Rating: 
Summary: Great Fun! Shut up! Whoa Nellie!
Review: The most fun I've had reading a film bio. I bought every word! A camp classic! I think every other reviewer here should slap themselves upside the head. Where's your sense of humor? Huzzah for Darwin Porter, that devil.
Rating:
Summary: It makes the Harris book look like a Victorian fuddy-duddy.
Review: Around the turn of the last century, a well-known British author and editor, Frank Harris, compiled entries from his personal diary and published My Secret Life. It revealed a sex life that would have made Don Juan envious.
Now, up from the past comes The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart by Darwin Porter. It makes Harris look like a Victorian fuddy-duddy.
Porter's incredibly detailed biography throws back the curtain, or more accurately the bed covers, of Hollywood's early years and this databank of unprecedented revelations raises the question, how? How could anyone, 80 years after the fact, come up with all this inside information, not only on Bogie, but an entire gallery of movie stars: famous and forgotten, male and female, straight and gay?
The answer lies in the Memoria, an introduction by the author. The research was begun in the 1930s, after Bogie's success in The Petrified Forest, based on a collaboration between Kenneth MacKenna (1899-1962), Bogie's closest confidant, and Stanley Mills Haggart (1910-1980). When Haggart was dying in 1980 he asked his life partner, author and journalist Porter, to write the book. He bequeathed 11 boxes of notes and quotes, which were the foundation for this exhaustive compilation of intimacies.
Be warned-this read is not for prudes. If it were a movie it would qualify for an X rating. It makes the early film community look like kids let loose in a sexual candy store. Dallying at one point with a particularly promiscuous actress, Bogie states his personal goal of one liaison per night. Among the many notches on his bedpost are Joan Crawford,
Tallulah Bankhead and Jean Harlow.
A good deal of attention is paid here to the homosexual scene in Hollywood and we learn for the first time of a number of celebrities who were in the closet, even some with "lavender marriages" to glamorous lesbians for public appearance's sake.
Clearly Bogie was hetero, rampantly so, but, according to Porter's research, was involved in a few gay trysts, usually not by choice.
There is a surprising amount of switch-hitting, actresses and actors busy with both sexes. Bogie's buddy MacKenna, for one, in bed with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. one day and legendary Mary Pickford the next. Here is handsome, wealthy producer Howard Hughes escorting America's top glamour gals in public, Billie Dove and Jean Harlow to name two, yet offstage entertaining macho cowboys and gas station attendants.
Eye-opening is the operative word here and Porter is to be commended for his documented revelations. He was recently contacted by an author who has spent eight years researching the life of another screen star of this era.
"I've just read your manuscript," she complained, "and now I've got to rewrite four whole chapters!"
The book ends in 1931. Bogie has just been fired by Fox Studios, his Hollywood career apparently ended. After a farewell fling with Bette Davis ("I didn't know what lovemaking was until I went to bed with you.") MacKenna drives him to catch the train to New York. He is quitting films, heading back east to restart his Broadway stage career. Waiting for him at the station is Jean Arthur.
Rating: 
Summary: Unsubstantiated quotes used to make a fast buck and smear
Review: As a biographical account of Bogart's early life and Hollywood adventures, I'd probaqbly give this one one or two stars. As a work of fiction, blending some truth with an awful lot of fantasy this tome goes way up in the star system. It's terrific trash replete with extended conversations that the author or his longtime companion could not have been privy to. If this book were catergorized as fiction, I'd probably give it 5 stars. The problem: this book isn't being pedaled as fiction.
I did a little research re: some of the supporting players in this book after I read it and came to the conclusion that most of this stuff was based on rumor and innuendo and there was very little fact supporting any of it. The author was artful when it came down to mixing moldy gossip, tossing in some ambiguous statements that have been floating around for decades, and calling this TRUTH.
It bothers me that people will pick up this book and believe that this is factual. Of course, the argument waged here is that all the people portrayed unfavorably have been dead for a really long time. After all, the dead can't sue you. And that is exactly why this book isn't being touted as fiction. Who is going to legally stalk Darwin Porter?
So read this book if you are so inclined, but rememember that an awful lot of it is fantasy. It's fun trash that's being categorized as something else entirely.
