Lauren Bacall was a green-eyed beauty who worked her way up from being a model to an award-winning actress. She conquered Hollywood with an Oscar nomination and Broadway by winning two Tony Awards. She survived a ten-year marriage to a man who was 25 years older than her and who was the love of her life. Bogart and Bacall became legends.
She took care of herself, her three children, and her show business career by working hard. She was “The Woman of the Year” and deserved “Applause” for showing that a strong woman could also be beautiful and graceful.
Betty Joan Perske never dreamed she would grow up into one of Broadway’s and Hollywood’s icons. She lived in the Bronx, where she was born on September 16, 1924, and the stages of Broadway were just across the river. So were the modeling agencies that would figure so prominently in her life.
As a lanky, 5’-9” tall teenager, she was discovered for the covers of many fashion magazines of the day in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She was a beauty even then with her shimmering green eyes. In addition to fashion, the theatre drew her into its web when she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with fellow classmate Kirk Douglas (b. 1916) in 1941. Later, in Hollywood, she was instrumental in getting Douglas his first motion picture role. She dipped her toe into some minor theatre work in Johnny 2×4 (1942) and Franklin Street (1942) on the New York stage.
Many biographies say film director Howard Hawks discovered Ms. Perske, but that’s not exactly true. It was his wife, Nancy “Slim” Hawks who first spotted her on the cover of a fashion magazine. Slim brought Perske to the attention of her husband and he saw her potential and arranged for a screen test. Slim, herself, was something of a fashion icon and also became a successful photographer capturing Hollywood stars of the day in informal poses. She taught the young Ms. Perske about grace, fashion and style.
Although Ms. Perske was nervous and awkward in front of the movie cameras, Hawks signed her to a personal contract. She devised a way to keep her head from shaking. She dropped her chin and then looked upward, giving her a sultry appearance and thus The Look was established. Hawks hated her name and crowned her “Lauren,” with Ms Perske contributing a variation of her mother’s maiden name and it became “Bacall.” Hawks then cast her in To Have and Have Not (1944), introduced her to co-star Humphrey Bogart, and thus began one of the greatest love stories in Hollywood history.
Although Bacall was only 19, she fell in love with Bogart, who was 45, and the two were married and had an unusual thing in Hollywood—a successful marriage. They produced two children—Stephen and Leslie.
Warner Bros had a hit in To Have and Have Not and quickly paired the two lovers again in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). Bacall went on to her own career in films and appeared in such hits as How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, Written On The Wind (1956) with Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone, Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck, and Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Robert Wagner.
Her film career started sagging a little at this time. She decided to go back on stage to keep busy. She had earlier appeared in the comedy Goodbye Charlie (1959 – 1960) with Sydney Chaplin and Sarah Marshall.
While films were few and far between, she did make the popular Warner Bros. comedy Sex and the Single Girl (1964) with Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, and Mel Ferrer.
In the new year of 1965, Bacall was back trodding the boards in New York in the hit comedy Cactus Flower. As directed by the legendary Abe Burrows, the cast included Barry Nelson, Burt Brinkerhoff, and Brenda Vaccaro, both of whom were nominated for Best Acting Tony Awards.
In 1970 Bacall opened on Broadway in the musical version of Bette Davis’ hit film All About Eve. It was re-named Applause. Naturally, Bacall played the part of Margo Channing, the slightly worn stage star who is ruthlessly plotted against by a young starlet name Eve Harrington (Penny Fuller). Broadway’s top talents contributed to the success of the show. Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book, Lee Adams penned the lyrics, and Charles Strouse composed the music.
Bacall said of the part that “The Margo Channing of Applause and myself were ideally suited. She was approaching middle age. So was I. She was being forced to face the fact that her career would have to move into another phase as younger women came along to play younger parts. So was I. And she constantly felt that the man she was in love with was going to go off with someone else, someone younger of course, and I, too, had had those feelings.”
Bacall was supported by a superb cast of Broadway regulars such as Bonnie Franklin, Le Roy Reams, Len Cariou, and Robert Mandan. The show was directed and choreographed by Ron Field, who was the winner of two Tony Awards for Best Direction and Best Choreography. Cast members Len Cariou, Bonnie Franklin, Brandon Maggart, and Penny Fuller were all nominated for acting Tonys. The show won the Tony Award as Best Musical of 1970, and Lauren Bacall won the top Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. Betty Joan Perske had triumphed on Broadway!
When the run of Applause ended, Bacall skipped back to Hollywood and made a few interesting appearances in such films as Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with Ingrid Bergman and Sean Connery, The Shootist (1976) with John Wayne and James Stewart and the thriller The Fan (1981) with James Garner and Maureen Stapleton.
“Betty” as her friends called her, received another tempting offer for a Broadway show. Woman of the Year was based on the 1942 Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy MGM film of the same name. The show needed a strong woman like Hepburn, and Bacall fit the bill. With music and lyrics by the formidable team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, costumes designed by Theoni V. Aldredge, sets designed by Tony Walton and direction by Robert Moore, the show was in good creative hands. The lavish production opened at the Palace Theatre March 29, 1981.
Bacall played television reporter Tess Harding (a newspaperwoman in the film) and Harry Guardino played cartoonist Sam Craig. The show was nominated for 6 Tony Awards and Peter Stone won for Best Book, Kander & Ebb won for Best Original Score, and Marilyn Cooper won for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. The beautiful Lauren Bacall won her second Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical!
For the rest of her career she never again starred in a Broadway musical. She returned to film and television and appeared in more than 38 films before the end of her life on August 12, 2014 at age 89. For her role as Barbra Streisand’s mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996 she received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She was a champion until the end.
