Showing posts with label Rolled Stockings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rolled Stockings. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Bits and pieces found on The Street of Forgotten Men

In my forthcoming book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, I state "Bits and pieces of this book were first tried out on my Louise Brooks Society blog, where anyone interested in The Street of Forgotten Men can find additional material which didn’t make it into the book." This is one such piece.

In the chapter on the film's legacy, I mention Street of Forgotten Women, stating "Little about the 1927 exploitation film, Street of Forgotten Women, can be traced back to The Street of Forgotten Men – except for its indebtedness to the title of the earlier Herbert Brenon film. Street of Forgotten Women is a dreadful B-film about a rich girl who decides on a career on the stage, and fails. She is then reduced to dancing in her underwear in a saloon, before turning to prostitution." In an email exchange with film historian Kevin Brownlow about my forthcoming book, he reminded me of the existence of Street of Forgotten Women. It has a notorious reputation, and I was sure to make mention of it.

For those who may be curious, Street of Forgotten Women is available on DVD along with another early exploitation film, The Road to Ruin. And what's more, both are available as a budget release for a reasonable price of less than $10.00. Check it out HERE.

Here is a little bit more about both films - which bring Brooks' later German film, Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), to mind: 

STREET OF FORGOTTEN WOMEN (1927): Grace Fleming wants to break into show business, but her father, a wealthy slum lord, forbids it. Seduced by a sleazy agent, she gets a job at a low-class cabaret dancing in a skimpy costume. Grace does not realize that she has actually been drafted into a prostitution ring. Soon, the poor girl is selling herself on the same broken-down streets her father owns.

Not much is known about Street of Forgotten Women, other than that it was made to warn young girls about how easy it is to become a prostitute. Press materials of the era state that it is the dramatized true story of star Grace Fleming (though this may have simply been a screen name for an anonymous actress) and was "heartily endorsed by leading citizens, city officials, and the clergy as a motion picture that should be seen by all young women." The police shut down at least one theater for showing the film in Kansas, however.

ROAD TO RUIN (1928): Neglected by her stuffy parents, 16-year-old Sally Canfield starts experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and sex with older men. Her mother and father disown her after she is arrested in her underwear at a strip poker game. Discovering she is pregnant, Sally submits to a back alley abortion that has tragic consequences.

Road to Ruin was popular enough to warrant a sound remake in 1934, also starring Helen Foster. In his book Behind the Mask of Innocence, film historian Kevin Brownlow reports that Foster kept a bottle of bootleg whiskey by her side to keep herself inebriated during the strip poker scene.

Even though Street of Forgotten Women is otherwise unrelated to Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), there is overlap with Brooks' career. In the course of my research into the 1927 exploitation film, I found a couple of interesting advertisements which shows how at least one of Brooks' Paramount films existed alongside a lowly B independent film like Street of Forgotten Women.

As far as I can tell, the first showing of Street of Forgotten Women took place at the Ritz theater in Spokane, Washington on April 3, 1927. The film was billed as "The picture that will startle the nation." Notably, the ad notes that "men only" would be admitted Sunday through Wednesday, while "women only" would be admitted starting on Thursday. (That was the case in most every town where the film played.) Also playing in Spokane at the local American Theater was a popular touring stage show, Earl Carroll Vanities. (The Vanities were similar to the Ziegfeld Follies, though a bit more scandalous.) On the entertainment page of the Spokane Chronicle, advertisements for the two events sit side by side. Be sure and check out the Vanities ad, which notes the appearance of one of their star performers, "The Magnetic -- LOUISE BROOKS -- The Perfect Venus." Of course, that is not our Louise Brooks, just another forth-billed showgirl from the time who had the same name. 


Despite its risque subject matter, Street of Forgotten Women proved popular enough to return to Spokane in January, 1928. It played the Ritz once more, but this time it was billed as "The Sensation of Today." Even though the film's promoter's claimed it contained "A poignant lesson to parents and children," only men were admitted. 

Also showing in town, at Grombacher's Egyptian Theater, was the 1927 film, Rolled Stockings. Despite the fact that Louise Brooks was the film's star, the ad only credited "Paramount's Junior Stars". With such a small ad - despite the fact this showing marked its first showing in Spokane, there wasn't room to list Brooks, Richard Arlen, James Hall, Nancy Philips and others.


The 350 seat Egyptian Theater was later renamed the Bandbox theater, and eventually closed. Read more about this historic venue HERE.

One last newspaper advertisement for Street of Forgotten Women. This one is for another early screening of the film, in Billings, Montana in June 1927. What's funny about this particular ad is that this showing was, again, limited to "men only" - yet, the ad also proclaimed it was a film "every mother should see."

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.

