Breaking Walls

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BW - EP140—006: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Lauren Bacall, Suspense, And Command Performance Jun 11, 2023

Show notes

In 1943 and 1944 Bogart went on War effort tours with his third wife Mayo Methot, making trips to Italy and North Africa. He produced shorts for The American Red Cross effort and the Victory Bond drive. The relationship with Mayo was strained. She accused Bogart of having an affair with Ingrid Bergman during the filming of Casablanca. Bergman later remembered that Bogart barely spoke to her off camera, let alone had an affair. Back stateside, Bogart was cast as Steve Morgan for an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. In casting "Slim" Browning, Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy Keith saw a Harper’s Bazaar cover that featured an eighteen year-old model and actress named Betty Joan Perske. Hawks immediately signed her to a contract. She’d soon change her name to Lauren Bacall. Mayo Methot had long accused Bogart of affairs with all his co-stars, something he’d actually never done. When Bogie and Bacall met, he was attracted to her outspoken personality, poise, looks, and long, lean figure. Bogart kept Bacall at ease during filming and their chemistry was apparent from the beginning, with their twenty-five year age difference creating a mentor-student acting dynamic. At first Bogart made sure his meetings with her were discreet and brief. They wrote heart-felt letters and made sure to be publicly professional, while Bogart encouraged her to steal scenes, delighting Howard Hawks. But when Hawks realized there was more to their chemistry than friendship, he disapproved of the affair. The film premiered on October 11th, 1944 while Bogart refused to stop seeing Bacall. His marriage to Mayo Methot was finally over. He filed for divorce in February of 1945. The next month, Bogart appeared on the Thursday March 8th 1945 episode of Suspense in Bill Spier’s production of “Love’s Lovely Counterfeit” at 8PM eastern time. This episode had a rating of 13.6, winning its time slot against NBC’s Frank Morgan Show. Playing opposite Bogart was Lurene Tuttle. Bogart and Lauren Bacall married in a small ceremony at the country home of Bogart's close friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, on May 21st, 1945. On August 30th, the couple appeared with Frank Sinatra on Command Performance.

BW - EP140—005: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Casablanca Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

In 1941, Warner Brothers story editor Irene Diamond was in New York when she discovered the script to an un-produced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. She convinced Hal Wallis to buy the rights to the script in January of 1942 for twenty-thousand dollars. The project was renamed Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart was cast as Rick Blaine, an expatriate nightclub owner hiding from a suspicious past and negotiating a fine line among Nazis, the French underground, the Vichy prefect, and unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend. Ingrid Bergman was cast opposite Bogart with Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson in supporting roles. Michael Curtiz directed. Principal photography began on May 25th, 1942. The film was shot entirely at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. As Ingrid Bergman mentioned in an interview with the CBC, no one involved with Casablanca’s production expected it to be good. It was rushed to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa and had its world premiere on November 26th, 1942, in New York City. It was nationally released on January 23rd, 1943. But Casablanca quickly became iconic. Many exiled and cause-sympathetic film actors appeared in cameos, including Helmut Dantine, Dan Seymour, Madeleine Lebeau, Frank Puglia, Jack Benny, Marcel Dalio, Leonid Kinskey, Torben Meyer, Ilka Grünig, Ludwig Stössel, and Wolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying because they knew that they were all real-life refugees. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Bogart for best actor, and Casablanca won best picture, best direction, and best adapted screenplay at the 1943 Academy awards. On April 26th, 1943, six weeks after the awards, the Screen Guild Theater broadcast an adaptation of the film.

BW - EP140—004: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Bogie With Hope, Benny, And Vallée Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

Humphrey Bogart’s film success led to more radio appearances on comedy programs, giving Bogie the chance to show off his comedic timing. On June 3rd, 1941 Bogart appeared on The Bob Hope Show. The program had a rating of 25.3. The next February, Bogart appeared on The Jack Benny Program. Benny and Bogart had tremendous natural chemistry. Years later, Bogart was talking to friend and columnist George Fisher about the top ten characters he’d met through the years. John Barrymore was one Bogart mentioned. That one time Bogart met Barrymore was on the February 19th, 1942 episode of The Rudy Vallée Show. John Barrymore passed away three months later.

