Review of Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool

As a fan of Humphrey Bogart and his movies, how couldn't I be a fan of Lauren Bacall? They seemed like such an unlikely pairing that somehow, worked. To me, Bacall was everything most movie stars of the Golden Age weren't. She wasn't perky, blond, petite or bursting into song (or dancing) in random scenes. She was tall, mysterious, enchanting. I wanted to be Lauren Bacall.

I first saw Lauren Bacall on the screen around four decades after she uttered those immortal words, "You know how to whistle, don't you?" It was the 80's and I was a very uncool middle schooler. As the title tells it (and I firmly believed then and now), she was the Queen of Cool. The only thing we had in common was that we were both tall but somehow it gave me hope that someday I would be as mesmerizing as her. That didn't exactly happen, but I'd like to say I'm at least interesting. As a thank you for the burst of self-confidence she unknowingly gave me I couldn't resist a book about her life Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool.

More About Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool

Lauren Bacall (1924-2014), or Betty, as she was known to friends, was one of the last great movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her career spanned seven decades and was one of the longest and most distinguished in the history of show business. Yet it wasn't easy. After becoming a star at nineteen with her first film, To Have and Have Not (1944), she joked there was nowhere for her to go but down. She became an icon of film noir before the term was even coined. A cool, sophisticated, sexy, and ultramodern woman, she projected confidence and independence.

Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool is the first book to bring together all aspects of the legendary star's life and career, exploring her iconic style, her extensive body of work, as well as her friendships and relationships with some of the most famous figures of the twentieth century. Her relationship with Humphrey Bogart is the stuff of legend, the most beloved pairing of classical Hollywood, a perfect blend of romance, glamour, and cinematic glory. When Bogart died in 1957, Bacall was a mere thirty-three years old, and for the rest of her life she would wrestle with the legend of her late husband, struggling to prove to the industry that she was more than just the most famous widow in Hollywood. That she managed to achieve in spades, becoming a two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway star, a bestselling author, and continuing a successful, though at times rocky, screen career, which brought her an Academy Award nomination in 1996 and an Honorary Oscar in 2009. Combining meticulous research with stunning photographs, author Anthony Uzarowski presents in this volume a multidimensional portrait of the woman and the star that was Lauren Bacall.

More About Anthony Uzarowski

Anthony Uzarowski (Manchester, United Kingdom) is a film historian and author. His books include the acclaimed biographies Jessica Lange: An Adventurer's Heart and Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies. He has also written numerous articles on cinema and the arts, with his work appearing in such publications as The Guardian, Film International, Gay Times, Queerty, and more.

More About Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool

Because Lauren Bacall time as an IT girl and my life did not overlap, I mostly knew her movies and the fact that she was married to Humphrey Bogart. So this book was an opportunity to learn pretty much everything about her. Although this book does a good job of walking us through how Betty from New York was transformed into Lauren-she-was-married-to-Humphrey-Bogart Bacall, it's clear that this was written by a super fan.

I enjoyed reading about her lengthy career and struggles to separate herself from the Bogie and Bacall myth. I had never thought of the pairing as a disadvantage to her career. And I also came to learn that even Lauren Bacall had to follow the expected roles for women in the 40s and 50s. Stand by your man -- but don't overshadow him. However, I fell perhaps (but I could be wrong) some aspects of her life were glossed over. Never had a cross word with the first wife, the mistress, the wife of the married actor she had a relationship with, actresses who disliked her...really?! She was either a saint or very discrete about any conflicts. This focused primarily on her career struggles but I would have loved to hear more about things beyond her career, like her dealing with the anti-Communist hearings on Hollywood players.

All in all, it was a fun read for anyone who likes Bacall, Bogie or the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was worth it for the photos alone!