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Louise Brooks - Getting it wrong again and again

There is all kinds of  misinformation about Louise Brooks and her films. Some of it goes way back, to the 1920s, and some of it is only a few days old. There are factual errors, like getting a date wrong or misidentifying a character in a film, and there is "fake news" - like the photoshopped nudes in which some idiot has placed Brooks' head on someone else's body. Despite it being kinda pathetic and rather obvious, those images still circulate on eBay and Facebook. . . . Just last week I noticed a picture postcard of Clara Bow on eBay which was identified as Louise Brooks, despite the postcard being labelled as Clara Bow! 

For as long as I have been reading about / researching / collecting material about Louise Brooks, I have come across instances of mistaken information about the actress. Perhaps the most famous example is her being credited with a role in The Public Enemy (1931). That belief lingered for decades, and at one time was repeated in the New York Times.

Recently, while looking at some newly digitized vintage newspapers, I came across an instance where the same newspaper got it wrong again and again and again - at least three times and over a period of a few years. I am referring to the Banner-Herald from Athens, Georgia. This first example dates from March 23, 1927, at the time Love Em and Leave Em was showing at the local Palace theater. The captioned picture on the left identified as being Evelyn Brent ain't; and who know who is the women in the advertisement for the film on the right. Perhaps the same beret-wearing actress?

This next example from the Banner-Herald dates from just a few month's later, specifically August 2, 1927. Rolled Stockings was showing at the Palace, and the local newspaper managed to find a flapper-looking type and identify her as Louise Brooks. Which it ain't.

I can't figure out why this happened. Didn't the Banner-Herald have a picture of Louise Brooks on hand which they could use? Or did all youthful, flapper-type actresses look alike to the layout department? Or was the image substituted deliberately? This last example dates from May 17, 1928, at the time A Girl in Every Port was showing at the Palace. And again, an incorrect image is used.

If anyone knows who the incorrectly attributed actresses are, I would appreciate hearing about it. They do seem familiar. . . . Please post a comment.

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

Monday, November 8, 2021

In Search of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings

I recently received a message from film historian and new friend Louie Despres asking about actor El Brendel, a onetime vaudeville comedian turned actor who had a supporting role in the 1927 Louise Brooks film, Rolled Stockings. That film is what was called a "youth picture" -- the story is set on a college campus -- and the film itself starred Paramount's "Junior Stars" (a group of young actors which included  Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, James Hall, and Nancy Phillips). El Brendel, who plays a police officer, was some ten or 15 years older than his fellow actors.

Louie Despres is researching El Brendel's career, and over time he has managed to gather images of the actor in most all of the few dozen films in which he appeared. Despres wrote me asking if I had any images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings. I was embarrassed to have to tell him no. 

I have many images from the film, most of them in digital form, but also a few vintage stills. The problem with Rolled Stockings (and so many other silent films) is that it is lost. And so, except for surviving stills and other imagery, we don't know what the film looked like. I am posting this blog asking for help in finding more images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings. Do you have any? (I recall an eBay auction from a couple of years ago which featured dozens of stills from the film. I put in a couple of bids, but lost out.)

Louie Despres has only two images from Rolled Stocking which include El Brendel, and is in search of more. One image of the actor can be found on one of the lobby cards from the film, which is depicted above. (Notice that El Brendel's name is included on the lobby cards, which suggests Paramount considered the actor significant enough to name, despite it being on of his earliest films. BTW, the name that is blacked out on this lobby card but not all lobby cards is that of Sally Blane, Loretta Young's sister.) The other images Louie Despres has is this slightly cropped film still, shown below. I am very grateful that it was shared with me, as I had never seen it before.

Do you have any images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings which you would be willing to share? El Brendel is a significant actor with a notable career, and Louie Despres is working on a book which will certainly break ground in documenting the actor's career. Any help would be appreciated.

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Giving it away at a Louise Brooks screening

I suppose we have all heard about how, in the past, theatres would give away things for free in order to lure viewers. I remember my mother, who as a girl and young women went to the movies in the 1930s and 1940s, telling me about the films she went to see where the theatre gave away dinnerware and silverware. The give away was usually one piece at a time, so you had to go to the movies pretty regularly to build a set.

In the past, while searching for yet more material about Louise Brooks and her film, I have run across a few advertisements in which a theatre was giving away a dinner plate or piece of silverware in conjunction with the showing of a Brooks film. Last night I found something wholly new. I found a couple of advertisements for a theatre in Brooklyn which was giving away gold. This first example, shown below, promotes a February 4, 1927 showing of Love Em & Leave Em at which $5.00 in gold would be given away for free every evening.


Today, $5.00 may not seem like much; that amount couldn't get you into a movie theatre. But back in 1927, when ticket prices were either 5 or 10 cents, it was a good deal of money. In fact, $5.00 in 1927 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $73.68 in 2020, a difference of $68.68 over 93 years. Here is another example of a gold giveaway from September 1927.