Rating:
Summary: Bogie bio: Tells tales, Names names
Review: Call if juicy, but if you're interested in a see-all, tell-all book that divulges secrets of Hollywood's most famous movie queens from the Golden Age, pick up a copy of The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart, to be released this month. This biography uncovers "the good stuff" you want to know about the show biz biggies and wannabes from Bogie's early years, including those trumpeted as queens and queens who could blow a trumpet themselves.In this new and untold-until-now biography, author Darwin Porter (Hollywood's Silent Closet, Rhinestone Country and others) delves deep into Bogart's salacious, formative years on Broadway and in early Hollywood when "talkies" were the rage. Compiled after extensive eyewitness interviews, some conducted by friends and companions as early as the 1930s, Porter reveals what movie studio publicists deliberately and studiously suppresses: the intimate details that fans really want to know about. Secret Life exposes the true and tantalizing details of Bogie's big game seductions, including the likes of Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis. Not sparing any of the steamy and sometimes seamy details of Bogart's well-noted life, this book shatters the myth of the strong and silent trench coat and sheds light on the exotic temptations Bogart faced during his struggle for survival in early Hollywood. Porter exposes Bogart's thankless role as errand boy, courier and procurer of male escorts for millionaire Howard Hughes. What you read about Spencer Tracy will startle you. And Cary Grant. And Randolph Scott. And...a long, long list of others. For those of us who want the dirt and want it quick, the book features a wonderful and handy index.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Hollywood Turned Into Porn Fest
Review: Having read film biography since the 1960's -- I found this book very disheartening, totally lacking in any kind of integrity or responsibility for the talented people it talks about. The truth lies in a book's bibliography -- this book on Bogart has none. Porter has used gossip coupled with scenarios from his own imagination and created something really pathetic. I was hoping to use it for source material for research -- but I found so many errors -- dates are never substantiated -- it's impossible to take much of his dialogue seriously. I assume, Bogart, MacKenna, Francis, Stanwyck, Davis, O'Brien, Chatterton, Blondell, Cagney, Farrell, Linden, Lowe, Tashman, McCrea, Cooper, Gable, Loy, MacDonald, etc., all had sex-lives -- they also had careers, traveled, had family responsibilities and worked hard at their craft. This book turns their lives into one big orgy. Sex is a healthy thing, a good thing, but this book is a fabrication of these peoples lives both private and professionally. I hate to think young people would assume Porter had written a factual document to be taken seriously. Very discouraging.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Hollywood Turned Into Porn Fest
Review: Having read film biography since the 1960's -- I found this book very disheartening, totally lacking in any kind of integrity or responsibility for the talented people it talks about. The truth lies in a book's bibliography -- this book on Bogart has none. Porter has used gossip coupled with scenarios from his own imagination and created something really pathetic. I was hoping to use it for source material for research -- but I found so many errors -- dates are never substantiated -- it's impossible to take much of his dialogue seriously. I assume, Bogart, MacKenna, Francis, Stanwyck, Davis, O'Brien, Chatterton, Blondell, Cagney, Farrell, Linden, Lowe, Tashman, McCrea, Cooper, Gable, Loy, MacDonald, etc., all had sex-lives -- they also had careers, traveled, had family responsibilities and worked hard at their craft. This book turns their lives into one big orgy. Sex is a healthy thing, a good thing, but this book is a fabrication of these peoples lives both private and professionally. I hate to think young people would assume Porter had written a factual document to be taken seriously. Very discouraging.
Rating:
Summary: cruel, cruel book
Review: I refuse to rate this book at all. This is one of the cruelest books I have ever read. I read it while sitting at the bookstore. It is filled with such ridiculous imaginary conversations and half-truths...the author knows enough about certain dates, etc., to manage to concoct lengthy conversations that never took place. If the families of everyone vilified in this terrible book don't file lawsuits for slander, character assasination, and libel, then there is no justice at all. I happen to love Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. If they were alive, they would be enraged and filing these lawsuits themselves. This "author" should be ashamed of himself. So should anyone who reads this book and feels "enlightened." This is utter trash. Shame on anyone who writes such drivel and profits from it.
Rating:
Summary: Lurid? Yes. True? I doubt it.
Review: In today's age, when nothing can said to be sacred, Darwin Porter proves that a certain sort of shock value still persists. Porter, who specializes in the kiss and tell biographical novel, turns his focus to a "straight" biography. In this case he digs up the skeletons that kept company in the closet that was the life of Humphrey Bogart. In order to concoct such a tome, Porter uses the old tabloid formula: one part truth and one part memories by co-stars (all of whom are conveniently decreased). Blend well, add five parts pure baloney, and presto! A new lurid biography, perfect for those times in the bathroom when a Jackie Collins novel is not available. So how true is Porter's book? He bases Bogart's early life on incidents that did happen and speculates from there. For instance, it was commonly known that Bogart did not injure his lip during his Naval service as he never saw action. Porter attributes the injury to a beating by Bogart's father. O.K., that is a plausible explanation. So is the intrigue during his first marriage to Helen Mencken, who was one of the shining lights of Broadway's Lavendar Set. However, Porter gets himself in deep literary doo-doo when he begins to speculate about everyone Bogart supposedly slept with, and the reader can almost feel the book's theme derail as Porter plays a "can you top this" game with himself. If Bogart were truly the rake Porter makes him out to be, one wonders how he ever found time to act. Porter cites the notes on Bogart's life by Bogart's friend and fellow actor Kenneth MacKenna and gossip columnist Stanley Haggart. Porter also depends on the testimony of such co-stars as Joan Blondell, Ruth Gordon, George Raft, Eric Linden and Mercedes de Acosta. The problem here is that the sources were well into the twilight of their years when interviewed and we don't know for sure whether they were working Porter to an extent or whether they had reached the age where legend becomes fact. The use of a form of narrative usually found in a novel is also a hinderance, as neither Porter nor his sources could have been privy to the sort of intimate conversations he claims took place. And finally, take into consideration the author's praise for Kenneth Anger, who brought back into vogue the sort of reporting one thought had died with the demise of "Confidential" magazine. The book is a naughty pleasure, but in the final review, reader beware.
