The Lost History of Pandora's Box in the United States

It is widely believed that Pandora's Box was first shown in the United States at the 55th Street playhouse in December of 1929. It is also long been believed that the first post-1929 American screening of the Louise Brooks' film took place on June 9, 1958 at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

The long, almost 30 year gap in the film's American exhibition record is explained by a couple of widely held assumptions. One is that the film was poorly received when it debuted in New York City in late 1929, and, with sound films dominating American screens at the time, there was little if any demand for silent films from Germany. The second is that prior to 1960 the Eastman House had the only known American print of the film.*

Both assumptions are incorrect.

Just a few days ago I uncovered new information which adds a number of previously unknown details to the film's otherwise sparse exhibition history in America.

My first discovery was a clipping and a listing for what could be or was the first screening of Pandora's Box in the United States. A brief item in the Jersey Journal on November 1, 1929 states the film would open the following day, on Saturday, November 2 at the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City. That's nearly a month before it was believed to have opened. I also came across a November 3 listing (shown below) in the New York Daily News, suggesting the film, under the title Box of Pandora, was playing that day.

But then the records stopped, as if the film had stopped showing after just a day or two (if it did in fact show at all). The 55th Street Playhouse -- an art house which specialized in foreign films -- replaced Pandora's Box with Secrets of Nature, second series, an UFA Production.

In all likelihood, the reason Box of Pandora stopped showing just after it had reportedly opened was censorship. As is well known and documented elsewhere, this once controversial film was subject to censorship not only in Europe, but also in the United States. By the time the film (re)premiered on November 30th (or December 1 or 2 -- I have found newspaper clippings suggesting each date as the probable new opening date), nearly a third of it, by various accounts, was missing. The 55th Street Playhouse, the theater that debuted and widely advertised the film (including to NYC's non-English speaking population), projected a statement lamenting the film had been cut. The theater also apologized for the “added saccharine ending” in which Lulu joins the Salvation Army.

Nevertheless, Pandora's Box, or Box of Pandora as it was sometimes titled in advertisements and listing from the time, enjoyed an extended run. Despite its incomplete state and the generally poor reviews, the film did well, so much so the New York Sun reported Pandora’s Box “ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office records. It will therefore be held for another week.” In fact, the film played about two weeks (at a time most films only played one), with the last known screening taking place on December 13, 1929, according to a listing in the Brooklyn Standard Union. (As newspapers didn't list every film showing every day, and some theaters -- especially smaller theaters -- didn't advertise every day, these records may not be exact, and exhibition records sometimes need to be pieced together through various sources.)

After that, it has long been believed, Pandora’s Box fell into obscurity and was not shown again in the United States until James Card screened the film in 1958 at the Eastman House's Dryden Theater  in Rochester, New York.

Some ten or so years ago, and quite by chance, I stumbled across a few clippings related to a 1931 screening of Pandora's Box in Newark, New Jersey. I had been scrolling through microfilm looking for material on It Pays to Advertise or God's Gift to Women (both 1931 releases) when I came across a brief article and a couple of advertisements for a screening of the G.W. Pabst film at Newark's Little theater, starting May 16.

These two advertisements contain some interesting details. They note, for instance, that the film was shown with English titles and with synchronized, "thrilling sound effects"! While the nature of these sub-titles and sound effects is unknown - they suggest there was at least one print prepared sometime after 1929 for American exhibition. Just as interesting is the fact that the film was advertised for “Adults Only.” Like the 55th Street Playhouse in NYC, the Little theatre in Newark was a rep-house or art house which typically showed foreign films and travel films, but, it was not above showing what some considered sensational fair.

As mentioned earlier, a few days ago I found three more instances of the exhibition of Pandora's Box in the United States. One predates the 1931 Newark screening mentioned above, while the other two follow it.

On January 26, 1930, as Box of Pandora, the film opened at another Little Theater, this one in  Baltimore, Maryland. The film, a silent version which was promoted as an "Ultra-Sophisticated Drama," ran for one week, until February 1, 1930. In writing about the film, a critic for one of the Baltimore newspapers thought it worthwhile and well handled, though felt it suffered from cuts made by the Maryland Board of Motion Picture Censors. (Does anyone know if the records of the Maryland Board are extant or accessible?)

Four years after it debuted in New York City, Box of Pandora returned to the Big Apple, this time to the 5th Ave. Theater (Broadway at 28th St.) starting on December 5, 1933. Again billed as an "adults only" film and tagged with the words "Sin Lust Evil!" -- it ran (continuously between 9:30 am to 11:00 pm) for three days, through December 7. This time (see below), the film, seemingly, has fallen into near exploitation fair. And notably, neither Brooks' not Pabst's names are mentioned.

The third instance of a screening of Pandora's Box which I recently came across is one of the most fascinating! I didn't find an advertisement, only this passing reference in the Wisconsin State Journal, which was published in Madison.

Remarkably, this Sunday playhouse program took place on May 6, 1934 at Taliesin, the one-time home, studio, school, and country estate of Frank Lloyd Wright. Built by the famed architect and located in southwestern Wisconsin near Spring Green (about 50 miles from Madison), Taliesin served as Wright's home at the time, with its playhouse acting as a local rep-house which showed foreign and art films. (I found listings for other movies having shown there in 1934, but no mention as to whether or not Wright attended these screenings.) This version of the Pabst film, termed "an outstanding German production," was shown with English subtitles.

Evidently, from the newly uncovered records noted above, there was one or possibly two or more prints of Pandora's Box (one silent with English subtitles, another with synchronized sound effects?) in circulation in the United States in the early 1930s. If I were to guess, I would suggest that this print or these prints were likely circulated by a distributor which served the art-house or rep-house circuit. (One such distributor was Moviegraphs -- the exchange that handled distribution of Pandora’s Box in New York state in 1929; in 1932, it applied for a new exhibition license for the film.)

Admittedly, there was little interest in Pandora's Box in the United States in the 1930s. The four exhibition records I have uncovered so far may be the only instances of the film having been shown in the United States in the 1930s. Or there may be others, like a one-off screening at a University. Maybe other records will be found one day, and the remarkable, lost history of Pandora's Box in the United States will be further revealed.

*  (This assumption, that there was only one print of Pandora's Box in the United States prior to 1960, begs the question as to what happened to the copy of the film which Iris Barry deemed of little value and infamously rejected adding to the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1943.)