It seems as though the Monroe theater discontinued its gold giveaway promotion sometime around 1928, as the Brooks' films I found advertised then, such as A Girl in Every Port and Beggars of Life, do not mention the practice.

It's interesting that Brooks is listed first, ahead of the male star, in both of these ads. Especially so in regards to Love Em and Leave Em, where Evelyn Brent - who is not mentioned, was considered the lead star in the picture. It is also interesting that the Monroe really had to sell itself, offering not only gold but also "first class pictures" and a "new orchestra." Both ads date to more than two years before the Depression, when times were still good.

According to Cinema Treasures website, the Monroe was a single screen, nearly 500 seat venue which started as a vaudeville house (in 1915?) and later, by 1926, was showing films. (Check the Cinema Treasures page for photos of the exterior of the building.) The Monroe closed decades later, and has since been demolished.


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.


Monday, November 11, 2019

Things found : Around the World with Louise Brooks - Island edition

In researching Louise Brooks and her films and in compiling material for Around the World with Louise Brooks, I have been able to document the showing of the actress' film in numerous nations and territories. Including, as it turns out, on a number of islands. 


Brooks' films were shown not only in England, Ireland, and Australia, but also in Iceland, Cuba, Haiti, pre-statehood Hawaii (then an American territory), Indonesia, The Canary Islands, and elsewhere. They were even shown on at least one occasion on Madagascar, off the south east coast of Africa. Below is a newspaper advertisement from Poverty Bay, New Zealand for a special New Year's Eve showing of Rolled Stockings on that island nation.


Just recently, I came across a first, newspaper records showing at least a few of Brooks films, including, Love Em and Leave Em (1926) and Rolled Stockings (1927), were shown in Port Moresby on the island Papua, then called the Territory of Papua (then deemed an "External Territory of Australia"). Below is the write-up for Rolled Stockings which appeared in the Papuan Courier, the island's only newspaper, on October 3, 1930. As films were not reviewed on Papua back then, any reaction by locals to the film -- a rom-com about American youth -- is unknown.


As my exhibition records for Rolled Stockings show, a 1930 screening of the film is late, but not so late as to be considered among the last documented public showings. That would come a year later, when Rolled Stockings was shown in Darwin Australia. (See my earlier blog, "Louise Brooks in Australia - now and then," for details.)

James Hall and Louise Brooks wondering
where Rolled Stockings will be shown next.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Louise Brooks in Australia - now and then

A major film retrospective, "Enduring Modernity: The Transcontinental Career of Louise Brooks," is currently taking place in Australia at the Melbourne Cinémathèque. The retrospective, which runs through November 6, features seven of Louise Brooks silent films, including the majority of her iconic performances from the United States and Europe profiling her working under such noted directors as William Wellman, Howard Hawks, and G. W. Pabst. More information, including newly added links to articles, may be found HERE.

Coincidentally, for the last year, I have been working on a two volume book project, Around the World with Louise Brooks, in which the nation of Australia is something of a star! (The first volume looks at Louise Brooks, the actress. The second volume looks at Brooks' 24 films. As of now, I have about 850 pages completed, and hope to have the books done by the end of the year... fingers crossed.)


In a nod to Australia and its ongoing appreciation of the actress... what follows are a couple three highlights from my work in progress

Notably, one of the films to be screened at the Australian retrospective is the surviving fragment of Now We're in the Air. The Louise Brooks Society had a hand in the preservation of the film, and no doubt, the Melbourne Cinémathèque screening marks the first time the once popular comedy has been shown in Australia in nearly 90 years. 


The above newspaper advertisement appeared on the front page of April 14, 1932 edition of the Wooroora Producer, a newspaper based in Balaklava, Australia (95 km north of Adelaide) and circulating in nearby Port Wakefield, Bowmans, Long Plains, Avon, Erith, Whitwarta, Mount Templeton, Everard Central, Nantawrra, Hamley Bridge, Mallala Stockyard Creek, Barabba, Alma, Owen, Halbury, Hoyleton and other communities in South Australia. The advertisement documents what may well have been one of the last recorded public screening of Now We’re in the Air anywhere in the world, a 1927 film which today survives only in incomplete form. This ad is unusual in that it is specifically dated, informing locals a couple of days in advance of the small community’s once a week screening – in this instance two five year old silent films. The other film is IT, starring Clara Bow and Antonio Moreno. The venue, the Balaklava Institute, was likely the local town hall. It still stands.


