Humphrey Bogart: The Making of a Legend

Whereas Humphrey Bogart is always at the top of any list of the Entertainment Industry's most famous actors, very little is known about how he clawed his way to stardom from Broadway to Hollywood. This radical expansion of one of Darwin Porter's pioneering biographies begins with Bogart's origins as the child of wealthy (morphine-addicted) parents in New York City, then examines the scandals, love affairs, breakthrough successes, and failures that launched Bogart on the road to becoming an American icon. Drawn from original interviews with friends and foes who knew a lot about what lay beneath his trenchcoat, this expose covers Bogart's life from his birth in 1899 till his marriage to Lauren Bacall in 1944. It includes details about behind-the-scenes dramas associated with three mysterious marriages, and films such as The Petrified Forest, The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra, and Casablanca. Read all about the debut and formative years of the actor who influenced many generations of filmgoers, laying Bogie's life bare in a style you've come to expect from Darwin Porter.

“Bogie, we hardly knew you.” That’s what readers will be saying after reading this dishy, myth-shattering biography of the screen’s most famous movie star. Award-winning biographer Darwin Porter reveals for the first time what really lay under that trench coat. Exposed with all their juicy details is what Bogie never told his fourth wife, Lauren Bacall, herself a screen legend.

It’s all here: The screen icon’s unknown affair with Bette Davis, his co-star in The Petrified Forest, and even details about his on- and off-screen romance with Ingrid Bergman during the filming of Casablanca—a tragic liaison which has been falsely denied for years.

Detailing the inner secrets of Bogie’s tumultuous life from his birth in 1899 until his marriage to Bacall in 1944, The Making of a Legend contains a new revelation on every page. One tantalizing tidbit, for example, provides lurid details about how his third wife, actress Mayo Methot of “The Battling Bogarts,” plotted his murder.

In this biography, the mystery of Bogie’s bumpy ride from Broadway to Hollywood has, like the enigma of The Maltese Falcon, been solved. A serial seducer, he enjoyed affairs with the sexiest sirens of Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, and a host of lesser but in most cases, fiercely ambitious divas. Within the pages of this book, pre-Code Hollywood—flappers, Prohibition, bathtub gin, and sex of all persuasions—is re-created.

We learn about Bogie’s longtime affair with Verita Thompson, a liaison that lasted longer than any of his marriages and which included a final deathbed declaration of their love.

This revelatory book is based on dusty unpublished memoirs, letters, diaries, and often personal interviews from the women—and the men—who adored him. There are also shocking allegations from colleagues, former friends, and jilted lovers who wanted the screen icon to burn in hell. All this and more, much more, in Darwin Porter’s newest celebrity exposé, Humphrey Bogart, The Making of a Legend.