BW - EP140—003: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—High Sierra And The Maltese Falcon Jun 04, 2023

Show notes

As the 1940s got underway, bringing the U.S. closer to World War II, Humphrey Bogart drifted socially and professionally. That year he made four films: Virginia City, It All Came True, Brother Orchid, and They Drive By Night. On Sunday January 7th, 1940 at 7:30PM eastern time over CBS, he reprised his role of Duke Mantee in a Screen Guild Theater adaptation of The Petrified Forest. The Screen Guild Theater drew several Hollywood stars a week for radio adaptations. First taking to the air on January 8th, 1939 for Gulf Oil, all fees that would normally go to stars instead were given to the Motion Picture Relief Fund. This money was used to build and maintain the Motion Picture Country House: forty bungalow units for housing aging and needy film stars. By the summer of 1942 almost eight-hundred-thousand-dollars had been raised. This episode’s rating was a 13. Roughly nine million listeners tuned in. In late 1940, John Huston was adapting a script for a new film, High Sierra. Produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by Raoul Walsh, Paul Muni, George Raft, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson all turned down the lead role, much to the delight of Huston. The character gave Bogart the chance to show his range. Finally playing someone with depth, the film was Bogart's career breakthrough, transforming him from supporting player to leading man. He played opposite Ida Lupino. The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, giving him the leverage needed to transition from screenwriter to director, setting Bogart up for Huston’s next project: an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut. Although a pre-code version of the film had been made ten years earlier, the 1941 version with Bogart starring as private detective Sam Spade was considered an instant classic film noir. Complementing Bogart were co-stars Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, and Elisha Cook Jr. Bogart's sharp timing and facial expressions were praised as vital to the film's quick action and hard-boiled dialogue. It was a commercial hit, and Bogart was unusually happy with the film. He later said, "It’s practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of, but that's one." The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture and best direction. Bogart reprised his role on the July 3rd, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater.

BW - EP140—002: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Lux Presents Hollywood Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

Despite his success in The Petrified Forest, Bogart signed a tepid twenty-six-week contract at five-hundred-fifty dollars per week. He was immediately typecast as a gangster in a series of B movie crime dramas. He played a supporting role in Bullets or Ballots released in 1936. Bogart reprised the role of Bugs Fenner on the Monday April 17th, 1939 episode of The Lux Radio Theatre opposite Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, and Otto Kruger. It aired at 10PM eastern time on CBS. Lux was Monday night’s highest-rated and CBS’s highest-rated show of the 1938-39 season. This episode’s rating was 21.1. Roughly fourteen million listeners tuned in. Cecil B. DeMille was introduced at the beginning of every episode as producer, but was actually a well-paid front man. His duties were reading the scripted introductions to each act and commercial-laden interviews with the stars at the end of each show. The real man behind the program was the J. Walter Thompson agency’s Danny Danker. Each show was a five day commitment beginning with a Thursday table read. Rehearsals were Friday, run-throughs with sound effects on Saturday, and Sunday had readings with sound and orchestra. The first dress rehearsal on Monday morning was recorded for director Frank Woodruff’s final critique. A final dress rehearsal was held with an audience at 4:30, and the broadcast aired live at 6:00 PM Pacific Time. But, Warner Brothers had no interest in raising Bogart's profile. Their studios were often unairconditioned. He thought the Warner’s wardrobe department was cheap, and often wore his own suits. His jobs were tightly scheduled and repetitive, but he worked steadily. He played wrestling promoters, gangsters, a scientist, and a few good men dragged into bad situations they didn’t deserve to be in. Bogart and his second wife Mary divorced in 1937. He married actress Mayo Methot on August 21st, 1938. It was an unhappy one filled with outbursts and mutual violence. The press called them "the Battling Bogarts." Dissatisfied with his work, Bogart rarely watched his own films and avoided premieres. He issued fake press releases about his life to satisfy public curiosity. When interviewed in person, he was too candid, later saying “All over Hollywood, they advise me, ‘Oh, you mustn't say that. That will get you in a lot of trouble’, when I remark that some picture or writer or director or producer is no good. “I don't get it. If he isn't any good, why can't I say so? If more people would mention it, pretty soon it might start having some effect. The idea that anyone making a thousand dollars a week is sacred and beyond the realm of criticism never strikes me as particularly sound.” Bogart made twenty-nine films between 1936 and 1940, developing his now-famous film persona—cynical, self-mocking, vulnerable, charming, and above all, a loner with a code of honor. It was his two next roles, however, both with John Huston, that would catapult him into A-list status.

