Showing posts with label clippings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clippings. Show all posts

Monday, September 27, 2021

File under unlikely - Max Factor mentions Louise Brooks

File this under unlikely: In late 1935, renown beautician & "Hollywood Make-Up Genius" Max Factor penned an article under the title "Hollywood Beauty Secrets."  The piece looked at changing notions of beauty, comparing the standards of Depression era America in 1935 with the "neo-classic beauty" of the earlier flapper era of 1920s America. And what's more, this particular Max Factor's article mentions Louise Brooks as representative of a flapper.

To me, this article is unlikely on a couple of accounts. First and foremost, because it was published in 1935, during a period when Brooks had not appeared in a film in four years and was little thought of in Hollywood. When she did appear in films a year or two later, in 1936 and 1937, her roles were always described as a "comeback." What is also unlikely about this article is that it appeared in a newspaper in Manchuria, China of all places!

It is known that Max Factor wrote a handful of syndicated newspaper articles which appeared in various American newspapers in the mid 1930s. However, I have never been able to track down this particular article in an American newspaper. That makes this appearance in a Shanghai newspaper something special.

In addition to its unlikely attributes, this piece is interesting in the attitudes it reveals. Does anyone know what theater / revival house Max Factor is referring to at the opening of the article?


Friday, August 14, 2020

Around the World with Louise Brooks, a few LAST trimmings from the cutting room floor

A continuation of the series of previous posts.... Here are a couple more odds 'n ends which I can't make use of or don't have room for in Around the World with Louise Brooks. The first is a three page Spanish language article about Hollywood which unfortunately doesn't mention Louise Brooks. I don't remember where it is from, likely a South American publication circa 1930. That was sloppy of me.




And lastly, here is another undated, unsourced clipping from Austria which does depict Louise Brooks. This page is titled "Wie war es mit einer Volksabstimmung" or "How about a referendum".  Instead, I will title this somewhat bizarre piece "babes and battleships."

Monday, August 10, 2020

Around the World with Louise Brooks, even a FEW MORE trimmings from the cutting room floor

A continuation of the series of previous posts.... Here is another odds 'n ends which I can't make use of or don't have room for in Around the World with Louise Brooks. As with the earlier post in this series, here is an eight page French language article on Hollywood which mentions both Louise Brooks and her one-time husband, Eddie Sutherland. (Brooks and Sutherland are mentioned on the fourth page.) This article comes from a March 1929 issue of a scarce French film magazine, PhotoCine, and comes complete with pictures of various movie stars and their homes as well as some 'swonderful caricatures. Enjoy.








Thursday, July 30, 2020

Around the World with Louise Brooks, some trimmings from the cutting room floor

First off, a big THANK YOU to Leif Jensen for sending me images of three Louise Brooks' magazine covers from Denmark, one of which I had never seen before. I have added them to my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, and have added Leif's name to the book as well in the acknowledgements and on the pages where those images appear. I am so pleased to have received Leif's help, and am pleased also they he was so generous in sharing a few scans. It made my day.

Along with Leif's contributions, and a few new finds, I have been able to bring the total of vintage Louise Brooks' magazine covers shown in Around the World with Louise Brooks to 85. I think that is a wow!

Here are a few odds 'n ends which I can't make use of or don't have room for in Around the World with Louise Brooks. I thought I would share them with you. From a March 1928 issue of Cinegrafico, a publication from Argentina.


And here is a two page spread from a November 1927 issue of Swiatowid, an illustrated Polish magazine.


And lasting here is a page from a November 1926 issue of UFA Magazin displaying a still and a bit of verse about The American Venus, the film for which Louise Brooks received her first screen credit. Unfortunately, she is not pictured.


Thursday, August 1, 2019

Yesterday's Louise Brooks research trip to Berkeley

Yesterday, I ventured to the University of California in Berkeley in search of yet more material related to Louise Brooks, and found a few more gems.

Over the years, and especially when I lived in San Francisco, I visited the Doe Library at U.C. Berkeley dozens of times, spending hundreds of hours scrolling through the library's massive microfilm collection. This was before the newspaper and microfilm collection was moved from its low-hung basement room which often smelled of ant spray to its current home in a cavernous four floor "vault" created out of the post-earthquake ruins of another wing of massive library building. My many trips to this library have left me with many pleasurable memories.... I love doing research, and love finding things no one has seen in decades.

Doe Memorial Library, named after benefactor Charles Franklin Doe, is a Beaux Arts landmark whose main portal
is graced by Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.
photo via Cal Alumni Association

I hit most of my marks, but not all. I have always wanted to find pictures and coverage of "60 Ans de Cinema," the landmark exhibit organized by Henri Langlois in Paris in 1955. As Barry Paris recounts, "Visitors entering the building were greeted by two gigantic portraits looming down from wires in positions of co-equal honor: Falconetti from Dreyer's The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc (1927) and Brooks from Pandora's Box. What stunned people was that the two dominant faces belonged to such obscure actresses.... Asked to justify his choice of Brooks over Garbo or Dietrich or a hundred others more worthy of the honor, Langlois made a ringing declaration that became the rallying cry of Louise's resurrection:

There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks!" 

