- Cornelia B Hessert, Cover Girl, 1943. Brooklyn’s Betty Joan Perske never thought of making movies when suddenly two Hollywood offers come along at once. One was to stand around looking pretty, representing Harper’s Bazzar, among other cover girls from Collier’s Magazine, Coronet, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Liberty, Look, McCalls, Vogue etc. The other had dialogue and was co-starring with a guy named Bogart in To Have and Have Not directed by some chap called Hawks. What does a girl do…?
- Alexis Smith, Stallion Road, 1946. Suspended. “My battles with the Warner studio went on until everyone was exhausted.”
- Alexis Smith, Stallion Road, 1946. The brothers Wartner wanted – obviously – Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, twogether again. She refused and got suspended. He refused and was left alone.
- Anne Baxter, Yellow Sky, 1947. Warners refused to lend Bacall tfor the excellent William Wellman Western – with a smidgen or two of The Tempest. Paulette Goddard was next choice for Constance Mae, the tomboyish Mike. Jean Peters and even Anne Baxter (who finally agreed to be Mike) refused the rôle for being “too sexy.” Oh really/ Can’t find the word in any reviews and all Gregory Peck remembered was breaking an ankle in a bad horse fall.
- Patricia Neal, The Fountainhead,1948. Three years earlier, Mervyn LeRoy was planning to direct Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck. By ’48, director King Vidor switched Bogie to join – of course – Bacall. Next, Gary Cooper and Bacall. Except Betty quit Ann Rynd’s script of her novel after an avalanche of protests to Warner Bros about choosing a “Red” for such an anti-Communist film. (Communism was never named, just individualism v collectivism). The anti-Fascist Melvyn Douglas was similarly replaced by Raymond Massey. After rejecting Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Ida Lupino and Alexis Smith, head brother Jack Warner took a chance on the young Neal. Cooper (far too old for the young architect hero) disapproved of Neal and her “badly acted” test. Her sexually repressed ice princess role grew on him and they had an affair – hopefully less unintentionally hilarious than the ponderous film, sub-titled by Nashville critic Henri Sauvage as a bodice-ripper with philosophical pretensions.
- Jane Wyman, A Kiss in the Dark, 1948. Bacall and Dennis Morgan (Bogie’s usual substitute) passed this flimsy comic caper to Wyman and and a poor David Niven, “punched and pummeled,” said New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, “caught in a bear-trap and hit by falling bricks… passably amusing but nothing to split your sides.”
- Virginia Mayo, The Girl From Jones Beach, 1948. “I’m not a bathing beauty.” Baby Bacall refused to play Ruth Wilson because it called for swimsuit scenes. “I’ll be embarrassed,”” added the ex-model. Her ex-co-stars, Ronald Reagan, Jeff Richards and Dale Robertson, were not so timid about their bare-chest scenes.
- Gloria Grahame, In A Lonely Place, 1949. “I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me…” Both Bacall and Ginger Rogerswere talked of for Laurel Grey in the drama about a self-loathing Hollywood. The star was Humphrey Bogart and he obviously wanted his wife along for the ride. Warner Bros refused to loan her to Columbia. Director Nicholas Ray wanted his wife – and got her. In truth, she was about to be ex-wife, a fact they hid from everyone. She later married her step-son, Ray’s son from from an earlier marriage!
- Patrice Wymore, Rocky Mountain, 1949. Suspended a sixth time for refusing another fatuous role. This time a Western found by Ronald Reagan, refused by John Wayne, and made by Errol Flynn… who made his new co-star, Wymore, his third and final wife, from, 1950 to his 1959 death. Bacall joined in Blood Alley, 1954, and his finale, The Shootist, 1976.
- Ginger Rogers, Storm Warning, 1950. The sisters, said Warner Bros, should be Bacall and Doris Day. No way, said Bacall – and she left LA with Bogart for Africa and The African Queen. OK, Joan Crawford and Doris. No way, said Crawford. “No one would ever believe that I’d have Doris Day for a sister!”
