Bogart's Wives, Doc Holliday and Kate
This Week
Helen, Mary, Mayo and Betty Bogart
Dodge City Street – Doc and Kate
Writers Notebook
After three marriages' went wrong – along came Betty Bacall
In baseball it's three strikes and you're out – not so with Bogie, he got another chance with a bright and talented young model/actress named Lauren Bacall.
Bogie's first three wives were all well known and talented actresses'.
Bogie's first marriage was to actress Helen Menken in May of 1926 using the marriage license they had acquired some four years earlier. It obviously took Bogie a while to make up his mind, The ceremony didn't go well and their relationship went down hill from there. In less than a month It became obvious that neither of them were ready for marriage, and certainly not to each other. They went through the motions marriage for a year and a half before finally calling it quits.
His second wife to be was actress Mary Philips. Bogie ask her out for a drink and it wound up as part of an endless tour of speakeasies where a courtship was carried out between drinks. They hit it off from that first drink. They became great friends, enjoyed each others company and loved talking about show business.
Their courtship lasted for about a year before they decided to get married. Unlike his first attempt Bogie's marriage to Mary Philips got off to a good start. They were both working at the time and that might have had something to do with their easy going relationship.
Later in 1929 when David Belasco was casting for a new play called It's a Wise Child, he gave Bogart a role. And when the comedy opened it turned out to be the sensation of the season.
The problem was not the season, but the year, it was 1929. There was fear and panic both on Wall Street and Main Street in America. Broadway was turning out turkey's at the rate of about three to one over hits, and the Hollywood film industry didn't fare much better.
Once both Bogie and Mary were out of work they decided to pack up and move to Hollywood. Well, Bogie managed to get his foot in the door at Fox and one film seemed to lead to another. On the other hand Mary didn't fare so well. Eventually Mary decided it might be best if she went back to New York for another try at Broadway. Bogie didn't like the idea at first, but finally agreed to go along, at least for a while. That decision to go back to New York was a big stroke of luck because not too long after they got back he was cast in the role of Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
Married life was good during the run of the play on Broadway. Problems started when they returned to Hollywood for the movie.
Mary was a professional actress and wanted to work. She got no offers in Hollywood and really felt left out, so again she decided to move back to New York. Bogie understood her problem from a professional level, while he argued against the move from his personal point of view. But in the end she went back to New York.
Mary's return to Broadway probably doomed their marriage and they got a divorce in 1938.
Bogie's wife number three was Mayo Mathot, and she was nothing like the first two, to give you an idea, he nicknamed her 'Sluggy.' Bogie and Mayo carried on a tumultuous relationship that was completely irrational. Mayo drank too much and had a temperament that bordered on the psychotic. When gossip began to float around Hollywood that their marriage was on the rocks, Bogie denied it. And in defense of his wife he once said, 'My wife's an actress, she a clever actress, it so happens that she's not working right now. But even when an actress isn't working, she's got to have scenes to play. And in this case I've got to give her the cues.'
Well, he not only gave her the cues he also became her own private punching bag. And during one drunken rage she almost killed him with a knife.
Mayo had a fit of jealously during the production of Casablanca when she heard about Bogie's and Bergman's romantic scenes together.
Over a period of time Mayo had gone from a beautiful trim blond to an overweight puffy faced woman without distinction.
During Bogart's next four pictures Action in the North Atlantic, Thank your Lucky Stars, Conflict and Passage to Marseilles he held his home life together with the patients of Job.
However, a couple of things happened during the making of Passage to Marseilles that changed his life. It was during that period that he signed on to make 'To Have and Have Not' with Howard Hawks and fell in love with his next leading lady, Lauren Bacall.
Obviously the chemistry was right because Bogart and Bacall fell in love with each other. The fact that he was forty-five and she was only nineteen made little difference to them.
Of course it did raise some eyebrows and ginned up a few gossip columns inside the film colony, but their ages certainly were setting no precedents – it had happened before.
Mrs. Bogart put up a good front for a while but she was no match for the young Betty Bacall.
Eventually Mayo left Hollywood for her mother's home in Portland, Oregon. Six years later she died alone in a motel after a long illness brought on by what was likely alcohol poisoning.
To Have or Have Not was Bacall's first film and she was very much aware of her lack of experience. She said, 'I was playing a scene with Bogie and had to catch a box of matches he tossed me and lite a cigarette. My hands trembled so much I kept dropping the matches. Bogie pretended to ignore it, which was just what I needed.'
