Lauren Bacall, 1979 TV Interview

[Music] thank you thank you good evening like any talk show host I have my own private select list of most wanted people but this is not in the criminal sense but I mean yes to some cases they have been criminals improved to be later anyway but tonight I'm delighted that I'm gonna be able to check off one of the magic names on the list because at long last my guest is Miss Lauren McCall and in the past I've well I'd say the last three days off and on I had been preparing for this show by reading her book that has just been published and it's called Lauren Bacall by myself a nice ambiguous title and here is my three sentence review what a life what a story what a woman sounds like the late Walter Winchell only worse but even as say a nice Jewish girl growing up in New York she seemed to have a special magnetism for the camera and as you probably know she became a model famous uncover of Harper's Bazaar and that is that in fact famous cover and she caught the eye of number Hollywood directors and there's no wonder when you see the picture her film debut was about as auspicious as they come who can forget to have and have-not in which she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart she eventually married Bogart and they had many happy times together such as this moment from his favorite recreation sailing she and Bogart had two children here she is in an impromptu or backyard dance class with her daughter Leslie and in the years after Bogart's death she married Jason Robards whom she's visiting in this next picture I think on a movie set yes and that's their son Sam with them and of course your own career has continued to flourish and here she is on the cover of Life as the Tony award-winning star of applause on Broadway but listen she can tell all of this much better than I can and she's been introduced in every possible flowery way that you can think of so I think for variety I'll just try one that she probably hasn't heard for a while ladies and gentlemen will you welcome miss Greenwich Village of 1942 Lauren Bacall Oh here we are you left out my older child you know you forgot about Steve the first Bogart born that's right well we didn't I hate your contacts we had a picture there of Steve's yes you carry one it's one in the book Steve will be very upset say it's about time you got here I thought so actually but I I didn't really know what we talked about dick and actually I'm not sure we're going to talk about now because you kind of said it all haven't you oh you told the story of my life already well then I'll just put that aside no the truth is there's a question you might as well brace yourself for if you're gonna do very many interviews about the book I had a book once and they always said why did you write a book which seems to me pointless but in your case it's not that question because you are what you are known to be a private person and I think some people would have predicted that you might not write a book and certainly not a frank and open and revealing one did was it a struggle for you daddy may I call you Betty I've never heard anyone call you Lauren you may have okay well of course it was a struggle for me I mean why wouldn't it be but I anyone that knows me certainly knows that if I were going to write anything at all it would have to be frank and open sure uh that's why I hesitated I suppose for so many years but I I finally wrote it because it came to me at a time I mean the offer came to me at a time that I really did not know what I was going to do with my life which I also do say in the book yeah I was kind of can we say influx yes that was several years ago yes I remember when you first I started about writing on the book and when I came back from England in September 40 or 74 I I was very disoriented I mean the culture shock of reentry in this country after two years away was really some jarring and I just didn't know what was going to happen to me or what I was going to do was your career if he at that point the very it has been most of my life actually yeah so I just it also seemed Robert Gottlieb who is head of Knopf and who also is my editor it's such an extraordinary man you know him and I I mean he was so simple ago and had such tastes and instinct and intelligence and he he wanted a book about me now it was the first time that anyone had asked me to write a book about my life not my life with bogey just you know I mean everything about me and so I thought well maybe I better try it I don't know what else I was going to do but of course when I agreed having agreed I was stuck with it I had to and you didn't write it yourself there's no ghost lingering in the back there's no goes my right hand you write on a yellow legal pad yeah when you came to problems in the writing of it like should I say this or should I not or should I spare somebody's feelings or should I use a real name did you make those decisions yourself or did you ask advice well no I I mean it the question of should I use a real name never came up because if one is writing an autobiography you have to use real names yeah well you just don't write it you gotta say I can't I mean I couldn't how could I hope that I invent some well how could I change your name yeah you wouldn't know what I meant was for example if somebody who was not particularly uh who didn't come through as a friend when when Bogart was dying in one or two cases you do mention the names I meant by that would you use the name or leave it out rather than well I said I mean the purpose of the book was not to do anybody in I certainly not my intention that's not why I wrote I mean there were other things in life besides that God knows but I I did feel strongly about certain things and I felt obliged to mention them now I may end up with enemies I mean I've ever we all have some I suppose the lawyers warn you about anything you wanted to put in he made you take out lawyers no I had no confrontation with lawyers I mean that is all I suppose every