- Ida Lupino, On Dangerous Ground, 1950. Also in the snowy mountains frame for the blind Mary were Olivia de Havilland, Faith Domergue Susan Hayward, Wanda Hendrix, Deborah Kerr, Janet Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Teresa Wright, Jane Wyman – and Broadway newcomer Margaret Phillips. RKO chose well. Because, although un-credited, Lupino also co-directed the noir thriller with Nicholas Ray. In all, she helmed 41 films and TV shows during 1949-1968 when Hollywood women were just supposed to pout, pirouette and pucker up.
- Ida Lupino, On Dangerous Ground, 1950. Also in the snowy mountains frame for the blind Mary were Olivia de Havilland, Faith Domergue Susan Hayward, Wanda Hendrix, Deborah Kerr, Janet Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Teresa Wright, Jane Wyman – and Broadway newcomer Margaret Phillips, RKO chose well. Because, although un-credited, Lupino also co-directed the noir thriller with Nicholas Ray. In all, she helmed 41 films and TV shows during 1949-1968 when Hollywood women were just supposed to pout, pirouette and pucker up.
- Gina Lollobrigida, Beat The Devil, 1952. While adapting Claud Cockburn’s “shaggy dog” story, director John Huston suggested to his “employer,” Bogart, that Mrs Bogart might play his wife… “I read your insidious and immoral proposals to my wife,” Bogie wrote to Huston in mock anger. “I have instructed Miss Bacall to disregard your blandishments…” Anyway, she was shooting How To Marry A Millionaire with Marilyn. Huston’s choices – La Lollo and Jennifer Jones – were disastrous.
- Barbara Stanwyck, Blowing Wild, 1952. Suspended. Again. What a way to treat such a great lady – and such a fun interview. in Paris in the early 90s.
- Ava Gardner, Mogambo, 1953. Bacall was in the MGMix for Eloise Y Kelly… So were Maureen O’Hara and Lana Turner. Co-star Clark Gable hated the way Gardner was treated by director John Ford (he’d wanted O’Hara). Ava split for London, at one point, suffering, said MGM, from “a tropical illness.” In fact she had an abortion without the father, husband Frank Sinatra, knowing.
- Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina, 1954. OK, he had top billing, but Humphrey Bogart was far from happy. He did bot feel right as William Holdenls older, straight-laced brother. He wanted his wife as the chauffeur’s daughter (almost the title). Director Billy Wilder did not want Betrty. He didn’t particularly want Bogie, either. (But Cary Grant didn’t want to be seen carrying an umbrella!). A far from a happy set, therefore. Not helped by Holden starting an affair with Hepburn (until admitting he couldn’t have children). After the shoot, Bogart apologised to Wilder for his behaviour. Personal problems, he said. Yeah, like not being able to swing the title role for The Missus.
- Susan Hayward, Top Secret Affair, 1956. Tailored for Bogart and Bacall as Melville Goodwin USA, it became Kirk Douglas and Hayward as Bacall stayed home to tend her dying Bogie.
- Maureen O’Hara, Our Man In Havana, 1959. Had to surrender Beatrice Severn due to delays on another UK production, North West Frontier (US: Flame Over India) in London.
- Dorothy Malone, The Last Sunset, 1960. She was “indignant” about the incest angle in the Kirk Douglas’ somewhat Freudian Western in Mexico. “She berated me for even submitting the script to her. I said: Betty, it’s the leading female role. You have Rock Hudson in love with you, Kirk Douglas in love with you . It’s a very good part.” She never relented.
- Jane Alexander, Malice in Wonderland, TV, 1985. Battle of the media Gossip Hens – the most dangerous women in Hollywood history. Alexander took over Hedda Hopper, while Elizabeth Taylor looked shocked to be playing her old nemesis, Louella Parsons.
Birth year: 1924Death year: 2014Other name: Casting Calls: 19