Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Another great Louise Brooks film to screen in Toronto, Canada

It seems Toronto, Canada is the place to be if you are a Louise Brooks fan. 

Following the announcement that the rarely shown silent version of Prix de beauté will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto comes word that another great Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, will be shown Toronto's Revue Cinema. More information about this Sunday, January 29, 2023 screening can be found HERE

Beggars of Life was released in 1928, and this special afternoon event at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto) is being billed as a 95th anniversary screening. The Revue Cinema's series of silent films, Silent Revue, is curated by Alicia Fletcher (who introduced Prix de beauté at the Bell Lightbox). And notably, the Beggars of Life screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner (who accompanied Prix de beauté at the Bell Lightbox). Evidently, Louise Brooks has at least a few fans in Toronto.

According to the Silent Revue event page, "Our season-long look at Planes, Trains and Automobiles continues with the rail-hopping thriller BEGGARS OF LIFE, starring the irresistible Louise Brooks. Co-starring Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen, BEGGARS OF LIFE is frequently cited as Brooks’ best American film, and under the direction of "Wild Bill" Wellman (of WINGS fame, which kicked off the current Silent Revue season), it is no wonder.

Brooks plays Nancy, who, on the lam after killing her abusive guardian, disguises her identity in hope of escaping to Canada. Tucking those signature bangs under a cap (don't worry -- they fall out from time to time) she passes as a boy among a gang of rail-riding hobos, where the threat of being revealed a killer takes a back seat to a more pressing danger: being exposed as a woman! Prefiguring many future Hollywood films’ treatment of hobo culture in the Great Depression, BEGGARS OF LIFE is a late silent-era masterpiece." It's true. Brooks' character, Nancy, does hope to escape to Canada! 


To celebrate the film's 95th anniversary, here is an advertisement and a short review of the film from the time it first showed in Toronto, back in October, 1928, at the Pantages. In case you are wondering, the Revue theater was showing Frank Capra's The Matinee Idol, starring Bessie Love, paired with The Sporting Age, starring Belle Bennett.

The Revue Cinema dates to 1912. It is a charming neighborhood theater with a notable history. (It is also home to the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Canada's only such festival.) But what's more, the Revue Cinema and Louise Brooks have a history. Over the last few years, the theater has shown a couple of Brooks' other films, including Pandora's Box in 2014, Beggars of Life in 2015 as part of their IT girl series, and most recently, Diary of a Lost Girl in early 2022. Evidently, Louise Brooks has at least a few fans in Toronto. Did I already say that ?

Beggars of Life -- a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer once described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life” -- is widely regarded as Louise Brooks' best American silent, as well as the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. The Revue Cinema screening is an event not to be missed.

Want to learn more? Allow me to recommend Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, by yours truly, Thomas Gladysz. This first ever study of the film features more than 50 little seen images, as well as a foreword by actor William Wellman, Jr., son of the legendary director. The book is available on amazon.com (in Canada) and amazon.com (in the United States).

The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Rare Louise Brooks film to screen in Toronto, Canada

The rarely screened silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Canada. This special screening will feature a print, courtesy of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, of the restored original silent version. And what's more, the film will be introduced by series curator Alicia Fletcher and will feature live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this event can be found HERE.


According to the Toronto International Film Festival website, "Weimar-era icon and prototypical Hollywood iconoclast Louise Brooks stars in Prix de beauté as Lucienne, a typist who enters a newspaper beauty contest and wins a chance to compete for the Miss Europe title in Spain. A tale of morbid jealousy and revenge co-scripted by G.W. Pabst and René Clair (the latter was intended to direct before Italian expat Augusto Genina was brought in), Prix de beauté had the unfortunate distinction of being filmed as a late-era silent, only to be hastily re-edited and released as a sound film (with Brooks dubbed by a French actress). The end result was a film out of step with the times in its format, yet one which was distinctly modern in its fashion sense, with Jean Patou of the famed House of Patou outfitting Brooks for her final starring role. The sophisticated originator of women’s sportswear who eradicated the flapper style of the ’20s and ushered in the dropped hemlines and elegance of the ’30s, Patou was the perfect outfitter for the rebellious, singularly fashion-forward actor. And, as the inventor of ladies’ knitted swimwear, he was also the perfect match for the film’s bathing-beauty sequence."