publisher publishers yes I don't know I don't know precisely where they begin and where it where they end you know I don't really you didn't if making those decisions no bringing them to you no not really no I might yes my interest was was was actually in within the bounds of good taste I'm a very tasteful person as you know and as my life has been very tastefully lived I was about to write a tasteful book about tasteful people well not revoltingly tasteful no then let's say not disgustingly taste no no when you I'm surprised how many people are surprised to find out that you're Jewish Jews and Gentiles both will say you're kidding well they said to me all my life you're kidding no I don't know I can't decide whether that means there's a lurking prejudice there or whether they assume that there are certain traits that are Jewish and they can always spot them physical traits yes there were that they just don't like to be fooled and are saying I had there are certain people we seem to subconsciously actively think of as not Jewish for some reason yes but I think certainly when I was growing up all my life and it still is true I always felt that there was an element of prejudice involved in the discovery yeah but that might have been my own reading into it to see that might have been my hang-up I know when you first went to Hollywood tells me in here that was a problem there were times when you had to conceal it when I found reasons yeah and also felt guilty at the same time of course Oh terrible ridiculous yeah I mean I I don't know if I mean I don't know how I would react today you think it did you know so much you've learned so much by having lived so long but I'm not sure I still wouldn't be intimidated I don't know when you were first there as a green girl of 19 yeah and somebody made an anti-semitic remark in your presence what went on inside mmm Korean lots of cringing lots of stomach turning upside down inside out lots of personal Fury with myself I mean really it made me so angry that I didn't have the guts to say anything mm-hmm but I thought like what does that mean I'm gonna be fired up the block that's no job and you know and it's very I I felt like quite a misfit I must say did you quietly make a list of those people and decide to get them later no okay I can't possibly go through the book chronologically but with the reader we'll get to do that but when you step in front of the camera first you made a screen test you're you then did two haves and have-nots right away almost well I don't mean there wasn't no idea I think pause but I mean it was your first movie you didn't start in little bitty parts and no no so it would have probably a bit different a little bitty players and little bitty parts but you did that movie it was a tremendous success and people who saw that woman walk on the screen I think Winchell said watch out for Bacall or here she's coming in jail knock your heads up she's dynamite or whatever that confident sexy slightly tough man manipulating confident cool woman that we saw on the screen who's that is any of that is any of that sitting here now and was it you then well it's certainly not me then you know the answer you know that and you know that it's not me now either yes I know and I do find this amazing but the fact that those who saw your sincerity 19 at that point who met you would never have dreamed that you're and you were literally quaking at the knees who well they still trembling your hands and and the look which some of our viewers are too young to remember that phrase but it was McCall well part of it came from having your chin down part of it part of it came from oh I like that just shaking myself to pieces yeah and that was the only way I can hold my head steady so that's to hold it down and then look happen God found the secret so you were concealing trembling and yeah yeah tremendous confess but women all over America lowered their chins not knowing why you did it isn't it wonderful now they're lifting them it's all my acting my at that time was there any point where you thought I just can't take this crazy sick Hollywood scene it doesn't seem to be any point in who or who you really decided to Bowl maybe it's because your mother was with you you mean then you mean this very well when I first went out my mother was now I mean I went out on my own oh it was magic it was a fairyland to me when I first went out but it was Gary in trees all those palm trees the green grass well the oranges and the grapefruits face the lemons lots of lemons but including one or two pictures yeah but then it began to get to you a bit that I mean you hit you what publicity really meant and it's drinking well yes because it's then of course I think if I had not had bogey as a guide I really I dread to think what might have happened because he knew so much of what the what the routine was that of making a star and he knew that he said remember he said when he used to talk about actors who believed their own publicity said they forgot that the studio planted the publicity they really began to believe that it was them and it's very easy to believe that certainly when you're 19 it's very easy to believe it you see it in black and white right and you want to believe you say gee I'm really terrific oh I'm wonderful I'm all those people rolled into one is that thrilling and you suddenly realize just a minute and then when you are all of these these great qualities are attributed to you one person I mean I was a combination of Betty Davis Katharine Hepburn Mae West Marlena Dietrich I don't know you name it and there's no way that I could have been all of those people or even one of them and at 19 and at 19 incredible and to suddenly be burdened with all of that what happens is not only does the actor tend to believe it but everyone that reads it tends to believe it so there's Menna on you're expected to be all those people nobody's content with you as no one wants to find out what you're all about they really say okay this is