Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Louise Brooks books from the Louise Brooks Society

Looking for something good to read? Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her films? Looking for the perfect gift for the silent film buff or Louise Brooks fan on your holiday list? Check out one or more of these Louise Brooks Society publications.

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The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond (softcover 1st edition)
by Thomas Gladysz

-- The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond is a 380 page deep dive into the history of one film, the 1925 silent, The Street of Forgotten Men. A popular and critical success at the time of its release, the film is based on a story by a noted writer, made by a significant director, shot by one of a greatest cinematographers, and features a fine cast which includes a future screen legend at the beginning of her career (Louise Brooks)  The story of the film is told in rich, historical detail — not only the film’s making, critical reception, and exhibition history but also its surprising legacy. Along with dozens of rare images and vintage clippings, this new book contains all manner of documents from the story on which the film was based to censorship records to a French fictionalization of the film to detailed credits and trivia, and even a review by a candidate for sainthood.

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond features forewords by Robert Byrne, whose restoration of The Street of Forgotten Men saved it from an undeserving obscurity, and film historian and Oscar honoree Kevin Brownlow, who revealed little known details about the film drawn from his correspondence with Louise Brooks.

AUTOGRAPHED copies available direct from the author @ $35.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA). To place an order via PayPal, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom 
 
 
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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.

“Historian Thomas Gladysz has put together a number of his articles and essays from the past 15 years for the book Louise Brooks: The Persistent Star. Gladysz is the director of the Louise Brooks Society, and his detailed essays will be fascinating reading for any fan of the iconic actress.” — Lea Stans, Silentology

“… this (fully illustrated) book proves that ‘the persistent star’ is a perfect accolade.” — Tara Hanks, author of The Mmm Girl and Wicked Baby

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 Saxo (Denmark) | Open Trolley (Indonesia) | MightyApe (New Zealand) | Bol.com (Netherlands) | Archiwum (Poland) 

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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. 

“I can say (with head bowed modestly) that I know more about the career of director William A. Wellman than pretty much anybody … but there are things in Thomas Gladysz’s new book on Wellman’s Beggars of Life that I didn’t know. More important, the writing is so good and the research so deep that even when I was reading about facts that were familiar to me, I was enjoying myself hugely.” — Frank Thompson, author of Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman

“This highly readable book will deepen your enjoyment and understanding of a silent Hollywood classic.” — Pamela Hutchinson, author of Pandora’s Box (BFI Film Classics)

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
 
Or buy NEW from Amazon (USA) | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million
 
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 Saxo (Denmark) | Open Trolley (Indonesia) | MightyApe (New Zealand) | Bol.com (Netherlands) | Archiwum (Poland)  | Waterstones (UK)
 
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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.
 
The absolute final word on the film from the world’s foremost expert on Louise Brooks. Thoroughly researched and expertly written, oh, and did I mention lavishly illustrated? If you love silent film and if you love Louise Brooks (and who doesn’t) you really should pick up a copy for your library.” — amazon.com review

AUTOGRAPHED copies available direct from the author @ $18.50 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
Or buy NEW from Amazon (USA) | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million
 
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 Saxo (Denmark) | Open Trolley (Indonesia) | MightyApe (New Zealand) | Bol.com (Netherlands) | Archiwum (Poland) 

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The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition)
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.

“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

“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. This reissue is long overdue, and a volume of uncommon merit.” — Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran

NEW from Amazon (USA) | Bookshop.org | Powells | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | or in person at George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY) | Larry Edmunds (Hollywood, CA)
 
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 Saxo (Denmark)
| Open Trolley (Indonesia) | MightyApe (New Zealand) | Bol.com (Netherlands) | Archiwum (Poland)

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.

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.

Monday, February 20, 2023

More 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 post.

One chapter in the book focuses on the film's legacy, and the surprising way it impacted American culture. I discuss how the title of the film became a catchphrase, and survey some of the fiction, film, and other material which was "inspired" by The Street of Forgotten Men, including poetry. I found a handful of pieces, including a prose poem in a 1928 high school yearbook, which referenced the film title. In my book, I didn't have room to discuss each of the examples of poetry which I came across. Here, I foucs on the two poems whose titles were taken from the film.

The film's title-phrase became the subject of a newspaper poem titled “The Street of Forgotten Men.” At the time, many papers printed inspirational or humorous verse, much of which rhymed, was satirical, or sought to teach a lesson. (Today, Edgar Guest may well be the best known writer of such verse.) 

