Showing posts with label Barry Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barry Paris. Show all posts

Thursday, October 12, 2023

The 100 Greatest Film Books of All-Time

The Hollywood Reporter has released a list of the 100 greatest film books of all time, as determined by a jury of 300 "Hollywood heavyweights." The list is made of of books largely about the contemporary film industry (aka Hollywood), thought there are a handful focusing on film history and individuals from the past -- including Louise Brooks. As a matter of fact, Louise Brooks' own Lulu in Hollywood came in at number 44 on the list. Aside from Brooks, the only other silent film star is Charlie Chaplin, whose Autobiography tied for 61st. (Notably, as well, Brooks is the only silent film star pictured in the article's banner image, seen below. In addition, Brooks is depicted on the cover of another book on the list, Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet, which tied at number 22.) The list of books can be found HERE. I encourage everyone to check it out.

Illustration by The Sporting Press, via The Hollywood Reporter

Of Lulu in Hollywood, the Hollywood Reporter stated, "Like a comet, this American actress with a trademark black bob burned brightly (she was one of the biggest stars of the 1920s, especially in the German films Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl) and then was gone — until she resurfaced late in life as a writer. This collection of essays captured the frustrations of being a liberated woman in early Hollywood." Brooks' 1982 book received a respectable 34 votes.

Each of the books featured on the list also contained a suggestion for related reading: the title paired with Lulu in Hollywood is The Kindness of Strangers, by Salka Viertel. I don't know how or why this otherwise excellent memoir was chosen, but certainly a much better choice, and a far more influential & germane book would have been Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris. The latter was / is a key work in keeping a spotlight on the actress. And, in my humble opinion, it too should have been included on the list. It is a truly great biography.

I would also like to make another point: while it is true that this "collection of essays captured the frustrations of being a liberated woman in early Hollywood," Louise Brooks was NOT "one of the biggest stars of the 1920s". She was only a second tier star, an up-and-coming actress whose career / moment in the spotlight lasted only a few years. Her standing in Europe, after having appeared in the German films Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, was certainly greater than in America, but that standing only lasted a couple of years, from 1929 to 1930.

via The Hollywood Reporter

Brooks' standing in film history rests on her rediscovery. That is her story. And notably, one of the books which aided that rediscovery, Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By ..., is ranked at number 12 on the Hollywood Reporter list. What's more, Brooks received a special acknowledgment in Brownlow's classic work, which reads, "I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book's publication."

I would like to toot my own horn here a bit.... Lulu in Hollywood was published in hardback in 1982. It was reviewed widely and sold well, and was reprinted in paperback. It remained in print for a number of years before eventually going out-of-print. This is the life-story of many books. They come and they go. The same with the Barry Paris' biography of the actress, which is truly superb. If you consider yourself a fan of the actress and haven't read both books, then you are missing out.

 


Believe it or not, but there was a time in the late 1990s when both Lulu in Hollywood and the Barry Paris biography were out-of-print. Both books could be hard to find, especially for some fans, and nice, 1st edition copies of both books started to command high prices. As the head of the Louise Brooks Society, I led a grass roots campaign to bring both books back into print. And succeeded.

Due to my efforts, both Lulu in Hollywood and the Barry Paris biography were reprinted by the University of Minnesota Press in smart looking new editions in the year 2000, and each have remained in print ever since. I am proud of this bit of cultural activism, and I even received an acknowledgement in both books.


If you haven't yet read Lulu in Hollywood or the Barry Paris biography, or for that matter Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By...., then do so today. Each book is available for purchase online or may be borrowed through your local library. The Hollywood Reporter list is chock-full of good reading and recommendations. Check it out HERE

And, if you are looking for another good book to read, might I also recommend my just published book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. It is a deep dive into the history of Brooks' first film, and what's more, it features a foreword by Kevin Brownlow, who in 2010 the Hollywood Reporter notes "became the first film preservationist ever awarded an honorary Oscar." Who knows, maybe someday, my new book will make a list of worthwhile books.


THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Books For Sale - Louise Brooks and related interest

Looking for something good to read? Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her films? The Louise Brooks Society has a small number of new & gently used books for sale of interest to the dedicated fan. Some are hard to find, some less so. Each are in very good or better condition. THE FOLLOWING LIST FEATURES A FEW NEW TITLES AND REDUCED PRICES. Your purchase helps support the LBS.
 
