Yesterday, I ventured to the University of California in Berkeley in search of yet more material related to Louise Brooks, and found a few more gems.
Over the years, and especially when I lived in San Francisco, I visited the Doe Library at U.C. Berkeley dozens of times, spending hundreds of hours scrolling through the library's massive microfilm collection. This was before the newspaper and microfilm collection was moved from its low-hung basement room which often smelled of ant spray to its current home in a cavernous four floor "vault" created out of the post-earthquake ruins of another wing of massive library building. My many trips to this library have left me with many pleasurable memories.... I love doing research, and love finding things no one has seen in decades.
I hit most of my marks, but not all. I have always wanted to find pictures and coverage of "60 Ans de Cinema," the landmark exhibit organized by Henri Langlois in Paris in 1955. As Barry Paris recounts, "Visitors entering the building were greeted by two gigantic portraits looming down from wires in positions of co-equal honor: Falconetti from Dreyer's The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc (1927) and Brooks from Pandora's Box. What stunned people was that the two dominant faces belonged to such obscure actresses.... Asked to justify his choice of Brooks over Garbo or Dietrich or a hundred others more worthy of the honor, Langlois made a ringing declaration that became the rallying cry of Louise's resurrection:
Unless you know what you are looking for, and where to look for it, and when in time to look, it is difficult to search Russian language publications, which are written in Cyrillic. Also difficult for me to search through are Japanese-language newspapers and magazines, which are written in kanji, but sometimes contain bits of English-language text. That's how I came across this brief clipping related to The Canary Murder Case from The Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese-language newspaper published in Los Angeles, California.
The Canary Murder Case debuted at the Paramount theater in February of 1929, where it enjoyed a successful run. It then played a week at the Egyptian in March, and then was revived for another week at the historic Million Dollar. According to Wikipedia, "The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places."
I found a few other clippings in The Rafu Shimpo dating from 1937 related to King of Gamblers and When You're in Love. This later material was printed in English.
Besides foreign-language publications, I also looked through a database of LGBTQ publications and came across this UK clipping. Louise Brooks has long been a figure of interest within the gay and lesbian community, so it's no surprise I found this enthusiastic 1993 article, as well as others. THis piece comes from a now-defunct London-based tabloid publication called The Pink Paper. And its author, Nigel Robinson, if I am not mistaken, is also the author of a few science fiction novels as well as a handful of later Doctor Who titles.
Over the years, and especially when I lived in San Francisco, I visited the Doe Library at U.C. Berkeley dozens of times, spending hundreds of hours scrolling through the library's massive microfilm collection. This was before the newspaper and microfilm collection was moved from its low-hung basement room which often smelled of ant spray to its current home in a cavernous four floor "vault" created out of the post-earthquake ruins of another wing of massive library building. My many trips to this library have left me with many pleasurable memories.... I love doing research, and love finding things no one has seen in decades.
 | |
| Doe Memorial Library,
named after benefactor Charles Franklin Doe, is a Beaux Arts landmark
whose main portal is graced by Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. photo via Cal Alumni Association |
I hit most of my marks, but not all. I have always wanted to find pictures and coverage of "60 Ans de Cinema," the landmark exhibit organized by Henri Langlois in Paris in 1955. As Barry Paris recounts, "Visitors entering the building were greeted by two gigantic portraits looming down from wires in positions of co-equal honor: Falconetti from Dreyer's The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc (1927) and Brooks from Pandora's Box. What stunned people was that the two dominant faces belonged to such obscure actresses.... Asked to justify his choice of Brooks over Garbo or Dietrich or a hundred others more worthy of the honor, Langlois made a ringing declaration that became the rallying cry of Louise's resurrection:
There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks!"
I spent about an hour scrolling through the June, 1955 microfilm of both Le Monde and Le Figaro, two leading newspapers, but came up empty handed. Paris had other newspapers at the time, as well as film magazines, so my search will go on.
However, I did find other material of note, like this Russian newspaper advertisement from 1932. There are five film programs being promoted, and the one in the middle for the Nero-Film Лулу, should catch your eye. (Лулу = Lulu, as the film was titled in the Soviet Union.) For those who don't read Russian, like me, Louise Brooks is here spelled as Луиза Брук.
Unless you know what you are looking for, and where to look for it, and when in time to look, it is difficult to search Russian language publications, which are written in Cyrillic. Also difficult for me to search through are Japanese-language newspapers and magazines, which are written in kanji, but sometimes contain bits of English-language text. That's how I came across this brief clipping related to The Canary Murder Case from The Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese-language newspaper published in Los Angeles, California.
The Canary Murder Case debuted at the Paramount theater in February of 1929, where it enjoyed a successful run. It then played a week at the Egyptian in March, and then was revived for another week at the historic Million Dollar. According to Wikipedia, "The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places."
I found a few other clippings in The Rafu Shimpo dating from 1937 related to King of Gamblers and When You're in Love. This later material was printed in English.
Besides foreign-language publications, I also looked through a database of LGBTQ publications and came across this UK clipping. Louise Brooks has long been a figure of interest within the gay and lesbian community, so it's no surprise I found this enthusiastic 1993 article, as well as others. THis piece comes from a now-defunct London-based tabloid publication called The Pink Paper. And its author, Nigel Robinson, if I am not mistaken, is also the author of a few science fiction novels as well as a handful of later Doctor Who titles.
Like the good Doctor, I too travel though time and place in search of Lulu.
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