Bogie

The smoking chap above is hero number 126, and his name is Humphrey Bogart born (supposedly) this day 1899 in New York City, New York. There is some debate as to his exact date of birth but, this one was the one he claimed which is good enough for me. His last name is dutch and means "orchard" a useless fact, but I have made a career of looking smart by knowing useless facts. He was raised in a fairly well to do family that was not too big on letting their emotions show. He was sent to private schools in the hopes of going to Yale, but for some disputed reason was expelled, and dreams of Yale were dashed. This little road block on mommy and daddy's plans for his future was not well received. Lacking other career options, Bogart joined the navy in 1918, and was off to see the world. He loved the sea, and said "at eighteen war was great, Paris! French girls! Hot Damn!" Seems the navy agreed with him, and after his active service, he moved back to New York, found a "real job," and enlisted in the Reserves. It was his navy days that allowed him to developed individual personality traits independent of family influences. He came to be a liberal who hated pretensions, phonies, and snobs, and at times he defied conventional behavior and authority, traits he displayed in life and in his movies. On the other hand, he retained their traits of good manners, articulateness, punctuality, modesty, and a dislike of being touched. That real job gave him the connection that landed him on the stage. He liked the late hours that actors kept, claiming that he was born to be indolent, and that acting was the softest of rackets. He got his "big" break playing on stage in a play called "The Petrified Forest" which was then turned into a film, his buddy Leslie Howard (a fine actor in his own right) insisting over the studio's objection that Bogart play the character he played on stage in the movie. Despite its success he only gained a modest contract with the studio, and was cast as a gangster many times. He stated "I can't get in a mild discussion without turning it into an argument. There must be something in my tone of voice, or this arrogant face—something that antagonizes everybody. Nobody likes me on sight. I suppose that's why I'm cast as the heavy." It was that arrogant face, and tone of voice that was to make him the biggest of stars. We all know the films "Casablanca" "The Big Sleep" "The Africa Queen" "The Caine Mutiny" and scores of others that made him the icon that he remains to this day. Of course, he worked his ass off, it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops, the studio system then in place did not really pamper the stars, and Warner Brothers was not (at first) too interested in making Bogart a big star. Between 1936 and 1940 he average a movie every two months. Often he would wear his own suits in his films because he thought the studio wardrobe department was cheap. By 1937 he had already had, and divorced two wives, and in 1938 married his third wife, Mayo Methot. It was not a case of third time lucky. The marriage was stormy to say the least. Booze, fights, stabbings, and guns being pulled on each other were some of the highlights of the marriage. The press dubbed them the "Battling Bogarts," and a friend quipped that "the Bogart marriage was the sequel to the Civil War." Seemed that Bogey (the nickname that Spencer Tracy bestowed upon him), liked a "jealous wife" and "wouldn't give two cents for a dame without a temper." Seems that Methot suited him right down to the ground. He had a lifelong disgust for the phony, and the fake (Hollywood was not full of phonies was it?), and cultivated a personality of the of a soured idealist, a man exiled from better things in New York, living by his wits, drinking too much, cursed to live out his life among second-rate people and projects. His first "big" film was "High Sierra" in 1941, then came one of my favourites, and it seems of his, "The Maltese Falcon" He claimed that it was practically a masterpiece, and one of the few things he was proud of, and he is right it is a masterpiece watch it, now. Next came Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman (a previous heroine), and it is probably the movie that most people remember him for, another master class of acting, and the two of them give two of the best performances ever captured on film, watch it, now. It was on the set of "To Have and to Have not" that Bogie was to meet the real love of his life, Lauren Bacall, at the time they met he was 45 and she was 19, the age difference did not matter, and a love affair (his first with one of his leading ladies) blossomed. Their next film together was "The Big Sleep" a film noir classic, in which everyone is packing heat, and one that I just saw again a couple of days ago. It is also a classic, and I spent a lot of time puzzling over the shortness of his tie, and/or the highness of his trousers, watch it, now. It was soon after this film that Bogart finally managed to divorce his third wife, and put an end to the Battling Bogarts. Shortly after the divorce was final, he and Bacall were married in May of 1945. It was to be his last, and happiest marriage lasting until his death in 1957. He made a couple of outstanding films before the curtain fell, "The African Queen" the film for which he won his only Oscar for Male Lead, with Katherine Hepburn, it is great, watch it, now. "The Caine Mutiny" another awesome film which is famous for his major scene on the stand near the end, watch it, now. A lifetime of heavy drinking, and smoking would eventually be his downfall. His health begin to fail, and he died (weighing only 80 lbs at the time of his death), in 1957 . He was, and remains one of the biggest stars that American cinema will ever see. He was also apparently a rather gifted chess player, and it was his idea to put that into the character of Rick Blaine in Casablanca. He was also a founding member of the Rat Pack, he did like to party, and who would turn down the chance to party with Bogart? I am as appalled as you are, dear readers, at the length of this post, it could have been much, much longer, but I trimmed it down a bit. I could wax lyrical for ages about Bogart, he was just that big of a star, and that big of a hero (the magnitude of which is a bit of surprise), plus I will be traveling to Vienna for about a week, so the next few posts might be a wee bit short. I figured I would give myself a big send off before the trip with a big post, and a BIG hero. Nature just happened to provide that with today's hero being Bogart. So, for all those films, and for all that talent, and for just being Bogart when the world needed Bogart, Humphrey Bogart (December 25th, 1899- January 14th, 1957, at the age of 57), you are my (christmas) hero of the day.