In a series of interviews, Lauren Bacall shares her thoughts on her idol Bette Davis, whose 'All About Eve' Margo Channing role she adapted in the Broadway musical 'Applause'. Bacall is best known for her film roles in 'The Big Sleep' (1946), 'How to Marry a Millionaire' (1953), and 'The Mirror Has Two Faces' (1996), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Dick Cavett: You did 'Applause' and that’s the Margo Channing role from 'All About Eve.' Did you dread that some night Bette Davis, the original creator of the role, would be sitting out front? “I hope they don’t tell me when it is?”
Lauren Bacall: Oh, well, they knew not to tell me.
Dick Cavett: That’s one of your rules.
Lauren Bacall: Oh yes, terrified, absolutely. And apprehensive and, I mean, Bette Davis was my heroines from the time I was in my early teens. I was very apprehensive about her coming to see the show and she did come see it and I wrote about that as well. I was glad that I didn’t know, and I must never know when someone is out front, because that makes me a nervous wreck.
The book she’s referring to is her 1978 autobiography ‘Lauren Bacall By Myself,' about which The Boston Globe said: "In a word, LAUREN BACALL BY MYSELF is terrific... one of the real-life heroines of our time... and she wrote this book as she lived it."
The Bette Davis Foundation awarded Bacall with their Bette Davis Medal of Honor in 2008. The presenter was Davis' son Michael Merrill. In her speech Lauren Bacall said, "There have been other great actresses, but no one else could ever touch her, and no one else ever will. I watch every one of her movies as though I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve probably seen some of them 40 or 50 times. She had a quality that you
Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve uttered this famous quote: “Sooner or later we've got to work at it no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed and there he is. Without that you're not a woman.”
"It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for someone you're not. It's a sign of your worth, sometimes, if you're hated by the right people."
- Bette Davis