it and we will take nothing less we will accept nothing less and that's why I had too much trouble and then there you were on the screen as something that isn't you at all which is the reason you were so nervous and first movie did being a non drinking virgin hold you back at all like a pardon did I read that wrong when when when there was a time there was a time indeed yes I was a non drinking virgin hold me back in what way well you're supposed to grab that and move on on me well if I were answering that question I would say yes dick that's a wonderful question and I like the way you phrased it and the fact is it was quite difficult because everybody assumed I was something else I was in both his friends were hard drinkers he was some of them were drunks as well as hard drinkers and and people took me to be something I wasn't there's a moment where a famous actor whose name you mentioned came up to you at a party and said give me your phone number and you did and he walked away saying too easy yeah I said oh she's that exciting you asked me for my phone Apple whoops here it is and yeah bored he did everything but you're on in my face when I gave it to him he wanted a little more struggle oh yes he wanted the game you know the game it's the boring game yeah what did you learn from that did you change your behavior or did you know I stopped giving my people stop asking me it was curious know what I don't know you learn well now I know obviously that that man in particular was a man if just obviously was interested in in playing a game and not in me individually you know as the glorious creature I was you think you'll be embarrassed when he reads that in there I doubt it it won't remember and I'm sure I found that in every word dick that's what I want you ask me any question let's have our quiz right now I'll ask you one I found some of the book excruciating and in what way you mean painful yeah that the however you decided to go in as much detail as you did on Bogaerts dying graphic details that are unforgettable was really moving and I don't what I don't know how you but you can't a gripping I mean it's not a complaint it's one of the most remarkable things I think I've ever read and I don't know how you decided how to gauge that you know how much did it calculating I'm not a calculating person and I did not calculate anything that I wrote in this book I am NOT a professional writer I wrote from the vantage point that I've lived my life which is on the basis of my emotions it is not I mean it was not all very reasonable I didn't think think it all through and say what am I saying you know what am I saying there and when you when you start to write about yourself if you are an emotional person the only way that you can get it all out is to do it that way let the floodgates open absolutely well he's a man who was quoted he may never have said it as the the famous line all the Actros public is a good performance did you have to stop and think how much would bogey want known I don't believe in that yeah I mean the dead are dead absolutely I mean he's and he but he didn't believe in that I mean what's it's not gonna worry him what happens the day after I mean you used to say the day after I'm gone I couldn't care less what happens that's it at the end so no I mean I'm I'm concerned with the living and mostly concerned with my children and mostly concerned with everything I wrote about bogie about you know with Stephen Leslie and and what their reaction would be and I wanted them to know the truth my truth and I wanted Sam to also know my truth as far as Jason was concerned and so I mean I I'm I think their lives are important so that I I I mean I just wrote what I had to write what I felt I mean the otherwise forget it otherwise I say don't write a book I mean then the hell was it and and there were many times when I said what did I ever say I would do this god I know I used to run into you and you would say oh go on with it did you used to run into me I do all the time and I've always found you to be a lady no you haven't well I saw you one night not so long ago and I reached in front of you to say hello to a friend yes and you said some people reach right in front of a person but you but now is me except for that but that's right but we yeah we put on we entertain others we're the cause of amusement and others yeah yeah but whenever every time I've made a lewd proposition to you or something you've always laughed because she's mostly made it on television no not at all I always flutter my tires getting back to that part of the book for just a bit there's even some humor in it there are two funny things involved no no no I mean in the part about Bogaerts dying they're two inevitable comic moments as there are in life at least two one that the smiling mortician or a salon I was right out of an evil in-law story yes yes yes and he said there's enough room on the vault where we're earning full of ashes I kept there is a plaque outside it and he said where do you want mr. Bogaerts named there's room for all of you in here yes and I thought whoops nope we just put his name right in the middle I'm not going in there to sell him everything in the store absolutely oh and then there was a telegram you got because you had requested no flowers wasn't that donation the extraordinary society rather than right and that donations be made in Bogey's name to the Cancer Society and I received this telegram from the I think it was the American florist Association I'm not quite sure what the title was saying listen we don't tell people not to go to your movies don't tell people not to buy flowers the death striker is funny at the time work I couldn't I thought it was horrendous I thought it was it I think it's funny and now but I I must say I couldn't believe the thinking I said this is great Americana here and I was flashed that telegram to everyone that walked in the house cuz can you believe what these people said to me yeah it's grotesque parody but and they met