The year 2009 will mark the 110th anniversary of Humphrey Bogart’s birth. According to the Warner Brothers publicity department he was born on Christmas Day 1899. Some people said he was born on January 25th 1899. Since there is no surviving birth certificate, we have to go with the Warner Brothers.
A Hollywood restaurant owner once said “he is a hell of a nice guy until about 11:00 o’clock, after that he thinks he’s Humphrey Bogart”. Whether Humphrey Bogart was a nice guy or not is not so important at this point in time. In fact, I believe that what a Movie Star did or does on his personal time is no one’s business (I am sure many of you have heard me apply this rule to Jerry Lewis over the years). One of the interesting points bought up in the biography called “Bogart” by Eric Lax and A. M. Sperber is that he was a product of the Victorian era. What is even more interesting to me is that he is a product of the Upper West Side as well.
Doctor Belmont Deforrest Bogart and his artist wife Maude (nee Humphrey) lived in a town house on 103rd street between West End Avenue and Broadway. In 1899 the area known as Bloomingdale was very similar to a small town. Electric streetcars had replaced their horse drawn ancestor not even 10 years earlier. The I.R.T was 5 years down the road and even with the Ninth Avenue El this was still an inconvenient area to get to. A great deal of West End Avenue as well as the side streets had yet to be paved and many mid 19th century summer homes still dotted the landscape (Isidore and Ida Strauss’s Villa on 105th was originally their summer home).
This was the Upper West Side for a young Humphrey Bogart. It was here he attended school, (Trinity on 91rst). He may have seen a Vaudeville show at The Riverside Theater on 96th and Broadway. He may have seen Sarah Bernhardt perform at the Riviera Theater on 97th. He may have dined, and later had his first drink at Peter Doelgers saloon on 100th and Broadway (where the Metro Diner is now located). It was here on the Upper West Side that he met William Brady JR, half brother to actress Alice Brady and more importantly, the son of William Brady, the theatrical Producer.
It was this relationship (and I am making a long but interesting story short) that lead him to become not only one of the greatest actors of the 20th century but an American icon as well. The image of him wearing a trench coat, cigarette in hand, fedora tilted slightly, is one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of American film, if not American pop-culture. An image of him was recently used in a watch ad.
The fact that this American legend was raised right here, at 245 West 103rd street and there was not even a plaque on the now city owned building was wrong. I will not comment on other buildings or streets that have been duly noted as to their historical significance. However, Edgar Allen Poe lived on West 84th for a few years and the street gets a name change. Bogart lived on 103rd Street for many years; his formative years and there had been no recognition from the city. I still feel a listing with the National Register of Historic Places would be appropriate. I believed that this was not only due the Upper West Side, where we can proudly boast that Humphrey Bogart once walked these same streets (Kay the barber of 104th claimed to have cut his hair in the early ‘50’s), but it is also due Mr. Bogart.
That is why I started the petition drive, to give this site its proper respect with a plaque and a street name change. I can never thank Mr. Bogart for the years of performing he gave to me and all of us. This was the only gesture I can offer to the memory of this man who became so beloved to so many.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 5:30 am and is filed under Bogart, Tribute. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
nice blog, thanks