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Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star (softcover 1st edition)
by Thomas Gladysz
-- This 296 page book brings together 15 years work by the Director of the Louise Brooks Society. Gathered here are the author's best articles, essays, and blogs about the silent film star and her films—Beggars of Life, Pandora’s Box, and Diary of a Lost Girl—each are discussed, as are many other little known aspects of Brooks’ legendary career. With many rare illustrations.

AUTOGRAPHED copies available direct from the author @ $22.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA). To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom
 
 
Or, buy the English-language edition from Amazon Australia | Brazil | Canada | France | Germany | India | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Netherlands | Poland | Singapore | Spain | Turkey | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom
 
The English-language edition is also available from Open Trolley (Indonesia) and MightyApe (New Zealand)

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Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film (softcover 1st edition)
by Thomas Gladysz 
-- This first ever study of Beggars of Life looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. With more than 50 little seen images, tons of information, detailed credits, trivia, and a foreword by William Wellman, Jr. A must read for every fan. 
 
AUTOGRAPHED copies available direct from the author @ $13.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA) / A very few copies signed by both Gladysz and William Wellman Jr. are also available @ $75.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA). To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom
 
Buy NEW from Amazon (USA) | Indiebound | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Larry Edmunds (Hollywood, CA) | George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY)
 
Or, buy the English-language edition from Amazon Australia | Brazil | Canada | France | Germany | India | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Netherlands | Poland | Singapore | Spain | Turkey | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom
 
The English-language edition is also available from Open Trolley (Indonesia) and MightyApe (New Zealand)  
 

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Now We're in the Air (softcover 1st edition)
by Thomas Gladysz
-- This companion to the once "lost" 1927 film tells the story of the film’s making, its reception, and its discovery by film preservationist Robert Byrne. With two rare fictionalizations of the movie story, more than 75 little seen images, detailed credits, trivia, and a foreword by Byrne. A must read for the discriminating fan. Your purchase helps support the LBS.

A few autographed copies available direct from the author @ $18.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA) Sorry, sold out
 
Buy NEW from Amazon (USA) | Indiebound | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Larry Edmunds (Hollywood, CA) | George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY)
 
Or, buy the English-language edition from Amazon Australia | Brazil | Canada | France | Germany | India | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Netherlands | Poland | Singapore | Spain | Turkey | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom
 
The English-language edition is also available from Open Trolley (Indonesia) and MightyApe (New Zealand)

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The Diary of a Lost Girl Louise Brooks edition (softcover)
by Margarete Bohme (author) and Thomas Gladysz (editor)
-- The 1929 film, Diary of a Lost Girl, is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in Germany in 1905. Though little known today, it was a literary sensation at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1920s, it had been translated into 14 languages and sold more than 1,200,000 copies - ranking it among the bestselling books of its time. Was it - as many believed - the real-life diary of a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work - a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication - inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two silent films. The best remembered of these is the oft revived G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks.

This corrected and annotated edition of the original English language translation brings this important book back into print after more than 100 years. It includes an introduction by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society, detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 silent film. This special "Louise Brooks Edition" also includes more than three dozen vintage illustrations.
 
AUTOGRAPHED copies available direct from the author @ $25.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA) To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom
 
Buy NEW from Amazon (USA) | Indiebound | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Larry Edmunds (Hollywood, CA) | George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY)
 
Or, buy the English-language edition from Amazon Australia | Brazil | Canada | France | Germany | India | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Netherlands | Poland | Singapore | Spain | Turkey | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom
 
The English-language edition is also available from Open Trolley (Indonesia) and MightyApe (New Zealand)

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LIMITED SUPPLY, NEW LOWER PRICES

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Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star (softcover 1st printing)
edited by Roland Jaccard
-- hard-to-find first book on the actress, contains writings by and about Louise Brooks and the Lulu character along with 90 illustrations, edited by the noted French film critic and writer. This scarce 1986 copy was AUTOGRAPHED in Paris by Roland Jaccard. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom
 
Only one autographed copy available
$200.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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The Chaperone (hardcover 1st edition)
by Laura Moriarty
-- The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922. The basis for the celebrated motion picture from PBS Masterpiece and the team that brought the world Downton Abbey. This first edition copy is AUTOGRAPHED by Laura Moriarty. Your purchase helps support the LBS (who supplied the cover image). To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom

Only one copy available
$50.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA) 
 
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Una acompañante en Nueva York (softcover, 1st printing)
by Laura Moriarty
-- The Spanish-language edition of The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty's captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922. The basis for the celebrated motion picture from PBS Masterpiece and the team that brought the world Downton Abbey. Your purchase helps support the LBS (who supplied the cover image). To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom

Only one copy available
$15.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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Lulu (softcover 1st edition)
by Samuel Bernstein
-- This engaging novel tells the story of the "the laughing girl with the black helmet of hair and the sexy bangs." A good read. These copies are in like new condition and are AUTOGRAPHED by the author. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


A very few copies available
$12.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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Louise Brooks (hardcover 1st edition)
by Barry Paris
-- Simply put, a must read; the definitive biography of Louise Brooks and likely the best film biography every published. This hardback first edition, with illustrations, was published in 1989. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Only two copies available
$30.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 

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Lulu in Hollywood (hardcover 1st edition)
by Louise Brooks
-- Brooks' own collection of autobiographical essays. This hardback first edition, with a photo insert, was published in 1982. Introduction by William Shawn. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Only two copies available
$20.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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Lulu in Hollywood (softcover)
by Louise Brooks
-- Brooks' own collection of autobiographical essays. This edition, with a photo insert, was published in paperback in the 1980s. Introduction by William Shawn. These copies are in very good condition. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


A few copies available
$10.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
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The Show-Off  (hardback)
by William Almon Wolff
-- This hard-to-find novel is based on the acclaimed play by future Pulitzer Prize winner George Kelly, which was the basis of the 1926 Louise Brooks film of the same name. A delightful read. Scarce in dust-jacket, which is a little worn. 
 
Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom

This book is accompanied by a Show-Off reproduction movie herald (pictured here) created by the Louise Brooks Society in 2006 during the Louise Brooks centennial. This reproduction herald resembles the vintage movie heralds given away during the 1920s. Only two copies of the book / herald set are available
$65.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
 
 

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The Diary of a Lost One (hardback)
by Margarete Bohme
-- A vintage American hardback edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl, published by the Hudson Press in 1908. In good condition without dustjack (which is extremely rare). Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom



Only one copy available
$65.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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The Canary Murder Case (hardback)
by S.S. van Dine

-- A photoplay edition of the classic mystery novel with stills from the 1929 William Powell / Louise Brooks film. In good condition, without the rare dustjacket. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Two copies available
$12.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
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It Pays to Advertise
(hardback)
by Samuel Field
-- This book is a novelization of the famous stage play by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter Hackett which served as the basis of the 1931 talkie of the same name which starred Norman Foster and Carole Lombard and which included a cameo by Louise Brooks. An uncommon title.

In good condition, without the rare dust jacket. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom 
 
Two copies available
$12.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

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Il Guanto Rosso (softcover)
by Tadeusz Rozewicz
-- A scarce copy of this 2003 Italian collection of poems by the acclaimed Polish poet, with an image of Louise Brooks on the cover (images supplied by and credited to the LBS). Text in Polish and Italian. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Only one copy available
$25.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
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Instantanee
(softcover)
by Osvaldo Guerrieri
-- The title of this 2009 Italian-language book translates as "snapshots." And that is what it is, a series of meditations / short essays on various cultural figures including Louise Brooks. A hard-to-find book. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom
 
 
 
One copy available.
$15.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
 
 
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Pandoras Schätze: Erotikkonzeptionen in den Stummfilmen von G.W. Pabst
(softcover)
by Gerald Koll
-- Louise Brooks adorns the cover and is central to the text of this scarce 440 page, German-language study of the concept of eroticism in the films of director G. W. Pabst. This book contains chapters on both Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl which together run more than 110 pages. Includes illustrations. Published in 1998 by Diskurs Film Verlag. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Only one copy available
$50.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
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Lulu
by Alban Berg

-- This pair of items includes the softcover libretto for Alban Berg's opera, Lulu. Printed in German in Austria by Universal Edition. Also included is this now scarce 1994 CD, featuring the Lulu Suite by Berg, with Louise Brooks on the cover. Your purchase helps support the LBS. To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom


Only one pair (book and CD) available
$30.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

Monday, August 23, 2021

Memoirs of a silent film loving bookseller, as told through "baseball" cards, part 1

This post is a kind of sidebar to a long and heavily illustrated piece I wrote called "One booksellers memoirs, told through 'baseball' cards." The piece is awaiting publication, when and if it is published, I will edit in a link.