A 1927 Brooks' film which is now considered lost is Rolled Stockings. It too had what is likely its last recorded public screening anywhere in the world in Australia. The otherwise unremarkable newspaper advertisement pictured below documents the occasion, which took place in October 1931. Four years after its American release – and well into the sound era, Brooks’ 1927 “youth picture” was paired with William Wyler’s action adventure film, The Thunder Riders (Universal, 1928). This silent double-bill was shown at a theater in Darwin, Australia known as The Stadium (aka Don Stadium or Don Pictures), an approximately 100-seat open-air sports and entertainment venue largely used during the dry months of the year. Below left is an exterior view, and below right is an interior view.

Image source: Northern Territory Library
Darwin, the former frontier outpost named after the British naturalist, is situated on the Timor Sea and is the capital of the Australia’s Northern Territory. Far from just about everywhere but the closest port to the Dutch East Indies, Darwin was an alternative entry or departure point for entertainment companies coming to or departing from the Australian mainland. Consequently, the Stadium theatre also hosted occasional vaudeville shows, including vaudeville and silent pictures, or vaudeville and boxing. I can't quite tell, but it appears there might be a boxing match going on in the interior view on the right.


And yet another lost 1927 Brooks' film which had what was likely it's last documented public screening in Australia is The City Gone Wild. It too was shown in Darwin in the Don Pictures Stadium theatre. The newspaper advertisement shown below dates from September 1931, four years after its initial American release. And again, well into the sound era! Back in the 1930s, Darwin, Australia was pretty far from everywhere and it was where "old" silent films went at the end of their exhibition life. Where they went from there is anybody's guess....

Monday, June 29, 2015

Louise Brooks: Greetings from Poland, part 3

A continuation of the two previous posts, the results of my look through a few online Polish archives in search of any and all Louise Brooks clippings or advertisements. Here is some of the material I found.


On the right is a photograph of Louise Brooks and her brother Ted, as pictured in Robotnik, the newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party. Go figure. Brooks is identified as an actress for Paramount. A handful of her early American silent films were shown in Warsaw and elsewhere around the country.


This 1930 piece promoting Gdy mlodosc szumi (or Gole Kolanka) at the Kino Apollo is for the lost 1927 film Rolled Stockings, with Richard Arlen. It notes that the film is about American college students. Maybe there is a copy still somewhere in Poland?

 

This 1929 advertisement, also for the Kino Apollo, promotes Piraci wielkiego miasta, the lost 1927 Brooks film known as The City Gone Wild, which stars Thomas Meighan. Maybe there is a copy still somewhere in Poland?

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Rolled Stockings - A round-up of reviews

Rolled Stockings, Louise Brooks' ninth film, was officially released on this day in 1927. The film is a romantic drama, set on a college campus, involving roadhouse adventures and a climatic race involving the schools' rowing team. The film, shot mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, is lost.

The film stars five of Paramount's "junior stars," Louise Brooks as Carol Fleming, James Hall as Jim Treadway, Richard Arlen as Ralph Treadway, Nancy Phillips as The Vamp, and El Brendel as Rudolph. The film, based on the screenplay by Percy Heath, adapted from an original story idea by Frederica Sagor, with titles by Julian Johnson, was directed by Richard Rosson.

The film received many positive reviews, though Brooks sometimes only received faint praise. Here is a round up of magazine and newspaper reviews and articles drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.



McN., J. "James Bill Good Stuff." Columbus Citizen, June 13, 1927.
--- ". . . the provoking presence of Louise Brooks."

anonymous. "College Fun Features New Film at 'Met'." Los Angeles Examiner, June 17, 1927.
--- "Louise Brooks is utterly adorable as Carol Fleming. She is exactly the type college boys swoon over. She displays a sincerity in her work that has been absent from her previous roles. Though this particular part offers little opportunity to show any great acting, she measures up splendidly in the few scenes that border on the emotional."

Barnes, Eleanor. "Rolled Stockings Unfolds Great Comedy Drama." Los Angeles Daily Illustrated News, June 17, 1927.
--- "Hall and Arlen do nice work in this production, and Louise Brooks, judging by this film, is destined to go a long way. She has some of Colleen Moore's qualities with a dash of Florence Vidor thrown in, and a lot of her own distinctive personality."

Rush. "Rolled Stockings." Variety, June 20, 1927.
--- "The casting of the young stars is fortunate. Miss Brooks, who has done several excellent things, here finds a role for her demure charm, with its tricky suggestion of mild sophistication."

anonymous. "Strand." New Orleans States, June 27, 1927.
--- "One of the best comedies of college life that has been seen hereabouts in sometime."

Feldkamp, Frances V. "Movie Reviews." St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 27, 1927.
--- "Louise Brooks is the girl; enough of a looker to make any man lose his head and fraternity pin."