 

The internationalism of Prix de beauté is suggested in this vintage poster, which names the film’s American star, French actors, and Italian director, and also shows the flags of the four nations whose languages the film would be dubbed – Italy, France, England, and Germany.

Despite its delayed, problematic release (having to be converted from a silent to a sound feature), Prix de beauté was a considerable hit at the time of its release. It played continuously for a couple of months -- at a time most films only played a week -- following its May 9, 1930 debut at the Max Linder-Pathe in Paris, France. And soon thereafter, the film was shown all over Europe, in Northern Africa, parts of Asia, and in South America and the Caribbean well into the mid-1930s. In fact, the film remained in circulation for some six years. It was often revived in France. And, it played in present day Algeria, Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Madagascar, Turkey and the former USSR. And speaking of former nation states, the film even played in the one-time city-state of Danzig. Prix de beauté had legs (pun intended).

For example, records show that the film played in Havana, Cuba in March 1932, and then debuted at the Haitiana theatre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti later that year, in December 1932. Ever green, Prix de beauté returned to the Haitiana theatre in October 1933, April 1935, and July 1936 - that's six years after is debut. Truth be told, the film played just about everywhere, except for the United States and Canada.

Haitian newspaper ad

More about Prix de beauté can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website HERE. The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Friday, November 4, 2022

Get Lost in the 1920s at the Toronto Silent Film Festival

Louise Brooks had long had a connection to Toronto, Canada. She first visited the city in April, 1924 as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company, performing for two nights at the historic Massey Music Hall. And of course, her various films played in various theatres in Toronto throughout the 1920s and 1930s. 

After Brooks moved to Rochester, New York in the late 1950s, she spent many an evening listening to radio broadcast out of Toronto, notably the CBC. She also gained friends and followers among Canada's film historians, and herself became a patron of the Toronto Film Society. Brooks even penned some film notes for screenings put on by the group. (An entire chapter devoted to Canada will be included in volume one of my forthcoming, two volume work, Around the World with Louise Brooks.)

I mention all this as a prelude to mentioning that the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Canada’s only silent film festival, is set to take place November 11-13, 2022 at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave.). If you live in Toronto and have never been, why not check it out. More information may be found HERE or at www.torontosilentfilmfestival.com

Though this year's festival is not showing any Louise Brooks films (maybe next year? maybe The Street of Forgotten Men ?), but they are showing films by and featuring individuals with whom Brooks worked, namely Herbert Brenon, Wallace Beery, Adolphe Menjou and Thomas Meighan. They are also showing films starring Brooks contemporaries, namely Gloria Swanson, Pola Negri, and Lya de Putti.  I wish I could be there! This year's five film program includes a gripping real life adventure, a bunch of wild comedy shorts, screen divas, and a noirish thrillers  -- each film paired with talented accompanists to make each film screening a one-of-a-kind experience.

SOUTH 1919 UK
NEW 2K REMASTER B/W WITH TINTING AND TONING, 88 MIN
DIRECTOR: FRANK HURLEY
ACCOMPANIST: MORGAN-PAIGE MELBOURNE


1000 LAFFS: MACK & MAYHEM
120 MIN WITH INTRODUCTION
ACCOMPANIST: JORDAN KLAPMAN


THE SPANISH DANCER 1923 USA
96 MIN RESTORED B/W  WITH TINTING
DIRECTOR: HERBERT BRENON
CAST: POLA NEGRI, ANTONIO MORENO, ADOLPHE MENJOU, WALLACE BERRY
ACCOMPANIST: MARILYN LERNER

WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE? 1920 USA
90 MIN
DIRECTOR: CECIL B. DEMILLE
CAST: GLORIA SWANSON, THOMAS MEIGHAN, BEBE DANIELS
ACCOMPANIST: TANIA GILL


THE INFORMER 1929 UK
99 MIN
B/W, TINTED
DIRECTOR: ARTHUR ROBISON
CAST: LARS HANSON, LYA DE PUTTI, WARWICK WARD, CARL HARBORD
ACCOMPANIST: BILL O'MEARA


The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Louise Brooks film Diary of a Lost Girl set to screen in Toronto, Canada

The 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown in Toronto, Canada on February 27 at the recently reopened Revue Cinema, Ontario's favourite independent cinema. And what's more, the film will be shown on the big screen with love musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this special event, along with ticket availability, can be found HERE.