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that I once worked as a bookseller at the Booksmith in San Francisco, much of the time running the store's events program. As such, I worked with publishers in selecting authors, creating a monthly schedule, arranging for newspaper listings, and generally banging the drum to make sure someone showed up. I also hosted events – which meant setting up chairs and a podium, making sure there were books, bottled water and signing pens available, and most importantly, introducing the writer before an audience which might range between three and 300.

Author events can be highly competitive, especially in the bookstore rich San Francisco Bay Area. In order to make the series stand out, the Booksmith began issuing a series of promotional cards for most every author event the store put on. These author cards were similar to baseball cards or other like collectibles, except that these cards featured contemporary poets, novelists, biographers, historians and  more than a few pop culture celebrities. And because of my interest in early film and film history and especially Louise Brooks, there were also a handful of events related to authors in those areas who then recently had a book published.

The three authors I hosted who are most closely associated with Louise Brooks (among the approximately 30 related to early film) are Peter Cowie, Frederica Sagor Maas, and Barry Paris. There are stories behind each event, and each card. 

 

-- The event with screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas #302 took place on July 10, 1999, just four days after her 99th birthday. The event was held to mark the publication of Maas' The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (University Press of Kentucky).

One day in April,1999 I was roaming about the floor of the national booksellers convention in Los Angeles (or was it Anaheim). I was looking at new and forthcoming books and considering authors who I might like to have for an event. That's when I came across the booth housing the University Press of Kentucky, and met the charming Leila Salisbury. I visited the UPK booth because I had heard they were publishing books on film history, and I wanted to check things out. Leila and I struck up a conversation, and that when she handed me a advance copy of The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, the memoir of an early Hollywood screenwriter whose career began in the silent era. The author's name seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. I took the advance copy back to my hotel, and later, began reading it before I went to sleep. . . . However, I couldn't put it down as one fascinating anecdote followed another until I came across Louise Brooks' name and realized who the author of the book was -- Frederica Sagor, the author of the story that served as the basis for the 1927 Louise Brooks' film, Rolled Stockings! OMG.

When Leila first handed me a copy of The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, she casually mentioned the press would be holding a lunch with the author at Musso and Franks, the famous Hollywood restaurant. First thing the next day, I returned to the UPK booth and wormed my way into the luncheon. I simply had to meet the author, a then 98 year old woman who had known and penned scripts not only Louise Brooks, but also Garbo, Clara Bow, Norma Shearer, Erich von Stroheim and others. 

That fortuitous encounter in April led to Maas' first ever bookstore event at the Booksmith just three months later. Maas had just turned 99 years old, and was somewhat frail, nearly blind, and hard of hearing - but still mentally sharp. She wasn't able to stand and give a talk or read from her book, and so she and I sat down together in front of few dozen film buffs and I asked her a bunch of softball questions drawn from my reading of her anecdotal memoir. The crowd loved her, and hung on every word. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Maas told some dishy stories including one about Joan Crawford, who she met when the future star first arrived in Hollywood. Maas was assigned by the studio to greet Crawford (then Lucille LeSueur) at the train station, show her about, take her shopping, and teach her how to dress. Still mentally sharp and opinionated after nearly a century, Maas recalled not being impressed by the young Crawford, and thought the then aspiring actress little more than a “tramp.” The crowd giggled with delight.

After her presentation and book signing, my wife and I took Maas and her helper (her niece) out to dinner, and once again Maas told more stories of early Hollywood. I got to ask her about Brooks, and I was in heaven. The following day, I arranged for Maas to sign books at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, where she spoke briefly from the stage and again wowed a crowd of nearly a thousand. At the book signing that followed, everyone wanted to meet this witness to history. We ended up selling nearly 100 books! 

I have written about Frederica in the past here on the Louise Brooks Society blog. Those posts can be found HERE and HERE. The Shocking Miss Pilgrim did well, and even went into a second printing - pretty good for a memoir by a little know individual published by a university press. Frederica also endured, and became a supercentenarian, and one of the oldest surviving entertainers from the silent film era. In fact, Maas lived to the age of 111, making her at the time of her death the second oldest person in California and the eighteenth oldest in America, as well as the  44th oldest verified person in the world. If you haven't read her memoir, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, I would encourage you to do so.