I spent about an hour scrolling through the June, 1955 microfilm of both Le Monde and Le Figaro, two leading newspapers, but came up empty handed. Paris had other newspapers at the time, as well as film magazines, so my search will go on.

However, I did find other material of note, like this Russian newspaper advertisement from 1932. There are five film programs being promoted, and the one in the middle for the Nero-Film Лулу, should catch your eye. (Лулу = Lulu, as the film was titled in the Soviet Union.) For those who don't read Russian, like me, Louise Brooks is here spelled as Луиза Брук.


Unless you know what you are looking for, and where to look for it, and when in time to look, it is difficult to search Russian language publications, which are written in Cyrillic. Also difficult for me to search through are Japanese-language newspapers and magazines, which are written in kanji, but sometimes contain bits of English-language text. That's how I came across this brief clipping related to The Canary Murder Case from The Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese-language newspaper published in Los Angeles, California.


The Canary Murder Case debuted at the Paramount theater in February of 1929, where it enjoyed a successful run. It then played a week at the Egyptian in March, and then was revived for another week at the historic Million Dollar. According to Wikipedia, "The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places."

I found a few other clippings in The Rafu Shimpo dating from 1937 related to King of Gamblers and When You're in Love. This later material was printed in English.

Besides foreign-language publications, I also looked through a database of LGBTQ publications and came across this UK clipping. Louise Brooks has long been a figure of interest within the gay and lesbian community, so it's no surprise I found this enthusiastic 1993 article, as well as others. THis piece comes from a now-defunct London-based tabloid publication called The Pink Paper. And its author, Nigel Robinson, if I am not mistaken, is also the author of a few science fiction novels as well as a handful of later Doctor Who titles.


Like the good Doctor, I too travel though time and place in search of Lulu. 

Monday, November 19, 2018

Louise Brooks text: Need help translating from Hungarian

Louise Brooks' films were shown all around the world in the 1920s and 1930s, including in Hungary. In my search to document all things related to the actress and her legacy, I have come across all kinds of interesting material in languages which I don't read.

Can any good soul translate or summarize this clipping from a Hungarian newspaper? It seems to be a sort of "people in the news" feature like those we see today.

By the way, to the left of Louise Brooks is Bruno Walter (1876 – 1962), is the German-born pianist and composer widely considered to be one of the great conductors of the 20th century. Földes Bandi, pictured at the top of the piece, was a musical prodigy who played the piano. I couldn't find anything more about him for certain, though he may be the same young Jewish man who died at Auschwitz. I have not been able to identify the man to the right of Louise Brooks. Can anyone?


Saturday, July 21, 2018

Louise Brooks was married on this day in 1926, and look what happened next

One bit of fallout from Louise Brooks' role in It's the Old Army Game in 1926 was that she married the film's director.

In all likelihood, Brooks first met up-and-coming Paramount director Eddie Sutherland during the making of the movie, in February, 1926. The film, especially its interiors, were shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island, with some additional shots taken in Manhattan. Location shooting, including exteriors, was done in Ocala and Palm Beach, Florida in late February and during the first three weeks of March, 1926.

Brooks and Sutherland were married just a few months later, on July 21, 1926 in New York City. It was a civil ceremony, with just a few in attendance.

This "celebrity" marriage made the news, with small articles appearing in newspapers across the the United States on July 22. A few of these articles even made the front page of the newspapers in which they appeared. None, however, were as prominent as the coverage given by the New York Daily News. The paper ran a captioned photograph of Brooks on the front page of each of its four editions. Pictured below are two examples. (The paper also ran a short interior article about the two "reel" newlyweds.)


The edition picture above is termed the "pink edition," with the current heatwave hitting the city felling 9 and killing 3. The edition pictured below is termed the "final edition," with the heatwave felling 12 and killing 5. The photograph of Brooks used above was the same on three of the four editions. The caption also changed, though only slightly.


According to the interior article, "they came together, took out a marriage license and were wed--all within an hour."

The caption beneath the front page photos reads "Quite informally, Louise Brooks (above) and Eddie Sutherland, movie director, yesterday went to the municipal building and got married. Sutherland was divorced from Marjorie Daw a year ago. Louise and he met when he gave her a part in his picture , It's the Old Army Game. She rose to her present lofty position in the film firmament from the chorus a year and a half ago."