Taaffe, Agnes. "Movies." Minneapolis Daily Star, June 27, 1927.
--- " . . . which co-stars Louise Brooks and James Hall, two personable screen performers who have the ability to hold the interest of the fans throughout six lively reels. . . . Louise Brooks gives a highly diverting performance as the flapper."

Sheekman, Arthur. "Rolled Stockings Is Amusing Trifle, Very Collegiate." Chicago Daily Journal, June 29, 1927.
--- "Miss Brooks, as you know, is always a lovely ornament for any picture, and more than good enough as an actress."

Heffernan, Harold. "The New Movies in Review." Detroit News, July 4, 1927.
--- "The dark-eyed Louise Brooks, with a flashy, new hair trim, is the destructive siren who infests the snappy little college known as Colfax."

Armstrong, Everhardt. "Brothers Are Rivals For Flirt's Fancy." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 15, 1927.
--- "The vivacious and flirtatious heroine of Rolled Stockings is Louise Brooks, of Love 'Em and Leave 'Em fame."

anonymous. "Rolled Stockings is College Thrill." Seattle Times, July 17, 1927.
--- "Paramounts 'youth' picture, which is now at the Coliseum Theatre, has everything - a thrilling college crew race, some exciting automobile scenes, snappy comedy, a good love story and lots of pep."

Thirier, Irene. "Both College Caper Films, Rolled Stockings Draws Better Than Poor Nut." New York Daily News, July 18, 1927.
--- "Rolled Stockings has Louise Brooks - lovely, no, lovelier than ever. . . . You're going to like this movie and the players in it."

author unknown. New York Graphic, July 19?, 1927. (United States)
--- "Paramount's junior stars romp through this playful picture and participate in an exciting regatta, a few romances, a fight, a road house sequence and college dances."

Cannon, Regina. "Rolled Stockings on Screen." New York American, July 19, 1927.
--- "This is another college story and it is realistic enough to be entertaining. . . . Louise Brooks is seen for the first time in a 'straight' role. This child is so smartly sophisticated that it has seldom been her lot to portray anything but baby vamps on the screen. She has an unusual personality which the camera catches and magnifies, dresses snappily and makes the most of her every movie moment."

lliott, James M. "Rolled Stockings Average." New York Daily Mirror, July 20, 1927.
--- " . . . manages to be pleasant, mildly absorbing and sufficiently accurate for the purposes of the picture. . . . Louise Brooks looks remarkably like Clara Bow, though she lacks the famed pep of our national flapper."

O., H. H. "Stage and Screen." Ann Arbor Times News, August 15, 1927.
--- "The three stars, Louise Brooks, James Hall and Richard Arlen are so thoroughly likeable and the story so different from the usual line of college bunk, that Rolled Stockings proves to be a delightful bit of cinema entertainment."


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Bay Area Becoming Mecca for Silent Film

The San Francisco Bay Area is becoming a Mecca for silent film. 

In its near 20 year history, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has grown to become the leading and largest such event in the Western Hemisphere. Last year, it sponsored an epic, even historic screening of Napoleon that made news around the United States. And in June, it is putting on a three day event at which all nine of Alfred Hitchcock's silent films will be shown. 

Over in the east bay, the Niles Essanany Silent Film Museum has been showing silent movies every weekend for nearly 10 years. They also put on an annual Charlie Chaplin Days event and Broncho Billy Film Festival.

Silent films are also occasionally shown in the north bay, at the Rafael Film Center, in the south bay at the Stanford Theater, and in Berkeley at the Pacific Film Archive. And don't forget the Berkeley Underground Film Society, an all ages club for collectors, researchers, and film enthusiasts whose weekly programs of rarely projected, or otherwise obscure 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm prints includes a fair number of early and silent cinema.

Another east bay contribution to the local scene is The Second International Berkeley Conference on Silent Cinema, which this year will be held from February 21-23 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Following the successful first Berkeley Conference on Silent Cinema in 2011 (which had the theme "Cinema Across Media: The 1920s"), this year's conference similarly explores an aspect of film and film culture in the silent era. 

Each of the conferences is designed to advance research and promote public interest in silent cinema by combining a three-day academic conference (free and open to the public) with an evening series of screenings at the Pacific Film Archive related to the topic under discussion.

This year the conference focuses on the theme "On Location." Four plenary speakers, thirty invited presenters, and six introduced screenings will explore the ways in which films in the silent era created new possibilities for experiencing place in a cinematic way. 

This year's plenary speakers are Jennifer Bean (University of Washington), Donald Crafton (Notre Dame), Aaron Gerow (Yale), and Scott Simmon (University of California, Davis). Among the other speaks are Janet Bergstrom (UCLA), Mary Ann Doane (University of California-Berkeley), Anton Kaes (University of California-Berkeley), and Shelley Stamp (University of California, Santa Cruz). Each is the author of a notable book in the field of film studies. Doane, in particular, is the author of a 1991 book likely familiar to readers of this blog, Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis (Routledge).

