Play it Again Humphrey
By Sarah Mason 

Play it Again Sam - four words that have come to symbolize the man who arguably remains the greatest movie star of all time.

Although it was Ingrid Bergman not Humphrey Bogart who said, “Play it Sam.  Play As Time Goes By.” in the 1943 film Casablanca, the phrase has survived over 50 years of Hollywood stars, films, old studios, new studios and a multitude of technological advances.  It rekindles an image of what true cinema was and ought to be. 

In the Beginning 

Although some speculate the date as a Warner publicity stunt, Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born on Christmas Day, 1899. His father, Belmont DeForest Bogart was a prominent New York doctor.  His mother, professionally known by her maiden name, Maud Humphrey, was highly regarded as a children’s artist. “Bogie” whose nickname was coined by fellow actor Spencer Tracy,  was so charming as a baby that his mother chose him as her model for a Mellin baby food illustration.  Years later this would transform into the myth that Bogart was the original Gerber baby. 

Bogart’s sisters, Frances and Catherine Elizabeth “Kay” followed two and three years, respectively, after Humphrey.  

“We were a career family. Too busy for intimacy.”  Mildly stated by Bogart, these words were the haunting secrets of his heart.  

Family friends were far less diplomatic in their descriptions of the Bogarts.  Violent tempers and over-consumption of alcohol and drugs besieged parents Maud and Belmont.  They fought loudly and publicly.  

Friends and neighbors would later say it was no surprise that Humphrey went into acting.  For he already lived a life of illusion.  

To the Seneca Point residents, where the Bogarts spent their summers, they were ostensibly the model of the successful Victorian family­­­—upper-middle-class, old New York society. Little did they know that the “blue blood” of Humphrey’s father Belmont could be traced back only as far as his medical school degree - his own father was an innkeeper.   

Belmont bought the estate on Canandaigua (Can non dye gwa) Lake in Western New York while Maud was five months pregnant with Humphrey.  The summers spent there would be some of Bogart’s greatest and worst childhood memories.   

“There was a lot of unrest in that house”, claimed one neighbor who insisted that Maud ignored her children and drank heavily while Belmont took his violent temper out on his young son.   

Fable or fact, Maud was focused on her art and Belmont on his apparent addiction to morphine.  A result of a combination of pain from a former leg injury and the humiliation of playing second fiddle to his wife’s success. 

Little time was saved for their children.  Young Humphrey took to practical ways of capturing his father’s attention.  He became an accomplished yachtsman at age 14.  A skill that Belmont highly regarded for a young gentleman and a passion that would remain throughout Bogart’s life. 

Bogart never publicly mentioned the alleged abuse and neglect but often expressed his honest feelings about his mother.  

“Cruel as it may sound” said Bogart, “ Maud was not a woman one loved…For such was her drive that none of us could really get at her.”   

The relationship engendered a streak of distrust that would later confuse his intimacies with women. 

Growing up 

Maud and Belmont were determined to complete the model family façade through the education of their son who was promptly sent off to the finest prep school in Massachusetts, Andover Phillips Academy. 

This plan failed miserably.  Humphrey was kicked out of school for poor grades and allegedly mouthing off to the head master. 

But bigger things were soon to come to Humphrey’s life.  On May 28, 1915 the United States entered the first World War.  Bogart immediately enlisted in the naval reserve. 

In the 1954 film, The Caine Mutiny Bogart would have a chance to relive his Naval experience as the earnest Lt. Commander Queeg, whose steadfast loyalty to discipline and authority leads to a revolt by his men.  The film would earn Bogart his second Oscar nomination. 

CLIP The Caine Mutiny  

Humphrey’s own Naval experience was far less glamorous.  By the time he was shipped off to sea, the war had ended.  Humphrey spent six months ferrying the boys home from France.  

Although Humphrey referred to his military experience as being a “torment of authority and confrontation”, his record suggested that he was a model serviceman highly recognized for “Obedience” and “Sobriety”.  Two characteristics he would not retain in his acting career.

