Happy Birthday, Lauren Bacall!

She had flavAH

My favorite time of day IS night

Happy Birthday, Betty Queen Mother!

Older Lauren kind of reminds me of my grandmother. She even had a similar voice to hers, hardened by decades of Marlboros.

Drunk ass, foul mouthed broad.

Despised in Hollywood. That’s why she didn’t get that Oscar… even though she was a hundred years old.

Major respect for Betty. After Bogie died, the Hollywood establishment gave her the cold shoulder. She reinvented herself as a major stage star in New York and London.

You’re a cunt Betty!

Knew her a bit. Quite a cunt.

Applause!

R3 Who’s the other lady?

I think she was a classy grand dame. A straight shooter who was dealt an unfair deck early in life.

R8

Any more to share?

R6, She was the den mother to the original Rat Pack. I think it was after her relationship with Sinatra fizzled when she lost clout.

R10, Kim Novak

I remember when she was on Dick Cavett

How big a star could she have been? Her apartment was on the first floor!

The time Our Glenn visited Miss Bacall at the Dakota.

Betty's cuntery is well-documented, but I think that, as is the case with most profound cunts, it all stemmed from deep-seated insecurity.

r15 Oh ok, good

Someone here posted this years ago, and I still think it's interesting. Judy Crown - award-winning hairstylist - talks about how mean Lauren was.

Loved her in every movie she played. Even the dreadful thing with Stuart Whitman and Roddy Mcdowall.

So what if she's cunty. Cats everywhere love her for Fancy Feast.

She needed hearts, not diamonds.

Look at that wrinkled old hag! Once I hit 34 I never had my picture taken by any kind of camera. Instant coffee commercials? I lived for years off the money of my rich male suitors and I was a lesbian! I didnt work for 60 years and lived in luxury!

I've worked with Bacall and I think she behaves cunty and impossibly demanding if you allow it. Once you call her out on her shit, she'll suddenly respect you for having the chutzpah to challenge her. I think she does that to test how far she can push it with you and how far you can stick your tongue up her ass. Madonna behaves in a similar fashion.

Desert Island Discs- Lauren Bacall (1979)

Music Played:

Ella Fitzgerald- Isn't It A Pity (from Pardon My English)

Sergey Rachmaninov- Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor with Soloist: Sergei Rachmaninov; Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor: Leopold Stokowski

William Shakespeare- "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Sonnet No. 130) Artist: John Gielgud

Moritz Moszkowski- Etude In A Flat with Soloist: Vladimir Horowitz

Johannes Brahms- Violin Concerto in D major with Soloist: Isaac Stern; Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor: Eugene Ormandy

Noel Coward & Gertrude Lawrence- Has Anybody Seen Our Ship

Nat King Cole- When The World Was Young

Giacomo Puccini- "O soave fanciulla" (from La Bohème) with Soloist: Placido Domingo, Monserrat Caballe; Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Georg Solti

Book Choice

Collected Short Stories - John Cheever

Luxury Choice

Sun tan lotion

Lauren Bacall in conversation with Charlie Rose (1994)

R24 a lot of people with that disposition are like this. It's almost like they're putting you through a test. Some will quietly respect you once you push back and things will carry on smoothly after, but the risk you take as the individual being pushed around is that sometimes once you stand up for yourself, the instigator will become dedicated to making your life a living hell. I'm not sure if Bacall did that, though I could certainly see Madge taking that route.

I toasted Ms. Bacall's birthday with six cups of High Point. It's decaffeinated. ☕️

Watched Murder on the Orient Express on TV a few weeks ago and I thought she stole the movie and deserved the Oscar more than Ingrid. And she aged very gracefully.

[quote]R11 A straight shooter who was dealt an unfair deck early in life.

“Unfair deck”?? You mean being spotted on the cover of a fashion magazine as a teen, then being flown from Brooklyn to Hollywood to be put under contract by a top director, and having her first leading man divorce his wife for her? THAT unfair deck??

She was kinda mannish.

I mean, not as mannish as Bogart but

R30 an unfair deck that Bogie died so young. He was only 57.

LIZABETH @ R23, please! You forget that you did that movie with Michael Caine when you were 50 and looked 70! Considering how you can't even spell your name correctly, I'm going to assume your forgetfulness is due to postmortem dementia.

Well, that’s what happens when you marry a man [italic]three times your age!

I'm unfamiliar with her biography.

Did she have daddy issues? What was her childhood like?

