It's All In A Nickname

"Bogie" With Wife and Pals in Photoplay, September 1938

When Did Bogart Become Bogie/Bogey?

Humphrey Bogart being a favorite actor makes me endlessly curious over major and minor aspects of his career. Monday's post on Chain Lightning addressed everything but the central question arising from that otherwise forgot '50 release, to wit: Was this a first time ads referred to Bogart as "Bogey"? Preliminary dig found fan mags calling him that (or close-spelled "Bogie") from 1938, latter first mention I found of the nickname, an apt label considering he played mostly bogeymen at the time.  Not much choice within the name Humphrey Bogart after all --- suppose kid pals ever called him "Hump"? 1939 saw HB answering to "Bogey" in Modern Screen, and by 1941, with stardom conferred by High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, the tag is firmly affixed by fan press.

"Bogey" became all the more shorthand for Bogart after his marriage to Lauren Bacall. Casablanca had made him a romantic lead, status confirmed thanks to taking of a near-child bride. He'd bear the nickname lighter for fun-loving vehicles directed by Howard Hawks (To Have and Have Not,The Big Sleep) to make Bogart more a regular guy with a sense of humor. All Through The Night and Across The Pacific had anticipated this, and now Bacall would afford Bogart a love-teammate to renew his brand for remainder of the 40's. They would be "Bogey and Betty" in the monthlies, gently spoofed in WB cartoons Slick Hare and Bacall To Arms (where HB's caricature is billed as "Bogey Go-Cart"), and photographed together for Sunday sections. Spelling meanwhile varied between Bogey and Bogie, finding its way to official publicity for a first time (that I found) in Key Largo's pressbook, not ads, but prepared reviews and articles for submit to newspapers.

Slightly Off-Topic, But How Many Color Photos Would You Say
Were Taken on Treasure Of The Sierra Madre?



Note "Bogey's the test pilot!"

I believe Chain Lightning to be the first, and only, time that "Bogey" was used in (studio-prepared) ad art for a Humphrey Bogart film. "Okay, Bogey! let 'er rip!," plus the star's action pose, suggests a show less serious than customary for him, and note Warners ID'ing itself as The "White Heat" Company, nod to a previous year's hit, and tip-off that Chain Lightning will be more of the same. This would be Bogart's penultimate film for WB, The Enforcer of 1951 back to serious selling and use of the proper name. Later it became common to use Bogey/Bogie in support of oldies at campus sites, but this was less distributor-sanctioned than individual programmer-driven. The shorthand that brought his public closer to late-30's and 40's Bogart became hipster-slang for Protest Era rebirth of a star turned icon, Jean-Paul Belmondo summing up with murmur of "Bogey" when he sees a poster for The Harder They Fall in 1960's Breathless. The tag would stay for 1981's "soft rock" tune, Key Largo, wherein Bertie Higgins sings, "We had it all, just like Bogie and Bacall." This may have the last high-profile pop cultural reference to Bogart by his nickname, unless another has gotten by me since.

Previous Greenbriar Explores of the Bogart Cult HERE and HERE.

UPDATE --- 3/4/16: Noted writer and historian William M. Drew has done further research on the Bogey/Bogie question and kindly shares his findings with Greenbriar. Here are vintage newspaper articles he attached to accompany information supplied by Mr. Drew in the Greenbriar comments section for this post: