Lauren Bacall- Page 5

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 6:04pm

Maybe because it was already based on a famous movie? I'm just guessing.

I know, so was THE KING AND I (though, officially, it wasn't based on the Rex Harrison film). But movie musicals were really out of style by the early 70s. Come to think of it, the big musical film flops of the late 60s probably had more to do with it than the source material.

(ETA Thanks for the link, Mr. M. I saw it on Broadway, but not on TV.)

Updated On: 9/22/12 at 06:04 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 8:19pm

I wish all gay bars were like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71dRwNTN69I

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 8:50pm

Indeed. I didn't realize Harvey Evans played Dwayne in the TV version. Now I have to watch it!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 8:57pm

If I could just jump in here with a little question...

to those familiar, what's Ms.Bacall's autobiography like? I saw it today and was tempted to buy it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 9:48pm

To jump in, it's worth a cheap buy. I would get it if undder 15 bucks, some of it seems really well researched but by someone else.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 10:04pm

Thanks, for just three bucks I guess it was worth it - but just a little shabby. I'll track it down elsewhere, or at least put it on my long list of must-reads.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/22/12 at 10:43pm

http://www.coolcinematrash.com/movies/thefan.htm

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/23/12 at 7:51pm

^^^^I recently saw Michael Biehn in yet another B movie. He has held up very well over the past 30 years.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/24/12 at 7:09pm

Several Charlie Rose interviews with Lauren:
http://www.charlierose.com/search/?text=Lauren+Bacall

[chanel]

Posted: 9/25/12 at 12:55am

A new book by someone who worked on Waiting in the Wings says Bacall was awful to work with and was weirdly mean and angry.

Just passing it on.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2012/09/more_proof_that_2.php

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/25/12 at 2:09pm

^^^^I'm shocked!

One of our biggest concerns was getting her body mike turned off as soon as she exited the stage because she would often begin swearing at the stagehands and wardrobe people.

[bobs3]

Posted: 9/25/12 at 7:45pm

OMG! I remember that story from WOMAN OF THE YEAR. The sound guy forget to turn her mike off when she exited the stage one performance and the audience heard her drop a litany of F-bombs backstage. I wonder if he forgot to turn the mike off on purpose.

Updated On: 9/25/12 at 07:45 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 9/25/12 at 9:31pm

Here's a nice shot of Bacall trying out headphones for the first time.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 8/9/14 at 7:03am

Just curious, but who was Lauren Bacall's understudy in "Applause"?
I couldn't find it in the Playbill (Playbill vault).

[The Other One]

Posted: 8/9/14 at 7:26am

I checked my playbill and no understudy or standby for Margo is listed, but I am pretty sure that at least for a while it was Gretchen Wyler. I could not confirm that on ibdb.com, however.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/9/14 at 7:39am

Did a google search and found an obit for Gwyda DonHowe claiming that she was Bacall's understudy.


Understudy

[The Other One]

Posted: 8/9/14 at 7:49am

That makes sense. I mentioned Gretchen because she is featured in an interview with understudies. She apparently never got to go on. She described a day when Bacall had fallen during a number but refused to take the rest of the day off. She said something like "Gretchen Wyler is not doing my number!" It sounds in character!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/9/14 at 8:29am

Wyler was Bacall's understudy. She did the bus and truck of Zindel's "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" (circa 1972-73). I was in college, she spoke; some of us were invited to lunch with her. She talked about standing by for Bacall. She never went on. She said nothing negative about her, other than "I guess if she lost her voice she might've missed, but on the other hand, who would've known?" Or something to that effect. It wasn't bitchy, it was just an observation. She loathed Anne Baxter's performance, and couldn't stop trashing her after I said I'd seen the Baxter Margo. What I recall: Wyler drank bloody marys at lunch on a performance day, and said "I couldn't do this if I was in a musical." Odd, that distinction. She wasn't especially good in "Miss Reardon" (in the Julie Harris role, not an easy fit). But she had an incredible presence. I had seen her in "Sweet Charity" in London in the summer of '68. She loved talking about "Charity." Fosse apparently loved her. Or so she reported.

Updated On: 8/9/14 at 08:29 AM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 8/10/14 at 10:35am

I can't do that but I can tell you my mother went to the same HS as her.

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/14 at 11:07am

THE FAN is available for free on Comcast On Demand right now.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/10/14 at 11:11am

I have no doubt that she was superb in Applause and other shows. Unfortunately, I only saw her in Waiting in the Wings. It was an embarrassing performance.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/10/14 at 3:20pm

"Bacall proved to be the exception. She baffled me. She had lived a charmed life but was angry at everyone...


That's certainly not an uncommon trait among many of the wealthy and connected. But Bacall seems to be particularly disliked by many who've worked with/for her.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/10/14 at 6:17pm

AC, Betty is from the Bronx and, speaking for myself, I think part of the shock is the difference between her public persona--gracious, graceful and sophisticated--and her personal persona, which is profane, working-class New York.

She and i went several rounds and she called me every name in the book. But to her credit (and like a lot of New Yorkers I've known), she never once went over my head, tried to get me fired or anything of the kind. I didn't swear at her, but neither did I kowtow to her and she never complained about that.

She played dirty but she played fair, if you know what I mean, in that sense for which native New Yorkers are justifiably famous.

She was also brilliant on stage, despite being too old to play Ruth Sherwood. (And she had been sublime in APPLAUSE.)

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/11/14 at 9:14am

She is also first cousin to Shimon Peres, former President if Israel. Though her father was in sales and her mother a secretary, her Bronx background is Jewish middle class. Her acquired patina of sophistication -- and her faux great lady accent -- are era-specific enhancements many young women adopted who entered modeling and acting. I'm reminded of the way Laurents talked about Streisand's employment of that accent in "The Way We Were," infamously noted in his book. It distances the actor from authenticity. No woman from the Bronx, Brooklyn (or Manhattan) has those odd vowels. I get why they drove Laurents crazy. When Bacall uses them, at times she just sounds arch.

Updated On: 8/11/14 at 09:14 AM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/11/14 at 10:54am

Unfortunately, I only saw her in Waiting in the Wings. It was an embarrassing performance.

Agreed. It was as if she showed up late to rehearsals for an entirely different play as the audience watched.