Humphrey Bogart cured a hangover by getting drunk again.
And to make sure he had some company he formed his own drinking club, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, with his wife Lauren Bacall as den mother, Frank Sinatra as secretary.
Members were by and large Hollywood Democrats with an inclination for the bottle. Regulars included David Niven, Prince Michael Romanoff, and Judy Garland, while Adlai Stevenson, John Huston, John O’Hara, Peter Lorre, and Charles Addams would show up from time to time.
A featured highlight of these evenings was “killer croquet.” Bogie would toss down untold drinks as he puffed through his habitual fifth pack of Chesterfields for the day.
By way of comparison, Errol Flynn conned doctors into giving him narcotics shots, usually cocaine, when he had dipped into the bottle too heavily.
Richard Burton turned to chili and beer for breakfast, a menu he ordered so frequently that Elizabeth Taylor got to like it, too.