More info: Click here to see the conference schedule. Click here to see a list of speakers. Or click here to see a list of films to be shown as part of the conference.

Unfortunately, the one Louise Brooks film made on location in Berkeley, Rolled Stockings (1927), is lost. Parts of this college comedy romance were filmed on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Other scenes from the film, which featured rowing competition, were shot on the San Francisco Bay.



Friday, December 28, 2012

A Dutch double bill featuring Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks, famous for her sleek Dutch bob, is included in this rare 1929 Dutch newspaper advertisement for two of her films, Rolled Stockings and inset depicting Wallace Beery, Now We're in the Air. Each was released in the United States in 1927, and each played in The Netherlands in 1929.


Saturday, January 7, 2012

Rolled Stockings screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas dies at age 111

Silent era screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, who penned a handful of Jazz Age comedies and dramas including the 1927 Louise Brooks film, Rolled Stockings, died on January 5th at age 111.

Frederica Sagor's name appears in this 1927
newspaper advertisement for Rolled Stockings.
It was a rare honor for a writer and
suggest the esteem with which she
was once held.
The former La Mesa, California resident and "supercentarian" was one of the last surviving personalities from the silent film era, and perhaps the very last individual associated with one of Brooks’ silent films. Maas was also considered the second (or third according to some reports) oldest person in California.

As a woman, Maas was often assigned work on flapper comedies and light dramas. Her first big success, The Plastic Age (1925), was a smash hit for Clara Bow, the “It girl.” Maas' screenwriting and story efforts – sometimes credited, sometimes not – include other Bow films like Dance Madness (1926), Hula (1927), and Red Hair (1928), two films featuring her friend Norma Shearer, His Secretary (1925) and The Waning Sex (1926), the Garbo movie Flesh and the Devil (1926), and the now lost Brooks film Rolled Stockings (1927).

Rolled Stockings is a romantic drama set among carousing college students. It was one of a number of similarly-themed films aimed toward the youth market. To add a bit of verisimilitude, Rolled Stockings was filmed largely on and around the campus at the University of California, Berkeley. Local papers of the time reported on the arrival and activities of the film crew and cast.

The Richard Rosson-directed film was made for Paramount, and features the Paramount "junior stars." Besides Brooks, its cast includes then up-and-comers Richard Arlen, James Hall, Nancy Phillips, and El Brendel. Rolled Stockings, adapted from an original story idea by Frederica Sagor, proved popular in the summer of 1927 – and not only in the United States. It also played across Latin America and Europe.

In its review, the New York Morning Telegraph wrote, “Freddy Sagor has written quite a nice little story . . . . ,” while Robert E. Sherwood, writing in Life magazine, called Rolled Stockings “ . . . a surprisingly nice comedy . . . the characters are of importance, and they are nicely represented by the adroit Louise Brooks.”

Even the critic for the Ann Arbor Times News, a college town newspaper, appreciatively stated “The three stars, Louise Brooks, James Hall and Richard Arlen are so thoroughly likeable and the story so different from the usual line of college bunk, that Rolled Stockings proves to be a delightful bit of cinema entertainment.”


In 1999, at the urging of film historian Kevin Brownlow, Maas published her autobiography, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood (University Press of Kentucky). Maas was 99 at the time. In the book, which features an introduction by Brownlow, she recalled her life both in and out of Hollywood - as well as her remembrances of Rolled Stockings and impressions of Brooks.

A youthful and lovely Frederica Sagor
adorns the cover of  her 1999 memoir.
I first met Frederica Sagor Maas in May of 1999 at a lunch held in her honor at Musso & Frank's restaurant in Hollywood. At the time, I was attending the national booksellers convention in Los Angeles while scouting film books for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. At her publisher's booth I spotted an advance copy of her book, and queried about the author. Learning of her connections to silent Hollywood, I managed to get myself invited to the lunch being held the following day. That night, I stayed up late reading her engaging memoir. And that's when I discovered she had penned the story to one of Brooks' films. (Subsequently, I read the manuscript of that story, which is held at the Margaret Herrick Library in Burbank.)

My meeting with Frederica at the annual booksellers convention led to a later July event at the San Francisco bookstore where I was then working. At the time, Maas was nearly blind and frail, and at this - her first ever bookstore author event - she agreed instead to be interviewed about her remarkable life. I sat with her and asked questions about the many remarkable personalities she had known - Brooks, Clara Bow, Norma Shearer, Erich von Stroheim and others.

During that memorable evening, Maas told many stories, including one about Joan Crawford, who was then known as Lucille LeSueur and was just starting out in the movies.