Diary of A Lost Girl

GERMANY | 1929 | 112 mins | NR

“Louise Brooks is the only woman who had the ability to transfigure no matter what filmi nto a masterpiece…She is much more than a myth, she is a magical presence, a real phantom, the magnetism of the cinema.” – Ado Kyrou, Amour-eroticisme et cinema

Based on Margarethe Böhme’s scandalous novel, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst’s follow-up to the iconic PANDORA’S BOX. No less sensuous, controversial, or provocative, DIARY showcases Brooks at her most transfixing.

The story of an innocent young girl disowned and sent away by her family after she is seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant, Pabst’s film never succumbs to melodrama, but rather turns the table on the tormentors of women.

With showers of champagne set in the high-class brothels of Berlin, DIARY is Weimar at its most powerful. DIARY is a silent masterwork released at the era’s death knell and a film that further reinforced Brooks’ status as an icon, even if it ended up being her last major work and final silent film. – ALICIA FLETCHER

Digital Restoration Courtesy of Kino Lorber


Director: G.W. Pabst
Cast: Louise Brooks; Fritz Rasp; Valeska Gert



DETAILS

Doors Open 30 minutes before showtime.


PRICING

General Admission: $17
Bronze/Loyalty Members, Students & Seniors: $14
Silver Members: $13
Gold/Individual/Family Members: FREE

For INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIPS ($350) and FAMILY MEMBERSHIPS, please email us at info@revuecinema.ca to get your ticket!

Prices include taxes. All membership benefits are available.

 


Want to learn more about Diary of a Lost Girl and the book that was the basis for the film? Check out the 2010  Louise Brooks Society publication, the Louise Brooks edition of Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl, edited and with a long introduction by Thomas Gladysz.

 

The 1929 Louise Brooks 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.

 

The Louise Brooks edition of Diary of a Lost Girl is available at Amazon Canada and Amazon USA and elsewhere around the world.

 

"Long relegated to the shadows, Margarete Böhme's 1905 novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl has at last made a triumphant return. In reissuing the rare 1907 English translation of Böhme's German text, Thomas Gladysz makes an important contribution to film history, literature, and, in as much as Böhme told her tale with much detail and background contemporary to the day, sociology and history. He gives us the original novel, his informative introduction, and many beautiful and rare illustrations. This reissue is long overdue, and in all ways it is a volume of uncommon merit." - Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran 

Read today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling. As a bonus, Gladysz richly illustrates the text with stills of Brooks from the famous film. - Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

In today's parlance this would be called a movie tie-in edition, but that seems a rather glib way to describe yet another privately published work that reveals an enormous amount of research and passion. - Leonard Maltin

Thomas Gladysz is the leading authority on all matters pertaining to the legendary Louise Brooks. We owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing the groundbreaking novel,
The Diary of a Lost Girl, back from obscurity. --Lon Davis, author of Silent Lives

It was such a pleasure to come upon your well documented and beautifully presented edition. -- Elizabeth Boa, University of Nottingham (UK)
 

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Update on Around the World with Louise Brooks

This blog post is my first this month. Instead of blogging regularly, I have been concentrating my efforts on my two volume book project, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which I hope to finish by September and publish by November. Volume one is subtitled "The Actress." Volume two is subtitled "The Films." I have completed about eithy percent of the books. And can say both volumes will contains hundreds of images and ten of thousands of words of text. New information will be revealed, some of it a bit startling (at least to those deeply interested in Louise Brooks). I expect each 8" x 10" volume will run between four hundred to five hundred pages.

