| Show IN STEP WITH: C BY JAMES BRADY jffimeo BORN: Sept 16 1924 in New York ' ‘V PERSONAL Married to Humphrey their yacht Betty whom he prompt-l- y HERE WAS A POIGNANT little item in the paper recently Lauren Bacall was speaking to a class of film students at the New School in New York and remarked how few roles there were for actresses her age “I’m unemployed and would like to be employed” she complained She said she’d soon be doing the narration for Bacall on Bogart — a PBS television special about Humphrey Bogart her late husband which airs in March— then added “but that’s not what I call an acting job” It is difficult to grasp that there are no jobs for a woman as well known as she is and for an ac- tress as talented But this is showbiz hard and often cruel christened “Baby” tamed the savage They fell in love and were married before she was 21 Over the next dozen years she did some wonderful films: Key Largo The Big Sleep Written on the Wind and Designing Woman with Gregory BRADY’S BITS admire people with guts That doesn’t mean they're always easy to get along I with Maybe it was watching Bogart die or handling Robards or trying to domesticate Sinatra but in the process Betty Bacall got tough In the freight elevator of the Broadway theater where she starred for a year and a half in Woman of the Year someone scrawled her name and then the phrase “The beast of Broadway” And during a break one of the chorus boys allegedly cracked “I’m not going out there again until they feed her!” Betty Bacall (she was bom Betty Joan Perske and raised in Brooklyn NY and friends still call her Betty) was a lean lithe young model with a couple of small stage roles on her resume when she arrived in Hollywood in 1943 She later admitted “I was a commodity a piece of meat” Bacall may have deHollywood spised the “system” of the time but it turned her into an instant star At age 19 she was cast opposite Bogart in To Have and Have Not a big e success loosely based on the Hemingway novel Her sexy look her husky voice and one line (“If you want me just whistle”) captivated audiences And Bogart He was a major Hollywood actor and a hard drinker whose previous marriage had fallen apart with charges and countercharges that he and his wife got into boozy fistfights on box-offic- Peck in which she the Designing Woman 1957 Harper 1966 Murder on the Orient Express 1974 The a she and Frank Street 1942 tever reason Sinatra dropped ad: Lauren Bacall a great star in Hollywood and on Broadway is looking for work Any great roles out there? Contact Miss Bacall director call her agent — i — a fttn- 1956 The Fan 1981 THEATER: Franklin seemed about to culminate in marriage For wha- want Wind brilliant comic gift In 1957 Bogie died horribly of cancer Betty was there to the end nursing and loving On the rebound lationship that Consider this a full-pag- e 7 demonstrated Sinatra began a re- high-fashi- Bogart 1945-5two children Married to Jason Robards 1961-6- 9 one son FILMS: Include To Have and Have Not 1944 The Big Sleep 1946 Dark Passage 1947 Key Largo 1948 Young Man With a Horn 1950 How to Marry a Millionaire 1953 Written on Shootist 1976' Goodbye Charlie 1959 Cactus Flower 1965-6Applause 1970-77 Woman 2 of the Year 1981-8- 3 AUTHOR: Lauren her The bitterness Bacall By Myself has eased but I CZs noticed one night at New York’s “21 Club that the management very tactfully gave them tables as far apart as was geographically possible She wed Jason Robards gifted and difficult in 1961 Robards was drinking in those days and after eight years they were divorced One night in Pans I dined with Betty and some French friends and one woman was complaining about how hard life was Betty listened for only so long and then snapped “Listen I was married to Bogie I was married to Robards You don’t know about tough" Betty always has commuted back and forth from Hollywood to Broadway Her stage hits include Cactus Flower Applause and the 1981 success Woman of the Year She has an apartment in Manhattan at The Dakota the rambling old (and very classy) apartment house outside of which John Lennon was shot and a weekend place near the beach at East Hampton Now all Betty needs as she says is “a job” H PAGE 18 JANUARY 10 D 1988 PARADE MAGAZINE Q |
