Eulogy at Bogart’s Funeral
At Humphrey Bogart’s funeral, Lauren Bacall asked Bogey’s close friend, Spencer Tracy to give the eulogy, but he was too upset to do it.
Instead, John Huston, Bogart’s most frequent and favorite director, who had catapulted to major stardom in 1941 with The Malteste Falcon, spoke:
Huston said: “Himself, he never took too seriously—his work most seriously. He regarded the somewhat gaudy figure of Bogart, the star, with an amused cynicism; Bogart, the actor, he held in deep respect … In each of the fountains at Versailles there is a pike which keeps all the carp active; otherwise they would grow over-fat and die. Bogie took rare delight in performing a similar duty in the fountains of Hollywood. Yet his victims seldom bore him any malice, and when they did, not for long. His shafts were fashioned only to stick into the outer layer of complacency, and not to penetrate through to the regions of the spirit where real injuries are done … He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him.”