Bogie & Bacall

The Surprising True Story of Hollywood’s Greatest Love Affair

By: William J. Mann

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 27 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

From the noted Hollywood biographer and author of The Contender comes this celebration of the great American love story—the romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—capturing its complexity, contradictions, and challenges as never before.

In Bogie & Bacall, William Mann offers a deep and comprehensive look at Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and the unlikely love they shared. Mann details their early years—Bogart’s effete upbringing in New York City; Bacall’s rise as a model and actress. He paints a vivid portrait of their courtship and twelve-year marriage: the fights, the reconciliations, the children, the affairs, Bogie’s illness and Bacall’s steadfastness until his death. He offers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of Bacall’s life after Bogie, exploring her relationships with Frank Sinatra and Jason Robards, who would become her second husband, and the identity crisis she faced.

Surpassing previous biographies, Mann digs deep into the celebrities’ personal lives and considers their relationship from surprising angles. Bacall was just nineteen when she started dating the thrice-married forty-five-year-old Bogart. How might that age gap have influenced their relationship? In addition to what she gained, what might Bacall have lost by marrying a Hollywood superstar more than twice her age? How did Bogart, a man of average looks, become one of the greatest movie stars of all time? Throughout, Mann explains the unparalleled successes of their individual careers as well as the extraordinary love between them and the legend that has endured.

Filled with entertaining details and thoughtful insights based on newly available records and correspondence, Bogie & Bacall offers a fresh look at this famous couple, their remarkable relationship, and their legacy.

©2023 William J. Mann (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Glib and disappointing

I was very excited to see that a book about Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was recently released as I love their work. This book though - long as it is - provides little insight into what they were like. Bogart felt abandoned by his parents and that was the root reason for any and all of his actions? Bacall was beautiful and insecure cause her dad wasn’t around when she was growing up? That’s why they loved each other? This feels like a long high school essay rather than journalism. If you want to know what it was like to film Casablanca or To Have or Have Not you can get more info from the trivia on IMDB.

Too long!

This book is way too long. There isn’t enough about the background of Bogart’s iconic films. The author frequently attempts to apply present day’s mores upon the 1940’s, ignoring obvious truths to invent misogyny i.e. Bogart made a lot more money than Bacall. Of course he did. He was the star above the title!

Bogie and Bacall

I was very excited to see this book come out and enjoyed it very much. As always myth is not fact and with most actor’s bio’s are full of both. I recommend this book but their are many sad truths about their lives before marriage and after Bogart’s death. At times the author seems to judge Bacall pretty harshly, she was so much younger than her peer’s and did not always make mature choices. I cannot imagine living the life she did having Bogart die of cancer and her whole life turned upside down plus having to raise two very young children by herself. Sinatra was never a good choice for any female and the cruelty of his actions towards others is well documented. I admire them both and love watching their films. Highly recommend this book,

Didn't Keep Me Enthralled

Not that interesting versus the long nature of the book, it begged the question of why write it.

Legends

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is well written and performed. I thought I knew everything there was to know about these people, but there was equally a lot I didn't know. Take a step back in time to see what Hollywood was all about and enjoy this book!

Depressing

Some facts are interesting but they do not override this bleak and disheartening story of both. Bacall's career obsession eclipsed her entire life including an unbelievably selfish, cold attitude toward motherhood. At the same time, she wants to memorialize this marriage as heaven sent.

Bogart was a mess ..drunk and destructive just about all of his life; Wealthy but deprived of loving parents, he took out his resentment on most he encountered.

Jason Robards presents much the same: drunk and self centered.

Nothing inspirational here, just more of everything money can buy except peace of mind. The excuse being that one's ability to play a part on stage or screen allows for all degrees of egomaniacal and damaging behavior.

As an aside, seems par for the course for numerous Audible readers, the mispronunciations are glaring and peppered throughout.

Alienates key demographic by being over-the-top biased against Lauren Bacall

What I did like about this book was all the detail about Bogart’s Broadway history the way other biographers have touched upon, but he expounded. It was clear to see this author did meticulous research, but by inserting and insinuating that he knew what happened, how Bacall felt, her agenda, how she used people, without any basis or foundation, is utterly ridiculous. I found his insinuations sickening. I am finding it difficult to even finish the book even though I am interested to see if there are any details, about which I may not have previously read; it’s hard to stomach how awful he paints Bacall in this book. If I were their children, I would sue the pants off of this guy for defamation. There are many sentences and paragraphs, which make you pause, and think did no one proof this book before it went to print? The unfounded allegations are cringeworthy and the narrator just emphasizes them. I would like to give him a higher mark for a research alone, but I just cannot get past his treatment of Bacall. There are many things he absolutely got wrong as a man, and not having a woman’s point of view but the industry was particularly harsh to women back then and I think most people would be surprised prized if not, absolutely shocked at what the studios did, and how they handled their actors back then.

Excellent

Excellent biography. Perfect length. Great narration. Pretty much confirmed what I'd heard from our family stories, from people who worked with them (particularly her).