-- The event with biographer Barry Paris #413 took place on November 14, 2000, on what would have been Louise Brooks' 94th birthday. The event was held for the reissue of the Paris biography of actress (University of Minnesota Press).

For a brief time in the late 1990s, both the Barry Paris biography of Brooks as well as Brooks' own Lulu in Hollywood had fallen out of print. (This was before the era of e-books, when little goes out of print.) I led a grass roots campaign to bring both books back into circulation, emailing and phoning and chatting with whoever might listen. Eventually, the University of Minnesota Press answered the call. They too were starting to publish film history. (My name and the Louise Brooks Society are acknowledged on the copy right page of each edition.)

In an unprecedented "thank you" for my efforts, the UMP flew Barry Paris from his home in Pittsburgh, PA to San Francisco, where he did an event at the Booksmith. I was thrilled, as were others. A good crowd turned out, with a few coming up from as far away as Los Angeles, hundreds of miles away. And again, we sold a good number of books. A year or two later, I stopped by the UMP booth at the annual bookseller's convention and ask how things were going with the book.  I was told the Barry Paris biography was still going strong, and in fact, it was among the university press' best selling backlist titles. Both books are still in print today.

BTW: to mark the appearance of Barry Paris at the Booksmith, I produced a limited edition autographed broadside featuring a brief quotation from the Paris book. It can be seen HERE.

-- The event with European film historian Peter Cowie #890 took place on November 12, 2006, just two days ahead of the Louise Brooks centennial. The Booksmith event was held to mark the publication of Cowie's Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever (Rizzoli), which was published to coincide with the centennial and the handful of events which were taking place around the country.

Sometime earlier that year, I had caught wind of the books' forthcoming publication. (I think Cowie had contacted me, as I am acknowledged in the book.) And once again, I was roaming about the floor of the national booksellers convention when I came across the Rizzoli booth. The press representative and I chatted, and he gave me a photocopy of the book's manuscript. Flash forward nearly half a year, and Cowie's publisher was putting together a small author tour in support of the publication of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. Rizzoli contacted me to gauge my interest, and of course I said yes. 

The Booksmith event was held off-site at the historic Balboa Theatre in San Francisco. I put together a slide-show of rare images and spoke briefly. Cowie spoke, there was a screening of a little seen Brooks' film, and Cowie signed books in the lobby. It was a memorable occasion. I even created a vintage looking handbill for the occasion which were given away to all of those who attended the event. 

I gave Peter Cowie one of the Louise Brooks buttons I made featuring a vintage caricature of the actress. He can be seen wearing it in the picture above. And, he can be seen wearing it in the centennial event held two days later in the Dryden Theater at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

Those are the stories behind the three cards pictured above (front) and below (back side of card). To be continued....HERE

BTW: the Booksmith card series began in 1993, and ran for 15 years; by the time it ended, the number of cards totaled more than 1000, making it, I would hazard to guess, one of the larger non-sport card series of the time. However, less than 30 cards relate to early film. An annotated checklist of all the cards can be found at www.thomasgladysz.com/booksmith-author-cards-a-checklist/

Friday, March 5, 2021

#WorldBookDay2021 the Louise Brooks biography by Barry Paris

Today is World Book Day. #WorldBookDay2021 And so, I thought I would post something about my favorite book, which it turns out, is the reason why I started this blog ever so long ago. But first a short something about books in my early life....

When I was a teenager, I had a couple of jobs. I went to a private high school, and payed my own tuition. I also saved up for college. With my extra spending money I bought books, usually one a week, at the local B. Dalton, which was located in a nearby shopping mall named Eastland. I grew-up in Harper Woods, an uneventful suburb of Detroit, and besides the local public library -- which I rode my bicycle to on a regular basis -- the local B. Dalton comprised my entry into the world of books. I liked to read books, and I liked to browse books. I was a nerdy kid. Books, and the worlds they represented, were what I had going on.

Three of the books which had the biggest impact on my life I came across as a teenager. They are Walden, by Henry David Thoreau; the Collected Stories of Franz Kafka; and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I can't remember exactly how I came across the first two. Like most teens, I was idealistic, and that's what likely led me to Thoreau and his literary philosophy. I also used to tune into radio documentaries broadcast on the CBC out of Canada, which was just across the Detroit river. That's likely how I first heard about Kafka, a strange and awkward fellow who no doubt appealed to the awkwardness I felt as a young person. I also recall, quite vividly, having seen Truffaut's terrific film of Fahrenheit 451 broadcast on Canadian television, channel 9 out of Windsor. It made a big impression, and that's what led me to read Bradbury's great novel. I still have those same books I bought ever so long ago. They remain favorites.