One piece I came across was Daniel J. Knott, Jr.’s “original composition,” which appeared on December 13, 1929 in the Putnam County Courier, published in Carmel, New York. Knott’s verse, which is a sing-songy tour of the Bowery, reflects on the hungry and homeless – the “bodies of wrecks caught in poverty’s mesh.” It ran just a couple of months after the stock market crash which began the Depression.


Another piece I came across was an anonymous poem published in a book, Seth Parker Fireside Poems, a 1933 collection of folksy poems originally broadcast on the radio by Seth Parker (aka Phillips H. Lord), a popular radio personality and the host of the long running program, Jonesport Neighbors. Parker was quite famous in his day, and in 1932 he starred in a motion picture produced by RKO Radio Pictures which was based on another of his books. In the film, Way Back Home, he starred opposite Bette Davis.

A note accompanying the poem reads, “This poem was handed to Mr. Lord during his Monday night broadcast from his ‘Bowery Den’ (the old ‘Tunnel Saloon’ on the Bowery) by one of the men in the bread-line, It was written in pencil on an old scrap of paper. When questioned as to why he had written this poem, the author’s only reply was, ‘My tribute to Phil Lord for what he is doing for us boys down here’.”

If you are wondering how it is that I am ascribing the title of these two poems to the film and not some other source, you will have to read my book. I trace the history of the phrases "forgotten man" (or "forgotten men") and "street of forgotten men," and note that the latter was not used in any print source I could trace until George Kibbe Turner's 1925 magazine story (upon which the 1925 film was based) was published. As I state in the book, "Herbert Brenon's 1925 film has a distinction few other movies can claim, namely, its title became a catchphrase."

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond is nearly done. I am waiting for one last document to arrive, and have begun a final edit and indexing of the book. As The Street of Forgotten Men is Louise Brooks' first film, this is a book fans of the actress and of the silent era will want to read.

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, December 29, 2022

Reminder post: GoFundMe Launched for new Louise Brooks related book

First off, a BIG thank you to the thirteen individuals who have made a donation to my GoFundMe campaign towards the publication of  my forthcoming book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond.The $400.00 goal has been reached, and surpassed by $60.00 !

And a gentle reminder to those who thought about donating but have not had a chance that it's not too late to do so.... I am still working on finishing the book, and any donation, no matter how small, will help. 

Those who donate $20.00 or more will be acknowledged by name in the book, and those who donate $40.00 or more will received an acknowledgement and an autographed, softcover copy of the book (USA only). The GoFundMe page is located HERE.

As many of you may know, I have been working on a new book titled The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. This approximately 350-page book is a deep dive into the history of a single film – its literary source, its making, its exhibition history, its critical reception, and its surprising cultural impact.

I am hoping to raise a few hundred dollars to purchase the rights to a small number of archival images that I hope to include in my forthcoming book, which is due out in early 2023. Any donations over the goal will be used to help defray costs already incurred. A draft of the front and back covers of the book are pictured below. (The price of the book is not yet set.)  

Though little known today, the 1925 silent film, The Street of Forgotten Men, was a popular and critical success at the time of its release. The film is based on a short story by a noted writer (George Kibbe Turner); it was made by a significant director (Herbert Brenon), shot by a great cinematographer (Hal Rosson), and features a fine cast (Percy Marmont, Neil Hamilton, Mary Brian) which includes a screen legend at the very beginning of her career (Louise Brooks). In many ways, The Street of Forgotten Men is exemplary of filmmaking & film culture in the mid-1920s. This new book tells its story in rich, historical detail. Along with dozens of rare images, my book contains all manner of vintage documents, clippings and advertisements as well as a foreword by Robert Byrne. (This noted film preservationist is responsible for the 2022 restoration of The Street of Forgotten Men, which debuted earlier this year at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.) Among the book's many revelations
  • A detailed account of the making of the film - what it was like on the set of a silent film.  
  • A thorough survey of the film's many reviews, including one by a Weird Tales contributor, and another by Catholic icon Dorothy Day, a candidate for sainthood.  
  • Identification of a handful of the film's uncredited, bit players, including a noted journalist, a screenwriter, and a world champion boxer.
  • The story of Lassie's role in the film (no, not that Lassie, the first Lassie). 
  • The role music played in the making and exhibition of this silent film.  
  • How the film's title entered into 
  • The story of how future film legend Louise Brooks came to appear in the film - her first! 
  • And so much more... from censorship records to its mention on the floor of Congress to a French fictionalization to a clipping noting the film's last documented showing, at a Navy Y.M.C.A in Shanghai, China in 1931 !
The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond is a book every silent film fan will want to own. It is also a must read for anyone interested in Louise Brooks.
 
