Friday 15 August 2014

Bacall more than a screen icon

Sometimes Google comes up with a pleasant surprise. In trying to find the source of this quotation attributed to Lauren Bacall on a Liberal Democrat Facebook page -
Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind... I'm a total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group.
 - I found this article, celebrating Betty Bacall's Jewish roots and including the (to me) surprising information that she was a first cousin of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president.

She had been one of the prime movers of the campaign to support the Hollywood Ten. As I understand from an IMDb blog, she was the one who persuaded husband Humphrey Bogart to join the protest. As it turned out, his misgivings proved well-founded and both had to backtrack later, but it was a demonstration of her courage. Surprisingly, she confessed on chat-shows to being not half as bold in private life as the screen rĂ´les she was identified with, but she certainly made some brave choices.

For me, the obituary which does her most justice is Veronica Horwell's in the Guardian. I would only add that the Bogart-Bacall partnership was assisted by radio, including a series entitled "Bold Venture", when film parts started to dry up.

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