I was obsessed with By Myself when I was in high school. New York! Old Hollywood! Now I think a 19 year old dating a 44 year old is gross. And I do recall a scene where she was interviewing a nanny from a phone booth in 21, even back then I'm like you're talking on the phone in public to someone who will take care of your children?

Remember when a reporter called Nicole Kidman a legend and Betty laughed in his face?

R34. Preach!

r37 Link

[quote]R35 Did she have daddy issues? What was her childhood like?

Maybe. Her dad abandoned the family when she was young and she was raised by an old fashioned, conservative Jewish mother and extended family. She went to acting school, did a bit part on Broadway then another show that closed out of town, and fell into modeling to make money.

Things moved quickly from there.

[quote]How big a star could she have been? Her apartment was on the first floor!

4th floor, bitches!

Fun fact:

Betty’s dressing room was located right on stage during her runs in Applause and Woman of the Year on Broadway. She would open her dressing room door and step right into the scene. I guess she didn’t like walking too much.

R39 Please see attached

She's the High Point Coffee Gal around here

Here for the age-old Eldergay debate over Lauren Bacall's ONE Academy Award nomination being for "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

Should she have won over Juliette Binoche? Or is her broader lack of recognition purely proof that the Academy is bullshit?

Jesus

She was a bit too friendly with the Kennedys, especially Bobby. I think RFK had a crush on her. I wonder if they were occasionally more than just friends.

A 4th floor apartment! Don't even get me started.

And you’re a fucking queer Rex!

R47 She was closer to Adlai Stevenson

Who else lived in rhe Dakota?

r51 Do you have access to Google?

The building was named in honor of Little Crow, known for leading the Dakota people in the Dakota War of 1862. He was the first resident in fact.

I never cared for her. Cold vibe.

Love her

What ever happened to yoko's daughter?

What she saw in Bogie is beyond me. Unless he had a big ol' cock.

Everyone knows who the real star of Appaulse was!

R,58 - fuck off

R57, Bacall grew up without a father and was a 19-year-old virgin when she met Bogie. 44-year-old Bogie was her new daddy.

^ creepy

He was also a big star with a nice fat paycheck.

She sure as hell stayed bitter about Sinatra dumping her. For years. Forever.

R63. She dodged a bullet.

So did he.

Can we have a list of master cunts?

Lauren Bacall

Eileen Atkins

Debra Winger

Tonya Pinkins

Faye Dunaway

Lea Michele

Barbra Streisand

And the cuntiest cunt who ever cunted, Patti LuPone!

R66, you forgot Glenn and her zero wins.

[quote]And the cuntiest cunt who ever cunted

That could also apply to this English singer back in the day who called herself Cilla.

Ah, yes -- the monthly Lauren Bacall thread.

I saw her striding elegantly up Madison Ave once wearing an expensive and classy looking tattersall suit. She looked every inch the stah!

Can anyone tell me how to get to Tuesday Morning?

You've Got Some Royal Caribbean Coming!

Was it The Fan or The Mirror Has Two Faces where she says, "I'm a bitch in the boardroom! A bore in the bedroom! And a bear on the toilet!"

I've always hated Miss Bacall and her movies.

R74 why?

[quote] Applause!

Was that the show I did with that actress with the fried egg titties?

They should've made this a painkiller commercial "OH JESUS MY FUCKING ARM!"

She was quite something.

I think you can be a cunt and an icon at the same time. Her U.K. interviews with Michael Parkinson are still fun to watch.

Her character on Murder on the Orient Express is excellent (way better than Ingrids') and was pretty close to her real self.

Happy Birthday Betty.

Bergman was a great actress. Bacall was barely a good one.

Does anyone think she was a good mother? She had two children with Bogie and one child with Robards.

I don't think they are train-wrecks, seem to have careers in and out of the acting "spotlight."

Would Betty have been a doting grandmama?

[quote] Would Betty have been a doting grandmama?

She became a grandmother at 46. So it's not a question of "would she".

She had several grandchildren.

Wasn’t it true that for years people who worked with her would gather regularly and watch the scene of her getting punched in the face from The Sopranos and cheer, a la Helen Sharp in Death Becomes her?

R24, that sounds like Streisand. I know from personal experience.

Her kids are not train wrecks. She stopped her acting career to raise them in the 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't until the mid-1970's that she returned to the stage.

R24 Past tense, if you please. Lauren Bacall died 11 years ago.

She had a huge hit with Cactus Flower in the mid 60s and Applause another huge hit opened in 70.

Darling, R85: APPLAUSE opened on Broadway, March 30,1970.