it oh not no kidding around it's his dying the period of his dying certainly separated the true friends from the false friends you make clear I think and people you expected to show up didn't in any any of those cases have you decided since that maybe it was because they just couldn't bring themselves to in the sense of Spencer Tracy who was a great friend couldn't bring himself to do the eulogy because he knew he would break down oh but no but Spencer that was no test of friendship no purse was there seeing bogeyed all the time yeah wasn't it learn to Sam hidden prove themselves to be great friends Oh more so but yes but yeah in retrospect those people said you I know I should have shown up but I just couldn't bring myself to see him as he was that sort of thing no not really I you know I mean I think now in hindsight of course some more than 20 years later I suppose I overreacted but I don't I don't mind that I overreacted I mean that's okay with me that I did I think that I think some of the people that did not show up did not show up not because they didn't care but indeed because they couldn't deal with it yeah and but I would give no in any quarter I expected damn it let everyone show up I don't care how tough it is for you I mean swifty showed up then there was tougher for swifty Lazar than it was for almost anyone yes some of them had to make sacrifices to show up and he lured his hypochondria my nerves God more but feeling about tariffs that sort of things there yes can you forgive Dorothy Kilgallen after 20 years I don't have to she's not around I mean in your mind's eye or whatever uh oh no no I never liked it anyway no she was always a monster yeah she was a horror terrible this she was consistent yes that's true but I didn't admire her for that consistency yeah give me that look well that being coy yeah maybe it's not that generally known she printed that he was worse and dying and so on at a time when he did not know that or on the eighth floor of a hospital that didn't exist yes the hospital didn't exist on the floor that didn't I know is there any chance that that was to really be the devil's advocate is there any chance that she was simply misinformed on that or was that just vicious I wouldn't know I don't know but I'm you see I mean if she was a gossipy promise she was I guess at one point she was a good newspaper woman when she started I heard tell although I never saw any evidence of it personally I just I I thought it was vicious because I must say that the press were respectful and caring and did not make waves they all knew that bogey Brazil and Kilgallen knew it too and but she was killed Island she was such a bitter miserable human being I mean who cares she's not worth talking about no I'm sorry we wasted that much time oh my dick let's go back and do it all over again would it have been easier for you in any way if he had he gallantly I think it was gallant never seem to admit that he was dying and was that out of a kind of gallantry that he didn't want to make it worse than the people around him would it have been easier in any way this is a hard thing to ask but would have been easier in a way if there had been a conversation which began look slim I'm a dead man let's face it and now let's talk about that and you know you don't write dialogue no yes I do know what you mean but he I think I write about it yeah and I think I say it I in the book no I don't think it's something I really don't want to dwell on now but I don't think I think bogie was a realist and he believed and he he wanted me to hold together and he wanted he wanted us both to hold together and he didn't I mean everyone has to choose his own way to deal with whatever disaster you have to deal with and he chose it but he chose not to put it into words and as that was his choice I mean there was nothing nothing to discuss I was about to ask him any questions and he finally did I mean I think the reason that he did it was it so I mean he said it to me once you know if you're okay I'm okay so you've missed that I wrote that well I sometimes pretend that - it makes the interview faster if I don't say I know the answer but let's tell them I see yeah it's time guests realize that sorry about that would you like me to go out in committee all of it there's only a minute left is that too little time to say what kind of thing you expect from a friend like Kate Hepburn at a time at a difficult time like that and what you get well I mean though you're going to bring Katy into it I mean certainly whatever I would expect with I got much more always from Katy I mean that that's yes you are choosing a most extraordinary example yes not a typical woman woman OH I mean fart there I meant by that there's no one else like her I met her unique woman yeah but she's a unique human being but she I always felt that she was the female counterpart of bogey that's interested yeah that she had so such she has always had such an incredible sense of honor and integrity and bogey did to them both impatient with fools - yes and that yeah and character came first and I was no no no friends are friends what the hell I have to interrupt you I said that say I miss jot that down would you please make a note of that listen this is I'm enjoying this I hope you are will you come back tomorrow night as agreed I will but you have any more fun okay well I promise you more fun tomorrow night I can do it when I have to my dialogues bad but I'm a good actor [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] funding for the Dick Cavett show has been provided by this station and other public television stations and by a grant from the Chubb group of insurance companies [Music] [Music] funding for the Dick Cavett show has been provided by this station and other public television stations and by a grant from the Chubb group of insurance companies [Music] well they certainly got a reaction out of me that was terrific oh good evening once you join us and welcome to the second of a two-part conversation