The payoff line in the film was when she said, 'If you want anything, all you have to do is whistle.'
The critics bought her performance and hailed her a new and important star. The film was a hit and some of the critics considered it equal to Casablanca – it wasn't. The story line was thin, however, the quixotic cast of characters gave life to a screenplay that could have easily bordered on dull. Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael get high marks along with the editor for keeping up a good pace.
Bogie and Betty Bacall did a total of four films together, the other three were The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.
The film made just prior to Key Largo was The Treasure of Sierra Madre, a film that many critics and fans remember as one of Bogie's best.
Bogart fans are Bogart fans, but they still have their favorites. The seventh film following Key Largo, The African Queen is one of those and according to some was the greatest Bogart film while others say it isn't so.
We Bogart fans are a diverse lot and to give you something to shoot at -- my two favorite Bogart films are Casablanca and The African Queen. They are also in my top twenty best films ever.
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone – Excerpt
Doc Holliday and Humphrey Bogart had something in common: Kate and Mayo.
Dodge City Kansas 1878
Next day the cowboys were sobering up in jail and the streets of Dodge City were so quiet you could hear a spur jingle a block away. Inside the saloons there were three main topics of conversation Doc Holliday saving Wyatt Earp's bacon, the end of the ‘78 cattle season and the Santa Fe railroads efforts to recruit guns for an operation in Eastern Colorado.
Doc had put in a full day at the office and was visibly tired by the time he ushered his last patient out of the office. He planned to have supper with Kate, but was tardy.
Kate waited in the hotel lobby, her patience wearing thin at his lateness. Deacon Cox was working the desk and noticed Kate sitting on the far sofa. She frowned as she looked toward the stairs.
"You sure Doc didn't go out yet?" Kate questioned.
"Quite sure." Cox said. "He had a last minute patient, I believe."
Doc appeared on the stairs and said languidly, "Howdy, Deacon." Deacon Cox cleared his throat and in a warning tone said, "Doc, the eh, Misses is waiting.”
Doc acknowledged the hint, turned toward the petulant Kate and said, "Ready for supper?"
"You're late, Doctor Holliday."
"Had a last minute tooth to pull. The poor fellow was in pain," Doc said as held out his hand, only to be rejected by Kate. She turned on her heels and quickly walked out the front door.
Doc followed along and when he overtook her asked, "What's the matter, Kate?"
"You're just full of excuses, ain't you," Kate spat.
"Now hon, I'm in no mood for a fight. I've had a long tiring day and I'm hungry and thirsty."
"Well I'm sick and tired of you being tired ... You weren't tired yesterday when you became an instant hero."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, our hero is innocent and tired. You know damned well what I'm talkin' about. It's all over town how the great Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life."
"Gosh, I never thought of it that way, but what if I did. If you're keeping score, you're in the running, you saved my neck once."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Doc stopped dead in his tracks. Kate continued to walk a dozen steps before she realized he wasn't at her side. She stopped and turned around, then sallied forth with a sharp reproof, "Well, are you comin’ or not?"
Doc stood in place and made no physical movement. His mind raced as he wrestled with a decision he had put off far too long. "I can't do it any longer, Kate."
She made a slight, but conciliatory move in his direction and muttered. "Do what?"
"Live with a live volcano."
"What?"
"I can't drink enough whiskey to hide both my physical and your mental problems, Kate."
"What are you saying, darlin’?" She said as she reached out emotionally to Doc.
"I don't have the strength to put up with a natural disaster every day of my life. I never know from one day to the next, will it be a tornado or an earthquake.”
Then with a purpose, Doc turned and strode across the street leaving Kate standing in place.
"Where are you going?" Kate demanded. "You can't leave me in the street like this."
Doc called over his shoulder. "Maybe I can't, but I am."
Kate started to tremble and then screeched, "I hate you Doc Holliday." Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she began to sob. "Don't you know I love you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Writers Notebook:
The idea for my writing notebook came from Somerset Maugham. Maugham's notebook was a kind of journal while mine is a collection of conversations and tips that have been passed along by some of our famous writers.
