"There's no hurry. Tonight he'll be at Rick's. Everyone comes to Rick's," Captain Louis Renault said in Casablanca. When Esquire and Longines Watch Company held a casting call for Humphrey Bogart look-alikes, everyone—well, about 250 people—came to Tourneau TimeMachine on 57th Street to vie for a chance to appear in an Esquire fashion spread. Designed to place a spotlight on the Longines "evidenza" watch, currently captured in advertisements featuring Bogart, the event was coordinated by Esquire promotion director Scott Lehmann, Longines/Swatch Group marketing consultant Venanzio Ciampa, and Erik Dochtermann, CEO of Longines' ad agency Katz Dochtermann & Epstein.
The group brought in Ken Rosenberg, president of KR Concepts, to rescale the evidenza ad campaign in displays outside the store, where contestants lined up to be judged. Inside, an audition room designed as Rick's Cafe turned back time 60 years. Global Vision Group projected Casablanca on a wall in the back of the room, and Rosenberg decorated the remaining walls with photos of Bogart and Ingrid Bergman found in movie image banks. Rosenberg also coordinated other details, bringing in a piano (what would Rick's be without someone to play "As Times Goes By"?) and building a bar that came out of the wall. "We wanted to bring the contestants into the world of Casablanca," he told us. To add to the look, waiters in white tuxes served Bellinis and other specialties from Cipriani 42nd Street including tuna carpaccio.
Celebrity judges including Bogart's son, Stephen, and Audrey Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, picked five finalists, including a woman. (Physical resemblance was not a necessity—the magazine was looking for those who "embrace Bogart's confidence, image, personality, and the very essence of masculinity.") In the end, retired New York policeman Robert Goldrick earned the highest marks, winning over judges by showing up despite a nose bloodied in a recent surfing accident. (It's what Bogie would have done, they agreed.) "I came on a goof," Goldrick told us. On a day that otherwise would have entered his memory as the beginning of the 2003 blackout, he left with a photo shoot, a new watch and $10,000.
—Michele Marchetti
The group brought in Ken Rosenberg, president of KR Concepts, to rescale the evidenza ad campaign in displays outside the store, where contestants lined up to be judged. Inside, an audition room designed as Rick's Cafe turned back time 60 years. Global Vision Group projected Casablanca on a wall in the back of the room, and Rosenberg decorated the remaining walls with photos of Bogart and Ingrid Bergman found in movie image banks. Rosenberg also coordinated other details, bringing in a piano (what would Rick's be without someone to play "As Times Goes By"?) and building a bar that came out of the wall. "We wanted to bring the contestants into the world of Casablanca," he told us. To add to the look, waiters in white tuxes served Bellinis and other specialties from Cipriani 42nd Street including tuna carpaccio.
Celebrity judges including Bogart's son, Stephen, and Audrey Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, picked five finalists, including a woman. (Physical resemblance was not a necessity—the magazine was looking for those who "embrace Bogart's confidence, image, personality, and the very essence of masculinity.") In the end, retired New York policeman Robert Goldrick earned the highest marks, winning over judges by showing up despite a nose bloodied in a recent surfing accident. (It's what Bogie would have done, they agreed.) "I came on a goof," Goldrick told us. On a day that otherwise would have entered his memory as the beginning of the 2003 blackout, he left with a photo shoot, a new watch and $10,000.
—Michele Marchetti
More than 250 people showed up at Tourneau TimeMachine for a casting call for Humphrey Bogart look-alikes to promote the Longines Watch Company.
Inside, a piano player helped to recreate the scene at Rick's, Bogart's bar in Casablanca.
Stills from the film decorated the store.
The waiters and bartenders wore white tuxedo jackets, adding to the Casablanca-inspired look.
