—LAUREN BACALL For decades it has been whispered that my father had the biggest schlong in Hollywood. I like to think the rumor is true, but I don’t know who to ask. Who keeps track of these things? I do know that it’s not the sort of thing I can discuss over tea with Mother. Whether it’s true or not, the fact is that my father was not a major-league cocksman. People who knew Dad say he almost never looked at other women. Film critics have said that Bogart was at his least convincing on the screen when he was supposed to be leering at dames. And Bacall says, “Not once in our years of marriage did Bogie ever suffer from the roving eye.” The party line on my father and women is that he was not a skirt chaser, not a ladies’ man, and only occasionally a flirt. In fact, much of his movie appeal to women seems to come from the fact that he doesn’t need them. Bette Davis said, “What women liked about Bogie, I think, was that when he did love scenes, he held back, like many men do, and they understood that.”