Brooks was both a budding film star and a local celebrity. In celebration of her marriage, on July 23, the new bride was a guest of honor at the Ziegfeld Follies.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Louise Brooks: A Classic of the Silver Screen

Louise Brooks: A Classic of the Silver Screen . . . .


Sunday, December 25, 2016

Happy Holidays from the Louise Brooks Society #2

A vintage Japanese holiday greeting from Paramount. How many stars can you name? One at least!


Saturday, December 24, 2016

Happy Holidays from the Louise Brooks Society #1

A vintage Japanese holiday greeting from Paramount. How many stars can you name? Check back tomorrow for another!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #9, the last

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found about a week ago. It is an interview with the Nobel Prize winning Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez which appeared in the Brazilian edition of Playboy back in 2013. And, as I have underlined in red, the noted writer mentions Louise Brooks!

I wonder if the interviewer or Márquez knew that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is a huge Louise Brooks fan?

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #8

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found a few days ago. The two images come from a Japanese film magazine and date from late 1929. Can anyone translate the text? I realize the images are a little rough, but this is the best quality available of these incredibly rare finds.

I am assuming that Brooks, and Pabst and Brooks, posed especially for these pictures in order to send a message to their Japanese fans. At least that is the way it looks to me. Brooks is even smiling in the right hand images, as if it were all a joke. The source of these images, and their context, will be revealed at a later date.

Might the chalkboards spell out their names? Or something else?

Monday, October 24, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #7

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found about a week ago ago. It is a bunch of reviews of a bunch of films, including A Social Celebrity, starring Adolphe Menjou and Louise Brooks. This piece is special because it appeared in a student publication, the University Hatchet, from George Washington University. A Social Celebrity is the last film reviewed. Apparently, Joe D. Walstrom liked Brooks. He said, "The girl, Louise Brooks, is a dazzling creature recently of the Follies. She's a brunette, and will make some people think twice before they accept the maxim of Anita Loos that Gentlemen Prefer Nordics."

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #6

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found a few days ago. It is the first clipping I have found / have been able to find from the Philippines! The article, "Una estrella olvidada," talks about Louise Brooks as a forgotten star. Interestingly, the article mentions both Pandora's Box and Prix de Beaute.  The article dates from May, 1932. The publication, Voz Espanola, is from Manila.



Saturday, October 22, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #5

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found a few days ago. It is a mention of Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box in a 1943 Nazi publication, Kladderadatsch, filled with anti-Jewish and anti-American propaganda. The best I can tell, Pandora's Box is referenced in the service of a joke. 

See the short piece below titled "Der Jagdfilm." It reads:

"Lange bevor man beschloss, Wedekinds Buchse der Pandora mit Louise Brooks zu drehen, kam ein Schriftsteller zu einem Munchner Filmproduzenten und sagte: 'Herr Direktor, ich habe eine ausgezeichnete Idee. Konnte man nicht mal Die Buchse der Pandora verfilmen?'

Der grosse Filmmann sah ihn an, wiegte den Kopf him und her, dann meinte er: Buchse der Pandora? Garnicht schlecht. Jagdfilme gehen bei uns in Baiern immer!"

If anyone can offer a translation or interpretation of this piece, it would appreciated.


I also found a couple of Charlie Chaplin cartoons in this issue of Kladderadatsch. Here is one of them. It is an anti-Chaplin cartoon, with the punchline being "Charlie Chaplin cannot sit idly by as his double go off to war."


Here is the other, a two page spread. I am not sure what it is about, but it seems anti-Semitic. (Chaplin, who was anti-Nazi, was said to be Jewish by Nazi propagandists.)


Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #2

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found yesterday. It is a couple of pages from a 2004 Arabic publication possibly about beauty and film culture. If anyone can help translate the text shown below, I would appreciate it.

 

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Louise Brooks (and other silent era stars) in Latvia #1

I was recently looking through a Latvian film magazine, and found some Louise Brooks and silent film star related material. All of it dates circa 1927 to 1929. Here are a couple of images of Brooks, followed by some nifty magazine covers. The first image, with the poem, is a full page in the original. Can anyone translate the poem? The second image is from A Girl in Every Port, followed by covers featuring Clara Bow and Esther Ralston. [I will post some even more spectacular silent film magazine covers tomorrow.]








Thursday, March 31, 2016

C.B. DeMille pastoral silent film with Louise Brooks

In November, 1927 a person named T.J.G. sent a note to Motion Picture Arts and Sciences magazine (their very first issue, it turns out) humorously suggesting that a film be made by C.B. Demille based on the names of film stars whose names evoke something pastoral. Among them is Louise Brooks.


Monday, November 23, 2015

Louise Brooks in Norway, part 2

This post originally appeared on Facebook. The clippings were found by Tor Lier, and he also authored the commentary and provided the translations. It is a great haul of previously undocumented material.