BW - EP140—001: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—The Broadway Kid May 30, 2023

Show notes

Humphrey Bogart was born to Belmont Bogart and Maud Humphrey on Christmas Day, 1899 in New York City. The eldest child, his father came from a long line of Dutch New Yorkers, while his mother could trace her heritage back to the Mayflower. Belmont was a surgeon, while Maud was a commercial illustrator and suffragette. Young Humphrey was sometimes the subject of her artwork—a detail that got him teased in school. Maud earned over fifty-thousand dollars per year at the peak of her career. They lived in an Upper West Side apartment, and had land on the Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York. Bogart and his two younger sisters watched as their parents — both career-driven — frequently fought and rarely showed affection to them. His mother insisted they call her Maud. Bogart remembered her as straightforward and unsentimental. Bogie inherited his father’s sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor, a fondness for the water, and an attraction to strong-willed women. He attended the prestigious Trinity School and later Phillips Academy. He dropped out of Phillips after one semester in 1918, deeply disappointing his parents. Bogart enlisted in the Navy in the Spring of 1918, serving as a Boatswain's mate. He later recalled, "At eighteen, war was great stuff. Paris! Sexy French girls! Hot damn!" He left the service on June 18th, 1919 with a pristine record. Bogart returned home to find his father’s health and wealth doing poorly. Bogart’s liberal ways also put him at odds with his family, so he joined the Coast Guard Reserve and worked as a shipper and bond salesman. Unhappy with his choices, he got a job with William A. Brady’s World Films. He was stage manager for daughter Alice Brady’s production of A Ruined Lady. He made his stage debut a few months later as a butler in Alice’s 1921 production of Drifting. He had one line, and remembered delivering it nervously, but it began a working relationship that saw Bogart appear in several of her productions. Bogart liked the hours actors kept and the attention they received. He was a man who loved the nightlife, enjoying trips to speakeasies. He later joked that he "was born to be indolent and this was the softest of rackets." The man never took an acting lesson, preferring to learn on the job. He appeared in at least eighteen Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935, playing juveniles or romantic supporting roles, more in comedy than anything else. While playing in Drifting at the Playhouse Theatre in 1922, he met actress Helen Menken. They married in May, 1926. They divorced eighteen months later, but remained friends. In April 1928, he married actress Mary Philips. Both women cited that Bogart cared more about his career than marriage. Broadway productions dropped off after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Many actors were heading for Hollywood. Bogart debuted on film with Helen Hayes in The Dancing Town. He signed a contract with The Fox Film Corporation for seven-hundred-fifty dollars per-week. There he met Spencer Tracey. They became close friends. Tracy made his feature film debut in his only movie with Bogart, John Ford’s early sound film Up The River, from 1930. They played inmates. Bogart next appeared opposite Bette Davis and Sidney Fox in Bad Sister. Shuffling back and forth between Hollywood and New York and out of work for long periods, his father died in 1934. That year, Bogart starred in the Broadway play Invitation to a Murder. During rehearsal producer Arthur Hopkins heard the play from offstage and sent for Bogart, offering him the role of a lifetime. He cast Bogart as escaped murderer Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood's The Petrified Forest.

BW - EP139: Martin And Lewis with Marilyn Monroe & Frank Sinatra (1949 - 1953) May 20, 2023

Show notes

In Breaking Walls episode 139 we spotlight The Martin & Lewis show, and pay close attention to Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. —————————— Highlights: • Capital Gains and Thanksgiving on NBC • The Nightclub Act • Opportunity Flops • The My Friend Irma Movie • Dragnet • The Show Relaunches — Frank Sinatra Guests • Marilyn Monroe Makes a Rare Radio Appearance • Splitting, Then Reuniting • Looking ahead to Bogie —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis • Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald Spoto As well as articles from: • Billboard • The Cleveland Plain Dealer • LIFE Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com. • John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King. • Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. • Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952. • Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984 • Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Hen Ferchetan — By Avi Avital • Memories Are Made of This — By Dean Martin • Manhattan Serenade — By Richard Alden —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP139—009: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Looking Ahead To Bogie May 18, 2023

Show notes

Well, that brings our look at The Martin & Lewis Show to a close. Incidentally, we’ll be staying with this energy next month. I mentioned earlier that Dean made films with The Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra was also a member. Some people called Frank the leader. Some others have incorrectly attributed him as the founder of this crew. But, our focus in Breaking Walls episode 140 will spotlight the true creator of The Rat Pack. Next time on Breaking Walls, we focus on Bogie, and Bacall too, when we spotlight the unsung radio career of Humphrey Bogart. —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis • Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald Spoto As well as articles from: • Billboard • The Cleveland Plain Dealer • LIFE Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com. • John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King. • Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. • Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952. • Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984 • Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000.

