NYC renames block after Bogart

[VintageJess]

NYC renames block after Humphrey Bogart


The Upper West Side brownstone where Humphrey Bogart grew up has long ago been turned into public housing. But the block, like Paris, will always be his.

Scores of fans stood in the drizzle this weekend as the city unveiled a plaque renaming the short stretch in front of 245 W. 103rd St. as Humphrey Bogart Place.

"Bogie would have never believed it," said Lauren Bacall, who was married to the Oscar-winning actor from 1945 until his death in 1957. She said the day was an emotional one, and her time with Bogart too short.

"I'm happy he is honored," she said. "Of course, it's only brass on a wall."

Born in 1899 to well-to-do parents, a surgeon and an illustrator, Bogart lived at the home until 1923. He went on to make dozens of films, including the classics "The Maltese Falcon," "Casablanca" and "The African Queen."

The campaign to recognize the actor's connection to the neighborhood was waged by a movie buff and fellow kid from the block, Gary Dennis.

A video store owner, Dennis never knew Bogart, but learned they had grown up on the same street while reading the actor's biography when he was 10. The connection continued to fascinate him decades later.

"Of all the blocks, of all the streets, in all the neighborhoods in all the boroughs of this city, he had to grow up on mine," Dennis said at Saturday's ceremony, riffing on a Bogart line from 1942's "Casablanca."

Over the past year, Dennis collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition and solicited the aid of city officials and the Housing Authority.

As a native son, Bogart might be forgiven for maligning the city of his birth in another memorable line from "Casablanca."

Goading Bogart's character, Rick, the Nazi officer Major Strasser asks whether he can imagine what it will be like to see German troops in New York.

"Well," Rick responds, "There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade."




Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[MudInYerEye]

As a native son, Bogart might be forgiven for maligning the city of his birth in another memorable line from "Casablanca."

Goading Bogart's character, Rick, the Nazi officer Major Strasser asks whether he can imagine what it will be like to see German troops in New York.

"Well," Rick responds, "There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade."

I'm shocked that the moron author of this article interpreted the CASABLANCA line in that way. Maligning indeed.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"I'm happy he is honored," she said. "Of course, it's only brass on a wall."

Still going strong with that acid wit ...


.

 

[Tomasso]

I'm shocked that the moron author of this article interpreted the CASABLANCA line in that way. Maligning indeed.

I never interpreted that line to be a pejorative, still don't.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

I never interpreted that line to be a pejorative, still don't.

I always did, still do.

Seriously, I think this is what the playwright meant.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

For the author, the line means "tough" in a bad way, as in "excessively violent, full of mischief and mayhem." For MudInYerEye, the line means "tough" in a good way, as in "appropriately violent, with enough mischief and mayhem to clobber you Nazis into a sorry state." I subscribe to the latter view.


.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

For the author, the line means "tough" in a bad way, as in "excessively violent, full of mischief and mayhem." For MudInYerEye, the line means "tough" in a good way, as in "appropriately violent, with enough mischief and mayhem to clobber you Nazis into a sorry state." I subscribe to the latter view.

I think the first version is the intended, as in "excessively violent, full of mischief and mayhem, enough to clobber you Nazis into a sorry state." (Could be wrong though. Anyway, subscription's over, I hear.)


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Um, aren't you and I saying the same thing? Help, I'm more confused than usual

.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

It's excessively vs. approprately. Of course the point is "it's too dangerous for Nazis to ge there", but not because the locals are proud and strong US patriots, but because it's dangerous for anybody to go there. That's the joke. Too dangerous even for Nazis.

 

[jake_fink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VintageJess
"I'm happy he is honored," she said. "Of course, it's only brass on a wall."

Still going strong with that acid wit ...

Having now analyzed one line into oblivion, would someone mind locating (and explaining) the wit in the acid of Ms Bacall's line for me.

:cheers1:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Bacall was calling a spade a spade, as it were. In one fell swoop, she took the air out of the campaigners' sails, cutting their efforts down to size.

There may be more to it, if you take into the account one of the colloquial meanings of "brass" -- but I wouldn't go that far.


.

 

[Story]

The NY Times' Manny Fernandez did a better job..

than the Associated Press hack.

June 25, 2006
You Must Remember This; A Sign Is Not Just a Sign
By MANNY FERNANDEZ

Yesterday, on Humphrey Bogart Place, there was only one fedora in sight (for shame, you folk!). Yet the rain came down hard, like it does in old movies, and people stood beneath their umbrellas looking for the ghost of Sam Spade.

