Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 25, 1995 TAG: 9509260001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Now 46, Bogart finally has come to grips with his father's legacy in a new book, ``Bogart: In Search of My Father,'' published by Dutton. It is a heartfelt story, marked by loneliness, rebellion, a broken marriage, drugs and ultimate redemption.
Why did he wait so long to write his story?
``Because the time wasn't right,'' he said in an interview from his home in New Jersey. ``There were so many things I had to go through, so many things I had to deal with.
``You know what I really think it is? Maturity. At some point in your life you can deal with things that were problems in your past. It came to that point. I was in the right frame of mind. That's why I wrote it then.''
In the book, Bogart is sometimes critical of his mother, Lauren Bacall, particularly in her leaving him for four months to accompany her husband, Humphrey, on the African location of ``The African Queen.''
Bacall's reaction?
``She doesn't agree with everything,'' Stephen Bogart says. ``I think that's good, from my perspective, because we're coming from different points of view. But she supported it. She's been long trying to get me to reconcile my feelings about my father, about celebrity in general and the problems in my life.
``This [book] is very cathartic and therapeutic, and I think she definitely supports it. She wrote the forward.''
Bogart said he wrote the book in seven months, assisted by Gary Provost, who has since died. It is a hybrid: part biography of Humphrey Bogart, part autobiography, dwelling on Stephen Humphrey Bogart's troubles in dealing with second-hand fame.
Until recent years, Bogart writes, he ignored his father's memory for most of his life.
``I resented Humphrey Bogart for reasons I only now understand,'' he writes, ``and for almost four decades I avoided learning about him, talking about him, and thinking about him.''
The actor, who had his first child at 45, was not an attentive parent, Stephen said.
``My father liked the idea of having kids. He was proud of [sister] Leslie and me, and he would never hurt us or neglect our basic needs. But he was not about to integrate us into his life. Kids had to fit into his life, where it was comfortable for him.''
Stephen recalls sailing on his father's beloved yacht, Santana, and sharing lunch at Romanoff's. More vivid are the grim months as the boy watched his father decline to 85 pounds as the cancer destroyed him.
The boy was to suffer another trauma. His nanny took him to the airport for Bacall's departure to a film location in Europe. After the plane had left, the nanny fell dead of a cerebral hemorrhage, Stephen in his arms.
Stephen admits that he was a rebellious student, getting expelled from most of his schools. Part of the reason was his fellow students' attitude toward his father's fame.
``Bogie's reputation has often made normal conversation difficult,'' he writes. ``It brought me attention I didn't want. And often it has deprived me of attention that I did want. And it has sometimes made me distrustful of friendly people. It has, I am forced to admit, placed that big chip on my shoulder.''
Stephen says that he did not inherit Bogie's alcoholism. But he did become a drug addict, often working on a high as a producer for NBC, ESPN and Court TV.
``Certainly Bogie and I, both of us shy, used our drugs as a social lubricant,'' he writes. There were similarities in their addictions, but also differences, ``the most obvious being that his drug was legal and mine was not, and that I gave up drugs, but he never really stopped drinking.''
He says that drugs contributed to the breakup of his first marriage, which produced a son, Jamie, now 25. Bogart and his second wife, Barbara, have two young children, Richard and Brooke,
After the publicity whirl, Bogart hopes to become a full-time writer; he has had one mystery published, ``Play It Again.''
``I'd like to continue with my mystery novels,'' he said. ``But boy, it's tough out there. There's a guy named Grisham, and I hear his latest book was 2 million copies. I'm going, `Holy cow!'''
by CNB