Like his parents, Humphrey too was an accomplished drinker.  In the years following his discharge from the Navy he would devote much time perfecting this craft. 

The Start of Something Big 

After his tour with the Navy, family friend, theatrical producer, William Brady, gave Bogart a job as an office boy.  Bogart quickly moved up to stage manager and also did miscellaneous jobs for Brady’s New York film studio, World Film Corp.   Brady’s daughter Alice gave Bogart his first shot at acting with a one liner in a somewhat less than memorable play she was starring in.  He must have done something right because Alice saw promise in the young actor and rewarded him with a small role in the 1922 play “Drifting” starring Alice and produced by her father.  This gave Bogart the exposure he needed.  

He made enough of an impression to be given second lead in a comedic play called “Swifty”, by director, John Cromwell,who would later direct Bogart in the 1946 film Dead Reckoning with Lizbeth Scott.

CLIP – Dead Reckoning

Throughout the '20s, Bogart found work in a number of antiquated drawing room comedies and dramas. 

Bogart went back to work for William Brady as the manager of a road company production of Drifting starring a pregnant Alice Brady.  Soon after the show opened, Alice delivered her baby and was replaced by established actress Helen Menken.  The slender redhead had honed her craft in theater starting at age six. 

A reluctant romance began between Bogart and Menken.  Bogart was impressed by her talent and beauty but was hesitant to walk down the path of house-husband like his father – marrying a woman whose career was more prosperous than his. 

However, Menken’s persuasions prevailed and the two were married at the Gramercy Park Hotel on May 20, 1926. They broke up less than a year later. 

Bogart reverted to his more accomplished hobby, drinking and soon found a happy accomplice, actress Mary Philips who he met in an earlier theatrical production. Philips was quite a drinker in her own right.  

The two roared through the twenties visiting all the local speakeasies which probably provides the most realistic explanation to the mystery of the famous scar above his lip. 

Bogart in a drunken state would often inadvertently insult someone who would generally return the favor with a whack.  

There were other stories circulating on the origin of his scar. 

In Lauren Bacall’s biography “By Myself” she attributes it to beatings from his father as a child. But nobody knows for sure. 

Despite the frequent visits to the speakeasies, Mary Philips cared more about acting than drinking and proved a powerful impetus in the inauguration of Bogart’s film career. 

Bogart’s first known film was The Dancing Town starring Helen Hayes -- a 1928 two-reeler for Paramount.  Little else is known of the film for an original copy has never been found.  The same year, Mary Philips and Bogart were married at her family home in Hartford, Connecticut.  Bogart’s first real break in film came in 1930 with a successful screen test for a remake of The Man Who Came Back. This would earn him a contract with Fox and a trip to Hollywood. 

Finally Bogart was in a position to take care of his wife as he always desired but Mary was not interested in leaving her career in New York.  

In 1930, Bogart’s arrival in Los Angeles was hardly the welcome he imagined.  He arrived to find that two other actors had been promised the role in The Man Who Came Back and that well-known silent star, Charles Farrell had been cast.  Bogart was simply brought out to coach Farrell whose transition into talkies caused studio heads some concern. 

But Hollywood made its mark on Bogart who spent the next year and a half taking bit parts in films including the 1931 Bette Davis film Bad Sister.  Bogart would make six films with Davis-more than any other actress.  The 1939 film Dark Victory with Davis caught the eye of Warner publicity chief, S. Charles Einfeld who spearheaded the campaign at Warner’s to make Bogart a star.  Referring to Bogart Einfeld said, 

“In Dark Victory he showed a type of sex appeal that was unusual and different from that of any other actor on the screen.”  

CLIP of Dark Victory 

Sex appeal he had.  But it would take several years for Hollywood to realize the full potential of it.  

After being wasted on silly parts with such ludicrous lines as, “Tennis anyone?’ Bogart said goodbye to Hollywood and Fox and returned to New York. 

Both Mary and Bogart were determined to make their marriage work. Bogart hustled for parts while Mary supported them through roles in summer stock. 

