Rabbi Arnold Saltzman
In the movie, ‘Play It Again Sam’, the main character is advised by the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, a kind of ‘movie angel’ who appears in this Woody Allen classic about young love and the awkwardness of dating.
Sam (aka Woody Allen) goes to the supermarket to buy items for a romantic evening dinner at home where he will be entertaining. Reaching for the candles on the supermarket shelf for his dinner table, Humphrey Bogart shows up in the Supermarket aisle, and says “Not those candles, dummy. Those are Jewish candles”, Sam having picked up what we call Yahrzeit memorial candles for his romantic evening. LOL!
Why Humphrey Bogart? For a film maker, writer, and actor – many believe Casablanca to be the greatest movie ever made, and Bogart was the male star of the film.
Fast forward from Casablanca, a teenage beauty from the Bronx, Betty Perske, works as a model and lands on the cover of Harpers Magazine. Howard Hawks wife, sees the photo and brings it to the attention of her movie producer husband who discovered Rita Hayworth. The Perske look is a combination of Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Lana Turner.
From that magical moment, Betty Perske became Lauren Bacall, using her mother’s maiden name. A young Jewish woman who hailed from the Bronx, was educated in the Bronx, and who could speak Brooklynese when she wanted to, became a star overnight when at the age of nineteen she was cast in her first role opposite Humphrey Bogart at the height of his career. No doubt he thought working with her was a ridiculous directors idea, and typical of the games the Hollywood studios played with actors and scripts.
Lauren Bacall proved to be a sensation as a great beauty, an actress, a sultry image, as well as an independent woman. In a world where we see so much violence, horror, ant-semitism, bad judgement, in such a world we say what is this all about? How do we make sense out of it all?
We can’t make sense out of it, yet, the remarkable creation and appeal of great stars has always enabled millions of people to forget the world that is too much with us, at least for a few moments.
Instead we nod knowingly that Lauren Bacall had a magnetism which was irresistible, and clearly Humphrey Bogart was unable to resist even though he was twenty-five years older – forty-five to her twenty when they married.
In her lifetime she also endeared herself to New Yorkers, having gone to public schools, and thinking she was ugly, she learned modeling. She took part time jobs at restaurants, including standing outside of Sardi’s, and she worked as an usher in the Broadway theater district, also earning her expense money, as her family was middle class, her dad was a salesman, and her mother a secretary.
In a review of show a New York theater critic commented that the eyes of all were on the young lady usher on the left side of the theater rather than what was happening on the stage. Betty Perske was Romanian on her mother’s side and Eastern European Polish Russian on her fathers side.
She was a Jewish teen during the time when Germany was trying to destroy anyone who was Jewish and everything that was Jewish.
Here we have a young woman, one of the great beauties of cinema, and we have to marvel that she had the charisma which attracted millions of movie goers. We may be given gifts in life, but it is what we do with those gifts that make the difference. Abraham Maslow, a renowned author and Psychologist wrote about the idea of self actualization: A person has certain potential which they can work towards fulfilling throughout their life.
As I read David Brooks this morning in the New York Times, after having begun writing about Lauren Bacall for my sermon, I was surprised that he focused on the sensual, sexy aspects of this femme fatal. Her performance and beauty are alluring and irresistible. Yet, there is so much more to Lauren Bacall, which she said herself.
She was married to Bogart for twelve years, happy years, and as a novice actor worked with him in ‘To Have and To have Not’. During a break in the filming she asked if he had matches, which he threw at her. Following lighting her cigarette, she threw them right back. Other film classics with him include ‘The Big Sleep’, ‘Dark Passage’, and ‘Key Largo’, and later she starred with Marilyn Monroe in ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ and ‘Designing Woman’ with Gregory Peck.
Lauren Bacall went on to career on Broadway staring in ‘Applause’ and ‘Woman of the Year’. She is ranked on every list of the greatest actresses in cinema, academy award nominee, Tony Award Winner, and Honorary Lifetime Academy Award winner.
When she appeared on the cover of Harpers Bazaar in 1943 for the American Red Cross, she looked elegant and beautiful, and very serious, totally aware of what was happening to Jews in Europe, and even has a tough determined look. It makes me wonder what people thought in those days. What did a young Jewish woman think knowing what was happening in Europe? Would there be a future for her?
When she gave birth to the son and daughter of Humphrey Bogart he convinced her to raise them as Episcopalians since at the end of WWII there was great fear about being Jewish in this world. Things haven’t changed that much, yet, Lauren Bacall remained Jewish, identified as a Jew, and was proud that she was related to Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister and President of Israel.
After Bogart’s death, she married Jason Robards, and they have a son. She was part of the Committee for the First Amendment, fighting the blacklisting of writers and actors in Hollywood due to McCarthyism. In an interview with Larry King she identified as a Liberal, not unusual for a New Yorker.
An author, as well, she wrote two autobiographies. She was awarded the first Kathryn Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr College which recognizes “women whose lives, work and contributions embody intelligence, drive and independence.
She lived in NYC’s most prestigious address, the Dakota on Central Park West, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, and where Leonard Bernstein lived. Somehow I think they thought it was ‘the place’ because Lauren Bacall lived there.
There may be controversy over the ‘hot’ quality of the movie screen, yet, the example of Lauren Becall in its own way demonstrated the power of beauty and acting. Her voice was magnetic, yet her New York accent was gone. She was the fashion industry’s best representative for taste and good sense, something to note in an age when many young people dress inappropriately or immodestly.
Excusing her young age for the situation she found herself in, in her life she eventually demonstrated to be a Hollywood actress with better judgement and talent, an independent woman who was more than a sexy image. In a film with Barbara Streisand where Lauren Bacall plays her mother, the daughter asks ‘What was it like to be beautiful? and Streisand asks – the mother answers ‘Wonderful!’ During WWII American service men named a town after her in the Marshall Islands.
‘‘She really epitomized this idea of effortlessness. It’s like she never was trying too hard and I think that sometimes is the most difficult thing to achieve,’’ said designer Peter Som.
‘‘That gaze, the voice, the hair. It was just that confidence. That was something that I think men and women alike could relate to,’’ he said.
On Twitter someone wrote: I never heard of this actress? Responders: Are you 8 or 9 years old? Are you from Mars?
Imaginary Bogart adds: “Well, now we will have to find those Jewish candles!”