Around the World with Louise Brooks is something different, even unprecedented. This is not the story of Louise Brooks, Kansas-born American silent film actress. Rather, this is the story of Louise Brooks, international movie star. Most all of the images in each book have been sourced from international publications - and all together, they tell Brooks story from a  different perspective.

Lately, I have broke new ground in unearthing material for the first time from Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Bermuda. Here is an image I just came across from Argentina, which I would like to share. It was colorized, and appears below as it did in 1928. I am not sure if it will appear in my new book, but if it does, it will appear in black and white, as the interiors of Around the World with Louise Brooks are in black and white.

In fact, Around the World with Louise Brooks will feature material from more than 50 countries including The Ukraine, Vietnam, Poland and Iceland. There is material from a few nations which no longer exist, like The Free State of Danzig, and a few countries yet to be born, like Indonesia.

Did you know that a portrait of a young Louise Brooks first appeared in Europe nearly half a year before she made her first film? Or that the uncredited actress was pictured in film stills published in South America which were used to promote The Street of Forgotten Men, her first film? Or that her sensational 1929 film Diary of a Lost Girl was shown in Japan under a different title not long after its release in Germany? Or that the French-made Prix de beaute was shown in Haiti on a number of occasions in the early 1930s? Or that Brooks name appears in advertised credits in New Zealand for King of Gamblers, a film from which her role was cut? All this and more in Around the World with Louise Brooks.

As mentioned, most all of the images in each book have been sourced from international publications. The only exception is a chapter from volume one, "Mit Anderen Worten: Louise Brooks en los Estados Unidos," or "In Other Words: Louise Brooks in the United States." It surveys the actress career through America's many non-English language ethnic and emigre newspapers and magazines. Just lately I have added a few "exciting" pieces from Hungarian-American and Slovenian-American newspapers. They join Russian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish-American publications. Want to know how the German-made Pandora's Box was promoted in the German-American press when it first showed in the United States? You can find out in Around the World with Louise Brooks. Admittedly, there are a few English-language clippings in this chapter, but they hail from American territories like the United States Virgin Islands, and a Japanese-English newspaper serving the population of pre-statehood Hawai'i. Here below is something remarkable, a bilingual English-Yiddish clipping about Brooks' marriage to Eddie Sutherland which leads off "Mit Anderen Worten: Louise Brooks en los Estados Unidos." It appeared in the Jewish Forward, which was published in New York City.


A cleaned-up version of the above piece appears in the book. A Yiddish piece that won't appear (there is too much other material) which is shown below is this remarkable conglomeration of 1928 advertisements featuring Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port, William Wellman's Wings, and an early stage adaption of Dracula, with immigrant Bela Lugosi in the title role.


Besides "Mit Anderen Worten: Louise Brooks en los Estados Unidos," other chapters in the first volume include "New Zealand’s Shaped Text Ads" (a visual delight for typographers) and "Louise Brooks as Modan Gāru" (which looks at Brooks' popularity in Japan in the 1920s). There are also individual chapters featuring vintage postcards from around the world, trade ads, and magazine covers - each with dozens of examples. There is also a chapter of magazine portraits, one of curiosities and odds 'n ends, and another looking at Brooks' long running relationship with Canada. Did you know that Canada was the first foreign country Brooks ever visited, as well as one of the last she ever visited....

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

A Thanksgiving themed post from the Louise Brooks Society

Louise Brooks shows on Thanksgiving Monday

In Canada in 1927, the Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on different days on a regional and even local basis. Nationally, the holiday was set to take place on July 3rd. But as the above advertisement from Nanaimo, British Columbia shows, a special showing of Rolled Stockings was announced for the local Bijou theatre on an alternate holiday – Monday, November 7th. (... Some thirty years after this Thanksgiving Day screening, the Governor General of Canada issued a proclamation stating the Thanksgiving holiday would henceforth be observed throughout the nation on the second Monday in October.)

