The following is a repost from the McCandles Texas forum at Yahoo, which I thought you might find interesting. It's a couple of days late, but oh well . . . .
Enjoy!
Chester
During his long career the Duke worked with just about every major actress from Hollywood's Golden Age. Lauren Bacall, one of the great ladies of that period, appeared in two films with the Duke, Blood Alley (1955) and The Shootist (1976).Today [September 16th] is Lauren Bacall's 79th Birthday.
ACTRESS LAUREN BACALL IS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1924.
Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx. Her parents divorced when she was six, and her mother, Natalie, adopted the last name Bacal, a variation of her Romanian maiden name. Betty, who later adopted the name Bacal and changed the spelling, went to private school in Manhattan. She studied dancing and acting and later worked as an usher in Broadway theaters. Eventually, she began winning small roles in Broadway plays.
It was her work as a model, however, that launched her film career. She appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and caught the attention of director Howard Hawks' wife. A month later, Hawks signed Bacall. She became a star with her very first movie, To Have or Have Not, (1944), opposite Humphrey Bogart.
During the film, the two fell in love. In 1945, they married. They continued to co-star in hit movies, including The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). But in the 1950s, Bacall felt she wasn't getting the roles she deserved from Warner Bros. The studio suspended her, and she later worked for other studios.
Bogart died of cancer in 1957. Bacall remarried several years later, to actor Jason Robards, but the couple eventually divorced. Bacall found herself landing fewer juicy film roles as she got older and returned to live theater in the 1970s. She won a Tony Award for her role in Applause in 1970. She scored another triumph in Woman of the Year in 1981. In 1996, she received her first Oscar nomination, playing the mother of Barbra Streisand's character in The Mirror Has Two Faces.
SOME TRIVIA ON BACALL:
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#6). [1995]
Ranked #20 in the AFI's top 25 Actress Legends.
She has a daughter and a son from her marriage to Humphrey Bogart: Leslie and Stephen.
Ranked #11 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Mother of actor Sam Robards.
Chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. [1997]
Bacall was staying in the same New York apartment building as Beatle John Lennon when he was shot (and later died on 8th December in the Roosevelt Hospital) in 1980. When interviewed on the subject in a recent UK TV programme hosted by former model Twiggy, Bacall said she had heard the gunshot but assumed that it was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring.
Was crowned "Miss Greenwich Village" in 1942.
Used her mother's maiden name of Bacal, but added an extra "L" when she entered the cinema.
Hobby is collecting beer mugs.
Shortly after Bogart's death, Miss Bacall announced her engagement to Frank Sinatra to the press. Mr. Sinatra promptly backed out.
Her screen personna was totally based and modeled after Howard Hawks' wife, Slim. She even uses her name in To Have and Have Not.
She and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres (currently the foreign minister) are cousins. Both have the same original last name -- Perske.
Those close to her call her by her real first name, "Betty".
Still undiscovered, Bacall volunteered as a hostess at the New York chapter of the Stage Door Canteen, working Monday nights when theaters were closed.
Having lost her job as a showroom model and quit acting school for lack of funds, the teenage Bacall found work as a Broadway theater usher. George Gene Nathan voted her the prettiest usher of the 1942 season in the pages of "Esquire".
One of the initial 'rat pack' with Bogie, Frank Sinatra, 'Swifty Lazar' and their close friends.
Won a Tony for her role as Margo Channing in the Broadway production of 'Applause', a musical based on the movie All About Eve. It was presented by Walter Matthau.
With former husband Humphrey Bogart, has a kind of vocal disorder named after her. 'Bogart-Bacall syndrome' (or BBS) is a form of muscle tension dysphonia most common in professional voice users (actors, singers, TV/radio presenters, etc) who habitually use a very low speaking pitch. BBS is more common among women than men and has been blamed on "social pressure on professional women to compete with men in the business arena".
Starred, with her husband Humphrey Bogart, on the syndicated radio program "Bold Venture" (1951-1952). Her character's name was Sailor Duval.
Measurements: 34-26-34 (her 1940 modeling card -- source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
