LAUREN BACALL - What She Did FOR LOVE

A 25-YEAR AGE GAP, ALCOHOLISM AND ANOTHER MAN THREATENED TO COME BETWEEN HER AND HUMPHREY BOGART

- Katie Bruno

During the threeminute wedding service, the judge called them by their given names, “Betty Joan” and “Humphrey.” The bride’s famously low voice sounded huskier than usual as she recited her vows, and the groom grew teary eyed. Afterward, a battalion of photographers competed to capture Lauren Ba-call and Humphrey Bogart on their May 21, 1945 wedding day. It was the beginning of something magical, biographer William J. Mann tells Closer. However the couple’s union wasn’t easy. “There was a 25-year age difference,” notes the author of Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood’s Greatest Love Affair. “She was a very young wife to the biggest star in Hollywood, and she could have easily gotten swallowed up by all of that.” The groom also had personal issues. “He wasn’t just a heavy drinker, he was an alcoholic,” says Mann.