NEW YORK, June 26 (UPI) -- Humphrey Bogart's widow and son were on hand Friday when the film great's childhood New York block was officially named after him.
Lying between Broadway and West End Avenue, the 103rd Street block will now be known as Humphrey Bogart Place after the famous star of "Casablanca," The New York Times reported.
Among the assembled crowd of about 150 people were Bogart's widow, actress Lauren Bacall, and their son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, who accepted the honor in the late actor's name.
"It certainly was surprising," said Bacall during the ceremony. "Bogie would never have believed it."
The actor had grown up in the early 1900s' in a brownstone at 245 West 103rd Street, which is now a low-income housing project owned by the Housing Authority. He died in 1957.
The Times reports that the tribute was the idea of local video store owner Gary Dennis, who had petitioned and lobbied for the honorary name change since last May.
"He was the man that we boys wanted to be," Dennis said.
