Meeting Lauren Bacall- Page 2

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/17/12 at 8:41pm

That's a slightly ageist attitude if I may say, gaveston - 90 is the new 75, and I'm sure Ms.Bacall isn't sweating it so you shouldn't either.

I'm sure you are right about the agist condescension, Jay, as well as the fact that Bacall herself couldn't care less what I post.

But you'll notice I haven't gone around deleting posts or pretending Bacall is Maria von Trapp. I've merely confined myself to Betty's public behavior and toned down my editorial commentary.

[raker]

Posted: 3/17/12 at 10:36pm

When I saw Bacall in person in 1981 I noticed the deep wrinkles in her face that made her look quite old. A week later I saw Woman of the Year and I was struck by how youthful she looked on stage. She looked fit and moved with the lightness of a young woman. I can imagine her being convincing playing a younger woman in Wonderful Town.

[AADA81]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 6:26am

You know what, I've worked with people who did dreadful things and I then came to know them as decent and good-hearted people. I didn't always like what they did but I liked them. We ALL do things we shouldn't, especially in the ever-coarsening culture we live in. Bacall's lived a long life and brought enjoyment to millions. Have some class and give the lady a break.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 10:02am

I met her when I was about 17. I was in a video store called RKO Video in the Times Square area about to purchase the VHS of A CHORUS LINE...which set me back close to 80 simolians.

Anywhoo...I walk in and who just happens to be at the counter but Lauren Bacall purchasing one of her OWN movies, I believe it was TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT or KEY LARGO.

I mustered up enough courage and opened up my mouth to mutter, "Great film". She looked at me, sized me up form head to toe and noticing how young I was exclaimed, "You've seen it?!"

I replied, "Sure did. You were great in it."

Her eyes got a little wider realizing I knew who she was and said, "You've got class kid", winked, picked up her purchase and went about her business.





Updated On: 3/18/12 at 10:02 AM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 4:30pm

I can imagine her being convincing playing a younger woman in Wonderful Town.

Ruth Sherwood in the musical is a really demanding role, raker, and Bacall had been doing one-week stands at 3,000+ seat theaters all summer long. The exhaustion was beginning to show on stage by the time she got to Miami Beach.

But she was still Lauren effing Bacall and had a good feel for some of the more rhythmic numbers (The Conga, The Village Vortex) and the "jive" of her youth. Easily worth the price of admission and I'm glad I got to see her eight times.

Updated On: 3/22/12 at 04:30 PM

[mamaleh]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 4:40pm

In last week's episode of Joan Rivers' reality show (my guilty pleasure), she is backstage at the Palace Theatre chatting with PRISCILLA star Tony Sheldon. Sheldon shared this bit of Broadway lore: I don't know if it's true, but it's said when Ms. Bacall was about to leave WOMAN OF THE YEAR, she was so vexed upon learning that her replacement was a young, sexy Racquel Welsh, that she removed all the bulbs in the star dressing room. Does anyone know it's that's true or apocryphal?

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 6:46pm

Bit of a threadjack perhaps, but I would've loved to see her Ruth Sherwood - seeing as the part was originally written for a not-great singer in the first place, was she at least able to do this particular score justice?

Posted: 3/18/12 at 7:01pm

I had the great opportunity of meeting Ms. Bacall when I was staying at the Hotel Bel Air 6 years ago for a friends wedding. I was lounging by the pool and all of a sudden I heard, "Sophie!!!!!" It was Ms. Bacall's unmistakable voice calling for her little dog! She lived in the bungalow at the end of the pool and she swam for close to an hour- looked terrific. I had the pleasure of seeing her over the next few days and got to to say hello a couple times. What a treat!!!

Sadly I saw last year her in Dean and Deluca in Soho with a walker looking quite frail.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/18/12 at 8:55pm

Jay, I thought she was no worse vocally than Rosalind Russell. (It didn't hurt that her co-stars sang so beautifully.) And Bacall's acting was very good and quite funny. I only mentioned the reviews out of fairness to the possibility that the tour was not a happy one for her.

I imagine it is very frustrating to work that hard and then have the press devote most of its coverage to a discussion of something over which one has no control.

Updated On: 3/18/12 at 08:55 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/21/12 at 9:40am

In Frank Langella's memoir, which goes on sale next week, he quotes Maureen Stapleton saying this on the subject of Lauren Bacall:

"I stay out of her way until they feed her."


http://artinfo.com/news/story/779685/the-juiciest-bits-from-frank-langella%E2%80%99s-celebrity-leveling-memoir-%E2%80%9Cdropped-names%E2%80%9D

Updated On: 3/21/12 at 09:40 AM

[fanof many]

Posted: 3/21/12 at 12:17pm

I saw her in "Woman of the Year" on Broadway and waited for her to come out of the theatre. I was hoping she would autograph a photograph and a People magazine cover. There were just a few fans waiting. She signed autographs for everyone and was very pleasant. When it came my turn, I told her I had also seen her latest movie "The Fan" and how much I enjoyed it. She said something about the timing of the film's release and the murder of John Lennon had hurt it. She was very nice to this fan and I'll always treasure my good memory of one of my favorite stars.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/21/12 at 12:43pm

All interesting people are complex, with both "positive" and "negative" aspects to their character.

