How Bogie seduced me, by LAUREN BACALL: In her typically forthright memoirs, the actress - who died this week - tells the erotically charged story of her epic romance with Humphrey Bogart



The first time I saw Humphrey Bogart — the man who became the shining love of my life — I wasn’t too impressed. My friend Rosalie liked him much better. It was a Saturday night in 1942, at the Capitol Theatre in New York, and we had queued to see a movie called Casablanca.

Rosalie thought Bogart was sexy. I thought she was crazy. And the first time I met him in the flesh, there was no clap of thunder, just a how-do-you-do. I was just 19, and the ink was still wet on my Hollywood contract with the leading director Howard Hawks.

On the day he shot my screen test, Howard said he thought he’d like to put me in a film with Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. I thought: ‘Cary Grant — terrific! Humphrey Bogart — yucch.’

Scroll down for video

'He did everything to put me at ease': Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart embrace in The Big Sleep in 1946

Howard owned the rights to a short Ernest Hemingway novel, To Have And Have Not, and he wanted Bogart as the male lead. As his protegee, I joined him one afternoon at the Warner Bros studio, where Bogart was making a movie called Passage To Marseille.

Bogart was somewhat slighter than I imagined, and 5ft 10½ in. My chief impression was that he seemed a friendly man... that’s all.

Just after Christmas 1943, Howard called and gave me the only present I wanted: the chance to test for To Have And Have Not.

I read the script with an actor called John Ridgely. We were doing the ‘whistle’ scene, very adult and sexy, with a great line at the end: ‘You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and...blow.’

Howard gave me the part, but my first day on the set of the movie itself was terrifying. This wasn’t a test — it was real. I was trembling all over, the way I always do when I am emotional. The harder I tried to stop, the more I shook.

Inseparable: Bacall (pictured, left, in 2010 and, right, with Bogart after their marriage in 1945) died this week

For my first scene, I had to lean against the door of Bogart’s room and light a cigarette. But my head and hand were shaking too much to get it lit. Bogart tried to joke me out of it: he was quite aware that I was new and scared to death.

By the end of the fourth take, I realised that one way to hold my trembling head still was to keep it down, chin low, almost to my chest, and eyes up at Bogart. It worked, and turned out to be the beginning of ‘The Look’.

I found out very quickly that first day what a terrific man Bogart was. He did everything possible to put me at ease.

He was not even remotely a flirt. I was, but I didn’t flirt with him. There was much kidding around — our senses of humour went well together. Bogie’s idea, of course, was that laughing would relax me.

Actress: During filming, Bacall realised that one way to hold her trembling head still was to keep it down, chin low, almost to her chest, and eyes up at Bogart. It worked, and turned out to be the beginning of 'The Look'

Our jokes were total corn: ‘What did the ceiling say to the wall?’ ‘Hold me up, I’m plastered!’

What happened next developed almost imperceptibly.

About three weeks into the picture, I was sitting in the dressing room at the end of the day, combing my hair. Bogie came in to bid me good night. He was standing behind me, and we were joking as usual, when suddenly he leaned over, put his hand under my chin, and kissed me. It was impulsive.

He took a worn pack of matches out of his pocket and asked me to put my phone number on the back. I did. I don’t know why I did, except it was part of our game.

Bogie was known for never fooling around with women at work. He was not that kind of man. Also, he was married to Mayo Methot, his third wife and a woman who was a notorious drinker and fighter. A tough lady who would hit you with an ashtray, lamp, anything, as soon as not.

Well-matched: Bogart and Bacall, whose sense of humour 'went well together', are pictured in The Big Sleep

They were known as the Battling Bogarts. Almost every evening wound up with her throwing something at Bogie, trying to hit him... and succeeding most of the time.

She’d stabbed him in the back with a knife on one occasion, and he had the scar to prove it. He said he had to drink, because it was the only way he could live with her.