with Lauren Bacall who in case you recently arrived from some other planet is a wonderful actress a great star a woman with an indefinable stylish sense of herself that distinguishes her and everything she does and she can really give you a nice shot if she wants to and even if you haven't come from nother galaxy I think you'll be interested in her story she tells it her new book Lauren Bacall by myself that's the title a good title she also tells much of it right here really welcome again please then Lauren Bacall [Applause] you don't need notes you have media we were speaking last night and tonight we'll be speaking tonight give me a break remember you're not that you're a tough confident woman no everyone thinks we covered that last night I'm not inside your trembling your firm jello but jello nonetheless we I said something last night so awful that I have a feeling it's gonna haunt me the rest of my life we were talking about Katharine Hepburn and I said not a typical woman as you said how great she was then by that I mean of course there's no Hepburn type I mean there's only one well you only would you agree with there's only one where do you first meet her I first met her in I think it was in London enroute to Africa for the African Queen yeah I had not known her before and I was of course very excited and kind of apprehensive and didn't know what to expect and I remember it seemed that I I don't know whether it was before a press conference or something she and bogie were going to there's some kind of a press conference call for the film just before we left for for the Congo what was then the Belgian Congo and so bogie and I went into the the Claridge's I think was where she's dead and upstairs and rang her doorbell and she opened the door and she had just washed her hair which Katy does regularly more often than most people and she had it wrapped in a towel and she said Oh something wait downstairs I'll be a few minutes mother or whatever yeah and that was my introduction to her I thought oh my god she was you were intimidated a little bit by just because you see their silence well I was because because I had always admired her tremendously and I saw her on the stage from my second balcony when she was in Philadelphia story and I just didn't know what to expect and we became friends on that film but it took a while because she didn't know what I was about with or certainly a bogey was about a Houston was about and I didn't know what she was about and we said we were all kind of feeling our way but she refers to you as her buddy I'm on the show we did together she said there I was in Africa with two drunks yeah that's a John Huston and Bogart and her buddy Lauren because oh yeah were you bitten named poison or or any of those things but in Africa there was no there's an invade when they make the movie of your book the special effects departments gonna have a little trouble doing the invasion of the ants could you tell about thanks I think they're going to make a movie of my book is that outlook that is damn right it really is that specified or am i my being no I'm saying what I mean by being a thick-headed here well that may be bad - no no no you really said know you've made a specification no book no no I say it now I mean I don't I don't know you know you know you know what I mean yeah I know exactly I know exactly I don't want anyone to play me that's right you don't know absolutely not someone did once I don't want to know about it Ingrid Bergman she played me well no she didn't play you but she did your part in cactus fly know it but that's so she didn't play me no not at all but that galls me I think and I know it probably does you says so in there oh wait call me a play someone creates a smash hit on Broadway in a role and then they needed to give it to someone else for the movie yes really one isn't the type if you've created it that's right they need to I mean you're dealing with another kind of mind yeah and I don't think we'd better go into that okay just put your ear when I change the subject there okay any point there's still something I was gonna ask you about Hepburn no and I don't know if anybody can define the sort of special quality of her friendship that you talk about in there but she you hear these stories all the time and they're not publicized often if well katie is a very very private person and I respect that I think all of her friends do she is just I mean I think anyone who is her friend knows it and knows how lucky they are and how unusual human being she is she I mean I am as enamoured of her as you are I just I mean I'm I feel that every 10 minutes I spend with her is a big plus in my life and she presses on and does what she has to do in her life and she's she's she is just once she's your friend that's it she is I mean unless you do something really terrible to it your first girl last night is in a sense a female version of Bogart and that certain kinds of integrity and character character I guess and any patients with boobs and fools and when you see that she her two main projects in life seem to be her career and being helpful when people need her and I guess she doesn't have time for much else when you do both those things something she said on the show tied into something he said in the book that he was a point in your life where you realized oh my god I have it all I didn't have really that greatest struggle the way some people live in Gerrits for 15 20 years before they get a break in the movies I may end up living in it they've got some nice ones just around the corner but you were you said I realized that moment I you didn't say had the world by the tail or any cliche like that we really did have it wonderfully you married to the man you wanted you were in the movies you were gone son everything in 20 and he's hot Senate and a family and so on Hepburn said quite clearly on that show see me the one thing that most people remembered you can't have it all you can't try it's a mistake do you have to