BARRYMORE and BOW, BOGART and BANKHEAD:

Hollywood's Four “B's”

In classical music, one often hears about “The Three B's”: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. In Hollywood, one often hears reference to “The Four Great B's”: John Barrymore, Clara Bow, Tallulah Bankhead and Humphrey Bogart. Immensely talented – and immensely troubled – the four collectively appeared in over 250 movies, plays and radio productions. Simultaneously, they provided copy for some of Hollywood's most intriguing, salacious, tales and legends, and were never far away from the glare of “page one.”

These four stand-alone lectures examine the lives and legends, the triumphs and tragedies of four stellar personalities. Through them we shall explore America's growing fascinating for what has come to be known as the “cult of personality.”

Lectures (Four):

  1. John Barrymore (1882-1942): “The Great Profile” John Sidney Blythe was the youngest, most talented and notorious of the three siblings known collectively as the “House of Barrymore,” John had the talent and guts to perform a stellar Hamlet in England, and then wind up drowning his artistry in a sea of alcohol.

  2. Clara Bow (1905-1965): “The It Girl” The personification of the roaring twenties, Bow at her peak received upwards of 50,000 fam letters a week. A grade school dropout who was nearly murdered by an insane mother and defrauded by an avaricious father, Bow wound up as the subject of a sensational trial in which her penchant for drugs and alcohol, gambling and men, became public knowledge.

  3. Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968): “Hello dahling!” The scion of a politically powerful family (her father was Speaker of the House of Representatives), Bankhead became the toast of Broadway and London's West end, conquered Hollywood, and enthralled two generations with her madcap antics.

  4. Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957): “Bogie” Hollywood's penultimate tough-guy, Bogart was actually the son of a prominent surgeon and a world-famous photographer. After prepping at Andover and entering Yale, Bogart turned to the stage – where he was the first to utter the immortal line “tennis anyone?” – and then go on to a legendary Hollywood career.