What happened to Bogey after walking down the runway? A new book tells the story

Web posted on: Monday, October 12, 1998 3:57:34 PMEDT

ATLANTA (CNN) -- It seems some folks would rather hear Sam play the same old tune over and over, rather than strike up any new tunes.

Sam, in this case, is the piano player in the classic film, "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The film tells the World War II tale of lovers torn apart by war, and the sacrifice they make for the sake of humanity.

Sam is also a character in a new novel -- yes, new -- that details what became of the "Casablanca" crew after that famous fog-shrouded scene that ended the 1942 film.

Did Rick (Humphrey Bogart) find happiness without Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman)? Or did he crawl back to her, begging forgiveness for making her go on that plane with Victor (Paul Henreid)?

Sam's infamous "As Time Goes By" lends its name to the new novel

Time goes by

The new book, "As Time Goes By" by former Time magazine music critic Michael Walsh, offers answers. Warner Books, a division of Time Warner, which owns the rights to the characters, is publishing a 250,000 copy first printing in the United States and more than a dozen foreign countries.

But some folks say the work is approaching sacrilegious, as it ruins the perfect ending to the perfect film.

"I see no reason for this thing to come into existence except that somebody is going to make a buck off of it," says Aljean Harmetz, who penned the definitive book about the making of "Casablanca." "I think it's terrible, just disgusting, beyond the pale."

Walsh said he expected flack from critics, and says he's merely doing what's been done for thousands of years.

"Great cultural myths deserve to be added to," Walsh says. "We've done this throughout time immemorial, starting with the Greeks."

Did Rick go running back to Ilsa?

Rick, the gangster

Walsh also expresses the hope that ultimately people will understand that the book is faithful to the film and based on clues throughout the movie on what could have happened.

So... what happens to Rick and Ilsa and Victor and Sam, after the closing credits?

For one thing, Sam plays it again. To ruin Walsh's ending (is it really an ending?), Rick's piano-playing pal performs one more rendition of "As Time Goes By" for the characters who survived Walsh's plot, which involves the crew heading to Prague to kill the Nazi monster Reinhard Heydrich.

Walsh also fills in the gaps, enlightening the reader with backstories involving the characters that were left out of the film. According to the author, Rick is really a Jewish gangster-bar owner from New York named Yitzik Baline, who fled the Big Apple with the cops at his heels after a gang war. Baline is the original name of Irving Berlin.

"If you look at Bogart's early films, he is always playing an ethnic second banana gangster -- so I made Rick that," Walsh said, adding that most of the scriptwriters for the film were Jewish and, according to the custom of the day in Hollywood, often disguised Jewish characters as WASPs.

The book was kept wrapped in mystery until its release. Review copies were not sent out and Walsh said as a result only a handful of people were able to read it.

But as time goes by, more people will read it, and they might wish Sam never played it again.

Other book news:

• What's brewing in our Reader's Cafe?

Related site:
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• Internet Movie Database -- 'Casablanca'

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