The day I gave him my number, Bogie called. It was 11pm and he’d had a few drinks. He called me Slim, which was the name Howard had given me in the movie — the same name as Howard’s wife.

THE WIFE THEY CALLED SLUGGY Bogart's wife Mayo was so prone to beating him up that she was widely known as 'Sluggy'.

Bogart named his yacht Sluggy in honour and their Hollywood home was nicknamed Sluggy Hollow.

Bogie and I joked back and forth on the phone, and that was all, but from that night our relationship changed. We’d sit in my dressing room or his, finding out more about one another.

Bogie was a first-rate chess player, and if he had a game going on the set, I’d stand close to him and watch. Physical proximity became more and more important.

He had a friend who lived in a trailer park, an actor called Pat O’Moore, and sometimes we’d go over there for dinner, well away from anyone who might see us and tell Mayo. Other nights he’d call very late, sometimes at 2 am, and come over to my apartment.

I told no one, but anyone with half an eye could see that there was more between us than the scenes we played.

Howard became aware that there was something electric between us. He used it in the picture — but he didn’t like it.

As we neared the end of shooting, he summoned me to his house one night. I was petrified.

Former couple: Bogart with his third wife, Mayo Methot; a woman who was a notorious drinker and fighter

He sat me down and began: ‘When you started work, you were marvellous. I thought: “This girl is really something.” Then you started fooling around with Bogart. I’m not going to put up with it. I’ll wash my hands of you.

‘You mean nothing to Bogart. When the picture’s over, he’ll forget all about you. He’s been married to his hard-drinking, tough lady for a long time — and he likes it.’

When I left, I was in such a state. I was sure my career was over before it had begun. And Bogie... did he really not care about me? I cried all night.

The next morning I was a mess, eyes all puffy and red. I had to put ice on my face at 6 am and again when I got to the studio. I didn’t want anyone to see I’d been crying.

Bogie greeted me as usual, but I was different and he knew instantly. ‘Has Howard been talking to you?’ he asked. I just nodded.



' Bogie began to awaken feelings that were new to me. Just his looking at me could make me tremble. When he took my hand in his, the feeling caught me in the pit of my stomach'

Later that day I went to Bogie’s dressing room and told him what Howard had said. He stroked my hair and my face and said: ‘He can’t stand to see your attention diverted from him, that’s all. He’s jealous.’

He was right, of course. Howard was losing control and he didn’t like that.

We started to drive home together, leaving the studio with Bogie in the lead in his car, me following in mine. We’d pull over to the side and he’d come over to my car. There we would sit, holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes, saying all the things we couldn’t say at the studio.

He was a gentle man: diametrically opposed to most of the parts he played. He detested deceit of any kind. He’d never had a secret relationship such as we were having.

Our drives home, foolish jokes, kidding on the set — all the behaviour of kids in love — he’d never known it before. Nor had I. I had so many new feelings.

I was an innocent sexually. Bogie began to awaken feelings that were new to me. Just his looking at me could make me tremble. When he took my hand in his, the feeling caught me in the pit of my stomach.

Family: Bogart and Bacall are pictured with their son Stephen in Southampton in 1951. They also had a daughter

When he saw me at the beginning of the day, and when he called me on the telephone, his first words were always ‘Hello, Baby’. My heart would literally pound. I knew that physical changes were happening within me. The simplest word, look, or move would bring a gut reaction.

It was all so romantic. And I wanted to give Bogie so much that he hadn’t had — all the love that had been stored inside of me all my life for the father who had walked out on my family when I was six.

One night, he called and woke me, to say he was desperate to see me. He was in a bar round the corner; would I meet him there? I threw on slacks and a sweater, and ran up the street, my arms open wide and my hair flying, into Bogie’s smiling embrace.

It felt wonderful beyond words to be so wanted, so adored! No one had ever felt like that about me... and it was so dramatic to be together in the wee small hours, when it seemed the whole world was ours.

Innocent: Bacall said her co-star started to 'awaken feelings that were new to me'

But when my mother came to stay from New York, she was furious.