decide whether you're going to be a mother an actress try or any other combination of is that something you disagree about well I I certainly tried to do it all and my career obviously suffered I hope nothing else did but I know that at one point bogeys did say I did he didn't think I realized how many things I tried to do in my life I was you know trying to be a mother and an actress and a wife and a pal and I don't know run the house and you name it then you just something's got to give and it's another great line I just advised something's gotta get some title but it's not good you saw that in you did Yvette you were you were trying to do yes for it was like yeah what I saw I'm still trying to do 45 things at one time even though I'm not married I'm still doing more things at once than I probably ought to do something you you cannot focus on if I could just focus on one thing it would be wonderful you know some all-consuming thing like a person who knows he's just gonna play the violin and that's it yeah but that's all performers actors I think Envy that because it would make an easier life if you just had this compulsion to do one thing and then there's no decision yes but also when when you speak of like great violinists or great artists like they had me more like Picasso I mean those people concentrated only on that that was their focus and all of the extraneous things of life that bogged the rest of us down what kept away from that they were protected by others I mean actors are not so protected we have we have to do 80 things I don't know why I don't want to know why I want to know and I want then I want specifics on this you talk about the pleasure of working with an experienced veteran actor on the screen or anywhere of whether it's Robards or Bogart or someone else someone who weren't married the stage or on the stage but specifically when you went to Hollywood and and you were an unknown paired with this great male star what specifically where are the kinds of things you could learn from and on about screen acting or are they as specific as a fascinating thing once where the Walter Brennan said to a newcomer listen kid keep your upstage I the one you look at the other actor with it'll get your face on camera more oh yes is it that kind of thing no what is it whatever you if you're speaking of professional I mean really good actors good actors are not concerned with that they concerned with the way they play a part and how the how the brain goes they're not you know thinking of it's not specific there's no tricks like never I was never into you're right into the camera or that sort of thing no I have no I mean I don't I don't think too much of that kind of advice I just I just remember very well that I and I also say this in the book that that I remembered one scene in The Big Sleep I had to go to the door and I've because Hawk said action I just walked to the door and we had to do it again for some reason or other and Bowie said just think of where you were coming from I mean you don't just go to the door like a model going to the door you must have come from another room what were you doing in the other room so that you you have something in your head yeah when you're walking to that door so that you have an attitude that's interesting yeah but that kind of thing is is valuable that shouldn't you have known that though having been at the American Academy is a studying acting and so on are you choosing me alright Cavett what no shouldn't I have known well yeah I mean you had studied acting and isn't part of the basics of acting knowing what you're doing and your motive yes but I mean do you think that everyone that studies acting remembers everything all the time at the age of 19 is tender little flower or stud you were not you were 19 weren't you I can't get over I couldn't think of all of those things I was worried about slipping on the floor and about I wasn't thinking really thinking been thinking what did you fall on in Pittsburgh I beg your pardon my Cox's yes and fractured it yes I didn't it's floating but it is mmm is it in view or I mean no but it's floating in an x-ray yes floating painful that's one of the worst injuries you know most painful injuries you can get when you fall on that it's the tailbone yes right oh yes I know well it was wonderful but what you didn't you don't tell me book what you fell over oh yes I do know you say they came in and drill that on the floor dresser pulled the chair out you're right right you're right okay ask me another question about that GU throw it in here what about the rest of my life yeah let's talk it your love love the rest of my life let's talk about the rest of your life you played in England you came back the rest of my life for the rest of your life that's good dialogue I came into you as a writer thank you more ways than one it was certain contempt for you as when you came back Broadway inevitably wasn't there here comes a screen actress trying to contempt that's it some word that's not be accurate though and no I wouldn't think so I mean who would feel contempt I think that in Broadway actors who thought he or she kind of Nash's dad made a dazzling reputation on the screen that she's gonna show us how to do it on the stage oh no real actors don't think that way oh you know they do the hell they do the hell they do the hell they do Kevin you want to make something of yes I do shut up come on I can do it sitting down Oh aren't you lucky no I must remind you that you're not tough you're quivering and frightened inside in your no real the best actors in the world are the most generous people to other actors but how many best actors are they oh but there are a lot of good one a lot of good ones yes there's a lot of good ones yeah and they are very generous and they they want you to succeed they don't want to see anyone fail well then why do you say in this book Lauren Bacall by myself and I could cite the page that when you came back to Broadway actress wondered why I said is she