This idea that it's somehow immoral to acknowledge the "negative " aspects of a person's character is sentimental and small-minded; you do no one a favor by ignoring a significant part of who they are.

Love the entire fabulous panoply that is a dragon like Betty Perske - that's the only way to honor the gal.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/21/12 at 1:39pm

This post is a tangent from the topic of Lauren Bacall but still on topic of the basic premise.

when it comes to actors/artists/public personalities I greatly admire, I'd rather not meet them and have a personal exchange.

Why? because anything negative which may ensue could color my love for that person's work. It shouldn't, but it could.

For example, I was a great admirer of Linda Hunt, the actor, especially of her work in The Year of Living Dangerously. I was doing extra work on the film She-Devil, and was placed shoulder to shoulders touching next to Ms. Hunt in a scene. After a while, I mustered up the nerve to say something as trite as "I really admire your work, et." She kind of sneered and uttered a "harumph." I wish I could have been swallowed through the ground, as I had to remain in that position for several more hours.

Yes, people have their moods and shouldn't be judged wholly on them, but that little interchange spoiled my image of Linda Hunt.

So I don't bother trying to meet my idols.

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 6:51pm

You are right Jane...I was born in LA and raised there and in Las Vegas so I saw and met lots of artists and actors...Most of them are fine. I have only met two of my "Idols"...One, I met three times in three different years and she was awful...I will always have a terrible memory of her...and then there was Miss Julie Harris...how wonderful she was to me. Such a sweet lady. I talked with her three different times...I will never forget how kind she was too me.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 9:12pm

Jane2, I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience with Linda Hunt. It's possible that since you and she were essentially "yoked" together for several hours, she didn't want to open the door to that much chatting with a fan. I'm not assuming you would have talked her ear off, just that she had no way of knowing. But I wish she'd found a more gracious way of handling the situation.

Personally I don't like meeting celebrities unless I am working with them. What am I going to say that they haven't heard before? What are they going to reply that they haven't said a thousand times before?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 1:37pm

One slight memory of Ms. Bacall. After a Friday evening performance of Woman of the Year, I wanted to at least get a glimpse of the star "up close" after the show. There were about a dozen of us when she came out of the stage door and, to my surprise, she was very amenable to signing autographs. It was apparent that she had had a nip or two after the show (not drunk, just loose-tongued) and, when signing my program, she said, "I've got two shows to do tomorrow and two funerals to go to." Not much but I'll never forget it.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 3:07pm

"All interesting people are complex, with both "positive" and "negative" aspects to their character."

And to be clear, all some of us have said is that we found her brusque, even rude, and often profane.

Nobody has accused her of murdering a child or robbing a charity.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 3:41pm

It's. De. CAFFinated!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 8:30pm

Good night, Miss Bacall.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/11/18 at 2:01pm

Here's that rainy day.

[sparepart973]

Posted: 2/11/18 at 2:31pm

I'd hardly call it a "meeting" but when I was a student in Emerson College circa 2001 or 2002, Waiting in the Wings did its Broadway tryout at the Colonial (now Emerson Colonial) and I walked in one cold morning into the box office to buy a ticket. She was there with who I gather could have been her assistant. I just remembered nodding and smiling with little to say. She said good morning and approvingly saw me walk to buy a ticket.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/12/18 at 12:21pm

I met her in an RKO Video store way back in the 1980s. It was on W 49th street I believe. 

 

 

Updated On: 2/12/18 at 12:21 PM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/12/18 at 12:26pm

LOL...I just realized this was an old thread and I answered it in 2012...just a couple of posts above.

[NoName3]

Posted: 2/12/18 at 11:41pm

PalJoey said: "I've posted this before, but this is the way I was told the story, by someone who guaranteed that every Merman story he ever told was fabricated, exaggerated and adapted to the audience.

===

Merman was dragged against her will to see Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year on opening night. At the climax of Bacall's big song "One of the Boys (Who's One of the Girls)" Bacall hit one of her legendary "foghorn" notes.

Merman squirmed through the big build-up to the big note, as Bacall "sang":

I've layers of lacquer a lady enjoys,
I've earrings and bracelets and various toys,
But I love when I've slipped into ripped corduroys,
Because I'm one of the girls...
One of the girls...
One of the girls
Who's one of...
Thuuuuuuuuuuuhhh--

And as Bacall let go of that awful note to take her breath for the final note, the entire audience heard a familiar voice from the middle of the 10th row mutter loudly,

"JEEEZUS!"

Onstage, Bacall could here her too. The entire audience, watched silently, while Bacall held her arms at 10-and-2, seething, before singing the final word:

--boys.

The reception in the dressing room after was icy.

"

I too realize that I'm replying to a six year old post, but PJ, I've heard this story for years but with a slightly different comment from Merman. I've always heard that what Merman said, loud enough for most of the house to hear, was "Jesus, Betty, pick a note!"

Whichever, an icy backstage reception indeed.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/13/18 at 10:57am

Lee Roy Reams tells the Ethel Merman Jesus story...

LEE ROY REAMS tells RICK McKAY of BACALL, MERMAN & JESUS on BROADWAY!