I'm one of the girls who sings like a boy/my voice is as low as the tunes I destroy/I'm one of the girls who sings in a bass/the only things worse are the lines on my face.

I would say she belongs on the HARD WORK To Be Around thread but I don’t think she is a good person or that talented.

Great voice, though, R90. Speaking, not singing.

WELc-ome, to the THE-ah-tuh!

R29 That is one of the beauties of Murder on the Orient Express, with every rewatch someone steals the movie; Betty Bacall, Ingrid, Vanessa, Albert Finney, Connery, Sir John Gielgud, Michael York, etc.

A good friend of mine who worked at the Cartier boutique on 5th Ave said she used to come in there a lot. . .

and that she was a TOTAL CUNT!

Massive cunt. I’ll never forget someone telling me a story about when she had a job at FAO Schwartz for the holidays and Bacall was in the middle of an aisle bellowing at her little boy Sam “Santa is NOT going to bring you a Major Matt Mason because you are a fucking naughty little boy who won’t listen to mommy!”

R23 Oh, really?

Why did she never remarry after Jason Robards?

R96. Susan Dey has hit the skids! My God!

Lots of people, primarily women, never remarry after a divorce or two. That’s because marriage can be a pain in the ass. For many women, they enjoy the independence. In Bacall’s case, she’d done the wife and having/raising kids bit and had no need for marriage.

Love her, the last of a dying breed.

I don't know how many people are still alive who saw her in Applause at the Palace but I'm one of them. And the minute she strode on stage at the beginning her charisma filled that huge barn of a theater. I was a kid but I was like Whoa! And this was more than a year after the show had opened at a Wednesday summer matinee. I bet her absences were very few. She also acted to me like a cunt once but I knew she would so no surprise there and I've always enjoyed her performances and interviews. Her reputation as a person was always so bad there was no reputation to ruin.

Bacall famously did not miss a performance of Applause, not on Broadway, or on tour, or in the West End.

Quick google question says that what R102 typed is the truth and THAT ladies and gentlemen is what makes Lauren Bacall a S-T-A-R. She may not have been an incredible "actress" (a la Streep and other awardees) but Lauren was game to take on the lead in an original musical and give it her all, over and over and over, sometimes twice a day. She also took on Woman of the Year!

Bogie died? She kept on. Sinatra dumps your ass? Yea, yea, yea, keep going. Marriage to the alcoholic Robards? Divorce, live in the Dakota and plan your next steps.

You can be crude and call her a "cunt" thinking you're witty all you want (but you're not). She was probably difficult, could be condescending, not suffer fools/gushing fans lightly, but she worked. And worked and worked. She raised three children who have never written a tell-all about her being a terrible mother. They are apparently well-adjusted and live productive lives.

She was a broad in the best sense and I don't think her kind exists any longer, which is unfortunate.

I'm with R100 and R101.

She lived with Robards in the Dakota. Lived there since the early '60s.

I think she also had a house on Long Island, though. I seem to remember that from her book. Or maybe it was her mother's house. Her mother was practically raising her kids, at one point, because Betty was shirking her responsibilities in that regard.

One thing I thought was interesting is that until she broke her hip when she was old, she had never had to stay overnight in a hospital before.

She probably spent several days to a week in the hospital with each child, R105. They let you do that then.

R106 Well, that's true. I must have read she had never been admitted to a hospital for illness prior to breaking her hip.

R103 agreed. She also put in her all with "lesser" jobs like High Point, Tuesday Mornings, Fancy Feast, Royal Caribbean, etc.

Interesting 1960s threesome: Peter Sellers, Bacall, Barbra Streisand (without wig). Streisand must also be wearing big heels since she's three inches sorter than BB.

R108 the monthly maintenance on her apartment at the Dakota when she died was $23K. So that's over a quarter-million annually to just keep up "the house." It's no wonder she did all that shilling: Ford Futura, Beef, Arby's.

How does that old cunt Rex Reed pay those fees? She seems broke.

I always wanted to see her co-op in the Dakota, hers and Mrs. Lennon's.

R111 Bacall had nine rooms, five fireplaces, the foyer alone could have been a small studio. Reed's place is a 2BR and one would think somewhat smaller.

Bacall's floorplan at the link.

I’ve worked with Bacall and Streisand. Betty was by far the cuntier broad.

R113, I'm perplexed why the kitchen would be placed so far from the dining room.

