| Fri Apr 1, 2:34 PM ET | |
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Lauren Bacall sits in a secluded corner of the outdoor dining area of a tony Westside hotel for a twilight interview.
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She's near the end of a book promotion tour, which she found more strenuous than the movie tours of her Hollywood days, and she's in need of a little pick-me-up: "I'd like a pot of tea with a thermos of boiling water," she instructs a waiter.
A longtime New Yorker, she has returned to her old stomping grounds — the house she shared with Humphrey Bogart was just a couple miles away — to hawk her new-old book, "By Myself and Then Some." It's a unique publishing venture: The first part is a reprint of her excellent 1978 memoir, "By Myself." It is followed by "And Then Some," which brings her life up to date.
Why do it that way?
"I wasn't convinced it was such a great idea," she explains, "until my literary agent said, 'Listen, it's 25 years since "By Myself" was published. You've had a life since then; a lot of things have happened. There's a whole new generation who could read your autobiography.' I do get an amount of fan mail, and a lot of young people say, 'I wanted to buy your book and I can't find it.' So I thought maybe I should try it."
The waiter returns with a ceramic teapot covered with a cozy. Bacall reiterates her request for a thermos.
She acknowledges that updating her life sometimes proved to be painful, especially recalling the loss in a year's span of many close friends, "each of them very important to me; it was like an epidemic." Among them: Roddy McDowall, songwriter Adolph Green, playwright Peter Stone, actors Alec Guinness, John Gielgud, Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn, and writer-director George Axelrod.
"The (losses) chip away at your own life, and the world gets smaller," Bacall says.
Her friendship with Hepburn dated back to 1951 and the location for "The African Queen." The bond deepened with the deaths of Bogart and Spencer Tracy. Bacall writes poignantly of her many visits to Hepburn in her Connecticut retirement and what happened the last time she was there:
"I walked right over to her chair in the living room, sat next to her, kissed her. She seemed to know me a little." And when Bacall was about to leave, Hepburn, who had been silent, said, "Please stay." After a half-hour, Bacall kissed Hepburn's cheeks, and Hepburn whispered, "Thank you."
A new waiter presents another cozied teapot. Bacall responds testily, "What is the problem, there's no thermos in this hotel? I have a thermos of hot water every single morning. Go to the kitchen and ask for a thermos."
The classic Bacall face seems little touched by her 80 years, an observation she treats with customary frankness: "When people say I look just the same, I tell them to take another look. My mirror doesn't tell me that."
Her last two years have been amazingly busy. Beside writing the book, she has done TV commercials and given lectures that include film clips, commentary and Q&A — her favorite part of the show. Her most recent film was "Birth," starring Nicole Kidman.
Waiter No. 2 finally brings the thermos, steaming hot. Bacall thanks him, and he withdraws, apologetic and seemingly dazed. "For good or ill, I'm honest. I don't think there's enough of that around," she says.
The thermos affair was pure Bacall: outspoken, opinionated, undaunted, a bit quirky. She has been known to wither interviewers who ask stupid questions.
But she also has a tender side, especially when she talks about her children — Stephen, who is working in documentary films, and Leslie, a yoga therapist, both by Humphrey Bogart, and an actor, Sam, by her marriage to Jason Robards. Bacall positively glows when she talks about her four grandchildren.
Stephen and Leslie oversee the use of their father's likeness in TV commercials, print ads and other media. "When Bogie died, suddenly people were using him in the most common, horrible way," Bacall says. "If anybody was going to make any money out of this, it's not going to be strangers, it's going to be his children."
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The most readable portions of "By Myself" remain her romance with Bogart, their marriage and her devotion during his final agonizing battle with cancer.
"I am always associated with him in people's minds — 'the greatest love story ever told.' You can't get away from that. He'd never believe it, of course," she says.
"It's great that he's still appreciated by so many, because he's worth it. He was a very special human being, Bogart."
| Fri Apr 1, 2:34 PM ET | |
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Lauren Bacall sits in a secluded corner of the outdoor dining area of a tony Westside hotel for a twilight interview.
| |
The writer answers one of the W's questions: WHERE (is she seated; where is the interview taking place).
She's near the end of a book promotion tour, which she found more strenuous than the movie tours of her Hollywood days, and she's in need of a little pick-me-up: "I'd like a pot of tea with a thermos of boiling water," she instructs a waiter.
The writer uses another W question: WHEN ("near the end of a book promotion tour"). Then the writer uses cause/effect: "she's in need of a little pick-me-up," which leads naturally ("motivates"/causes) the first quoted dialogue: "I'd like," etc. True, this might have been done in indirect discourse (without quotes): "She asked for a pot of tea with a thermos of boiling water," but the writer felt that hearing Bacall ask for the tea would define her character better than using indirect discourse in this instance. When to quote dialogue is a matter of judgment. Here, Bacall speaks first about something she needs, making the interview sound more human or personal. If her first quote concerned a professional matter, she would come across more professional-like and so would the interview.