In the United States, Thanksgiving takes place on the last Thursday in November. And south of the border on November 24, 1927, the popular Louise Brooks comedy Now We're in the Air was showing in Appleton, Wisconsin. The film, which the Appleton Post-Cresent described as a "nonsense opera", was going over "big," according to the local newspaper. The advertisement for Fischer's theatre proclaims "After that Thanksgiving Day Dinner Come on Down," noting Brooks is the "leading lady and how she leads." Notably, the accompanying short film is Love Em and Feed Em (starring Max Davidson & Oliver Hardy); its title is a take off on Brooks' 1926 film, Love Em and Leave Em.


Appleton moviegoers who couldn't get enough of Louise Brooks could return to Fischer's the following Saturday or Sunday, where another 1927 Brooks film, The City Gone Wild, was showing. How's that for a cinematic feast? Elsewhere around the United States in 1927, The City Gone Wild was showing on Thanksgiving Day in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Walnut theatre, while Now We're in the Air was showing in Allentown, Pennsylvania at the Strand. (If you live in either of those towns, get in your time machine and travel back to catch a screening of these now "lost" films.) Or, if you live in Bloomington, Illinois, you can take in The City Gone Wild at the Irvin theatre, as the turkey bordered advertisement below shows. (It remarkable that the local Bloomington newspaper had enough turkey dingbats to set a border.)


On Thursday, November 29th - Thanksgiving Day in 1928, the recently released Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life was showing in Hartford, Connecticut. The Hartford Courant newspaper ad below notes the "special holiday bill" at the Central theatre would be shown at 2:30, 6:30, and 8:30 pm, but incorrectly states the film stars Noah Berry. In actuality, the film starred Noah Beery's younger brother, future Oscar winner Wallace Beery!




In traditional clothing in Beggars of Life
Wherever you live in the United States or Canada, and however you celebrate the holiday, happy Thanksgiving from the Louise Brooks Society. And don't forget, the Louise Brooks inspired film, The Chaperone, will be shown on Thanksgiving afternoon on PBS. Check you local TV listing for the time and channel.


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Pandora's Box screens in Toronto, Canada on Jan 26

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will screen in Toronto, Canada on Sunday January 26th at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue). More info here. Event Time(s):4:15 p.m. Website: www.revuecineama.ca Costs: Range:$10 - $19


Pandora’s Box
Dir. G.W. Pabst (1929)
Starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer
109 mins.

It doesn’t really get better than Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box, does it? Brooks fled Hollywood and escaped to the German film industry to seal her fate as an indelible force in silent film, forever to be remembered as the sensual, yet naïve; unintentionally vampish and victimized Lulu. Under the direction of master G.W. Pabst, the film’s cinematography, costumes, and narration are almost unparalleled in the medium. In short: Pandora’s Box is a masterpiece and Louise Brooks is a legend here - visually, as well as in her acting style. Her realism was so ahead of her time that audiences and critics rejected her; a dismissal that history has, luckily for us, rectified. Flappers at heart unite; this is a Silent Sundays not to be missed!

Featuring live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.

Silent Sundays, now in its fifth season, is curated by media archivist Alicia Fletcher and was founded by journalist Eric Veillette.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Five days of Louise Brooks in Montreal

Twice in the coming two weeks, the Cinéma du Parc in Montreal is screening a movie starring Louise Brooks as part of its 17 film salute to early film, "The Artists" (thru June 3).

The two films, both made in Germany and directed by G.W. Pabst at the end of the silent era, are Pandora’s Box (or Loulou, as it is titled in France) and Diary of a Lost Girl. Both date from 1929, and each will be shown variously with German, French or English subtitles. Pandora’s Box screens May 22-24, and Diary of a Lost Girl screens May 28-29. It is a great opportunity to see Brooks, a screen legend, at the height of her career and in her best work.

As the Cinéma du Parc states on its bilingual website, the idea for the series originated came about with the success of The Artist, when just about everybody was caught by surprise over the media frenzy around the film. An unlikely contender, The Artist was a French production shot in Los Angeles which became the first silent film since 1929 to win the Best Picture Oscar, and that after gaining numerous awards at Cannes, the BAFTA and the Césars.