BW - EP139—008: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Splitting Then Reuniting May 16, 2023

Show notes

By the summer of 1953 network radio was allocating increasing time to local affiliates. Budgets were shifting to TV. The final episode of The Martin & Lewis show aired on July 14th at 9PM eastern time. Gloria Graham was the guest. Opposite on CBS, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar aired starring John Lund. Dean and Jerry made six more films together. Their last was Hollywood Or Bust in 1956. During shooting in 1956, their mutual animosity reached the point where Lewis would only speak to Martin through director Frank Tashlin, and Martin told Lewis he was nothing but a dollar sign. After the film completed principal photography on June 19th, their breakup was widely reported. They fulfilled their contractual obligations with a farewell engagement at the Copacabana Club. Their last appearance was on July 25th, 1956, exactly ten years after their first teaming in Atlantic City. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis didn’t speak again privately for twenty years. Although both continued to thank each other publicly, like in this Dean Martin interview with Edward R. Murrow from 1958. They crossed paths that year when Lewis was a guest on Eddie Fisher’s TV show. Martin jumped out from behind a curtain with a memorable line. The crowd—and Lewis—couldn’t contain their affection. Free from Lewis, Dean Martin became a huge star, both as a recording artist, as a movie actor on his own and as a member of the Rat Pack. He also hosted his own hugely successful TV variety series, The Dean Martin Show. Lewis remained with Paramount Pictures, appearing in and directing a succession of commercially successful films, at one point becoming Paramount's biggest star. He continued philanthropic work, which led to mutual good friend Frank Sinatra finally reuniting the duo on live TV during Jerry Lewis’ 1976 Labor Day telethon. They embraced, with Lewis in tears, and their friendship renewed. Both claimed they spoke every day from then on.

BW - EP139—007: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Marilyn Monroe Makes A Radio Appearance May 14, 2023

Show notes

Marilyn Monroe broke through as an actress in 1950 with small, but acclaimed roles in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. She was then a mistress of Johnny Hyde, head of the William Morris Agency. Hyde negotiated a seven year contract with 20th Century Fox and then unexpectedly passed away of a heart attack. In 1951, Monroe had supporting roles in three Fox comedies: As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let's Make It Legal. With her star on the rise, she received several thousand fan letters a week, and was declared "Miss Cheesecake" by the army newspaper Stars and Stripes. In early 1952 as she began a much-publicized romance with ex-Yankee Joe DiMaggio, Monroe revealed she’d posed nude in 1949, thus getting ahead of the scandal and gaining sympathy from the public. She explained she’d been broke and needed the money and was soon featured on the cover of Life magazine as the "Talk of Hollywood." Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper declared her the "cheesecake queen" turned "box office smash." Wanting to improve her acting, she studied hard with Michael Chekhov. Two of Monroe's films — Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock — were released soon after to capitalize on public interest. The films showed her range, as Monroe played a fish cannery worker in the former and a disturbed babysitter in the latter. In Howard Hawks's Monkey Business, she played a secretary opposite Cary Grant. In O. Henry's Full House, with Charles Laughton, she appeared in a passing vignette as a nineteenth-century street walker. Monroe added to her sex symbol reputation by wearing a revealing dress when acting as Grand Marshal at the Miss America Pageant parade, and told gossip columnist Earl Wilson that she usually wore no underwear. By the end of the year, gossip columnist Florabel Muir named Monroe the "it girl" of 1952. When Niagara was released in January 1953, women's clubs protested it as immoral. In some scenes, Monroe's body was covered only by a sheet or a towel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences. The film’s most famous scene is a long shot of Monroe from behind walking with hips swaying. Audiences turned out in droves. The next month, Marilyn Monroe was the guest of Dean and Jerry’s February 24th, 1953 episode.

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