A longtime New Yorker, she has returned to her old stomping grounds — the house she shared with Humphrey Bogart was just a couple miles away — to hawk her new-old book, "By Myself and Then Some." It's a unique publishing venture: The first part is a reprint of her excellent 1978 memoir, "By Myself." It is followed by "And Then Some," which brings her life up to date.
Another "where" question ("Where does Bacall usually live?"). Then there's a good use of a strong verb form (gerund) "stomping grounds." Also a good use of my favorite punctuation, the dash. Although I confess, I prefer dashes as a final emphasis punctuation, where what follows the dash is the conclusion (end) of the sentence. I generally avoid dashse in parenthetical forms such as used above. But there is a difference between a parenthesis () and a dash form in such a case. The parenthesis sounds more formal and bland, as if only an inserted fact were necessary; while the dash form adds more emotion, as if the fact being inserted were being told us in an excited fashion. And, true enough, most people when they think or read of Bacall at once think of Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca star), one of the greatest of all screen icons, even more popular following his death than before. So the dash insertion has value. Note another strong verb ("hawk"=sell). Note however that "By Myself" is improperly quotationed, when it should be italicized. But that's where style books/manuals are important; general rules in style are less important than the requirements of a particular field, department, or printing/online format. "And Then Some" should be (usually) get italices. The main point is the way the writer brings us up to date in Bacall's life and what we should know about her before the interview begins.
Now students may well ask who is Bacall? Has the writer done his job by not asking another W question: Who is Bacall? This too is a matter of judgment. That's where audience is important and why I stress audience so much in my class. One assumes that people reading this should/would know about Bacall. I myself am not sure if I would write it like this. I would probably (very briefly) sum up Bacall's career, like this: "Lauren Bacall sits in a secluded corner of the outdoor dining area of a tony Westside hotel for a twilight interview. She is not the femme fatale I remember from The Big Sleep, but her beauty is undiminished by time, her low husky voice, instantly recognizable from her classic films of the 40s and later is no less distinctive as she beckons the waiter for service." Maybe here I could have the first quote and then go back to the sentence before about the promotion tour.
Why do it that way?
"I wasn't convinced it was such a great idea," she explains, "until my literary agent said, 'Listen, it's 25 years since "By Myself" was published. You've had a life since then; a lot of things have happened. There's a whole new generation who could read your autobiography.' I do get an amount of fan mail, and a lot of young people say, 'I wanted to buy your book and I can't find it.' So I thought maybe I should try it."
Note that the writer's dialogue has no quotes, so is a kind of indirect discourse. The reason is direct discourse would re-focus the essay on the writer. Of course, if you're Ernest Hemingway (as in Green Hills of Africa) that's a good thing, since readers want to hear more about Hemingway than whom he quotes; otherwise be careful not to quote your own questions directly.
Note, then, the use of the present tense ("explains"), which is always used for art, interviews, etc. "King Lear curses Nature and his two daughers," rather than "King Lear cursed Nature and his two daughers"). Note also how Bacall herself uses a quote to add color to her own reason why she added to her autobiography (she quotes her agent). She knows that such a quote would be stronger than using indirect discourse: "My agent suggested I add to my autobiography." She also quotes a fan later. Note too the use of the emphatic, "do": "I do get a lot of mail," which adds character (instead of saying, "I get a lot of mail").
The waiter returns with a ceramic teapot covered with a cozy. Bacall reiterates her request for a thermos.
Note the use of a concrete noun ("cozy") and a vivid adjective "ceramic." A Latin-derived word ("reiterates") varies the diction (vocabulary); a balance between Latin-derived and Anglo-Saxon words helps one's diction (Shakespeare was a master of this, more than any other writer: "Will all of Neptune's waters wash the blood from these hands? No, rather my hands these multitudinous seas with incarnadine, making the green ones red" (quoted from memory, from Macbeth). Note simple Anglo-Saxon words like "waters, wash, blood, hands" balanced by Latin-derived words like "incarnadine" (=making red, or flesh-colored) and "multitudinous" (=many).
She acknowledges that updating her life sometimes proved to be painful, especially recalling the loss in a year's span of many close friends, "each of them very important to me; it was like an epidemic." Among them: Roddy McDowall, songwriter Adolph Green, playwright Peter Stone, actors Alec Guinness, John Gielgud, Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn, and writer-director George Axelrod.
The writer selects key dialogue, here about death, an important subject.
"The (losses) chip away at your own life, and the world gets smaller," Bacall says.
