In the 1950s, movie stars thought television was beneath them. Humphrey Bogart was one of them. He had become famous playing Duke Mantee in ‘The Petrified Forest,’ but nearly twenty years later, he wanted nothing to do with the role. That changed when the offer came with a co-star he could not refuse.
Back then, movie royalty looked at the “idiot box” as a graveyard for has-beens. But on May 30, 1955, Bogart did the unthinkable. He walked onto a soundstage in Burbank for a live TV broadcast. His price was his wife, Lauren Bacall.
Why Humphrey Bogart did ‘The Petrified Forest’ Live for Lauren Bacall
To get why this was such a big deal, you have to understand how much Bogart hated television. In 1955, TV was the new kid on the block, and movie studios would not even let their stars be photographed holding TV antennas. Bogart made no secret of how he felt. “I look awful on television,” he grumbled before the broadcast. “Every pore on my face can be seen on those home screens. And you can imagine what I look like on sets with bad reception.”
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So why did he give in for a live version of The Petrified Forest? The answer was sitting in the makeup chair next to him. It was Bacall.
Bogart first played Duke Mantee on Broadway in 1935 and then in the 1936 movie that made him a star at Warner Bros. But by 1955, he had not been in a movie with Bacall since ‘Key Largo‘ in 1948. He called her “Betty” or “Baby.”
“Pure nostalgia,” Bogart admitted at the time. “That’s the only reason I’m doing this show. And I doubt very, very much that I’ll do any more television after this.” He meant it. Everyone in the industry thought this was the start of something, but Bogart treated it like a date night. He was going back to the role that made him famous, acting with the woman he loved in a story that fit their whole tough guy and wise gal thing.
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The broadcast was nerve-wracking. It was live in color from NBC’s new Burbank studio, and Henry Fonda was in it too, playing the part that Leslie Howard had played in the movie.
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However, not everything went smoothly. Critics said Fonda looked too old for his part, and Bacall seemed too mature for the young ingénue role. But people tuned in for Bogart. What they saw was a tired, ghostly figure. Writer Stefan Kanfer noted in the biography ‘Tough Without a Gun’ that Bogart “came across as tired and possibly ill.” It was a scary sign of what was coming. Less than two years later, Bogart died of esophageal cancer at the age of 57.
When the cameras stopped rolling that night, Bogart never looked back. He turned down every TV offer that came his way after that.
Looking back, the 1955 broadcast of ‘The Petrified Forest‘ feels like a sad ending to an incredible career. It was the last time Bogart and Bacall acted together on screen. It was his final performance as Duke Mantee, and it proved that even though Bogart hated television, he loved his wife just enough to do it once.
Bacall later saved the kinescope of the show and donated it to museums. It is a keepsake from the night Hollywood’s toughest tough guy gave in for love.
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