This one is guaranteed to get your attention and might even make you think. Ray Bradbury says, ‘Write from the heart, not from the mind. Go ahead and jump over the cliff – build your parachute on the way down.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Helen, Mary, Mayo and Betty Bogart
Dodge City Street – Doc and Kate
Writers Notebook
After three marriages' went wrong – along came Betty Bacall
In baseball it's three strikes and you're out – not so with Bogie, he got another chance with a bright and talented young model/actress named Lauren Bacall.
Bogie's first three wives were all well known and talented actresses'.
Bogie's first marriage was to actress Helen Menken in May of 1926 using the marriage license they had acquired some four years earlier. It obviously took Bogie a while to make up his mind, The ceremony didn't go well and their relationship went down hill from there. In less than a month It became obvious that neither of them were ready for marriage, and certainly not to each other. They went through the motions marriage for a year and a half before finally calling it quits.
His second wife to be was actress Mary Philips. Bogie ask her out for a drink and it wound up as part of an endless tour of speakeasies where a courtship was carried out between drinks. They hit it off from that first drink. They became great friends, enjoyed each others company and loved talking about show business.
Their courtship lasted for about a year before they decided to get married. Unlike his first attempt Bogie's marriage to Mary Philips got off to a good start. They were both working at the time and that might have had something to do with their easy going relationship.
Later in 1929 when David Belasco was casting for a new play called It's a Wise Child, he gave Bogart a role. And when the comedy opened it turned out to be the sensation of the season.
The problem was not the season, but the year, it was 1929. There was fear and panic both on Wall Street and Main Street in America. Broadway was turning out turkey's at the rate of about three to one over hits, and the Hollywood film industry didn't fare much better.
Once both Bogie and Mary were out of work they decided to pack up and move to Hollywood. Well, Bogie managed to get his foot in the door at Fox and one film seemed to lead to another. On the other hand Mary didn't fare so well. Eventually Mary decided it might be best if she went back to New York for another try at Broadway. Bogie didn't like the idea at first, but finally agreed to go along, at least for a while. That decision to go back to New York was a big stroke of luck because not too long after they got back he was cast in the role of Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
Married life was good during the run of the play on Broadway. Problems started when they returned to Hollywood for the movie.
Mary was a professional actress and wanted to work. She got no offers in Hollywood and really felt left out, so again she decided to move back to New York. Bogie understood her problem from a professional level, while he argued against the move from his personal point of view. But in the end she went back to New York.
Mary's return to Broadway probably doomed their marriage and they got a divorce in 1938.
Bogie's wife number three was Mayo Mathot, and she was nothing like the first two, to give you an idea, he nicknamed her 'Sluggy.' Bogie and Mayo carried on a tumultuous relationship that was completely irrational. Mayo drank too much and had a temperament that bordered on the psychotic. When gossip began to float around Hollywood that their marriage was on the rocks, Bogie denied it. And in defense of his wife he once said, 'My wife's an actress, she a clever actress, it so happens that she's not working right now. But even when an actress isn't working, she's got to have scenes to play. And in this case I've got to give her the cues.'
Well, he not only gave her the cues he also became her own private punching bag. And during one drunken rage she almost killed him with a knife.
Mayo had a fit of jealously during the production of Casablanca when she heard about Bogie's and Bergman's romantic scenes together.
Over a period of time Mayo had gone from a beautiful trim blond to an overweight puffy faced woman without distinction.
During Bogart's next four pictures Action in the North Atlantic, Thank your Lucky Stars, Conflict and Passage to Marseilles he held his home life together with the patients of Job.
However, a couple of things happened during the making of Passage to Marseilles that changed his life. It was during that period that he signed on to make 'To Have and Have Not' with Howard Hawks and fell in love with his next leading lady, Lauren Bacall.
Obviously the chemistry was right because Bogart and Bacall fell in love with each other. The fact that he was forty-five and she was only nineteen made little difference to them.
Of course it did raise some eyebrows and ginned up a few gossip columns inside the film colony, but their ages certainly were setting no precedents – it had happened before.
Mrs. Bogart put up a good front for a while but she was no match for the young Betty Bacall.
Eventually Mayo left Hollywood for her mother's home in Portland, Oregon. Six years later she died alone in a motel after a long illness brought on by what was likely alcohol poisoning.
To Have or Have Not was Bacall's first film and she was very much aware of her lack of experience. She said, 'I was playing a scene with Bogie and had to catch a box of matches he tossed me and lite a cigarette. My hands trembled so much I kept dropping the matches. Bogie pretended to ignore it, which was just what I needed.'