‘He’s been married three times,’ she said. ‘What kind of a man is that, seeing a girl 25 years younger?’

I tried to tell her how unhappy Bogie was, but she didn’t trust him for one second. Bogie was her age. He’d had three wives, he drank a lot. What kind of man could he be, except no good?

When shooting on To Have And Have Not ended after 11 weeks, Bogie and I were miserable. I didn’t understand how it was possible to obtain pleasure from anything if we weren’t together. Sports, a meal, friends... how was anything in life bearable when you couldn’t be with the one you loved?

A week after the movie wrapped, I received my first letter from Bogie. He felt just as low as I did: when we parted, he said, a little piece of his heart died.

We decided to start meeting again in cars, in secret: holding hands, talking, looking at each other, kissing. And we exchanged letters.

‘Baby, I want you to have the loveliest life any mortal ever had... I never believed that I could love anyone again, for so many things have happened in my life to me that I was afraid to love...

‘Slim darling, now I’m afraid that you’ll become impatient and that I’ll lose you — but even if that happened, I wouldn’t stop loving you, for you are my last love and all the rest of my life I shall love you and watch you and be ready to help you.’

At four one morning the telephone rang. Bogie was a little drunk. He was in town and he asked me to come and get him.

My mother thought I was mad. ‘You can’t jump every time he calls,’ she told me. ‘He’ll have no respect for you. It’s ridiculous.’ But I would not be stopped. I was in love.

I found him on Highway 101, in the rain, and he told me about the latest fight he’d had with Mayo. He had to get out, he said; he couldn’t stand it any more.



Advice: Bacall's mother told her not to 'jump' when Bogart called else he would have 'no respect'. Above, Bacall We went over to the trailer park, to have breakfast with the O’Moores, and after a while it was clear we had to be alone. We had been sitting in dressing rooms, in automobiles, hiding, for so long.

We went to the trailer next door. It was the first time we’d had complete privacy, and the most natural thing in the world. We were so happy, we were so in love — it was beautiful. I shall never forget that day.

But he didn’t leave Mayo. Her alcoholism had become desperate, and he was frightened of what she could do to herself — or even to me — if she found out about Bogie and me.

As well as stabbing him in the shoulder, she’d once pulled a pistol on him at a dinner party and had threatened to shoot him. Can you blame us for being nervous about how she might react?



Talented: Bacall (pictured in 2005) married Bogart, or 'Bogie', in a short ceremony at a ranch in Ohio

To Have And Have Not became a massive box office hit. I was an overnight star, which was both thrilling and confusing. And because the public wanted to see more of Bogart with Bacall, in October 1944 — to my delight — we started our second film together, The Big Sleep.

Howard Hawks was the director once secret passion between his two stars was hotter than ever. On screen, he exploited it. Off screen, he did everything he could to distract me.

His wife, Slim, invited me to dinner one night, with a tantalising promise: ‘I’ve got the most dazzling

man you’ll ever meet in your life. Once you meet him, you’ll forget all about Bogart.’

The man was Clark Gable, in uniform. He was dazzling to look at, but he stirred me not a bit. I tried to be attracted to him, but it just didn’t work.

A few weeks into filming on The Big Sleep, Bogie finally left Mayo and moved into a hotel. I used to visit him, going in the back way, and hide in the closet whenever anyone knocked on the door.

After more failed attempts to dry out, Mayo agreed to go and live in Reno in Nevada for six weeks — at the time one of the only places in America that offered quickie divorces.

My mother also called a truce. An armed truce — but she accepted it. How could she not? She saw how in love I was.

After the briefest engagement, Bogie and I were married in a short ceremony at a ranch in Ohio that was owned by one of his oldest friends.

Cole Porter’s song, Don’t Fence Me In, had just been on the Hit Parade, and before the wedding, Bogie sent me a wire: ‘Please fence me in, Baby — the world’s too big out here and I don’t like it without you.’

No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.