The GoFundMe page is located 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.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies

As most fans of Louise Brooks are aware, Brooks was well acquainted with the silent film star Marion Davies. Brooks spent time at the famed Hearst Castle, and also visited Davies at her beachfront estate. Brooks also knew Marion Davies' niece, Pepi Lederer. This circle of friendship is sketched in "Marion Davies Niece," one of the essays in Brooks' own book, Lulu in Hollywood

In some ways, Brooks' and Davies' stories are similar. Powerful men plucked both from the Ziegfeld Follies, and thrust each into the movies. Davies was ambitious. Brooks, less so. Nevertheless, both struggled to define themselves, to lead the lives they wanted to live, and to be in charge of their own destinies. Both also, to a degree, fought to overcome a legend which was imposed on their latter lives.

I mention all this because just out is Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies, a promising new biography by Lara Gabrielle published by the University of California Press. Long in the works, this new biography is a book every silent film buff will want to read. I just recently received a copy, and can't wait to get started. This is my kind of biography, thoroughly researched and full of footnotes!

Here is the publisher supplied description: "From Marion Davies's humble days in Brooklyn to her rise to fame alongside press baron William Randolph Hearst, the public life story of the film star plays like a modern fairy tale shaped by gossip columnists, fan magazines, biopics, and documentaries. Yet the real Marion Davies remained largely hidden from view, as she was wary of interviews and trusted few with her true life story. In Captain of Her Soul, Lara Gabrielle pulls back layers of myth to show a complex and fiercely independent woman, ahead of her time, who carved her own path."

"Through meticulous research, unprecedented access to archives around the world, and interviews with those who knew Davies,
Captain of Her Soul counters the public story. This book reveals a woman who navigated disability and social stigma to rise to the top of a young Hollywood dominated by powerful men. Davies took charge of her own career, negotiating with studio heads and establishing herself as a top-tier comedienne, but her proudest achievement was her philanthropy and advocacy for children. This biography brings Davies out of the shadows cast by the Hearst legacy, shedding light on a dynamic woman who lived life on her own terms and declared that she was "the captain of her soul."

If you happened to see the outstanding documentary on William Randolph Hearst broadcast on PBS last year, then you were also likely intrigued by the role this diminutive film star played in the life of the millionaire publishing tycoon. Lara Gabrielle spoke in that documentary, and has a lot to say about this plucky film star who always tried to live life on her own terms (despite living in the shadow of a giant of a man, Hearst). Did she succeed? Was she the captain of her soul? What price did she pay? Read Lara Gabrielle's new biography to find out!

Here is a piece that just appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Here are some of the pre-pub notices:

"Lara Gabrielle finally buries the canard that Marion Davies was anything like Orson Welles's Susan Alexander from Citizen Kane. With hard-earned access to Davies's family and friends, Gabrielle has created a deeply sourced, delightfully told story of a rich, complicated life. With Captain of Her Soul, we finally meet Marion Davies as her own woman—talented, funny, generous, and a wonderful friend."—Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood

"Gabrielle has unearthed a treasure trove of previously unpublished material that provides valuable new insights into Marion Davies's storied life and career."—Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
 
 "Actor Marion Davies (1897–1961) may have lived ‘a life shrouded in mystery, rumor, and half-truths,’ but she was witty, talented, and loyal, according to this sparkling debut from film historian Gabrielle. . . . a breezy, colorful saga of Old Hollywood, full of showbiz picaresque, glamorous parties at Hearst’s San Simeon castle, and a touching romance between two flawed, magnetic personalities. Film buffs will want to check this one out." ― Publishers Weekly

"[A] scrupulously researched biography of American actress Davies (1897–1961), who was for a long time better known as the mistress of tabloid publisher William Randolph Hearst. . . . For fans of old-Hollywood lore and classic movies, especially those starring Marion Davies." ―
Library Journal
 
 
If you have never seen a Marion Davies film, then you are missing out. The Patsy (1928) and Show People (1928) are each outstanding. Davies is charming and funny in both films, each of which I consider classics and must-see viewing. Those are two of my favorites, though others like, Little Old New York (1923) and Zander the Great (1925) and Beverly of Graustark (1926), are also very good. I have seen each and like them all. Check them out, and then read Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies.
 