Columbia lured Bogart back to Hollywood in 1932 with a six-month contract. He was hopeful of his prospects but soon realized he still had a long way to go when the studio lent him out to Warner Brothers for insignificant parts. 

Tragedy hit the Bogart’s in 1934 when Bogart’s father Belmont died and sister Frances became manic-depressive after a near-fatal labor.  

Distraught over the death of his father and his failing career, Bogart returned to New York.  Luckily, he sought comfort in more than the bottle. Playwright Robert Sherwood offered Bogart a part in his play, “ The Petrified Forest”.   This turning point set the course for Bogart’s stardom. 

Bogart packed his bags and headed back to Hollywood, this time for good.  Mary did not come with him initially but remained loyal to her husband.  

Jack L. Warner, Vice President and head of production at Warner Brothers had his eye on Sherwood’s play.  He felt it had everything needed to make a great commercial film – gangsters, social significance, Sherwood’s name and the luster of Broadway behind it. 

Leslie Howard was cast as the lead, a reprisal of his role in the play.   And the studio had Edward G. Robinson in mind to play the part of gangster Duke Mantee whom Bogart had portrayed on stage. 

When Howard refused to do the film without Bogart in the role of Duke Mantee, the studio caved in and history was made.  Bogart and Howard’s friendship was so meaningful to Bogart that he named his daughter with 4^th wife, actress Lauren Bacall after him. 

Bogart was grateful for the part and not concerned about potential type casting. These early Film Noir classics gave Bogart a chance to rub elbows with the big boys while developing his own persona. Bogie was popular with his fellow actors.  He charmed Ida Lupino who worked with him in the 1940 film They Drive By Night starring George Raft. 

CLIP They Drive By Night  

Lupino once said of Bogart, “Being with him was absolutely heaven and peaceful to me.”  The two would later work together in High Sierra. 

The Portland Rosebud 

Bogart met Mayo Methot in New York in the ‘20s.  At the time she was known as the Portland Rosebud.  She was a Broadway star at 19 with beautiful blond curls and a “cupid’s bow mouth”.  

The two met again in 1936. Mayo’s film career was fading, as was her marriage to restaurant owner, Percy T. MORGAN.  Bogart began seeing Mayo much to the dismay of friends and wife, Mary Philips. 

Bogart’s last attempt to save his to Marymarriage failed shortly after he was paired with Mayo for the film Marked Woman. 

Always the Heavy Never the Heart 

In 1937 Bogart’s career was lapsing as he was thrust into a whirlwind of unforgettable gangster roles. In the 1936 film Bullets and Ballots with Edward G. Robinson, Robinson plays a cop who goes undercover to infiltrate the mob.  Bogart is a mob boss who inevitably finds himself gunning it out with Robinson to a mutually fatal resolution.  

CLIP Bullets and Ballots 

Bogart did however find solace momentarily in an unlikely place – radio. CBS had created “The CBS Shakespeare Theater” one-hour skillful adaptations played out by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Claud Rains, Rosalind Russell, Tallulah Bankhead and Orson Welles. The experience rekindled Bogart’s love for acting that had been slowly fading. 

In 1940, Bogart’s sister Kay died of a ruptured appendix brought on by excessive use of alcohol. Frances Rose, Bogart’s other sister who had been living with Kay was mentally ill and incapable of living on her own. 

Bogart did not have the financial resources to care for his ailing sister. 

Bogart requested an increase in pay based on his contractual agreement but Jack Warner refused to give him what he wanted. 
Bogart felt Jack Warner who continued to under-exploit his talents unfairly treated him. 

These early days at Warner’s gave Bogart the reputation that he had feared.  He was not regarded as the potential leading man but the stereotypical gangster.  He saw his career slipping into the dull drums of movie heavies before him like Robinson and Raft. 

The burden of two households to support and Frances’ psychiatrist bills forced him to continue making patronizing and trite roles.  But soon he would gain control of his career.  

