Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Suggestions on how to hide your secret alcohol problem and/or workplace scotch stash via The Lost Weekend (1945, dir. Billy Wilder)

Suggestions on how to hide your secret alcohol problem and/or workplace scotch stash via The Lost Weekend (1945, dir. Billy Wilder)

Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke) “Would you like a drink?”“It’s a little early, isn’t it?”“Too early for a drink?”“No! Too early for stupid questions! Of course I want a drink!”

Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke)

“Would you like a drink?”
“It’s a little early, isn’t it?”
“Too early for a drink?”
“No! Too early for stupid questions! Of course I want a drink!”

“My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine.”  -Tallulah Bankhead, Actress/Epic American Hedonist

“My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine.”

 -Tallulah Bankhead, Actress/Epic American Hedonist

Humphrey Bogart in publicity still for Dead Reckoning (1947, dir. John Cromwell) “Bogart did drink. ‘I think the whole world is three drinks behind,’ he used to say, ‘and it’s high time it caught up.’ On one occasion he and a friend bought two enormous stuffed panda bears and took them as their dates to El Morocco. They sat them in chairs at a table for four and when an ambitious young lady came over and touched Bogart’s bear, he shoved her away. ‘I’m a happily married man,’ he said, ‘and don’t touch my panda.’ The woman brought assault charges against him, and when asked if he was drunk at four o’clock in the morning, he replied, ‘Sure, isn’t everybody?’ (The judge ruled that since the panda was Bogart’s personal property, he could defend it.)” -excerpted from Peter Bogdanovich’s Who the Hell’s In It In a 1949 LA Times article about Pandagate, Bogart defended his drunken misbehavior on constitutional grounds: “So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.” (TIME magazine’s original 1949 article about the incident can be read here)

Humphrey Bogart in publicity still for Dead Reckoning (1947, dir. John Cromwell)

“Bogart did drink. ‘I think the whole world is three drinks behind,’ he used to say, ‘and it’s high time it caught up.’ On one occasion he and a friend bought two enormous stuffed panda bears and took them as their dates to El Morocco. They sat them in chairs at a table for four and when an ambitious young lady came over and touched Bogart’s bear, he shoved her away. ‘I’m a happily married man,’ he said, ‘and don’t touch my panda.’

The woman brought assault charges against him, and when asked if he was drunk at four o’clock in the morning, he replied, ‘Sure, isn’t everybody?’ (The judge ruled that since the panda was Bogart’s personal property, he could defend it.)”

-excerpted from Peter Bogdanovich’s Who the Hell’s In It

In a 1949 LA Times article about Pandagate, Bogart defended his drunken misbehavior on constitutional grounds: “So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.”

(TIME magazine’s original 1949 article about the incident can be read here)

Dean Martin performs at the Copa Room (1957). That’s Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Debbie Reynolds, & Jack Benny at the front table (click to enlarge) (via) “In 1969, Orson Welles told me that he’d been backstage in his own Dean Martin Show dressing room when, before the taping, Dean knocked, then came in, drink in hand. ‘Hey Orson,’ he said, holding up his glass, ‘you want one of these before we…?’ Orson shook his head. ‘No, no, Dean, I’m fine, thanks.” Martin looked shocked. “You mean you’re gonna go out there alone?!” Welles roared with laughter when he told me the story. ‘Alone!’ he repeated loudly. ‘Isn’t that great!?’ Orson went on, ‘That’s the best definition of addiction I’ve ever heard.’” -Peter Bogdanovich (via)

Dean Martin performs at the Copa Room (1957). That’s Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Debbie Reynolds, & Jack Benny at the front table (click to enlarge) (via)

“In 1969, Orson Welles told me that he’d been backstage in his own Dean Martin Show dressing room when, before the taping, Dean knocked, then came in, drink in hand. ‘Hey Orson,’ he said, holding up his glass, ‘you want one of these before we…?’

Orson shook his head. ‘No, no, Dean, I’m fine, thanks.” Martin looked shocked. “You mean you’re gonna go out there alone?!” Welles roared with laughter when he told me the story. ‘Alone!’ he repeated loudly. ‘Isn’t that great!?’ Orson went on, ‘That’s the best definition of addiction I’ve ever heard.’”

-Peter Bogdanovich (via)