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited. 

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Addendum to Roland Jaccard (1941-2021), French author of Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star

I wanted to add a bit more to my prior post regarding the passing of the French writer Roland Jaccard, who took his own life last September. Jaccard is best known to fans of Louise Brooks as the editor of the first ever book about the actress, Louise Brooks : portrait d'une anti-star. Jaccard's book was first published in France in 1977, and then translated into English and published in the United States in 1986 (and then in the UK in 1988). Here is a scan of the front and back covers of the American edition.


Jaccard's book made a bit of a splash in France, where it got some reviews and was eventually republished in 1985. The English language pieces in the book, namely those by Louise Brooks, were translated into French by Alain Meylan. When the book was published in English, the French pieces were translated into English by Gideon Y. Schein, who also contributed a brief forward to the book.

The book didn't catch on like it had in France, and only received a smattering of press. One syndicated piece that ran in a handful of newspapers stated: "More than a year after her death, silent screen star Louise Brooks continues to be a hot item in the publishing world. New York Zoetrope recently published Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star, an English translation of a 1982 German book edited by Roland Jaccard. The $19.95 paperback includes essays and letters - including several by Brooks - as well as 90 photos, many borrowed from Brooks' personal collection." The author of this piece got a couple of things wrong, like the fact the book came from France, not Germany, and was first published in 1977, not 1982. 

Along with a filmography and list of Brooks' published articles, the English language edition includes:

The touch of a glance, by Tahar Ben Jelloun (poetry)
"Thank God, I'm alone", by Roland Jaccard
A certain kind of freedom, by Louise Brooks
The passion, death, and transfiguration of Lulu, by Jean-Michel Palmier
Pabst and Lulu, by Louise Brooks
The other side of the camera, by Louise Brooks
A witness speaks, by Lotte H. Eisner
The origin of a myth, by Roland Jaccard
An answer to an admirer: a letter from Louise Brooks to Guido Crepax
Song of Lulu, by Andre Laude (poetry)


During the pandemic lock-down in 2020, I found myself rereading Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star, and wondering about the book's translator, Gideon Y. Schein. I wondered who he was, and decided to try and track him down, if possible. I was able to do so, and wrote him asking how it was he came to translate the French text 

Gideon wrote back: "A friend of mine who was working for the publisher of the book knew that I had met Louise Brooks in Rochester NY several times and when they needed a translator/editor they came to me. I was a big time fan long before that. I was a lunchtime guest in her home, which she never left.  At that time I was the Producing Director of the GeVa Theater in Rochester. . . . One day, out of the blue she called me and invited me for lunch. She must have followed me in the two local papers and was curious about my opera career in Europe, as well as my theater in Rochester. . . . She really was an extraordinary woman, but in her own way very humble. She turned down a star career for artistic principles."

Roland Jaccard's Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star is a book every fan of the actress should own, and read. There are many second hand copies floating around the internet at very affordable prices.

 * * * * *

I want to add one more bit about Jaccard's book. Anyone who has read this blog for a whiule will likely know that I used to work as a bookseller at the Booksmith in San Francisco. For a long time, I ran the store's events program, and as a Louise Brooks obsessive, I tried to secure events with anyone connected with early film. Over the years, I put on events with Barry Paris, Peter Cowie, Frederica Sagor Maas (of Rolled Stockings fame) and others. Check out this earlier blog about some of the events I put on, part 1 is HERE, and part 2 is HERE.

Before I ran the events program, I was a section buyer, purchasing stock for the film section, art section, poetry, and the sale table. One day in 1998, while going through list of sale books, I noticed Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star. Wow. I ordered a box full, and placed them on the sale table and offered them on-line. I knew there was interest, and they sold quickly. I ordered another box and they sold. I ordered two more boxes, and three more boxes, and four more boxes, and they all sold. I remember being a bit giddy at how fast these books were flying out the door. 