As an experienced Hollywood insider, Maas was assigned by her studio to greet the young actress at the train station. She did so, but found the young actress rather uncouth. LeSueur, seeing Maas as a person of experience and sophistication, nevertheless asked the well-dressed scriptwriter to help build her wardrobe and shape a more glamorous image. Maas agreed, but found the experience challenging. She thought Crawford a “tramp.” The assembled crowd howled with laughter.

The next day, Maas appeared at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, where she addressed a crowd of more than 1000, drew a thunderous round of applause, and signed copies of her book – which quickly sold out.

Over the years, I kept in sporadic contact with Maas' guardians. I remember when she turned 100. And then 110. And then 111. I still have my double autographed copy of her memoir (signed by Kevin Brownlow as well!) - as well as a rare autographed photoplay edition of The Plastic Age which Frederica signed especially for me. Both are treasured books, and memory evoking keepsakes.

Frederica Sagor Maas with LBS Director Thomas Gladysz (standing)
Christy Pascoe at the Castro Theater in San Francisco in 1999.

Following her death, a number of obituaries and articles have appeared on-line including those in the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter and on Alt Film Guide and Patch.com and examiner.com

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Rolled Stockings writer turns 111

The woman whose story was the basis for the 1927 Louise Brooks’ film, Rolled Stockings, has turned 111 years old.

Today, Frederica Sagor Maas had a birthday. The La Mesa, California resident is one of the last surviving personalities from the silent film era, and perhaps the last living individual associated with one of Louise Brooks’ silent films. Maas is also thought to be the second oldest person in California. Read more about this remarkable woman on SFGate.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Rolled Stockings screenwriter turns 110

The woman whose story was the basis for the 1927 Louise Brooks’ film, Rolled Stockings, has turned 110 years old. Frederica Sagor Maas (pictured right in 1925) is one of the last surviving personalities from the silent film era, and perhaps the last living individual associated with one of Brooks’ silent films. 

I first met Maas in June, 1999 when I had lunch with her at the historic Musso and Franks restaurant in downtown Hollywood. 

Just six weeks later, in July, I put on her first bookstore event in connection with her then just published memoir, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (University Press of Kentucky). In it, she recounts her life both in and out of Hollywood, where she worked as a screenwriter during the silent and early sound era. 

At the time, Maas was 99 years old and nearly blind, and instead of a traditional author reading - I interviewed Maas about her remarkable life. The assembled crowd seemed to hang on her every word. Afterwords, we went out for a late supper and talked of many things, including Louise Brooks, who impressed her as someone who seemed "smart" and well educated. 

It was a great pleasure to meet Frederica Sagor Maas. I hope she lives another 100 years. 

More on her remarkable career can be found on examiner.com  - and more on Maas and  Brooks can be found here. [Some of the newspaper advertisements which I have come across for Rolled Stockings, like the one pictured below, include her name - a nod, I think, to her standing in Hollywood at the time.]

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Louise Brooks, exhibiiton practices: rong & wright

I spent most of Friday at the California State Library in Sacramento, continuing my survey of small town newspapers in Northern California. I found a bunch of stuff, and added to my list of more than 750 instances of when Louise Brooks films were shown in the region during the 1920's and 1930's. That may seem like a lot, and it is. But I am sure that other stars, like Clara Bow of Colleen Moore, were shown even more as each was not only more prolific but also more popular.

By compiling all this data, I have come to a couple of realizations. The first is that I am nuits to have done it. The second is that Paramount (the studio for which Brooks made most of her films), dominated the region in terms of exhibition - especially outside the major cities, like San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose and Sacramento, though Brooks' films did show a lot in those places as well. And thirdly, less than ten weeks went by during the period of 1926 and 1927 when one of Brooks' films wasn't showing somewhere around the San Francisco Bay Area. That's less then 10 seven day periods over the course of 104 weeks. How's that for ubiquity?

Well, anyways, I wanted to post a few things I found, as examples. Here are a couple of typical newspaper advertisements for the Liberty Theatre in Susanville, California. Susanville is in the north and eastern part of California, not so far from the Nevada border and Mt. Shasta.

What sticks out about the ad on the left is that fact that they got some important details mixed up. The 1927 film, Evening Clothes, which is noted as playing on October 24-25, was listed as starring Thomas Meighan. That's wrong. Of course, it stars the suave Adolph Menjou. Perhaps the person who typeset the ad was thinking of another 1927 Louise Brooks' film, The City Gone Wild, which does star the rough and tumble Meighan. It had just been released but wouldn't play Susanville till February. A week later, as the ad on the right shows, the theater got it right. On October 30th, the Liberty ran another 1927 film, Rolled Stockings, and noted correctly that it starred Louise Brooks.