Rating:
Summary: Disgusting, didn't even bother to finish it
Review: Possibly the worst-written bio I've ever read, and the most unbelievable. Here's a quick run-down so you don't have to bother: 1) Everyone has slept with everyone else except for Bogart and Bette Davis. Everyone. No point in keeping score because they're all doing it.
2) Most surreal moment, hands down, is George O'Brien showing Bogie an intimate part of his anatomy (and probably not the one you're thinking of!) and then explaining how he keeps it so young-looking, and tasty.
3) Most interactions between people include long conversations which the author could not possibly have been privy to, including a lot of pillow talk. Draw your own conclusions.
4) The narrative is riddled with inconsistencies as small as an inability to decide whether Bogart's favorite meal was ham and eggs or bacon and eggs (and who really cares anyway?), and as large as one minute he likes a salty-talking babe and the next he finds her incredibly vulgar and off-putting. Did anyone edit this manuscript?
5) Fairly obvious lack of familiarity with female anatomy makes a few scenes laughable.
6) The single most cliche-ridden text I have ever had the misfortune to read.
7) The author manages to make real people, people like Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks (Jr and Sr) seem like caricatures or pieces of wood...or both.
8) By page 400, any salacious thrills have descended to the level of "Please your mate" spam.
9) Bogart comes across very badly; if you're a big fan, skip this. There are only so many times he can be shocked by the goings-on before you start to want to give him a dime to buy a clue. At best, the author writes him like a teenage girl.
10) Every attempt at conveying a deeply emotional scene is hilariously inept. I feel like I need a great big brush to clean out my brain, now. If I could give negative stars, this book would've earned a -5.
Rating:
Summary: Bogart's salacious, formative years
Review: The early life of Hollywood's most famous movie star has been taken off the dusty shelf of "dark and unknown" and brought to the forefront. In a new and untold till now biography, The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart (published by The Georgia Literary Association) Darwin Porter delves deep into Bogart's salacious, formative years on Broadway and in early Hollywood when "Talkies" were the rage. Compiled after extensive interviews with eyewitnesses, some conducted as early as the 1930s, Porter's latest book uncovers scandals within the entertainment industry in the 1920s and 1930s, when publicists from the movie studios deliberately and studiously twisted and suppressed inconvenient details about the lives of emerging stars. Porter's book exposes the true and tantalizing details of "Bogie's" big game seductions, including the likes of Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis. Not sparing any of the steamy and sometimes seamy details of Bogart's well noted life, this book shatters the myth of the strong and silent trenchcoat and sheds light on the daunting odds and exotic temptations Bogart faced during his struggle for survival in early Hollywood. Porter's research examines the price paid for compulsive brushes with gangsters, prostitutes and blackmailers, details of which were aggressively suppressed as the leading man's career blossomed, then collapsed, then blossomed again during the 1920s and 30s. Also exposed is Bogart's thankless role as errand boy and courier for Howard Hughes, soon after Bogart's botched seduction of Hughes' mistress, Billie Dove. In addition to "locating" male escorts for Howard Hughes, one of Bogart's tasks involved escorting Jean Harlow from Los Angeles to a clinic in Tijuana for an abortion of a child believed to have been fathered by Hughes himself. Bogart became deeply involved in these and in other indiscretions which, if they'd been publicized by Louella Parsons (whom Bogart is said to have cajoled and coerced with a one-night sexual affair) would have destroyed his Hollywood career. The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart divulges a number of unknown and ignominious facts about the life of early Hollywood's leading man. Readers will discover the true behind the scenes saga of Broadway during the Jazz age and in Hollywood of the early Talkies, being drawn in to the discussion of what is "too much news" or "not enough news" and insights into the people who got to decide.
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