I am not sure how many copies of Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star I sold, but it was a lot. Perhaps as many as 800 or 900 books. In fact, the store sold so many copies that the book made a local bestseller list. The SF Weekly, an alternative weekly in San Francisco, carried bestseller lists from local bookstores, and when they carried the Booksmith list, the then two-year old Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star became a bestseller in 1998. Here is a scan of the clipping I have kept since then.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Roland Jaccard (1941-2021), French author of Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star

Only recently I became aware of the passing of the French writer and critic Roland Jaccard (1941-2021), who is best known to fans of Louise Brooks as the author / editor of the first ever book about the actress, Louise Brooks : portrait d'une anti-star (1977). That heavily illustrated work, which included pieces by and about the silent film star, was translated into English and published in the United States as Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star (1986). It helped advance the Brooks' revival in the 1980s.

Jaccard was the author of a number of other books, most notably Portrait d’une flapper (2007), which depicts Brooks on the cover, and another, Lou (1982), a fictional autobiography of Lou Andreas Salomé, the German-Russian woman of letters and pioneering psychoanalyst known for her relationships with Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud and significantly Frank Wedekind. (There are some, including Jaccard, who have speculated that Wedekind based his Lulu character on Lou Andreas-Salome.)

Besides his writings on film (he also authored a book on John Wayne in 2019), Jaccard was also involved in the making of a few films. Here is his IMDb page. Jaccard was also a novelist, essayist, journalist, publisher and a specialist in psychoanalysis, having published several essays on Freud. Despite his many activities, he was little known in the United States, excepting for Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star, which received a small number of reviews in America in the 1980s.

According to his French Wikipedia page, Jaccard believed in assisted suicide. In 1992, he wrote Manifeste pour une mort douce (Manifesto for a Gentle Death) with Michel Thévoz, the director of the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. In Jaccard's last autobiographical book, One never recovers from a happy childhood, released in 2021 a few weeks before his death, he announced that he would commit suicide “after the summer,” declaring old age horrified him. Jaccard died, apparently by his own hand, on September 20, 2021, two days before what would have been his 80th birthday. Notably, both his grandfather and father had also committed suicide around the same time in their lives.

I met Roland Jaccard in Paris back in January 2011. I was in the French capital to give a talk at the Village Voice bookshop (the now defunct English-language bookshop) and to introduce a screening of a Brooks' film at the Action Cinema. Both events were meant to promote my 2010 publication, the "Louise Brooks edition" of Margarete Böhme's The Diary of a Lost Girl. Some 50 plus people turned-out for the bookstore event (a good turn-out considering I am an unknown in Paris), including a few noted devotees of Brooks. Among them was Roland Jaccard. Pictured below is a snapshot from the event. On the left holding my "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl is the French translator of the Barry Paris biography, Aline Weill - I am in the middle, and on the right is Jaccard holding a copy of his Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star.

Not only did Jaccard attend my event, he also agreed to meet for dinner a couple of days later. Jaccard was well known for his love of Japanese food, and we met at one of his favorite Japanese restaurants, where he answered my questions about Brooks. (They were correspondents in the 1970s.) Jaccard also gifted me with a cache of rare Louise Brooks documents - including a vintage postcard, photographs, six handwritten letters, and other material. Eleven years later, I still can't believe his generosity.


During our dinner, the French actress Marie-Josee Croze arrived, and we were introduced. We spoke with her a bit (she knew of Brooks), and I gifted her with one of my mini-Lulu pins, which she immediately put on. It was a lovely evening, the kind that could only happen in Paris. Below is a snapshot of Jaccard chatting with Croze, who can be seen wearing my Lulu pin-back button.


Jaccard also generously autographed three different copies of  Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star which I had carried with me on the airplane in hopes of meeting the author. (Being a completest, I own both the English and French editions of the book.) I also signed a book for Jaccard, which he had bought at the Village Voice bookstore before my event!

For those interested in learning more about Jaccard, here is a link to an article, "Death of essayist and columnist Roland Jaccard" in The Canadian. And here is another piece, “The elegance of Roland Jaccard”, by Frédéric Schiffter, a friend of the writer.

Jaccard's French Wikipedia page has a number of links to other recent articles, including this one by the noted novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun, who was also a contributor to Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star. A small number of videos featuring Jaccard can be found on YouTube, including this, episode #4 of Cinephiles.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Around the World with Louise Brooks

I have good news and not so good news.... First the not so good news. Despite the fact that I have steadily applied myself to working on my two volume book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, I will not be able to complete it this year as I had hoped. I estimate that I am 80% done with this rather large project, which currently stands at more than 900 pages. I admit to a bit of project creep -- I am always coming across new and interesting things -- but also, life and this crazy world and another couple of projects have diverted my attention. 