A lot of stars had their parents or nannies raise the kids. What were they going to do leave them home alone? I don't think it's shirking your responsibilities. Even two or even one parent households need this. It's a different world today. As it was for those actors of years ago. I know Larry Hagman resented his mother for leaving him with his grandparents but it's a Hobson's choice.

R116 What makes you think the grandparents want to raise another set of kids? In Bacall's case, it was a single grandparent who had already raised one child on her own.

I was responding to the person who said, "She raised three kids on her own." Something that is always written about Bacall.

[quote] It's a different world today. As it was for those actors of years ago. I know Larry Hagman resented his mother for leaving him with his grandparents but it's a Hobson's choice.

From what I recall, Mary Martin left Larry Hagman with his grandparents because she wanted to go to New York to try to make it in the theater. Originally. That's different from what we're talking about. Established stars often have regular schedules, like being in a TV series, or being in a show for a couple of years. It's their choice if they don't spend a reasonable amount of their time with their kids.

I was just mentioning something I remember from her book where Bacall said her mother confronted her about neglectuing her kids and leaving them with her. Not just to work, but to socialize, and live like a single woman.

Doing what, R114? Sweeping up?

R85 She stopped her acting career to manage the help who actually raised the children.

That her children haven't written damning tell-all memoirs is hardly proof of anything. In certain instances (such as Bogie and Bacall), perpetuating a mythi is much more profitable than telling the truth.

Lauren Bacall for Arby's was ridiculous. But I loved it.

We need a "Meryl Streep for Panda Express" ad campaign!

In other words, their trust fund is worth more than any book they could write.

Some grown kids of celeb parents actually aren't into profiting off their parents' celebrity, believe it or not.

^ That’s only because they have jobs in another field or have healthy trust funds.

All three probably keep a low profile, because they’re sick of hearing, “Oh my god, you’re THAT cunt’s kid??”

Can you imagine Lauren Bacall actually eating a roast beef sandwich on her way home to the Dakota?

Yes I can R126, but not one from Arby's. But if she had stopped in to a real NY deli, she's leave with the sandwich wrapped in paper.

She’d leave the sandwich wrapper in the cab along with a lousy tip.

R126 I can see her eating a roast beef sandwich on her way to the Dakota from Tuesday Morning.

The Dakota is still staggeringly overpriced and typically under-renovated for its price point.

Once that awful Yoko dies off, the cachet will plummet and people will realize they overpaid just for a silly old building where a legend got plugged in the groceries.

^^^So how much is Sean Lennon going to inherit when mom passes away^^^

BTW-$23,000 a month is "way overpriced " for a monthly maintenance fee!!

The Dakota is an older building.

I bet Lauren's children were left millions each. No matter what neurotic psycho hell she put them through she was a good mother. We all should have been so lucky.

R133, I was left millions and didn’t have to go through neurotic psycho hell. Most don’t.

Legendary cunt. And not in the fun way we appreciate here at DL.

R134 when my parents pass away, I will be left hundreds!

Well I went through neurotic psycho hell and was left practically nothing. and I am sure so were the overwhelming majority of people who had to endure it. life sure as hell would have been a whole lot easier if I had been left millions instead of nothing more than the broken pieces of a life. consider yourself very very lucky.

And clearly your parents didn't hate you for being gay.

Ha ha, R136. Note your parents will DIE, not “pass away” with little wings.

R139 Varla Jean's mother "passed herself away" at a pool party in 1976.

R134 You're a cunt.

"I did those Tuesday Morning commercials so that my grandchildren could have shoes!"

It's deCAFFeinated

Perhaps her children came to terms with the old cunt. I would imagine the proceeds from the sale of her Dakota apartment helped.

Not every child of an Old Hollywood star has an axe to grind. They’re not all Christina Crawford, BD Hyman and Patti Davis

r144 Was that Nancy Davis Reagan daughter?

R145 No, Rose, it was Geena Davis's daughter with Miles.

R146 of the Newport Davis'?

Hey, not everybody here is elderly. I only know who Patti Davis is because I'm in my 60s.

Her son Sam (or as she would pronouce it, "Sahm") is on display at MTC in their production of Punch alongside Broadway beauty Victoria Clark.

What's MTC?

R139 What does the term, “pass away,” have do do with wings? You sound like an idiot.

R150 Apparent something only people who live in New York know.

*apparently

MTC-Manhattan Theatre Club

So regal and sophisticated

I wish all the ancient Betty Becall stans who infest this board could all be shot in their fucking faces.

R156 is Rex Reed, still pissed that Betty complained to the Dakota coop board in 1984 about “that loud old queer and his fairy dinner parties.”