Congo to the stage of the Pantages Theatre and I’m glad to say I’d rather be here.”
--Source: Inside Oscar, 10th Anniversary Edition, Page 218
Many actors have played Philip Marlowe over the years. But writer Raymond Chandler considered Bogart the genuine article.
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Humphrey has his handprints set in cement on Hollywood Boulevard (Hollywood, USA, in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater).
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Casablanca, Morocco has its first real Rick’s Cafe. The cafe is owned by Kathy Kriger, a former US diplomat who worked at the US Embassy in Morocco. She’s put about $1m in US and Moroccan funds into the venture. Dinner costs $30 per person.
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Humphrey has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
It’s located between Vine Street and Cahuenga bld.
His fourth wife Lauren Bacall was 25 years younger than he was.
Producer Wallis was unsatisfied with the ending of Casablanca, so Humphrey Bogart was called back in to dub a final line over the last shot. Since then Louis and Rick walk into the fog, talking about the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
--Source: The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II, Page 10
Bogart got his nickname “Bogie” from actor Spencer Tracy, in 1930.
In his career as a tough guy, Bogart went to the electric chair 12 times.
In 1947 America was in the midst of a heightened Communist awareness. Senator McCarthy wanted Hollywood stars to testify for the House Un-American Activities Committee. The unfriendly witnesses (John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Ira Gershwin) were against the investigations. They went to Washington for the hearings with a petition. Later the group members themselves came under suspicion. Bogart: “That’s what I meant when I said our Washington trip was a mistake”
--Source: McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare : A Documentary History, Page 44
Bogart was married four times:
Helen Menken (1926 - 1928)
Mary Philips (1928 - 1938)
Mayo June Methot (1938 - 1945)
Lauren Bacall (1945 - 1957)