Bogart hated doing publicity shots, and got out of them as often as he could, which, of course, was much easier once he was a huge star.
Martin Weiser, the studio photographer who had been personally assigned to Lauren Bacall (his job was to create the mystique, take the shots which would blanket the country on the release of To Have and Have Not) wanted to get some publicity shots for To Have and Have Not of just the two stars. Weiser was actually assigned to do just that, but Bogart refused. “No. I won’t do it. I hate doing them, and I won’t do it.”
Bacall, knowing that these photos would be important for her career, sweet-talked Bogie into allowing it.
45 years later, Martin Weiser, in an interview, was still able to remember the “magic” of his photo shoot – which had to be squeezed in between a lunch break and the filming of the afternoon.
Of course, at this point, Bogie was married to someone else (very unhappily, the two of them were known as “the Battling Bogarts” – she stabbed him in the back with a knife, he blacked her eye, good times, good times) and Lauren Bacall was a teenager about to become a massive star.
But the growing connection between the two of them is obvious in the photo below, which is one of the shots from Weiser’s photo shoot:
Just shoot me now. That is the coolest, most wonderful post, and photo, ever.
To me, Bogie still has that slightly bemused look he was famous for, different than in those later shots when there was no mistaking how completely he was in love with her. Which is not to say, however, that he doesn’t clearly appreciate having such an extraordinary girl in his arms. I’m only guessing, but to me it looks like he’s in the process of switching between “@#^&@#$* stupid photo sessions” and “hey, this doesn’t seem quite so bad after all”.
MikeR:
I’m just guessing too – but he wasn’t free to marry her at the time, or even pursue a relationship. He was binge-drinking, and calling Bacall up at 1 in the morning in tears – trapped – like a total cliche.
I see a bit of sadness in his face as well. Like: look at this lovely creature who obviously adores me … and I can’t have her.
I’m sure being in an unhappy marriage at that time explains most of the distance and ruefulness/sadness one senses in his expression, but I think there is also something else there. A light bulb tentatively beginning to flicker…