I will, of course, keep everyone updated on my progress and the books' publication date, which should be in 2022. I am anxious to finish it, as it has consumed me for too long and I am anxious to get going on other things.

The covers for the two volumes of Around the World with Louise Brooks

And now the good news.... Consequently, I need to set Around the World with Louise Brooks aside for a couple / three months in order to work on a new book project, a tie-in to one of Brooks' films which is currently being newly restored and which will likely debut next year (provided the world doesn't end). I have assisted in a small way with the film's restoration, but can't say which film it is, as this project is under wraps until its debut in 2022.

This new project, a slim book under 150 pages, will be similar to two of my earlier publications, Beggars of Life: a Companion to the 1928 Film, and Now We're in the Air: A Companion to the Once Lost Film. I intend to get this new book project done in time to the restoration debut in 2022. Stay tuned to this blog and the Louise Brooks Society website for details.

While conducting research for Around the World with Louise Brooks, I spent hundreds of hours going through various online newspaper and magazine archives. I bookmarked these sites in order to return to them again, but also because some proved difficult to find, in that some were come across only by chance, or were found while looking for something else. 

Recently, I completed an overhaul of the Resources / Links page of this blog which include a handful of link lists which bookmark film magazines dating from the silent and early sound era. At the time these lists were compiled, each link was freely accessible on the web, without need of subscription, institutional affiliation, or local access. Generally speaking, I have included magazines published from the time before Brooks' began her film career, but not those published after her career ended, around 1940. Not all publications listed contain material related to Louise Brooks, though many do. Happy hunting / happy researching.

On the Resources / Links page, you will find links to film magazines from silent and early sound era from all around the world. There are publications from not only the United States and Germany and France, but also Poland, Spain, Cuba, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. This page is a work in progress. I should add more links to obscure publications in the coming weeks. Are these lists missing a worthwhile site? Send a suggestions to LouiseBrooksSocietyATgMAILdotCOM


Monday, December 20, 2021

Recommended Reading on Early Film

Here is a small selection of new and recommended books on early film (the silent and early sound era). Perhaps it's just me, but it seems there are fewer appealing books on this increasingly distant time in film history. I haven't read all of these book, only a couple of them, but know of the many of the  author's previous work and am confident it their quality. And, I am eager to check them out myself. Some of these titles, like those on Greta Garbo, should also intrigue those interested in Louise Brooks. Each of these recommended works was released sometime in 2021.

Garbo
by Robert Gottlieb 

Award-winning master critic Robert Gottlieb takes a singular and multifaceted look at the life of silver screen legend Greta Garbo, and the culture that worshiped her.

“Wherever you look in the period between 1925 and 1941,” Robert Gottlieb writes in Garbo, “Greta Garbo is in people’s minds, hearts, and dreams.” Strikingly glamorous and famously inscrutable, she managed, in sixteen short years, to infiltrate the world’s subconscious; the end of her film career, when she was thirty-six, only made her more irresistible. Garbo appeared in just twenty-four Hollywood movies, yet her impact on the world―and that indescribable, transcendent presence she possessed―was rivaled only by Marilyn Monroe’s. She was looked on as a unique phenomenon, a sphinx, a myth, the most beautiful woman in the world, but in reality she was a Swedish peasant girl, uneducated, naïve, and always on her guard. When she arrived in Hollywood, aged nineteen, she spoke barely a word of English and was completely unprepared for the ferocious publicity that quickly adhered to her as, almost overnight, she became the world’s most famous actress.

In Garbo, the acclaimed critic and editor Robert Gottlieb offers a vivid and thorough retelling of her life, beginning in the slums of Stockholm and proceeding through her years of struggling to elude the attention of the world―her desperate, futile striving to be “left alone.” He takes us through the films themselves, from M-G-M’s early presentation of her as a “vamp”―her overwhelming beauty drawing men to their doom, a formula she loathed―to the artistic heights of Camille and Ninotchka (“Garbo Laughs!”), by way of Anna Christie (“Garbo Talks!”), Mata Hari, and Grand Hotel. He examines her passive withdrawal from the movies, and the endless attempts to draw her back. And he sketches the life she led as a very wealthy woman in New York―“a hermit about town”―and the life she led in Europe among the Rothschilds and men like Onassis and Churchill. Her relationships with her famous co-star John Gilbert, with Cecil Beaton, with Leopold Stokowski, with Erich Maria Remarque, with George Schlee―were they consummated? Was she bisexual? Was she sexual at all? The whole world wanted to know―and still wants to know.

