Mayo Methot, Humphrey Bogart's first wife

Correction: She was his third wife, not first. I didn't realize Bogie had been married twice before.

She was a crazy and combative bitch by most all accounts. There is one story where she pulled a pistol on him, and it was regular for them to have violent fights. She stabbed him in the shoulder on one occasion. She was a mean, abusive sow.

What a broad!

That female was the epitome of unlovely broadness.

Despite the awful things she did to him, Bogart still regularly sent flowers to her crypt until his death. He obviously cared about her for reasons none of us will ever know.

Bogie cheated with her on his second wife, so she wasn't much of an innocent victim. Both of them were heavy drinkers from the get-go, but Mayo was an abusive, hard-core alcoholic by the time Bogie met Bacall.

Mayo was supposed to be very sexy and attractive before the booze took its toll. Louise Brooks had a good description of her during the time she and Bogie were first seeing one another--sensual dancer--probably part of the issue is that her oomph didn't translate to film.

Methot? What an unfortunate last name to have, nowadays.

She sounds like a real spitfire. I would have loved to see her go toe-to-toe with Helen Lawson.

She's really good in Marked Woman, in a small role but pivotal.

She gave up acting for Bogart, who said his previous marriages failed because his actress wives wouldn't give up their careers. By the time they finally broke up, she couldn't get work anymore and ended up drunk and living with her mom in Oregon.

Everyone thinks he and Bacall were the perfect romantic couple, but he was old and she was a teenager, he'd been married three times already, and was currently getting drunk and beating up his wife while she was doing the same to him. He had no business fucking a teenager, not even Bacall.

Mayo was actually an accomplished stage actress, and had been on Broadway for years before she met Bogart. They got connected when she went to Hollywood to begin a film career. She had a sad life and was obviously tormented.

I think they were known as the Battling Bogarts.

Must’ve sucked for her to watch his old movies on TV while living with Mama.

Bacall was also a total cunt but had youth and beauty on her side. Some men seem to be only attracted to very high maintenance cunts! What's that about?

I forget which old actor said in an interview that he kept his boat at the same marina as Bogart and Methot kept theirs, and he said he would go out there on a calm day and their boat would be rocking back and forth in the water.

She wasn't just an alcoholic—according to numerous Bogart biographers, Methot was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia during their marriage. She had also attempted suicide in the past. She was mentally ill, and I think their divorce only compacted it, hence her having to live with her mother in her final years; I think she was so mentally fucked up that she couldn't care for herself, and was self-medicating with alcohol.

I think it was David Niven who wrote about Mayo starting a brawl at an LA restaurant, and she was punching the fuck out of anyone within reach while Bogie joined Niven under the table.

Sometimes that kind of crazy translates into a hot fuck, but Christ in a bucket of snails it's not worth it.

Hold the Mayo!

She sounds like the 1930s equivalent to Courtney Love.

Mayo was Bogie's third wife, and he was her third husband. And yes, she was a Broadway star, but when she came out to Hollywood, she developed a reputation as a mean drunk. Their mansion up above Sunset was dubbed "Sluggy Hollow, " and a carpenter was kept on call to repair damages wrought by the quarrelsome pair, particularly Mayo, who had a habit of firing off her .45 pistol and blasting everything within view. Peter Lorre witnessed her in rage, scratching at Bogie's face, and he trying to deck her unconscious with a whiskey glass.

R11, Betty was 19 when she met Bogie and hadn't yet developed the cuntiness that she would become known for in later years.

She was portrayed by Ann Wedgeworth in the made-for-TV movie Bogie (1980).

I always find it interesting that Bogart was born in the 1800s (1899).

Here's an ad for Bogie.

Here is the movie-

With the Reagans.

It’s nice to see Jane Wyman with a different hairdo; before she permanently wed her 1950s do.

Look at Methot in the photo at r22!!

She has just about finished the back-up cocktail in front of her and is glaring at the photographer. She looks like she's just about to attack!

Mayo was apparently a gifted actress from a young age, and possibly a child prodigy. She was performing in professional theater by age five, and consummately so. Per news articles referenced in her Wiki, she was referencing Sarah Bernhardt as an influence when she was 8 years old. She was not an ordinary child by any means, and was probably a very intelligent woman. Obviously tormented, and did awful things to Bogie, but they both went down the bottle together. Gloria Stuart was friends with them and recalled seeing bruises on her face, indicating he hit back.

Courtney is also a Portland gal, R16. Maybe the water in the City of Roses produces crazy?

She was the poor man’s Barbara Pepper.

Was she a Methot Actress?

Bogart sure liked severe-looking broads. She had that same hardness about her looks that Bacall possessed, which also only got more calcified by age.

For some people, their mood shows up on their face. At a happier moment...

That looks like Myrna Loy.

That’s definitely Myrna Loy.

R23, I think a main reason Jane Wyman never appealed to me as an actress was her silly 1950s 'dos. I know that sounds superficial, but if I'm going to invest my time watching a 2 hour movie, it had better have interesting or appealing actors, and Jane with her severe Mamie Eisenhower-type hairdos was a big turnoff. So what a surprise to see in the 1930-40s she had blonde ingenue hair.

Barbara Pepper

Did anyone ever look good with those Mamie Eisenhower bangs?

Hollywood tried to dress Mayo up in glamour girl clothes, but she had a squat figure and a face that looked like it was melting under the klieg lights.

Mayo and Humphrey Bogart with their dogs (1944)

Pretty.

The Battling Bogarts at Sluggy Hollow.

Aboard the Powerboat Sluggy.

[quote]She sounds like the 1930s equivalent to Courtney Love.

That sounds pretty accurate, the Courtney Love of the 1930s!

Bogarts homes has to reek of cigarettes and dog.

I've always wondered if Bacall really loved Bogie or if she just saw him as a father figure helping her through her career? She always spoke about him like that in interviews.

Many Hollywood types were Methot actors.

In R42 photo, pregnant Betty was smoking.

She could have at least shortened it to Sluggy Methhead.

[quote]Mayo and Humphrey Bogart with their dogs (1944)

More like Humphrey and his FOUR dogs.

Why is this thread still going? Did Bacall give it some gas?