FROM THE ARCHIVES

Lauren Bacall’s African Queen adventure story for the Weekly

When Hollywood siren Lauren Bacall was asked to accompany her husband, Humphrey Bogart, to the remote jungles of Africa as he filmed The African Queen, it was only supposed to be for company. Instead, the actress found herself playing the role of nurse as her husband’s crew began to fall ill one by one, even saving a man’s life, when she was the only one who thought to bring antibiotics on the trip. Here, in an extraordinary story, Lauren wrote of her experience on the set of the film for the Weekly in 1952 – the movie which saw Humphrey win his only Oscar and also marked the start of her life-long friendship with its other star, Katharine Hepburn.