BOGIE and ME by VERITA THOMPSON and DONALD SHEPERD : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

Verita Bouvaire was not a literary person or a writer and so anyone reading the book should not expect that she and her co-author , Donald Shepherd, were expecting a Pulitzer. Published in 1982, and reviewed quite a bit, Bogie and Me perhaps is most criticized because, by writing her story, Verita was going against the Hollywood myth-making that Bogie and Bacall were the perfect couple. I think of this book as an "as told to" story and if the story was to be told, it was Verita's story to tell.

She was a beauty contestant who went to Hollywood and was put under contract with Republic Studios. She had a short lived career as an actress, then fell into the profession of hairdresser and, most importantly, wigmaker to the starts, one of whom was the balding Humphrey Bogart who needed the hair.

There are those who condemned her for publishing it in the first place, calling her - but not him - immoral - and who use the usual "she just wanted money and publicity" against her. (In fact, often such books do not grant the author much money, especially not back in 1982 I'm quite tired of hearing this defense of rich people being used against poorer people as if, how dare they earn money too.) I see no fault in earning money as an author. What I will say is that an ordinary person writing a memoir will have a more difficult time finding a publisher than someone who has a Hollywood connection.

Several of the Mistresses and Courtesans who have been profiled here as Mistresses of the Month did, in their time, write books, and were like-wise criticized. Also, though he made very many films and was a star in his own time, Bogart was not yet the legend he became and I think by the time Verita's book was published, the star who died in 1957 had become one..

Her story of living adjacent to the studios in Burbank, easy access for the star to stop over and stay over, is entirely believable. As well, we would all like to think that the overly married Bogart finally found his Soul Mate in Lauren Bacall, and maybe they were, and maybe he felt pressured by the society and culture he lived in to be married to someone. And maybe sometimes it takes having a long, enduring relationship with a special someone you are not married to, to endure in a marriage(s) you're in. The point is Bogart was charismatic but he was no saint.

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