Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's love story endures

LUCAS, Ohio–For those who want to believe, believe that romance is real, that people can and do love deeply, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall–Bogie and Bacall–represented not just a big screen love story. Oh, they had romance in their film roles; they were in four together. And CNN’s “reel-to-real” headline the week of Lauren Bacall’s death sums it up.

Getting married at Malabar Farm in Lucas also made it somehow real.

Here was Humphrey Bogart, already a big screen name when he met Betty Bacall (her screen name at the time, but born Betty Joan Perske) on the set of “To Have and Have Not”—her first movie. They fell in love. When they married, she was 20 and he was 45.

Over the weekend, Malabar Farm State Park celebrated the couple’s May 21, 1945 double-ring wedding ceremony at Malabar with a reception. While a number of celebrity guests were portrayed at the reception, Bogart and Bacall were not.

“We decided to leave them young. We kept them young and in that day,” said Victoria Cochran, coordinator of special events for the Malabar Farm Foundation. Still, there was a wedding cake that replicated the original cake, and there were wedding guests.

The majority of the “celebrities” at Saturday’s reception were not at the couple’s wedding but they brought life to the reception. (See guest list at left.) In addition to music on the Bromfield’s baby grand piano, there was also a documentary playing, compiled by the park’s new assistant manager Sierra Marth.

Planning the wedding

Bogart admired writers and Bromfield was a good friend. Maybe it was the writing; maybe it was because they both were drinkers; or maybe Bogart enjoyed escaping to the country and the farm where author Louis Bromfield made all of his guests do chores.

After the wedding the couple didn’t visit Malabar again because Bacall wanted to keep her husband away from places where there was heavy drinking.

Before the wedding, Bogart called Bromfield on May 10 and said he wanted to get married at Malabar. There were hitches though, Bogart was still married to his third wife and they weren’t Ohio residents and needed a license and blood work. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Bogart’s call came across the Lucas party line and there were eavesdroppers.

It was unfortunate because they had intended to be married on the terrace behind the Bromfield home. But because the word got out that they would be married there, newspaper reports said approximately 1,000 uninvited guests attended on the property and the brief ceremony was moved indoors. Bogart and Bacall each descended one side of the homes double stairway and later Bacall threw her bouquet from the stairs.

The wedding was performed at the base of the stairs by Municipal Judge H.H. Schettler with Louis and Mary Bromfield; Bacall’s mother, Natalie Weinstein-Bacal; and Bromfield’s manager George Hawkins.

It wasn’t all bad that word got out on the party line, though. Bromfield didn’t know how to help with the license and Bogart’s married status, but when the word was out, help came. The couple was granted honorary Ohio residency, blood work was done locally, and Bogart acquired a divorce.

Bromfield gave the couple an acre of land at Malabar and a boxer, Bromfield’s favorite breed of dog, as wedding gifts.

The couple’s first child, Stephen, who was born in 1949, was named after Bogie’s character in t”To Have and Have Not. Daughter, Leslie Howard Bacall, whose name came from Bogart’s British actor friend Leslie Howard, was born in 1952.

It wasn’t a fairy tale marriage. They had their difference he liked being on a boat, she got seasick. She liked parties; he was more of a homebody. They were both from New York and she missed it; he didn’t. She wanted to perform on Broadway and he didn’t. But love endured.

Tragedy

Why is that love stories often have tragic endings?

Humphrey Bogart learned he had cancer of the esophagus in 1956 and though he had surgery and treatment, it was too late to stop the disease. He died January 14, 1957.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC, Lauren Bacall said, “I never thought of a specific ending,” because Bogart didn’t talk about his illness. After he died, she made mistakes with men in relationships and had one more marriage, which ended in divorce.

“I don’t play the game; I’m no good at the game,” she told Sawyer. One of those men was Frank Sinatra. When he broke off their relationship, she said she cried a lot and then left California.

Parade contributor Dotson Rader interviewed Lauren Bacall for a story published in May 1997.

“What was it that made the relationship so strong and lasting?” I asked.

Bacall thought a moment before replying. “I’ve always wanted a sense of belonging to something, a terrible need for affection, for someone to care about me,” she began. “Bogie did care about me, more than any man I’ve ever known. He was so sweet and funny and original and very intelligent. He was a whole tremendous world to me. Why wouldn’t I have gone crazy over him? Bogie was a real last-century guy, a total prude, so old-fashioned you wouldn’t believe it. He had enormous character. A sense of honor and truth was essential to him.”

Lauren Bacall died August 12, 2014 at the age of 89.

Years later

Their son Stephen Bogart visited Malabar Farm for the first time in 2012. In an interview for the Plain Dealer, Bogart said Malabar was an important place for him. “After all, if it weren’t for Malabar, I might not be here,” he joked.

Of his parents’ love, he told the Plain Dealer, “It was one of the great romances of the 20th century. People actually saw them falling in love on the set of ‘To Have and Have Not.’ Watch that film today, and you can still see the chemistry between them.”