Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Friday, December 17, 2021

Searching the Young Companion magazine for Louise Brooks

Speaking of Chinese magazines on the Internet Archive, I also came across a bunch of issues of The Liangyou (良友 The Young Companion) magazine, which was published in Shanghai and founded by Wu Liande (伍聯德). Aimed toward the youth market, the magazine's readers were evidently interested in modern life, movie stars, and contemporary culture from the United States and Europe. Some 174 issues were published through 1945. Captions on its many interior photographs were often both in Chinese and English. I don't read or speak Chinese, but that didn't matter, as the magazines are heavily illustrated and attractive to look though.

I looked over the page of covers and noticed three that featured the Chinese - American movie star Anna May Wong. (She is a favorite, and I have read a couple of books on her.) From what I could tell, the actress only appeared on the cover of the magazine. There did not seem to be any interior articles, except for a one-page illustrated piece in the January 1929 issue.

June 1927

January 1929


June 1930

I flipped through about a dozen issues dating from 1929 and 1930, hoping to find something on Louise Brooks, but came up empty handed. I did find other illustrated pieces on American movie stars, like those pictured below. Perhaps I will look some more and find something on Brooks. Is that Richard Arlen and Anita Page pictured below?

I also noticed this back cover to the August 1930 issues, which includes Lupe Velez. Can anyone tell me what this page is for? Is it a promotion or advertisement for something?

The best thing I found was this four page spread depicting various American movie stars of the time. It is titled "The Well Known Screen Actresses." It dates May of 1931. I thought Brooks might have been included, but she is not. (Certainly, her earlier American films were shown in China as much as any other American actress. But that was a couple of years in the past. Perhaps she had been absent for too long from American screens?) A few of these actresses - Kay Johnson, Mary Lawlor, Catherine Moylan, Molly O'Day  - are unfamiliar to me.




Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Searching Ling long magazine for Louise Brooks

I recently noticed that a number of issues of Ling long magazine were online on the Internet Archive. Ling long was a popular women's magazine published in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937, during a time of dramatic social and political change in China. Today, the magazine offers researchers (and the curious like myself) an unique glimpse into women's lives in Republican-era China. 

I know most all of Louise Brooks' American films were shown in Shanghai at one time or another. And so, I was curious to know if anything about the actress or her films might find their way into this attractive illustrated magazine which sometimes featured American film stars on its cover. I was disappointed not to find anything about the actress - but I did find a lot of nifty stuff which I thought to share on this blog. 

I found stuff about short hairstyles for women (shown last - but very interesting to devotees of the bob hairstyle), as well as stuff about American movie stars of the time like Adolphe Menjou (Brooks' two time co-star), Anna May Wong (the Chinese-American actress who starred in Picadilly), Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Pola Negri and even Peggy Fears (Brooks' Ziegfeld Follies friend). But alas, no Brooks. The search goes on.... (The paired pages are my composite, and are not as they originally appear in the magazine.)

Adolphe Menjou and other stars in caricature
 

Marion Davies - Brooks' friend and confidant
 

Fay Wray - who I once had the chance to meet

Pola Negri

Norma Shearer

Mary Brian, star of The Street of Forgotten Men
 
 
Is this Esther Ralston?

 
Garbo - can anyone tell me what these pages say? What is it with the tree and the snake?


A rather curious juxtaposition of images? A suggestion of lesbian longing?

A mannish Marlene Dietrich

The one and only Peggy Fears

Something about how much money the stars make?

Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy - a blonde comparison

"Sweetheart Bob"

"Girlie Mannish"

"Boyish Bob"

"Egyptian Bob"

"Pineapple"


Can anyone tell me what this page is about? Does the image depict slavish devotion?

Monday, May 24, 2021

Need help with a Chinese film title for one of Louise Brooks' last films

Can anyone who reads or writes Chinese tell me which characters represent the title of the film in the newspaper advertisement pictured below. I think I know but want to be sure. The film is When You're in Love (1937), which was sometimes shown under an alternative title as For You Alone. The film starred Grace Moore and Cary Grant, while Louise Brooks had a uncreditted bit part as a member of the masked chorus.

I assume the title of the film is the four larger bold characters at the bottom of the advertisement. Can these be rendered via Chinese keyboard? Can someone do so and send them to me or post them in the comments.