Agreeing to a role in the picture Swing Your Lady, Bogart negotiated a deal with Warner’s that would up his contract to $1,100 a week with an option for an additional two years at $2,000 per week. 

Bogart had finally established himself as a bankable commodity for Warner’s. 

In August of 1938, Bogart married Mayo.  She was affectionately known in Hollywood as “Sluggy” for her reputation as a heavy drinker with a violent temper.  They were quickly known around town as the “Battling Bogarts” for their loud public fights stemming from Mayo’s obsessive jealousy.  

Mayo did however support Bogart’s bid for better roles and strangely helped bridge the gap between Bogart and his mother, Maud in her final days.  Maud suffered through a long battle with cancer and died in 1940 at the age of 72. 

The Beginning of a Great Friendship 

Bogart met John Huston in the legendary Warner’s “green room” named for its apple green walls.  They had worked together on the 1938 film, “The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse” starring Edward G. Robinson written by Huston. Huston and Bogart never met during the filming as Bogart was still a stock actor.  But shortly after Bogart was “invited” to the green room, the two struck up a conversation. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  

The collaboration of these two men would result in some of cinemas most celebrated triumphs; The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the The African Queen and Key Largo which re-united Bogart with Edward G. Robinson and would be his last appearance on film with 4^th wife, Lauren Bacall. 

CLIP Key Largo 

In 1940 the studio had recently secured the rights to William Riley Burnett’s latest novel High Sierra.  Huston was brought in to collaborate with Burnett, a sometimes screenwriter himself, for the film adaptation of his novel. 

The part of Roy “Mad Dog” Earle was slated for actor Paul Muni.  But Muni’s squabbling over the script forced Warner’s executives to dismiss the actor.  

Bogart still had to get through another Hollywood heavy, George Raft.  Fearing type casting, Raft ultimately turned down the role.  It’s rumored that Bogart talked Raft out of the role in his efforts to secure the part for himself.  Despite the gangster role, Bogart saw the potential and importance of the part. 

With Raft out of the picture and Huston’s recommendation, Bogart was given the part of Roy Earle. 

Receiving high praise, the part catapulted Bogart into stardom and carved the path for his future as leading man. 

Bogie and Politics 

During the filming of High Sierra Bogart got his first taste of another corrupt system. This one far more influential and damaging than the Warner Brothers Studio. 

1930s cinema reflected much of the dark times plaguing the world –the Depression, bigotry, racism, the rise of Nazism in Europe and labors wars at home. Many Hollywood stars lent their names, talent, time and money to help fight these problems. 

In October 1936, the FBI, in a secret report on Communist influence had listed Bogart as being one of its 21 members “with strong Communist Party leanings”. 

This list included conservatives like Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery and centrist liberals like James Cagney, Melvyn Douglas and Frederic March. 

There were no grounds for these claims.  But this did not stop the Chairman of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives from pursuing Bogart and others. 

After testifying before the committee as a neutralist-naming no-names, not discounting the possible existence of communists but seeing no indication of it, they found no evidence connecting Bogart and the others to the Communist Party. The experience would be something Bogart would never forget. 

Bogart would later abandon his neutrality by joining the campaign for the re-election of FDR and set out on a course of political activism that would bring him before the committee in again in 1947. 

Betty 

After Bogart’s role in High Sierra, his versatility as an actor was finally exposed.  And in 1942 he would land the role that would secure him a place in movie history for generations to come.  

Studio chief Hal Wallis originally had Ronald Reagan in mind for the role of Rick. The studio sent out press releases with Reagan’s name alongside their pick for leading lady, Ann Sheridan.  Bogart’s old friend George Raft was also maneuvering for the part with Jack Warner but Wallis eventually chose Bogart.  Ingrid Bergman won the coveted role of Ilsa. 

CLIP Casablanca 

Casablanca won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1942 and gave Bogart his first Best Actor nomination.  Although he lost the Oscar, the film and the role immortalized Bogart securing his status as movie legend. 

Bogart’s wife Mayo’s suspicions of infidelity came true when Warner’s cast a slender 19-year old model named Lauren Bacall as his co-star in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not. 