My interest in Thoreau led me to another book which I still own and which also made a big impact on my life. That book was a biography, The Days of Henry David Thoreau, by Walter Harding. I recall reading it and when I came to the end of the book and the end of Thoreau's life, I cried. Perhaps I shouldn't admit it, as it may make me look foolish -- a teenage boy crying in his basement at the death of someone from long ago. Of course, intellectually, I knew Thoreau was dead. He died in 1862, more than 100 years before I was born. But emotionally, while reading Harding's beautifully told story of one man's life, I became so involved in Thoreau that I thought it was unfair that he was taken from the world.

Walter Harding was a great Thoreau scholar, and the author or editor of a shelf-full of books on the solitary transcendentalist. Not only did his The Days of Henry David Thoreau have a big impact on me, it also got me hooked on biographies. Some people enjoy reading fiction, or poetry, or true crime books, or history or sci-fi. As a genre, I really like biographies. A great biography -- an empathetic biography well told, can put you into the shoes of another and in some small way let you experience another time and place. Harding's book did that for me as a teen, and it lead to a longstanding interest in 19th century New England and the writers of the American Renaissance. One of the highlights of my life was a trip to Concord, Massachusetts where I visited Walden Pond, the Alcott House, Emerson's house, Hawthorne's house, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, etc.... 

There have been other biographies which I have greatly enjoyed, like Neil Baldwin's Man Ray: American Artist and Mark Polizzotti's Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton. Each tie-into my love of surrealism. But none after the Harding biography of Thoreau have had as large an impact on  my life as has Barry Paris' biography of Louise Brooks. I first read Paris' book in the early 1990s, a few years after it was published and not long after I had first watched a rented VHS of Pandora's Box. I had to find out more about more about the actress who played Lulu! Paris' book was not so much the answer to my many questions, but the perfect book at just the right time in my life. It started me on a quest to explore all I can about Brooks and her life and times, which of course has led me toward even more areas of interests -- from silent film and the Jazz Age to Denishawn and the culture of Weimar Germany. 

I have written and blogged about the Barry Paris biography in the past. And as I have said in the past, the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks is the best biography I have ever read and the best biography I will ever read. The San Francisco Chronicle used to run a small feature called "What's Your Most Treasured?" They recruited local personalities (like Isabel Allende, the celebrated novelist, or Craig Newmark, the founder of Craig's list, or Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the late poet) to pen a few words about books that mattered to the contributor. In 2011, they asked me to contribute a piece. I wrote about the Barry Paris biography, a book I had first read nearly twenty years earlier.


I am not the only one who appreciates this book. It was widely and well reviewed when it was first published in 1989. And not just in film journals, but also in the mainstream press like the New York Times. And not just by film critics, but also by literary writers like the novelist Angela Carter and the sci-fi writer Fritz Leiber Jr. The Paris book enjoyed good sales, and went into paperback and sold steadily for a few years until it eventually went out of print in the late 1990s.

I launched the Louise Brooks Society and its website in 1995, and would occasionally hear from fans wanting to know were they could purchase the biography of Brooks. More than once, but trying not to be a nuisance, I wrote to Random House and Barry Paris' editor urging them to bring the book back into print, but to no avail. I believed in this book, but I was just one voice. It was early on in the development of the internet, and petition drives were the thing. I figured I would try my hand at a bit of cultural activism, and launched an online petition drive through the Louise Brooks Society to bring the Barry Paris biography back into print. And it worked!


Sometime in 1999 or 2000, the rights to both the Barry Paris biography and Brooks' own Lulu in Hollywood (which had also fallen out of print) were sold to the University of Minnesota Press and their burgeoning series of books on the movies. And both were brought back into print in shiny new editions! And what's more, I and the Louise Brooks Society were acknowledged in each of the new editions. I was proud. I was pleased for Brooks' many fans and many new fans. And I felt I had done some good about something I cared about.