Is the text in the black box the name of the theater? What are the five larger characters beneath it? Any help would be appreciated. I assume the other text in the advertisement refers to the film and this particular showing.

Here is another newspaper advertisement for another showing of the film in China, circa 1938. I believe the film title (at the bottom of the ad) is the same, but slightly stylized.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Louise Brooks in China, part 4

Here is a document I came across while deep mining databases in search of additional material on Louise Brooks and China. It is a 30-page essay titled "Flapper and Femme Fatale In Chinese Mirror: An Intercultural Study of Star Discourse in the 1930s Hollywood and Chinese Industries" by Katherine Hui-ling Chou. I believe the essay dates from 2001. It can be read in Chinese by following this link.

The essay including a long section on Louise Brooks, which begins this way.


Saturday, August 15, 2015

Louise Brooks in China, part 3

My research trip to look through old newspapers also turned up a couple of excellent finds from China -- in Chinese. One was a feature photo, the other a bit about The Canary Murder Case. I also found a similar page on Pandora's Box and another of The Street of Forgotten Men. The photo shown below says it was taken in Hollywood at Brook's home while she was having lunch with her sister.

 
Can anyone translate the text on either of these pages? And tell me if the page featuring the image from The Canary Murder Case (shown below) is about the film itself?





Thursday, August 6, 2015

Louise Brooks in China, part 2

Here are a few more items I found while scouring a couple of English-language newspapers from China for any and all Louise Brooks material. As mentioned in the prior post, the actress and her films received a good deal of coverage. Witness these couple of clippings, the first for The City Gone Wild (1927), and the second and third for A Girl in Every Port (1928).




Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Louise Brooks in China, part 1

I recently had the chance to look through a couple of English-language Chinese newspapers in search of mention of Louise Brooks and her films. I am pleased to report I found a lot of articles, reviews, captioned photographs and advertisements. Here is just one of the many items I found, Brooks on the front page of the China News in October, 1928.


Brooks and her films were well represented in China, with most films enjoying repeated screenings. In fact, I found material on the exhibition of the following films. (The dates in parenthesis represent the month of the film's American release / followed by the month of the film's showing in China):

Street of Forgotten Men  (8-25 / 7-27, 4-28)
The American Venus (1-26 / 4-27, 11-27, 4-28)
A Social Celebrity (3-26 / 9-28, 6-29, 10-29, 9-30)
It's the Old Army Game (5-26 / 12-27, 1-28, 6-28)
The Show Off (8-26 / 1-28, 7-28)
Love Em and Leave Em (12-26 / 7-28, 8-28, 11-28, 8-29)
Just Another Blonde (12-26 / 10-27, 11-27)
Evening Clothes (3-27 / 8-28, 2-29, 3-29)
Now We're in the Air  (10-27 / 4-29, 4-30)
The City Gone Wild  (11-27 / 3-29, 6-30)
A Girl in Every Port  (2-28 / 5-28, 6-28, 12-28, 1-29)
Beggars of Life (9-28 / 8-29, 9-29, 10-29)
Canary Murder Case (2-29 / 9-29, 10-29, 7-30)
It Pays to Advertise (2-31 / 4-31, 6-31)
When You're in Love (2-37 / 8-37) 
King of Gamblers (5-37 / 10-37)

The Love Goddesses (12-66) documentary

I found a couple of mentions of Rolled Stockings, but never any instances of the film showing in China. Both Now We're in the Air and A Girl in Every Port received a lot of coverage, and proved popular, as did Canary Murder Case. Check out this full page advertisement from November, 1927 for The American Venus.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Silent films were everywhere

Silent films were shown everywhere in the 1920s.... Witness this Chinese newspaper which carries an advertisement for Clara Bow's 1928 film, Red Hair, on the left hand page. On the right hand page are advertisements for other films showing at theaters named Embassy, Apollo, Orient, etc....


Red Hair does not survive, except in fragments. Here is a clip of those fragments - in color. She certainly had it!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Referenced in China Daily

Louise Brooks was referenced in the July 6th edition of China Daily. In an article on hair entitled "China's first lady of long hair reveals scalp secret," Zhao Feifei wrote " The styles date from the 16th, 18th or early 20th century down to a quiff right out of the 1960s, a bob in the style of Louise Brooks  . . . . " Louise Brooks is certainly a world wide cultural icon.
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