The film, based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway was produced by Howard Hawks and co-scripted by legendary author William Faulkner. 

Lauren Bacall was cast in the role of Marie opposite Bogart. Bogart and Bacall gave new definition to the term “screen chemistry”.  Their screen coupling has come to personify the definition of “the ultimate love affair”. 

The obvious sparks between Bogart and Bacall during the filming of To Have and Have Not were not easily disguised and eventually led to his divorce from Mayo in 1945.  Bogart married Bacall two months later. 

Bogart’s life with “Betty” as he called her seemed to ease the pain of his long silent suffrage.  Betty supplied the love refused to him by his mother. They had an unspoken understanding between them that was apparent in the on-screen relationship. 

Bogart settled into domestic life by slowing down his drinking. He did however like to have a good time and in the early 50s he surrounded himself with a bevy of co-conspirators including Frank Sinatra, David Niven, Judy Garland and her husband Syd Luft.  

After a wild week in Vegas Lauren Bacall declared the group a“rat pack”.  Thus the creation of the “Holmby Hills Rat Pack” named for the house Bogart and Bacall shared in the Hollywood Hills.  

The duos off-screen romance was culminated on-screen in the 1946 film The Big Sleep based on the book by Raymond Candler. Bogart originated the role of Philip Marlowe the hard talking gumshoe a character that would later appear in several other films. 

Seen as one of the greatest films of the “Film Noir” period, The Big Sleep blended intrigue and intelligence.  The plot was so complicated that Producer Howard Hawks and Bogart got into an argument to whether or not one of the characters committed suicide or was murdered.  Even author Raymond Chandler pleaded ignorance to the answer.  

CLIP The Big Sleep 

Bacall and Bogart were married during the filming of The Big Sleep. As a publicity booster, the studio re-shot several scenes after they were married including the famous scene where Bogart and Bacall use horse riding as metaphor alluding to sex. 

Wrappin it Up 

The “Red Scare” hit Hollywood by the late 40s. Bogart was adamantly opposed to the tenuous persecution of Hollywood writers, actors and producers. 

He returned to Washington in 1947 to speak out against the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) with fellow actors, producers and directors, John Huston, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Ronald Reagan and Lauren Bacall. 

Deeply affected by this, Bogart turned his anger into creativity founding his production company Santana Pictures in 1947 named after his beloved sailboat. 

In these years of happiness, Bogart was given the opportunity to practice the parental instincts his parents were deprived of. Bacall gave birth to a son, Steven in 1949 and daughter Leslie Howard in 1952. She temporarily retired to raise their children.  

The African Queen would be the final collaboration between Bogart and long-time friend and colleague, John Huston. The 1951 film co-starring Katharine Hepburn gave Bogart his only Oscar and nominations for both Hepburn and Huston.  

Bogart had control over his career and finally found fulfillment through family. He reflected on his life while frequently sailing solo on Santana. Sadly, years of drinking would soon catch up to him and cut short this contentment. 

The Harder They Fall was a hauntingly appropriate title for his final film - hard in his convictions and silent in his emotional sufferings. In 1956 he grew consistently weaker during the filming. He was diagnosed and treated for cancer but continued to shoot the film until it was completed. 

On January 14, 1957 Humphrey Bogart’s surrendered to cancer of the esophagus.  He died at the age of 56.  

The American Film Institute recently named Bogart as the number one male star of all times.  Few could argue with this distinction.  But dispute it or not, Bogart remains one of the most copied, admired, and revered actors of all times. 

John Huston in his Eulogy to Bogart said, “We have no reason to feel any sorrow for him – only for ourselves for having lost him.  He is quite irreplaceable, there will never be anybody like him.”

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Payson Road website designed and administered by Sarah Mason.  Website Logo and  Graphics Designed by Tahara Hasan. Payson Road was created Copyright © June 2, 2000.  All rights reserved. Copyright © 2002 [Payson Road].  All rights reserved. Revised: September 22, 2004 .

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