At the time, I was working in a San Francisco bookshop where I arranged and hosted the store's many author events. As a thank you and an acknowledgement for my efforts, the University of Minnesota Press agreed to send Barry Paris from his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Francisco for a special author event. This was very unusual, as his book was an older title and from a relatively small university press. Such expense, and what profit could there be? But I made it work. The store drew a good size crowd (I recall a couple came all the way from Los Angeles) and we sold lots of books, at least 100 signed copies went out the door or were mailed off to fans around the country. Incidentally, I had been in touch with the press since then, and was told in the years following their re-release of the books that each of these two titles was among the press' best backlist selling books. And they are still in print today.

I had met Barry Paris once before, in 1998. It was a thrill and a pleasure and an honor. He is a good guy, and I was pleased to meet one of my heroes. Then, he signed a copy of my hardback first edition of his biography, inscribing it to me and my wife as the "Tsar and Tsarina of the Louise Brooks Society." However, it was at that later event in 2000 that he so graciously signed my original softcover reading copy of his book - the biography that has and still does mean so much to me that I have spent 25 years learning all that I can about my favorite silent film star. In my book Barry wrote "For Thomas - who resurrected me & LB the way Tynan did in the New Yorker." I almost cried.


I love books. All kinds of books. They have had a big influence on my life, and in fact, it was the Barry Paris biography that brought my wife and I together. But then, that is a story for another day. . . .

Monday, October 21, 2019

Some snapshots from Saturday's Louise Brooks TCM talk

I had a great time Saturday talking about Louise Brooks to the Sacramento TCM Club. The event was organized by Sacramento TCM chapter head Beth Gallagher, a longtime friend and longtime admirer of Brooks. (Beth and I first became acquainted in the late 1990s, when Beth, then living in  Massachusetts, organized a chat board on the old Tribe.net web forum.) My informal talk, held over lunch, took place at La Trattoria Bohemia, a restaurant serving traditional Italian and Czech fare in mid-town Sacramento. Check it out sometime!
 

Uncertain as to what everyone knew or didn't know about Louise Brooks, I gave a general introduction, and then spoke about my history with the actress - how I first came across Pandora's Box and first read the Barry Paris biography, how I started the Louise Brooks Society, what I have found out through endlessly researching the actress, the films I have seen, the DVD audio commentaries I have done for KINO Lorber, the four books I have published on the actress, the forthcoming PBS debut of The Chaperone, my recent talk about Brooks and Rudolph Valentino at the annual Valentino Memorial in Hollywood, and a few threads which connect Brooks with Turner Classic Movies (TCM), namely through the Mankiewicz family, as Herman was Brooks's friend from her Follies' days and Ben, Herman's grandson, is one the station's current on-air hosts, plus the fact that the appellation "Louise Brooks Society" came from something Herman Mankiewicz once said. As you can tell from the prior sentence, my talked was something rambling - but seemed to be appreciated by all. Three of those in attendance purchased copies of my books, and each asked me to sign them. And in a first, another asked me to autographed her copy of the University of Minnesota edition of Brooks' Lulu in Hollywood, which I helped bring back into print and in which my name appears as an acknowledgement. I bit embarrassed, I signed near my name.
 


This being a special occasion, I even wore my Eugene Richee pearls portrait Louise Brooks t-shirt. My thanks to Beth Gallagher for organizing the event, and to the dozen film buffs who showed up and listened and even took notes! Thanks also to Antoinette C. for the letting me post her pictures of the event. Beth recorded the event and may turn it into a podcast.


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Barry Paris to introduce Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life in Pittsburgh, PA


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette movie critic and Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris will introduce a screening of the sensational William Wellman directed film Beggars of Life (1928) at The Hollywood Theater (1449 Potomac Avenue) in Pittsburgh, PA. This special event, part of the theater's Silents, Please! silent film series, takes place on November 10th.

Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain, who have performed with and scored silent films in the region and abroad.More information and ticket availability at http://www.showclix.com/event/BeggarsOfLife.


Saturday, October 19, 2013

Donna Tartt reading Barry Paris bio of Louise Brooks

In the New York Times, Donna Tartt, the celebrated author of The Secret History and now The Goldfinch, says she is reading among other books the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks.
Fore more, check out this brief interview with the author, part of the newspaper's ongoing "By the Book" series. 