The payoff line in the film was when she said, 'If you want anything, all you have to do is whistle.'
The critics bought her performance and hailed her a new and important star. The film was a hit and some of the critics considered it equal to Casablanca – it wasn't. The story line was thin, however, the quixotic cast of characters gave life to a screenplay that could have easily bordered on dull. Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael get high marks along with the editor for keeping up a good pace.
Bogie and Betty Bacall did a total of four films together, the other three were The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.
The film made just prior to Key Largo was The Treasure of Sierra Madre, a film that many critics and fans remember as one of Bogie's best.
Bogart fans are Bogart fans, but they still have their favorites. The seventh film following Key Largo, The African Queen is one of those and according to some was the greatest Bogart film while others say it isn't so.
We Bogart fans are a diverse lot and to give you something to shoot at -- my two favorite Bogart films are Casablanca and The African Queen. They are also in my top twenty best films ever.
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone – Excerpt
Doc Holliday and Humphrey Bogart had something in common: Kate and Mayo.
Dodge City Kansas 1878
Next day the cowboys were sobering up in jail and the streets of Dodge City were so quiet you could hear a spur jingle a block away. Inside the saloons there were three main topics of conversation Doc Holliday saving Wyatt Earp's bacon, the end of the ‘78 cattle season and the Santa Fe railroads efforts to recruit guns for an operation in Eastern Colorado.
Doc had put in a full day at the office and was visibly tired by the time he ushered his last patient out of the office. He planned to have supper with Kate, but was tardy.
Kate waited in the hotel lobby, her patience wearing thin at his lateness. Deacon Cox was working the desk and noticed Kate sitting on the far sofa. She frowned as she looked toward the stairs.
"You sure Doc didn't go out yet?" Kate questioned.
"Quite sure." Cox said. "He had a last minute patient, I believe."
Doc appeared on the stairs and said languidly, "Howdy, Deacon." Deacon Cox cleared his throat and in a warning tone said, "Doc, the eh, Misses is waiting.”
Doc acknowledged the hint, turned toward the petulant Kate and said, "Ready for supper?"
"You're late, Doctor Holliday."
"Had a last minute tooth to pull. The poor fellow was in pain," Doc said as held out his hand, only to be rejected by Kate. She turned on her heels and quickly walked out the front door.
Doc followed along and when he overtook her asked, "What's the matter, Kate?"
"You're just full of excuses, ain't you," Kate spat.
"Now hon, I'm in no mood for a fight. I've had a long tiring day and I'm hungry and thirsty."
"Well I'm sick and tired of you being tired ... You weren't tired yesterday when you became an instant hero."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, our hero is innocent and tired. You know damned well what I'm talkin' about. It's all over town how the great Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life."
"Gosh, I never thought of it that way, but what if I did. If you're keeping score, you're in the running, you saved my neck once."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Doc stopped dead in his tracks. Kate continued to walk a dozen steps before she realized he wasn't at her side. She stopped and turned around, then sallied forth with a sharp reproof, "Well, are you comin’ or not?"
Doc stood in place and made no physical movement. His mind raced as he wrestled with a decision he had put off far too long. "I can't do it any longer, Kate."
She made a slight, but conciliatory move in his direction and muttered. "Do what?"
"Live with a live volcano."
"What?"
"I can't drink enough whiskey to hide both my physical and your mental problems, Kate."
"What are you saying, darlin’?" She said as she reached out emotionally to Doc.
"I don't have the strength to put up with a natural disaster every day of my life. I never know from one day to the next, will it be a tornado or an earthquake.”
Then with a purpose, Doc turned and strode across the street leaving Kate standing in place.
"Where are you going?" Kate demanded. "You can't leave me in the street like this."
Doc called over his shoulder. "Maybe I can't, but I am."
Kate started to tremble and then screeched, "I hate you Doc Holliday." Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she began to sob. "Don't you know I love you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Writers Notebook:
The idea for my writing notebook came from Somerset Maugham. Maugham's notebook was a kind of journal while mine is a collection of conversations and tips that have been passed along by some of our famous writers.
This one is guaranteed to get your attention and might even make you think. Ray Bradbury says, ‘Write from the heart, not from the mind. Go ahead and jump over the cliff – build your parachute on the way down.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
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I do a variety blog and post every Wednesday. I am an actor, writer and hurricane hunter and my subjects are generally written about those fields. During Hurricane Season I do at least one story every
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