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Humphrey Bogart was born Christmas Day in New York City in 1899. Although he would become perhaps the greatest movie star of all time, his early life in no way predicted this, and he was well into his thirties before he had much success at all! His father, a surgeon, intended for him to become a doctor, but he was kicked out of college. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and managed a stage company in his early 20s. He began acting on the stage, but to no real success. In 1930 he got a Hollywood contract at Fox Pictures, but he had little success there, and they released him after two years. He returned to the stage, and in 1936 finally was noticed in the small but vital role in the stage production of The Petrified Forest, where he appeared with Leslie Howard. Howard was signed for the movie version of the play, and he insisted, over studio objections, that Bogart be cast as well (he sent a telegram to Warners that read "No Bogart, no Howard"). Bogart never forgot this great kindness, and he much later named his daughter "Leslie". While Bogart was well received in The Petrified Forest, it did not make him a first rank star (likely he was 36 and he had already failed in Hollywood years earlier), so he spent the next five years at Warner Bros appearing in 28 films, almost always in secondary roles, often as a gangster. Twice he played cowboys (in Virginia City and The Oklahoma Kid)! He played the title role in The Return of Doctor X, a second rate horror movie, and a wrestling promoter in Swing Your Lady. He was in the first two "Dead End" movies, but was overshadowed by the Dead End Kids. Bogart was now 40, and it seemed likely he would finish his career playing more and more minor roles. But in 1941 George Raft turned down the role of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, an escaped legendary bank robber, and that role, along with the role of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (which Warners was remaking for the second time in 10 years) FINALLY made Bogart a top star (Warners thought so little of him as these movies were being released that most of the movie paper advertising for The Maltese Falcon showed Bogart with his cropped white hair from High Sierra!). Casablanca (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film) followed the next year, along with other patriotic World War II movies. In 1944, Bogart, who was 44 and had been married three times, was cast opposite 19 year old newcomer (and Howard Hawks' protege) Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, and Bogart left his wife and married Bacall the following year. They would make three more movies together (The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo) and have two children. Bogart had some of his very finest roles near the end of his career. In 1948 he starred as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in 1951 he was Charlie Allnut in The African Queen (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and in 1954 he was Lt. Cmdr. Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film; remember how he used "geometric logic" to prove there was a duplicate key?). I can't see anyone not agreeing that these are among the three finest acting performances ever! Bogart died from throat cancer in 1957 at the age of 57. He made many other memorable movies other than the ones noted above, and I urge you to seek them out! But be aware that he also appeared in a goodly number of MUCH lesser movies as well (especially in the first ten years of his career, so be sure to read reviews before starting one of his movies!)

Important Added Info: Note that two of these negatives are almost certainly from "Action in the North Atlantic" in 1943, and the third one might be a candid from the same film, or it could be from a different movie. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Note that these are the negatives that were in the camera when the photographer shot each photo. We have taken a scan of the negatives as they appear, and also a special scan of the negatives that show the "positive image" of each. We will provide the winning bidder of this auction with those positive image scans. They often (but not always) have retouching on the emulsion side, and negative numbers written in India ink on the front. Depending on the studio some 8x10 negatives may be trimmed or have numbers or information embedded into the sides of the negative. Many smaller format camera original negatives do not have retouching on them or numbers due to their smaller size. 8x10, 5x7 and 4x5 negatives were primarily the sizes used in the 1920s through the 1940s. 2 1/4" Rollei negatives and 35mm negatives became an industry standard in the 1950s and beyond until the digital revolution in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

This is a very special auction of 444 extremely rare negatives and transparencies of various sizes. EVERY single one in this auction is either "studio issued" (meaning it was created by the studio and sent to theaters and movie outlets), OR it is a "camera original" (meaning it was the actual negative that was in the camera when the photographer took the picture). Every auction clearly identifies which they are, and there are no items being auctioned that are not either "studio issue" or "camera originals". We have divided them by type and size.

Also note that every one of these 444 auctions have had their transparencies and/or negatives scanned expertly. This auction contains that scan with the "eMoviePoster.com" watermark over it. ONLY the winner of this auction will, on request, be sent UNWATERMARKED scan(s) of the items in this auction, which will both save them the time and expense of scanning them themselves, and also allow them to make high quality positive prints of the items they purchased.

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