Tough Without a Gun

Tough Without a Gun

The End Depends on the Beginning

In the 150-year history of cinema, few performers have arrived with a more impressive rÈsumÈ of monetary privilege and social distinction. Humphrey Bogartís father, Belmont DeForest Bogart, was a high-toned graduate of Phillips Andover prep school and Columbia University; his medical degree came from Yale. Belmont rarely failed to inform classmates and colleagues that the Bogarts of Holland were among the earliest settlers in New York, and that one of their ancestors was the first ìEuropeanî child to be born in that state.

Actually, the Bogarts had been a line of burghers and truck farmers until Belmontís father, Adam, came along. He married late, became an innkeeper to support his wife and child, and compulsively tinkered in his off-hours. Lithographyóetching on large, unwieldy stonesóhad become popular in the later nineteenth century; Adam seized the day, creating a process for transfering lithographs to portable sheets of tin. Printers wanted in on this new invention, and the sales made him a rich man. It was a classic case of an old family with new money, very much in the spirit of the nineteenth century. Adam relocated to Manhattan, taking comfort in the knowledge that many a New York City plutocrat had humble beginnings: Jacob Astor started out as a fur trapper; Peter Schermerhorn as a ship chandler; Frederick and William Rhinelander as bakers; Peter Lorillard as a tobacco merchant.

Adam maneuvered the family name into the Blue Book of New York City society and, after his wife died, concentrated all his energy and ambition on his only son. There would be no hayseed in this boyís hair; no scent of the carbolic acid used to clean hotel rooms would cling to his clothes as it had to his fatherís. Adam was sharply aware of Power of Personality, a book by the business writer Orison Swett Marden. ìIn this fiercely competitive age,î warned the author, ìwhen the law of the survival of the fittest acts with seemingly merciless rigor, no one can afford to be indifferent to the smallest detail of dress, or manner, or appearance, that will add to his chance of success.î Adamís son was caparisoned in the right wardrobe, sent to the best private schools, given a generous allowance. Pushed and prodded to get on in this ruthless new world, Belmont aimed high. Early on, he made up his mind to major in science and biology, get admitted to Yale Medical School, and then forge his own reputation as a physician. By his early thirties Dr. Bogart had realized his goals, serving on the staffs of three prominent Manhattan hospitals: Bellevue, St. Lukeís, and Sloan.

Excerpted from Tough Without a Gun by Stefan Kanfer Copyright © 2011 Stefan Kanfer.
Reprinted with permission from Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. New York