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Lauren Bacall
Did you ever notice how some things tie together so wonderfully. I’m not talking about a beautifully wrapped gift box; I am referring to events that happen in our lives. Often times, it seems there is a thread that connects seemingly unrelated events, and as they are placed one next to another, a theme evolves. So how does a visit with my mom, a night out with Lauren Bacall and the month of May tie together. Of course… it’s Mother’s Day. So a visit with mom makes sense and so does the month of May, but Lauren Bacall you may ask? How does she fit into the scheme of things? Perfectly!
Bacall was uniquely inspired by her mother. About her she says, ”My mother was the greatest example to me of anyone I’ve ever known. She worked hard all her life, and she was the one who set my values. She wanted me to have every opportunity and supported me in whatever I wanted to do.” On the evening of March 20, 2001, as I listened to Lauren Bacall address an audience of no less that 2,000 women( please find out how many people the Broward Center holds and include that #) and men from all walks of life, I was surprised to perceive an undercurrent that continually resurfaced throughout the presentation. Mom! Mom! Mom! It was apparent that Bacall had a very loving relationship with her mother, who single handedly raised Bacall and guided her to follow her own heart. Divorce was very uncommon in the 1930’s and when forced to support her young daughter, Natalie Weinstrin-Bacal went to work as an executive secretary. Young Lauren spent many hours alone. “I loved to dream about other lives,” Bacall says. “ Maybe that has something to do with having an incomplete family, being an only child. All I know is I loved to pretend, and all of that was in tandem with my wanting to be an actress.” This is one of those threads that would ultimately lead to a Tony award for Bacall’s Broadway performances in “Applause” in 1970 and another Tony award for 1981’s “Woman of the Year.”
Prior to the stage, movies were her passion. And ironically it was in the movie, “To Have or Have Not” that she found her true passion in life…Bogie. The story begins with Bacall’s attendance at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon completing her schooling, she modeled for Harper’s Bazaar and was featured on the March 1943 cover at the age of eighteen. It became her entrée into the movies. Movie mogul and director Howard Hawk’s wife Slim, called his attention to the young beauty and Hawks arranged for Bacall, known as Betty Joan Perske to come to Hollywood. After several screen tests, Hawks decided to cast the unknown with Warner Brother’s biggest male star, Humphrey Bogart. Lauren recalls the meeting. ” I was so nervous on the set that I was trembling. Bogie tried to make me feel comfortable by giving me advise, offering tips and telling jokes. To keep from shaking, I held my chin down low, almost to my chest. My eyes though were on Bogie. I looked up and focused only on him.” This became her trademark look and yet another thread to the ever-unfolding gifts that life brings. Bacall and Bogie fell in love. He was three times married and twenty-five years her senior. The odds weren’t good but love always prevails. One evening, she recalls,” he came into my dressing room and kissed me. He asked me for my phone number. Over the course of the next few months, we began going out together and even though my mother couldn’t understand where I was going at 3:00 in the morning, I was very headstrong and I went to him at all hours. “ In May (there’s May again) 1945, at the age of nineteen, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married in a Hollywood style wedding. They kept company with all the right people and loved being in love. Together they produced “To Have and Have Not”(1944), “The Big Sleep” (1946), “The Dark Passage” (1947) and “Key Largo”(1948). In 1949, Stephen, their first born further blessed their lives and daughter Leslie entered their world in 1952. Unlike other Hollywood mothers’ whose names and tales won’t be told in this column, Lauren Bacall was a devoted mother who put her career on hold when she married Bogie. She was committed to her family as her mother had been dedicated to her. The values that her mother instilled surfaced when Bacall found herself widowed and raising her children alone. “When Bogie died of throat cancer in 1957, I chose not to stay in California where, really, my life was over.” And back to her roots she went--- the New York stage. In 1959, two years after mourning the loss of her love and devoting herself to reshaping her family, she starred in Broadway in” Goodbye Charlie” and went on to create a whole new career as one of theater’s greats. As I watched and listened to her on the balmy March evening, Lauren Bacall beckoned me to look at my own life. Only a few years older than my mother, I was reminded of the ties that bind us all together. Family, mothers… we don’t need Hollywood lives to connect the many threads that bring our lives together. Maybe your theme this month will be love. |