In addition to offering his rich account of her life, Gottlieb, in what he calls “A Garbo Reader,” brings together a remarkable assembly of glimpses of Garbo from other people’s memoirs and interviews, ranging from Ingmar Bergman and Tallulah Bankhead to Roland Barthes; from literature (she turns up everywhere―in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, in Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and the letters of Marianne Moore and Alice B. Toklas); from countless songs and cartoons and articles of merchandise. Most extraordinary of all are the pictures―250 or so ravishing movie stills, formal portraits, and revealing snapshots―all reproduced here in superb duotone. She had no personal vanity, no interest in clothes and make-up, yet the story of Garbo is essentially the story of a face and the camera. Forty years after her career ended, she was still being tormented by unrelenting paparazzi wherever she went.  Includes Black-and-White Photographs


The Savvy Sphinx: How Garbo Conquered Hollywood
by Robert Dance

From the late 1920s through the thirties, Greta Garbo (1905–1990) was the biggest star in Hollywood. She stopped making films in 1941, at only thirty-six, and thereafter sought a discreet private life. Still, her fame only increased as the public and press clamored for news of the former actress. At the time of her death, forty-nine years later, photographers continued to stalk her, and her death was reported on the front pages of newspapers worldwide.

In The Savvy Sphinx: How Garbo Conquered Hollywood, Robert Dance traces the strategy a working-class Swedish teenager employed to enter motion pictures, find her way to America, and ultimately become Hollywood’s most glorious product. Brilliant tactics allowed her to reach Hollywood’s upper-most echelon and made her one of the last century’s most famous people. Garbo was discovered by director Mauritz Stiller, who saw promise in her nascent talent and insisted that she accompany him when he was lured to America by an MGM contract. By twenty she was a movie star and the epitome of glamour. Soon Garbo was among the highest-paid performers, and in many years she occupied the number one position. Unique among studio players, she quickly insisted on and was granted final authority over her scripts, costars, and directors. But Garbo never played the Hollywood game, and by the late twenties her unwillingness to grant interviews, attend premieres, or meet visiting dignitaries won her the sobriquet the Swedish Sphinx.

The Savvy Sphinx, which includes over a hundred beautiful images, charts her rise and her long self-imposed exile as the queen who abdicated her Hollywood throne. Garbo was the paramount star produced by the Hollywood studio system, and by the time of her death her legendary status was assured.

The Rise & Fall of Max Linder: The First Cinema Celebrity
by Lisa Stein Haven

Max Linder, born Gabriel Leuvielle in St. Loubes, France in 1883, started in films with the Pathe Brothers in Vincennes, just outside of Paris in 1905, making him one of the first film comedians that became world-renowned. In fact, there is evidence that Linder was the first screen celebrity to see his name in print. His comedy timing and gags (Linder started writing his own scenarios early on) have been copied and imitated by many of his followers, including Charlie Chaplin. 

Linder's story is both a comedy and a tragedy. His meteoric rise to fame by 1907/8 hit a roadblock in 1914 with the onset of World War I, and was dealt a death blow by his attempts to revive his career in America and Austria. His marriage to a young wife was ill-fated and ill-timed, leading Linder to take the life of his wife and himself on the night of October 31, 1925, leaving a 16-month-old daughter behind, Maud, who would devote her life to restoring his film legacy.  

Lisa Stein Haven is an Professor of English at Ohio University Zanesville, specializing in British and American modernist literature, the Beat poets and silent film comedy, especially the work of Charlie and Syd Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Max Linder.  

I wrote about this excellent book on an earlier blog. Check it out HERE.


Movie Mavens: US Newspaper Women Take On the Movies, 1914-1923
edited by Richard Abel

During the early era of cinema, moviegoers turned to women editors and writers for the latest on everyone's favorite stars, films, and filmmakers. Richard Abel returns these women to film history with an anthology of reviews, articles, and other works. Drawn from newspapers of the time, the selections show how columnists like Kitty Kelly, Mae Tinee, Louella Parsons, and Genevieve Harris wrote directly to female readers. They also profiled women working in jobs like scenario writer and film editor and noted the industry's willingness to hire women. Sharp wit and frank opinions entertained and informed a wide readership hungry for news about the movies but also about women on both sides of the camera. Abel supplements the texts with hard-to-find biographical information and provides context on the newspapers and silent-era movie industry as well as on the professionals and films highlighted by these writers. 

