Today’s post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Research Services at the National Archives at College Park, MD.
In late 1943/early 1944, Humphrey Bogart and his wife Mayo Methot went on an 2-1/2 month entertainment tour of military bases in North Africa and Italy for the USO. Their party also included actor Don Cummings and accordionist Ralph Hark. In addition to giving shows, Bogart and his wife visited hospitals and undertook other morale-boosting activities. Methot was his third wife and their relationship was known to be stormy. Among the cities they visited was Naples, Italy.
While staying at the Parco Hotel in Naples, Bogart was involved in an incident that did not live up to the behavior expected of a patron of Rick’s Café Americain in “Casablanca.” Late one night, Bogart and his compatriots celebrated a bit too loudly and enthusiastically and too long, leading to complaints by other patrons of the hotel. One author, in a scenario that has since become accepted, describes this incident as involving Bogart and his wife shooting up the ceiling in their hotel room using guns that had been presented to them by some enlisted men in the audience of one of their shows.
The incident was investigated by the local U.S. army base inspector general who prepared the following gun-free report which is nonetheless entertaining:
Subsequently, Brig. Gen. A.W. Pence, commander of the Peninsular Base Section, recommended that no further action be taken. He noted that “Mr. Bogart has apologized to all concerned and appears to be very contrite concerning the whole episode.” The general did suggest, however, that the report be kept on file in case the movie star exhibited similar behavior during the rest of his tour.
Source: Col. Herbert V. Scanlan, Inspector General, Peninsular Base Section, “Investigation of nocturnal disturbances created by Mr. Humphrey Bogart, U.S.O. Camp entertainer and party, at Parco Hotel, Naples Italy” January 20, 1944; Commanding General Peninsular Base Section to Commanding General NATOUSA, January 24, 1944; file AG 333.5 (23 January 1944), Entry NM-360A: Classified Decimal File, 1943-45 (NAID 7933774) , RG 407: Records of the Adjutant General’s Office.
Biographies of Humphrey Bogart include:
•A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax bogart (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1997);
•Stefan Kanfer Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011).
Thanks go to Vincent Turpin and Henry Brooks for bringing this document to my attention.