“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that” – Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall is a name that any true film

buff is familiar with, as she is one of the most famous women of the golden age

of cinema. She was even named by the American Film Institute as one of the top

20 greatest female stars of classic Hollywood.

Lauren Bacall was born to Jewish parents in The

Bronx, New York City on 16 September 1924 although her name at birth was Betty

Joan Perske. Her mother had emigrated from Romania, in Eastern Europe and had

entered the USA through Ellis Island, while her father was a second-generation

immigrant whose parents had come to the United States from modern-day Belarus

which was then part of the Russian Empire and is also located in Eastern Europe.

Her parents divorced when Lauren was quite young,

after which she no longer had regular contact with her father.  This resulted in her developing an incredibly

close relationship with her mother, and in her adopting her mother’s last name,

which in Romanian, is Bacall.

Lauren Bacall started her career in 1941 at

the age of about 16 when she began to attend classes at the American Academy of

Dramatic Arts along with Kirk Douglas who took the same classes, and with whom

she would star in a jazz musical in 1950 called Young Man with a Horn. At the

same time, she worked as an usher at the St. James Theater and also took on

some occasional modelling work, and it was this that would be the catalyst for

her future career and ultimate rise to fame. She started acting in 1942 shortly

after she had turned 17. Her iconic sultry look became one of her trademarks

and was a big selling point when it came to landing film roles. Whilst still a

teenager she even appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue Magazine.

It is little wonder then that with her stunning looks gracing the covers of

national magazines that it would only be a matter of time before Hollywood started

to take notice.

Howard Hanks, a Hollywood producer and

director asked his secretary to find out more about the model following

prompting by his wife, as she might work well for a movie he was directing, which

was called To Have and Have Not. However, through a misunderstanding, the

secretary didn’t just find out more about Miss Bacall but also sent her a

ticket so she could come to Hollywood for a screen test and audition. This turn

of fortune resulted in Hanks signing her to a 7-year contract almost as soon as

he met her which was worth $100 per week. He also took personal charge of her

career which included changing her name to Lauren Bacall as he thought that

Lauren was a better screen name than Betty. He also got her to change the way

she spoke, encouraging her to lower the pitch of her voice for which she used

the services of a voice coach. This resulted in future critics describing her

voice as having a smoky, sexual growl which became another one of her

trademarks.

Lauren Bacall’s career started to take off in

the 1940s after Warner Brothers decided to embark on an extensive marketing

campaign for To Have and Have Not with a view to establishing her as a

Hollywood icon. During this marketing push, she visited the National Press Club

in Washington, DC where the Warner Brothers publishing agent asked Lauren to

sit on a piano while the then vice President Harry S Truman played, thus creating

a great photo opportunity for the young actress.

In 1946 Lauren Bacall starred in The Big Sleep