serious is she just dabbling um is she really not actors critics critics critics critics you avenge fingers yeah critics I you also said they don't realize the damage they can do is they did do you early on all right yes with making you something that you're not maybe that's a trip to do maybe they realize exactly the damage they can do I don't know but they're not my most favorite would you world do you know me well enough to expatiate on something for me into what there he goes you're always trying to prove how clever you want to go on what does it tell me about the word wants the audience to know and you are that he knows all of these twelve syllable words and what they mean what their origins were I want you to tell me about that word now let the whole world hear about that word which word in the sentence was pain she ate well I thought maybe the word something was too hard for you get back to expatiate a tell us come on yes nevermind it's this it's this it made it hard for me now but I'm going to hope so remember inside I'm not this confident dominant person that I feel in jello yeah why not it's the one that we're invited to the same oh never mind there are certain women in our business huge stars female stars who have an extraordinarily large percentage of their following is homosexual we all know who they are Betty Davis Judy Garland Marlena Dietrich Joan Crawford that group almost never includes you I don't think it ever includes Hepburn once in New Orleans I was gonna do a show on drag queens and I was in their apartments and they always had pictures of the above for mentioned in their couple and left out do you have any idea of what this is I mean somehow goes to the heart of something about what's projected on the screen by big female stars I've never heard any that's what it is no it's big you have digressed expatiate like that word expatiate is a dog that was formerly neutered but it's not anymore oh you are bad you are really bad you're not gonna get away with ducking this question not after you I have no intention of ducking I have no idea I don't know what attracts anyone to anyone really I just don't know whether a lot of it has to do with I would think emotions or I don't really know I don't know why any group of people are attracted to another person yeah are you ever surprised that the people you attract and in person there's a certain sort of man that tends to respond to you and has from the beginning certain type yes all troubled people who think they're broke driver crabs all trouble all do all trouble and all trouble yes yeah I complicated that no one's simple has ever thought I was terrific that's a very interesting statement no uncomplicated friendly no trouble person had a Renly fella yes but thought I was wonderful now you don't feel what the best part of your life is over do you I sure as hell don't otherwise I'd cut my throat yeah I mean I would hope not it seems to me I say that I know but it seems to me that you might in a way because well we covered this pretty much last night but you tuck with such ecstasy about the happiest time of your life which was when you married Bogart and someone didn't had your family and so then it's almost as if you talk about the blacks to say yeah I talk in the book you imply that nothing could ever follow this you know I didn't know you think you are optimistic that it will I sincerely absolutely do not accept that yeah okay I want to clear that up no I mean I mean if I thought that I had everything I was going to have at the age of 20 and that it was all I mean disaster after that or just kind of treading water waiting for my maker to come and get me I mean I no sounds okay Oh wonderful yes no no I certainly don't I have a lot more to do I'm telling you now get ready stand back okay there's a lot more coming from this kid I believe you I believe you you get a bigger kick standing on stage say getting the applause in the musical of the same name and then he ever got in the studios well I think there's nothing as rewarding as being on stage for an actor because it is I mean one gets a chance to to play it's not the applause it's it's instant exchange with an audience it's instant reaction and it's also getting a chance to develop a character to play something from the beginning to the middle through to the end okay and it's you can't really compare them then I guess game you know it's a totally different medium but I think it is an actor's medium whereas film I think is a director's medium how would Tracy have been on the stage if he had but he started on the stage yeah but I mean he did but as he after he became a film star people always said if he'd only do a play would you happen to know if he refused to I don't know what he was in a play he was in a play of Robert Sherwood said I never saw and never read but I don't think it was one of Sherwood's better plays and for some reason that didn't quite work out but I I mean Spencer Tracy was a wonderful marvelous actor and I just I can't imagine as being anything less than wonderful and marvelous on the stage or on the screen there's a dinner you report in the book where where Bogart decided that Tracy who was the best screen actor in his view know what it's not yeah well bogi always felt that that Spence was the best actor in pictures and that Jimmy Cagney was the best personality ever and he did not include himself obviously in any of that but yeah you even imply that he thought that they were he was kind of lucky to be there at the same table with them and you certainly think of him as Giants doesn't he just enjoy them he added them yeah what what kind of people can't you stand from your experience in Hollywood what's the sort that you don't ever want to see again you see Hollywood I don't want I don't want to deal with I mean I have not lived in that part of the world for since 1959 it's not the same world that now is it really it is certainly not the same world I am NOT a product of Hollywood and I have not done my best work