Mystery Photo

I have received many e-mails from several parts of the world with suggestions re the identity of the man pictured with Bogie & Bacall, but only one person felt he had the right answer. Dario Vidojkovic, a Law student at Regensburg University in Germany, said it was Delmer Daves who directed B&B in Dark Passage, and this photo could have been taken on the set of that movie. For two months I searched libraries, book stores, the Internet, but Delmer Daves must have been very camera shy; I found many articles about his work, but never a photo. He donated his life's work, 1930 to 1965, to Stanford University. It's in 74 boxes, and would take forever to search through them all for a photo. So, while visiting the LA area I contacted UCLA, and was directed to the Dickson Library. With the assistance of Lisa Kernan, Arts Librarian for Film, Television & Theater, we found a book which contained a photograph of Delmer Daves from later in his life, and it was clearly an older version of the man in my web site photo. Thank you Dario for solving the puzzle. 

Bogart's Will

Below are first two pages of Bogart's last will and testament. Bogart's will contains fourteen pages, and I thought fans might be interested in the first two pages up to the part which mentions the bequest to his secretary KATHRYN SLOAN. Fifteen hundred dollars does not seem much today, but in 1957, that could be 50 percent deposit on a house.

Bogart Bacall Fan Club

When I started the Bogart Fan club in England at the beginning of 1947, I was sent a stack of these 8x10s for each member as they joined the club. We issued a newsletter, called The Broadcast, every 2 months, and Bogie sometimes sent a letter to be added to the next issue. Unfortunately, none of the newsletters have survived. In 1949 I suggested that I change the Fan Club to the BOGART-BACALL Club. As you can see by the letter, this idea was well received. 

Movie Ads

This is a page from one of my scrapbooks. These are all ads I found in English newspapers for Bogie's films.

Letter

In this letter when Bogie's secretary writes of the Bogarts being on location in Mexico for his new picture, she is obviously referring to Treasure of the Sierra Madre, although no one outside of the film industry knew too much about it at that time. Well, certainly no one in my world, which was 6000 miles away.

Scrapbooks

My Bogart scrapbooks have safely weathered many overseas shippings, and even survived a serious housefire in my Mother’s home.

The image above is tirst time I found Bogie on the cover of The Picturegoer, 1944 in war-torn England. This was cut to a bi-weekly publication. You had to put your name on a waiting list and hope someone canceled their subscription. Below are some more clippings from my scrapbooks.

First Photo

This was the very first photo I got of Bogart, sent from Warner Bros Studios. It arrived on April 21st 1945. Great excitement as this dropped through the mail box. This was during the last few months of World War II in war torn England, and had taken 3 months to reach me via sea-mail. What a luxury. Everything had been so austere for 5 and a half years, that this one photo truly brightened my teenage life. How well it has been preserved for 56 years.

Bogart English Fan Club

The Bogart English Fan Club came into existence because I sent a letter to Warner Bros Studios, asking if they could furnish me with the address of the fan club in England. I knew there was one in Canada, and of course the U.S. My letter was forwarded to the Bogart’s secretary. In her reply she informed me there wasn’t a club in England. Although I was only a teenager, I wrote back and asked if I could start a club. Before long I received a letter from her saying Bogart had given his permission, I don’t think my feet touched the ground. In no time I was up and running. From this point on, every enquiry Bogart’s secretary received, she would send on to me, which really helped to build our membership. I ran the fan club until 1950 and at its peak we had around 80 members. On latter postings will be some of the letters I received from Kathie Sloan, Bogart's secretary.