Lauren Bacall | Hollywood Yesterday

Today is Betty Joan Perske’s birthday. Of course, you and I know her better as the legendary Lauren Bacall – one of the most talented and beautiful actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Betty Joan was born on September 16, 1924 in New York City – the only child of European Jewish immigrant parents. Her parents divorced when she was five and she never developed a close relationship with her father. Fortunately she had a close relationship with her mom. In fact, she would later take the surname of her mother, but add an l – taking Bacal to Bacall.

Betty initially wanted to be a dancer, but luckily for those of us who LOVE classic movies, her passion switched to acting. Her big break came when the wife of director Howard Hawks saw her photo on a ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ magazine cover. She convinced her husband to give the strikingly beautiful nineteen year old a screen test. Because of a wife’s keen eye, Betty Joan was given a seven-year contract with Warners Bros. She was also given a new first name and the rest is Hollywood history. Lauren Bacall had arrived on the scene.

In 1944, the beautiful 19-year old was cast as Marie “Slim” Browning in To Have and Have Not – a romantic drama based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Her co-star? The one and only Humphrey Bogart!

“You do Know how to whistle“. Slim, To Have and Have Not

The movie was a success and movie-goers fell head over heels in love with Lauren Bacall. They weren’t the only ones! Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall married in 1945 and were together until her beloved husband died in 1957.

The following are a few of Hollywood Yesterday’s favorite Lauren Bacall Quotes.

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.”

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

“I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.’

“I am not a has-been. I am a will be.”

“Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.”

“I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.”

“If there was one thing I had never been, it was mysterious, and if there was one thing I had never done, it was not talk.”

“A woman isn’t complete without a man. But where do you find a man… a real man… these days?”

“You can’t start worrying about what’s going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what’s happening now.”

“(Katharine Hepburn) was much stronger, much more opinionated than I am or ever was, and it was considered attractive on her. But not on me. I don’t know. Maybe her Bryn Mawr accent was more appealing than mine.”

“I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it content.”

“In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting fifty percent of publicity.”

“A man’s illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy.”

“You can’t always be a leading lady.”

“I fought for that part (Marilla, Designing Woman). I wanted it badly. I took a lower salary, I did everything. Grace Kelly said, ‘I’ll never forgive you for playing that part. It was written for me.’ She got the prince, I got the part.”

“I don’t live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are that you can’t ignore it. But I don’t look at scrapbooks. I could show you some, but I’d have to climb ladders, and I can’t climb.”

The ridiculously beautiful and talented Lauren Bacall died Tuesday at the age of 89. On the heels of Robin Williams’ death, this has been a week to remember – and not in a good way.

Hollywood Yesterday was created for this very reason – to keep the stars alive and shining brightly… the way they’re meant to.

Lauren Bacall should always be remembered for more than just her extraordinary beauty. She was as talented as any actress or actor of her time or any other time. She was also exceptionally smart and colorful. She paved the way for actresses to be as strong as they were beautiful – to more or less identify themselves, rather than allowing a studio or “boss” to carve out an identity for them.

10 Facts About Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She originally wanted to be a dancer, but decided on acting.
She lived in the same New York apartment building as John Lennon and actually heard the shot that killed him in December, 1980. She told Twiggy in a UK television interview that she assumed the gunshot was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring.
Bacall is from her mother’s maiden name, Bacal. She simply added an extra l.
Those close to her called her by her given name, Betty.
She was an only child.
Katharine Hepburn was a long-time friend of Lauren Bacall’s and is even the godmother of her son, Sam Robards.
She was married to Humphrey Bogart from 1945 to his death in 1957.
Bacall made two movies with John Wayne, Blood Alley (1955) and The Shootist (1976). During production of Blood Alley, her husband (Humphrey Bogart) was dying of throat cancer.
At Humphrey Bogart’s funeral, she put a whistle in his coffin. It was a sweet reference to her famous line to him in their first film together (To Have and Have Not) in 1944: “You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.”.
Along with Veronica Lake, Julie London, and Rita Hayworth, Bacall was one of the four inspirations that helped shape the Jessica Rabbit character.