Humphrey Bogart met Lauren Bacall while filming To Have and Have Not, a 1944 film loosely adapted from the eponymous Ernest Hemingway novel. The two began an affair; Bogart was still married to Mayo Methot, his third wife, at the time. By February of 1945, Bogart had called off his marriage and was preparing to wed Bacall—which he did just a few months later, on May 21, 1945. Following the fête, LIFE announced their union as follows:
Actress Lauren Bacall (“The Look”), born 20 years ago as Betty Joan Perske, was married last week to Actor Humphrey Bogart (“The Leer”), 46, in the hallway of Novelist Louis Bromfield’s 20-room farmhouse near Mansfield, Ohio. It was her first marriage, Bogart’s fourth. The ceremony was performed by Municipal Judge H.H. Shettler who read a service which he said contained a little of everything. Before taking the vows, Bogart drank a Martini, muttered, ‘Oh, baby,’ to his bride. After the ceremony he kissed his bride and she gasped, “Oh, goody!” Deeply sun-tanned, she was wearing a doeskin beige dress. Seven sheriffs kept the crowds away.
“Oh, baby” and “oh, goody” would remain married until his death from cancer in 1957.
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
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