in Hollywood I don't think so I I feel I mean because of the early film career really I I mean I've been in some films lately I mean not lately but but in the last couple of years that I have one in particular I like very much they are yet expressed but and I'm going to be in one issue now with Robert Altman right which I'm looking forward to with great anticipation I just don't feel that I am that that is my life that Hollywood is my life I feel that I'm just any anything every woman I mean that I I am part of of the theater more of kind of an international I mean my approach to work is more international than it is I can't focus on I'm just that one area because that one area there are no studios anymore that doesn't exist as studio heads developing actors they don't people don't think like that films are made as they are made and did Howard Hawks ever forgive you for what he must have seen as a betrayal he's obviously from the book saw you as his personal property which he wasn't in the most did forgive me she would you finally yeah Oh finally yes I mean finally he saw me with great affection and I said I saw him I was very very fond of him but we just had him went through a rather trying period shall we say while I was growing up and getting involved in my own way with my own life that had nothing to do with him there's a rumor a piece by James Agee years ago about you he talked about what a gruesome thing it was that Hawks made you go out in the back lot of the studio and yell until in a way that damaged your larynx somewhat but gave you that distinctive voice I didn't do that it's that true I didn't go out on the back lot of the studio ever and yeah and I didn't damage my voice that right nothing like that they did try to change your teeth in your I read aloud I did read I read the robe aloud sitting in a car on Mulholland Drive so that I wouldn't disturb the neighbors but I I don't think you can acquire a voice I mean you have it or you don't have it Howard main interest was that in in dramatic scenes or emotional scenes when you know whenever you get excited your voice does tend to go up an octave he wanted mine to stay low and that was the purpose of my reading aloud was to keep it low no matter what happened he hated screamers you know yeah the screeching was I was never a scream oh that wonderful Key Largo Register of yours was not done by damaging the voice that's how that myth has grown up around you Quinn's wind shouldn't one kick a columnist in the fanny when should one mm-hmm I think whenever they write something too personal what was the last time you did it I don't think I ever did I have a kick 100 I kicked had a hopper one well you forgot already long ago I've had a whole life since then I've got five live since then god I can't think back that far but that's one of the best things you ever did well I guess I kicked her and she said she said go ahead and kick me because she tried to she had told William Wellman who was directing a film for John Wayne and John Wayne that they should not hire me then I was be more trouble than anyone they could possibly ever dream of and they paid no attention to her and hired me nonetheless and we're not sorry and it was a fairly oh I was not totally charmed without is he try to do somebody out of a job that's not too amusing you know no because we were on opposite sides of the political fence that's true there's no way you could do her out of a job was there so it wasn't no no anyone that has a column you see I mean the first principle you write what you want to write in your column and then I mean if you if you object to what somebody writes about you then it said they say Dick Cavett denies what I said but but they've already said it so it's too late denials are always very weak anyway and if you're out of town they say unavailable for comment which sounds sinister what was it a scary moment in any sense when you did applause and that's the Margo Channing role from All About Eve did you dread that some night Betty Davis the original creator of the role will be sitting out front and I hope they don't tell me when it is oh well they knew not to tell me yes oh yes terrified terrified absolutely and apprehensive and I mean as Betty Davis was my heroine from the time I was in my early teens I was very apprehensive about her coming to see the show and she did come to see it and she I wrote about that as well and so it was yes I was glad that I didn't no no I must never know when anyone's out front because that makes me nervous wreck one of the great arts of our business is to be able to compliment someone that he was performance you've seen and she said something to you you something like you know I mean it when I say you're the only one who could have done this yes yes it's hard to do that very very hard to do it well I think you are wonderful dick do you it cuz it isn't clear that you do yes I really do know wonderful I don't think you reveal as much of yourself as I would like you to root what do you want to see kid just a minute of course trying to talk like that no I want you to be the way you are you know oh just I think people are nervous don't okay okay I people will know you finally I think from the book and I'm glad about that and I bought something you said about Hepburn every 10 minutes I spend with you is a plus in my life and even when you taunt me about my vocabulary it makes me feel lugubrious what you just said was said without conviction on the basis yes it was but I'll be convicted later by you and this is just wonderful thank you for being here we're completely out of time don't love me as much as you love Chiba say good night nicely [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] funding for the Dick Cavett show

Channel: Alan Eichler

Views: 205,210

Keywords: Lauren Bacall (Performer), Interview (TV Genre), Television Program, Hollywood (Location), Jewish (Religion)

Id: l5MrtwGs8KQ

Length: 56min 55sec (3415 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2016