Lauren Bacall — Page 5

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#101

Lauren Bacall

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

#102

Lauren Bacall

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

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

#103

Lauren Bacall

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!

#104

Lauren Bacall

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.

Beyoncé is not an ally. Actions speak louder than words, Mrs. Carter. #Dubai #$$$

#105

Lauren Bacall

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.

#106

Lauren Bacall

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.

Beyoncé is not an ally. Actions speak louder than words, Mrs. Carter. #Dubai #$$$

#107

Lauren Bacall

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

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

"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter

#108

Lauren Bacall

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.

#109

Lauren Bacall

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

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

#110

Lauren Bacall

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

#111

Lauren Bacall

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.

#112

Lauren Bacall

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

#113

Lauren Bacall

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

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

#114

Lauren Bacall

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).

"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

#115

Lauren Bacall

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.

#116

Lauren Bacall

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

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#117

Lauren Bacall

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!

#118

Lauren Bacall

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.

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

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

#119

Lauren Bacall

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.

#120

Lauren Bacall

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

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

#121

Lauren Bacall

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.

#122

Lauren Bacall

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.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#123

Lauren Bacall

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.)

#124

Lauren Bacall

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.

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

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

#125

Lauren Bacall

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.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

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