An invaluable collection of rare archival sources, Movie Mavens reveals women's essential contribution to the creation of American film culture.

Richard Abel is a professor emeritus of international cinema and media studies at the University of Michigan. His recent books include Menus for Movie Land: Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture, 1913-1916, and Motor City Movie Culture, 1916-1925. He is also the coeditor of Barbara C. Hodgdon’s writings, Ghostly Fragmentsand the 2017 winner of the Jean Mitry Award.


20th Century-Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio
by Scott Eyman 

From New York Times bestselling author Scott Eyman, this is the story one of the most influential studios in film history, from its glory days under the leadership of legendary movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck up to its 2019 buyout by Disney.
 
March 20, 2019 marked the end of an era -- Disney took ownership of the movie empire that was Fox. For almost a century before that historic date, Twentieth Century-Fox was one of the preeminent producers of films, stars, and filmmakers. Its unique identity in the industry and place in movie history is unparalleled -- and one of the greatest stories to come out of Hollywood. One man, a legendary producer named Darryl F. Zanuck, is the heart of the story. This narrative tells the complete tale of Zanuck and the films, stars, intrigue, and innovations of the iconic studio that was.
 
Scott Eyman is an award-winning author of 15 books about the movies, three of which have been New York Times bestsellers. He's a frequent book reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, Film Comment, and the New York Observer. His books include Hank & Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart; John Wayne: Louis B. Mayer: Lion of Hollywood; and Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford.

Silent Vignettes: Stars, Studios and Stories from the Silent
by Tim Lussier

Pickford, Lloyd, Keaton, Garbo. You're familiar with these icons of silent film, of course - and they are here within these pages. But are you familiar with Francelia Billington? No? How about Harold Lockwood, Edna Flugrath, Marion Byron, Virginia Brown Faire? Still, no? 

Well, fear not. Film historian and author Tim Lussier ("Bare Knees" Flapper: The Life and Films of Virginia LeeCorbin) shines a belated spotlight on these unjustly forgotten men and women, each of whom brought untold joy to millions of fans in the years before movies learned to talk. When you read their stories in Silent Vignettes, you'll understand why.

"Silent film fans know there is a vast world of long-forgotten studios and stars just waiting to be rediscovered. . . Tim Lussier helps bring a complex era to life with these tales of 'film folks,' both familiar and obscure." - Lea Stans

 


Vitagraph: America's First Great Motion Picture Studio
by Andrew A. Erish 

In Vitagraph, Andrew A. Erish provides a comprehensive examination and reassessment of the company most responsible for defining and popularizing the American movie. This history challenges long-accepted Hollywood mythology that simply isn't true: that Paramount and Fox invented the feature film, that Universal created the star system, and that these companies, along with MGM and Warner Bros., developed motion pictures into a multi-million-dollar business. In fact, the truth about Vitagraph is far more interesting than the myths that later moguls propagated about themselves.

Established in 1897 by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, Vitagraph was the leading producer of motion pictures for much of the silent era. Vitagraph established America's studio system, a division of labor utilizing specialized craftspeople and artists, including a surprising number of women and minorities, whose aesthetic innovations have long been incorporated into virtually all commercial cinema. They developed fundamental aspects of the form and content of American movies, encompassing everything from framing, lighting, and performance style to emphasizing character-driven comedy and drama in stories that respected and sometimes poked fun at every demographic of Vitagraph's vast audience. The company overcame resistance to multi-reel motion pictures by establishing a national distribution network for its feature films. Vitagraph's international distribution was even more successful, cultivating a worldwide preference for American movies that endures to the present. For most of its existence America's most influential studio was headquartered in Brooklyn, New York before relocating to Hollywood.

An historically rigorous and thorough account of the most influential producer of American motion pictures during the silent era, Erish draws on valuable primary material long overlooked by other historians to introduce readers to the fascinating, forgotten pioneers of Vitagraph. 

 ++++++

I have added some of these titles to my Louise Brooks Society wish list. If you are looking to help support the efforts of the Louise Brooks Society and gift the LBS with something from this list, your contribution will be greatly appreciated! Long live Lulu.

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