«LOUISE BROOKS IN NORWAY»

An article in A-Magasinet, the weekly magazine format supplement of Aftenposten.
«Louise Brooks opdager Europa» (Louise Brooks discovers Europe).


Signed anonymously «Correspondent», this appears to be a translation of a syndicated article from another country. From the wording, I’d guess that it’s of German origin. . It would be too much of a task translating the whole thing, but here are some interesting passages: "She was at the top, and great things were expected of her, when the talkies fever broke out in America and made the situation uncertain for the movie stars. Louise Brooks, too, experienced difficulties. Her contract with Paramount had expired, and there were conditions attached to its renewal that the new star did not appreciate.


That’s when Louise Brooks discovered Europe."

 (… A diatribe against American movie people’s dismissal of European films follows…)
"However, Louise Brooks, or her manager — or both of them together — had seen a German film and were amazed at what those poor Europeans were able to achieve.
Negotiations with German companies followed, and one day the lovely Louise found herself in Berlin."

(… The following paragraphs deal with German skepticism of having an American play Lulu, as we’ve heard from Louise herself and other sources.
"It cannot be denied that we had pictured a different kind of Lulu, perhaps a Greta Garbo, or why not Brigitte Helm?"

(…)
"The general audiences were ecstatic. This was just how they wanted Lulu, childishly innocent in all her sin, as if apologetic for all the evil she did.
However, the critics were cool. Many of them felt that the performance of the American star was very slight.
And the following day, the papers were furious: What was all this farce about the hunt for the perfect Lulu, when all the while the contract with the American star lay safely in the film company director’s safe? And criticism of poor Louise was as harsh as it can be in Berlin when you’ve accidentally upset the critics.
But in spite of all this, the film is playing to packed houses."
--
What I find odd here is the bit about Louise and he agent starting negotiations after taking an interest in German films. Unless I misremember, all reports tell of Pabst discovering Louise in A Girl In Every Port, and his offer coming to her out of the blue. Was this concocted by the article writer, or an after-the-fact embellishment from Louise’s agent?




Page two of the article:



 
And the photos from page 1 in larger size:





























Thanks to Tor Lier for permission to reprint this material.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Louise Brooks in Norway, part 1

This post originally appeared on Facebook. The clippings were found by Tor Lier, and he also authored the commentary and provided the translations. It is a great haul of previously undocumented material.

«LOUISE BROOKS IN NORWAY»

In chronological order, some clippings from the archives of Aftenposten, the leading daily newspaper in Norway.

Aug. 30, 1926: Oslo premiere of Shingle-Eksperten (The Shingle Expert) (A Social Celebrity). Evidently considered a big enough picture to warrant two theaters.

The text reads: "ADOLPHE MENJOU has long since conquered both women’s and men’s hearts. In SHINGLE-EKSPERTEN he undoubtedly has one of his best parts, and he’s supported with surety and elegance by the lovely LOUISE BROOKS whose beauty has justifiably caught the attention of the whole world."
«Shingle» refers to the bobbed hair at which Menjou’s character is evidently an expert.

Jan. 19, 1927: Ad for Oslo showings of Før og efter bryllupet (Before and After the Wedding) (The Show-Off). Text reads: "In this jolly comedy, the triumvirate of everyone’s Lois Wilson; the lovely and charming Louise Brooks; and the famous comedian Ford Sterling, are leading the fun. Which guarantees a great time for the audience. This is a film you should see!!!"


May 18, 1927: Shingle-Eksperten (The Show-Off) in re-release.

Elsk Mig (Love Me) with Leatrice Joy and Edmund Burns could be either Hell’s Highroad (1925) or Made for Love (1926), I’m guessing it’s the latter.

Siste Chance (Last Chance) (Seven Chances)

Evig Din i 14 Dage with Clara Bow and Lawrence Gray has to be Kid Boots. Poor Eddie Cantor, the star of the film, isn’t mentioned!




Oct. 10. 1929: For once, the title «En pike i hver havn» is a literal translation of the original, A Girl in Every Port. Underneath, coincidentally, is an ad for a film featuring Sig Arno of Pandora’s Box. The original title of this film is Das Mädel mit der Peitsche (The Girl with the Whip)!

In an ad from five days later, Oct. 19, Louise is now first-billed over McLaglen!



Could not find a trace of the Pabst films in the ’29 or ’30 archives. Both Pandora and Diary may have fallen afoul of Norwegian censorship, which was quite strict, or there may have been other problems. However, the premiere of Prix de beauté (Skjønhetskonkurransen, literally «The Beauty Contest») (April 28, 1930) shows that the actress was not quite forgotten: «The Louise Brooks film of the year, made in Paris!»  Peculiarly, the ad credits cinematographer Rudolph Maté with being the director of the film!

Thanks to Tor Lier for permission to reprint this material.
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