Speaking of Rolled Stockings, I also came across something of an atypical factoid about it and the town of Placerville, California. It, too, is located in the north and eastern part of the state, not so far Sacramento and North Highlands, and east of Folsom near the Sierra Nevada foothills. The theater owners or patrons of the one theater in town must have really liked that film, because they showed it a lot - three times to be exact! Rolled Stockings was shown at the Elite Theatre on June 19 and July 17, 1927 - and then again on January 1, 1928. It's pretty unusual for a small town theater to show a film twice, let alone three times.

Why this small town showed Rolled Stockings three times I can't say. Perhaps they liked it. As the list below shows, the first Placerville screening was also one of the earliest in the State, beating out not only the region's biggest city, San Francisco, but also Berkeley and Oakland, where much of the film was shot. All of the instances of the regional screening of this now lost Brooks' film are listed below.

American in San Jose (June 15-17, 1927); Modesto Theater in Modesto (June 18, 1927); Elite in Placerville (June 19, 1927); Maywood Airdome in Corning (June 25, 1927); California in Santa Rosa (July 2, 1927); National in Chico (July 3, 1927); Hub in Mill Valley (July 5-6, 1927); New Stanford in Palo Alto (July 10, 1927 with Whispering Stage); Princess in Sausalito (July 10-11, 1927); Strand in Los Gatos (July 14-15, 1927); Elite in Placerville (July 17, 1927); Liberty in Marysville (July 23, 1927 with Hills of Peril); Liberty in St. Helena (July 24, 1927); California in Pittsburg (Aug. 2-3, 1927); Grand Lake in Oakland (Aug. 6-12, 1927); Casino in Antioch (Aug 7, 1927); Golden State in Monterey (Aug. 7, 1927); Mystic in Petaluma (Aug. 8, 1927); Granada in San Francisco (Aug. 13-19, 1927); Playhouse in Calistoga (Aug. 23-24, 1927); Boyes Hot Springs Theatre in Boyes Hot Springs (Aug. 26, 1927); California in Berkeley (Aug. 28-30, 1927); Peninsula in Burlingame (Sept. 4, 1927); Manzanita in Carmel (Sept. 4, 1927); Lodi Theatre in Lodi (Sept. 4, 1927); Capitol in Sacramento (Sept. 4-6, 1927); Merced Theatre in Merced (Sept. 5, 1927); New Santa Cruz Theatre in Santa Cruz (Sept. 5-6, 1927); Columbia & Loring in Crockett (Sept. 6, 1937); Sequoia in Redwood City (Sept. 9, 1927); Hippodrome in Napa (Sept. 11, 1927); New San Mateo Theatre in San Mateo (Sept. 11, 1927); Orpheus in San Rafael (Sept. 11, 1927); National in Woodland (Sept. 13-14, 1927); Lorin in Berkeley (Sept. 16, 1927); Starland in Sebastopol (Sept. 17, 1927); Chimes in Oakland (Sept. 18, 1927); Opal in Hollister (Oct. 12, 1927 with On Ze Boulevard); Hayward Theatre in Hayward (Oct. 14, 1927); Auburn Theater in Auburn (Oct. 28, 1927); Liberty in Susanville (Oct. 30, 1927); Redding Theater in Redding (Nov. 12, 1927); Mountain View Theatre in Mountain View (Nov. 16, 1927); Rivoli in Berkeley (Nov. 26, 1927); Tamalpias in San Anselmo (Nov. 30, 1927); Broadway in Oakland (Dec. 9-10, 1927); Strand in Lincoln (Dec. 13, 1927); New Fillmore in San Francisco (Dec. 19-21, 1927); New Mission in San Francisco (Dec. 19-21, 1927); California in Livermore (Dec. 23, 1927); Elite in Placerville (Jan. 1, 1928); New Roseville Theatre in Roseville (Jan. 6, 1928); Fern in Oakland (Feb. 8-9, 1928); Sequoia in Sacramento (Mar. 22, 1928); Smith’s in Yuba City (June 21-22, 1928).

I suppose there is something to be discerned about theater exhibition practices from all this data. I don't know. My interest is in local histories, as well as the intersection of individual histories (biography) and cultural histories. That's my interest. For more on the topic of exhibition practices, be sure and check out Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley's Hollywood in the Neighborhood: Historial Case Studies of Local Moviegoing (Univ of California Press, 2008). It includes a whole chapter by George Potamianos focussing on the Elite Theater, "Building Movie Audiences in Placerville, California 1908-1915."

It is also interesting to note that the film that preceded Rolled Stockings at the Elite theater in the small town of Placerville was the great German futuristic sci-fi epic Metropolis. Here is a picture of yours truly standing next to a very specific replica of the robot from that film. Ten points to anyone who knows where this picture was taken. And an additional five points to anyone who knows which star of Metropolis co-starred with Louise Brooks in a later film.
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