You should know that whenever you wish to add words to make a quotation briefer you use parentheses, as the writer does here with the word "losses." Note too that the writer uses synonymic replacement, choosing not to repeat the word "deaths," thus adding coherence to his profile. Of course, "adding" words is really "subtracting" them, because the writer prefers to add one word in place of, say, 10 words actually in the quotation.
Her friendship with Hepburn dated back to 1951 and the location for "The African Queen." The bond deepened with the deaths of Bogart and Spencer Tracy. Bacall writes poignantly of her many visits to Hepburn in her Connecticut retirement and what happened the last time she was there:
Coherence is established by repeating Hepburn's name, then using cause/effect to explain "how" the relationship deepened (the "H" question among the 5 W's).
"I walked right over to her chair in the living room, sat next to her, kissed her. She seemed to know me a little." And when Bacall was about to leave, Hepburn, who had been silent, said, "Please stay." After a half-hour, Bacall kissed Hepburn's cheeks, and Hepburn whispered, "Thank you."
Note how dialogue is used sparingly (in a very limited way) but very effectively. Only the most moving words are selected for inclusion.
A new waiter presents another cozied teapot. Bacall responds testily, "What is the problem, there's no thermos in this hotel? I have a thermos of hot water every single morning. Go to the kitchen and ask for a thermos."
This dialogue is important to establish another side of Bacall: testy, cantankerous. It makes her more human.
The classic Bacall face seems little touched by her 80 years, an observation she treats with customary frankness: "When people say I look just the same, I tell them to take another look. My mirror doesn't tell me that."
Here the writer does situate Bacall in terms of her classic films by using the word "classic." But he might have added something like, "The classic Bacall face instantly recognizable in films such as The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not," etc.
Her last two years have been amazingly busy. Beside writing the book, she has done TV commercials and given lectures that include film clips, commentary and Q&A — her favorite part of the show. Her most recent film was "Birth," starring Nicole Kidman.
I don't like the word "amazingly." I think it's a poor choice, at once too bland and exaggerated. There's also a typo ("beside" should be "besides"). Then the writer uses a dash again, the way I like to use it —for emphasis!
Waiter No. 2 finally brings the thermos, steaming hot. Bacall thanks him, and he withdraws, apologetic and seemingly dazed. "For good or ill, I'm honest. I don't think there's enough of that around," she says.
Note a good descriptive phrase, "steaming hot." The writer probably felt a dash here would put too much emphasis on the pot of tea, while the focus should be on Bacall. It's a matter of judgment. I at first thought there should be a dash, then changed my mind. I think the writer correctly chose a comma instead. Note again the present tense ("thanks him," "withdraws," etc.). Another important quote follows, very selectively adding to our understanding of Bacall: "I'm honest."
The thermos affair was pure Bacall: outspoken, opinionated, undaunted, a bit quirky. She has been known to wither interviewers who ask stupid questions.
The writer then elaborates about this character.
But she also has a tender side, especially when she talks about her children — Stephen, who is working in documentary films, and Leslie, a yoga therapist, both by Humphrey Bogart, and an actor, Sam, by her marriage to Jason Robards. Bacall positively glows when she talks about her four grandchildren.
Then he uses opposition ("But she also") to insure coherence while developing B's character further (her "tender side"). Note that the writer might have used a colon (:) before introducing Bacall's children but instead chose (correctly) a dash. A colon would have been too formal, like a laundry or shopping list. Note the strong verb, "glows" ("postively glows"). The writer also succinctly (economically) sums up B's children and grandchildren.
Stephen and Leslie oversee the use of their father's likeness in TV commercials, print ads and other media. "When Bogie died, suddenly people were using him in the most common, horrible way," Bacall says. "If anybody was going to make any money out of this, it's not going to be strangers, it's going to be his children."
Note too how quotations allow the writer to move from one area of concern to another more abruptly than not having quotes. After the quote about B's children we go back to her book:
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The most readable portions of "By Myself" remain her romance with Bogart, their marriage and her devotion during his final agonizing battle with cancer.
"I am always associated with him in people's minds — 'the greatest love story ever told.' You can't get away from that. He'd never believe it, of course," she says.
This is another well-chosen quote: "the greatest love story ever told."
"It's great that he's still appreciated by so many, because he's worth it. He was a very special human being, Bogart."
The writer chooses to end his profile of Bacall not on Bacall but on Bogart (her lover and husband). This achieves several things: It places the emphasis on a star even greater than Bacall; on a person that Bacall would probably wish to be focused more than her (another focus, say of a living person, would upset her); and, finally, it adds to Bacall's positive character, since it suggests to the reader that this Hollywood star cares more about advancing the image of her late husband (Bogart) than her own image ("he's worth it").
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