Jean Dujardin, who won nearly every Best Actor award around the world for his portrayal of fading star George Valentin, prepared for his role by watching classic silent films and by studying silent era actors, notably Douglas Fairbanks. In fact, the film Valentin views (as his own) in his apartment is Fairbanks’ first swashbuckler, The Mark of Zorro (1920). He had also, reportedly, read Jeffrey Vance's superb 2008 book on the actor.

Described as virtuosic, unique, poetic, touching and unforgettable, The Artist generated considerable public interest in silent film in 2011. That interest has carried through to today.

Some of the other films set to be screened as part of “The Artists” include Fairbanks’ The Black Pirate (1926) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), as well as Wings (1927), the first silent film (and until The Artist the last silent film) to win an Academy Award. F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924), with the great Emil Jannings as the pathetic doorman, is also on the schedule, as is a newly restored print of Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), and two swell Buster Keaton Films, Seven Chances (1925) and Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928). Another early masterpiece, Sunrise (1927), will also be shown.

Also on the schedule is a third G.W. Pabst film, The Threepenny Opera (1931), which will be screened in both their German and French versions. As the Cinéma du Parc website explains, "The French version of The Threepenny Opera was filmed simultaneously to the German version, a practice that was common at the beginning sound in the movies, before dubbing became the norm. Pabst directed both films, alternating between the two different casts on the same sets, with the same shots and the same compositions. But the two films are still very distinct, with the styles and the sensibilities that are intrinsic to each language."

Friday, April 14, 2006

Oh, Canada

On this day in 1924: The Denishawn Dance Company, with Louise Brooks, began a twelve day tour of Canada. I wish I could have been there.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

"Oh, Canada"


Canada is one area of research I have been pursueing as it relates to Louise Brooks.
The Denishawn Dance company performed in a handful of Canadian cities during their 1922/1923 and 1923/1924 tours - the two seasons Brooks was a member of that dance group. Over the last year and a half, I have managed to acquire a few reviews of performances in Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. I hope to acquire more, but the process of obtaining microfilm of newspapers from north of the border is slow and a little complicated. Few American libraries, seemingly, own Canadian newspapers on microfilm from that time period. (Any Canadian citizen who reads this and wants to help is encouraged to send me an email.)
I have also, slowly, been collecting reviews and articles about Brooks' films which appeared in Canadian papers in the 1920's and 1930's. So far, I have managed to gather a handful of reviews from each of the following periodicals: Calgary HeraldManitoba Free PressToronto StarToronto GlobeMontreal Gazette, and Ottawa Citizen. And again, I have plans to acquire more in the coming year.
It's interesting to get the Canadian perspective! A brief write-up in the Toronto Star from 1931, for example, is one of the very few newspaper items I have ever found regarding Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, then and now one of the most obscure films in which Brooks appeared.
Perhaps the most intrigueing item I located was an article in the Toronto Star from 1927 which told the story of a young Canadian swimmer - a star athlete - who went to Hollywood to test for motion pictures.
He recounted his experiences - visiting the studios, having make-up applied, the glare of the bright lights, etc... and, his chance encounter with a friendly young actress named Louise Brooks. Two long paragraphs are then given over to their meeting, his observations of her character and appearance, and the "love scene" he had to play with her. From the description of Brooks' hair as being in ringlets, I assume their encounter took place at the time of Brooks was making Evening Clotheswith Adolphe Menjou.
That article, and others from Canada, are cited in the various bibliographies on the LBS website.

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Calgary Herald

Another newspaper achive I've come across is that for the Calgary Herald, which is part of the early Alberta newspaper collection. Unlike other newspaper archives, this collection is not searchable by keyword. Instead, the archive contains rather large images of individual pages from the newspapers in its archives. I went through months and months of the Calgary Herald, and managed to find a bunch of articles, reviews and advertisements from the 1920's. (Citations have been added to the appropriate bibliographies on the LBS website.) Does anyone know of any other Canadian publications with searchable on-line archives?
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