Author Donna Tartt and the cover of her new book, The Goldfinch.
(courtesy of Beowulf Sheehan; Little, Brown and Company)

Thursday, September 12, 2013

New Barry Paris book on Stella Adler

Barry Paris, author of the biography of Louise Brooks, has just had a new book released in softcover. It is titled Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights (Vintage), and it's a look at the work of  Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee.

Stella Adler was one of the most influential acting teachers of all time. Her generations of students include Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Anthony Quinn, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, and Mark Ruffalo, among others.

According to the publisher, "This long-awaited companion to her book on the master European playwrights brings to life America’s most revered playwrights, whom she knew, loved, and worked with. Brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, Adler’s lectures on the giants of twentieth-century theater feature her indispensable insights into such classic plays as Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Skin of Our Teeth, A Streetcar Named Desire, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Glass Menagerie,  and Death of a Salesman, while shedding new light on such lesser known gems as Tennessee Williams’s The Lady of Larkspur Lotion and Arthur Miller’s After the Fall. Illuminating, revelatory, inspiring—this is Stella Adler at her electrifying best."

Barry Paris is the author of biographies of not only Louise Brooks, but also Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn, as well as the editor of Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekov. His new book looks well worth checking out.

“An essential text . . . Adler worked to bring a greater understanding of the human condition to the American stage.” — The New Yorker

“Intoxicating . . . Paris has done a magnificent job. . . Every sentence is a treasure. . . . For actors and actresses this rich material is essential. For those interested in the American theater, it is a must. For cultured people everywhere, this book belongs in their personal canon. . . . It is about so much more than simply bringing to life the work of major artists; it is really the expression of a way of life, and of looking at art as something larger than life."  — Peter Bogdanovich, The New York Times Book Review

“[The book is] about so much more than simply bringing to life the work of major artists; it is really the expression of a way of life, and of looking at art as something larger than life. . . . Stella had a marvelous way of mixing erudition with down-to-earth realities, show business know-how with a few Yiddishisms, all combined with a vivid sense of what she called a theater of ‘heightened reality’. . . . This book brings her voice back quite viscerally. It’s Stella talking, taking you on her particular roller-coaster ride through the playwrights and their characters.” — Peter Bogdanovich, The New York Times Book Review

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Downton Abbey - the Louise Brooks connections



Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris
If you are a fan of silent film and Downton Abbey, you may have noticed a scene where one of the downstairs help was spotted reading a vintage issue of Photoplay magazine with Mabel Normand on the cover. The connection the popular series has with the silent film era doesn't end there. The series, set in England in the early years of the 20th century, also has some rather interesting ties to Louise Brooks.

Back in November, a handful of English writers were asked by the Guardian newspaper which books had most impressed them during the course of the year. The piece was titled "Books of the Year 2012." The answer given by actor, novelist, screenwriter, director and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes caused a bit of a stir, as the book he mentioned was published in 1989. Fellowes' answer reads this way.

"I suspect the book that has haunted me the most this year was the life of that queen of the silent screen, Louise Brooks: A Biography (University of Minnesota £17), by Barry Paris. I have seldom read so lyrical a tale of self-destruction. When she was a girl, my mother used to be mistaken for Louise Brooks and so I have always felt a sort of investment in her, but I was unprepared for this heartbreaking tale of what-might-have-been."

Wow, what an eloquent appreciation of Barry Paris' acclaimed biography. I, for one, couldn't agree more. As I have said before, it is the best biography I have ever read, and it is the best biography I will ever read. It's that good! It is also a book anyone interested in silent film or a life story well told should read.

One wonders if Fellowes knows that Shirley MacLaine, one of the stars of Downton Abbey, is also a BIG fan of Louise Brooks. Over the years, MacLaine has said as much in interviews, all the while expressing her interest in playing Brooks on screen. Additionally, one of the other stars of Downton Abbey, Elizabeth McGovern, has developed a similar interest in Brooks. After serving as the reader for the audio version of Laura Moriarty's 2012 novel, The Chaperone, McGovern snapped up the movie rights to the bestselling book, which tells a story centered around Brooks' time as an aspiring Denishawn dancer.

If, one day, Fellows scripts  a film version of The Chaperone with McGovern as the title character and MacLaine as Louise Brooks' mother (?), just remember you saw it here first. But then who would play the teenage Brooks?

Are you a fan of Louise Brooks and of Downton Abbey? Who do you think could play a teenage Brooks?  Leave a comment in the comments field. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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