They were not quite world-weary — this was the Upper West Side, after all — but they were at least a little wet.

The block of 103rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue was named yesterday in honor of Bogart, the legendary actor who, 49 years after his death, remains an ageless representative of another time, when the world had a bit more grace and a few decent gin joints. Bogart grew up on this block in the early 1900's, in a four-story brownstone at 245 West 103rd Street.

This city usually greets the naming of a street with a collective yawn. But the official unveiling of Humphrey Bogart Place was something else entirely, part block party, part film symposium, part history lesson.

About 150 people gathered for the ceremony, and a hush of nervous excitement fell over the crowd when, at 11:56 a.m., the chairman of the city's Housing Authority, Tino Hernandez, politely asked the people standing behind him to make room for the woman walking up the sidewalk.

She was the event's special guest, Bogart's widow, Lauren Bacall. A cheer rose from the audience. She looked elegant in a black suit, elegant and dry, with their son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, by her side.

"It certainly was surprising," she told the crowd of the honor, standing in front of her husband's boyhood home. "Bogie would never have believed it."

Bogart's parents — Belmont DeForest Bogart and Maud Humphrey — bought the brownstone in 1898, a year before Bogart was born.

His father, a surgeon, used the first floor as his office and kept a pigeon coop on the roof. His mother, an illustrator, had a studio on the third floor.

Bogart enjoyed a rather pampered childhood, attending the elite Trinity School on 91st Street. He shunned the school's football, baseball, tennis and track teams, however, instead spending time at the rifle range in the Trinity basement, according to "Bogart: A Life in Hollywood," a biography by Jeffrey Meyers.

The brownstone is now owned by the Housing Authority and is part of a low-income housing development known as the Douglass Rehabs. Four families live in the building. There is a small garden in the back with a red-painted picnic table and a sign on a bulletin board that reminds tenants that exterminations are conducted on the fourth Saturday of the month.

The idea for the tribute came from Gary Dennis, the owner of a nearby video rental store, Movie Place. Mr. Dennis, a longtime Bogart buff, started a petition last May and lobbied his community board and City Council representatives to get the street renamed. "He was the man that we boys wanted to be," Mr. Dennis said of Bogart.

After his remarks, Mr. Dennis turned and Ms. Bacall, standing behind him, smiled and told him, "Well done." A plaque that the Housing Authority installed above the door was unveiled, and Ms. Bacall and her son were presented with a green-and-white New York City street sign reading, "Humphrey Bogart Place."

As Ms. Bacall made her way to the corner, she was greeted with more applause, as if setting foot on a stage, and a man on a stoop yelled, "Lauren, we love you." At 103rd Street and Broadway, she stood beneath the sign the city had installed at the corner. A man watched nearby in a fedora and a trench coat, but he was no ghost. He was Gregory Greenberg, 43, a television writer and Movie Place customer.

Ms. Bacall had tears in her eyes. "It's emotional for me because I loved Bogie very much," she said. "I was married to him and we had a very lovely life together. It was much too short. It's emotional."

"And we love New York," her son added.

"But," she replied, "we love Bogart more."

 

[Sefton]

VintageJess thanks for the post. Story, thanks also for the second article. What a treasure Bogart was and Bacall still is. She has so much real style it makes me sad to think about actors now...

Next time I visit New York I'll have to get my picture taken under the street sign (that is if those miscreant New Yorkers haven't stolen it by then... )

 

[Tomasso]

The Bogart's, In Happier Times.

 

[Sefton]

That's a great photo! They both look so classy and I love Bogart's tie. It's too bad we can't tell what the colors were.

 

[jake_fink]

The Bogart's, In Happier Times.

Happier = not old or dead.

 

[Tomasso]

Happier = not old or dead.

Or terminally ill, which was Bogart's condition shortly after this photo was taken. It's said that Bogart was never truley happy until he met Bacall and Bacall says that she's been miserable since he passed.

 

[MudInYerEye]

It's excessively vs. approprately. Of course the point is "it's too dangerous for Nazis to ge there", but not because the locals are proud and strong US patriots, but because it's dangerous for anybody to go there. That's the joke. Too dangerous even for Nazis.

I might add the writers of the film (and the play the film was based on) were all from New York City.