Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Louise Brooks Society marks 25th anniversary

Earlier, at the beginning of this year, I was looking forward to this summer. I was looking forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society. But now, with all that has happened in 2020 — things I could not have imagined in January or February, I am resigned to merely marking the occasion. [The pandemic, and Trump's failure to help the nation get through it, has certainly sucked the air out of the room. Who feels like celebrating when one is only trying to get by....]

In the summer of 1995, I posted my first webpages about Louise Brooks and proclaimed the formation of a society dedicated to the silent film star. That was 25 years ago, at the beginning of the internet. The Louise Brooks Society was a pioneering website. It was the first site devoted to Brooks, one of the very first about silent film, and one of the earliest related to the movies. I am proud that I have kept it going to this day, making the LBS one of the older websites around.

Why did I do it? Since first becoming interested / fascinated / obsessed with Louise Brooks, I have always appreciated meeting others who shared my enthusiasm for this singular silent film star. Early on, I searched for some kind of fan club — but found none. Over time, it occurred to me that I might form my own group. The idea of starting the Louise Brooks Society coincided with my growing interest in computing. That was in the early to mid-1990s. And that’s when I realized there would be no better way of forming a fan club than over the internet. A fan club (in the traditional sense) would be a way to share information and “meet” other like-minded individuals. Thus, enabled by the world wide web, by email, by bulletin boards and listserves, and by all the mechanisms of the internet, the Louise Brooks Society was born.

The Louise Brooks Society website (which was just a few pages at first) was launched in the summer of 1995. Since then, the LBS has become one of the leading websites devoted to any film star — silent or sound. It has also received a fair amount of media attention. Just a year after I launched my website, In May of 1996, USA Today named the LBS a “Hot Site,” noting “Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience.”


I remember how excited I was when I received an email from a fan telling me they noticed something about my website in the paper! That sent me to my local library library to get a look at a back issue of USA Today, and hopefully photocopy the mention. (The USA Today piece was syndicated to various newspapers, including Florida Today, which is pictured below. Thank you Sam Vincent Meddis, where ever you are.)


More press followed. In the summer of 1996, the LBS was named one of five best sites devoted to actresses in a UK computing magazine, Net Directory. In March of 1997, there was a passing mention of the LBS in another British publication, the Times Literary Supplement (TLS)! And in September of 1997, the society was profiled in the Noe Valley Voice, a neighborhood newspaper located in San Francisco, California, where I then lived. That profile, by Fontaine Roberson, was titled "Flapper Has 'Virtual' Fan Club in Noe Valley."

Something was in the air, and the following year, 1998, was a big year for both Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. That was the year Hugh Munro Neely directed Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, the Emmy nominated documentary which debuted on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in May. My Louise Brooks Society website helped "inspire" its production. That's according to an article in Wired by Steve Silberman. In his April 10th piece, "Fan Site Sparks Biopic," Silberman wrote, "TCM spokesman Justin Pettigrew says the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society, the most in-depth Web site devoted to the once nearly forgotten star, convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and a mini-festival of Brooks' work.... 'The Web presence for Louise Brooks was overwhelming. It was definitely a driving force in convincing the network to produce this documentary," Pettigrew went on to add.

Other pieces followed. In 1998, there were mentions of the Louise Brooks Society in an Italian magazine, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and in the Melbourne Age, a newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. I appeared on cable TV on the Louise Brooks episode of "E! Mysteries and Scandals," along with Roger Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Barry Paris and others. And there was a big write up, "Lovely Lulu Lives Again," in the San Francisco Chronicle which discussed the documentaty and my website. In 1999, when Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu aired in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post wrote "The voiceless Internet has been the perfect medium for reviving the image of one of the greatest icons of the silent movie era. Louise Brooks, with her trademark raven 'helmet' hair style, adorns many a Web site. The renewed interest in her, fueled by the cyberspace Louise Brooks Society, prompted Turner Classic Movies to fund the television profile Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (World, 10 pm)."

Over the next few years, other mentions and praise would follow in San Francisco Examiner and, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, as well as the Stuttgarter Zeitung and London Sunday Times. In 2002, the New York Times noted, "The Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars." And in 2005, when the Louise Brooks Society was turning ten years old, Leonard Maltin wrote "Not many sites of any kind can claim to be celebrating a tenth anniversary online, but that’s true of the Louise Brooks Society, devoted to the life and times of the magnetic silent-film star and latter-day memoirist. Thomas Gladysz has assembled a formidable amount of material on the actress and her era; there’s not only a lot to read and enjoy, but there’s a gift shop and even a 'Radio Lulu' function that allows you to listen to music of the 1920s. Wow!"

The Louise Brooks Society has come along way since then — since those early days.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

New Find 4 - an Unknown Louise Brooks Film Cameo?

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the fourth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks.


In 1926, Paramount released Fascinating Youth; the studio filled the film with its "Junior Stars" - including Charles "Buddy" Rogers (in his feature debut), as well as Thelma Todd, Josephine Dunn, Jack Luden, Iris Grey and others. It was an ensemble effort which was meant to feature and promote recent graduates of the Paramount Pictures acting school. Sam Wood directed, while Robert Benchley helped pen the titles. In addition, a number of established Paramount stars also made cameo appearances in the film, including the one and only Clara Bow. Some of the other well known Paramount talent who appear in Fascinating Youth include actors Richard Dix, Adolphe Menjou, Lois Wilson, Percy Marmont, Chester Conklin, Thomas Meighan, and Lila Lee, as well as directors Lewis Milestone and Malcolm St. Clair. AND POSSIBLY, LOUISE BROOKS?

I recently came across an article about the film which mentions Louise Brooks' "minor role" in Fascinating Youth. The article is Bill Reilly's "The School for Scandalous Success," which appeared in Moving Picture World on March 13, 1926. Seemingly, the article was written after the author saw the film premiered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York City on March 2nd, following a banquet and the Paramount school graduation exercises. Brooks' name is highlighted in the piece below.

Brooks' possible cameo was news to me! I searched out and read a number of other magazine and newspaper articles about the film, and only a few mentioned some of the prominent stars who appear in bit parts. This brief write up in Photoplay lists them, and is likely one of the sources for the very same credits found on IMDb and Wikipedia.


This considered review in Picture Play magazine (shown below) also mentions some of the big names in the film, but not all, and not Louise Brooks. Sally Benson, the reviewer who penned this piece, especially liked Chester Conklin's role, but curiously didn't mention emerging superstar Clara Bow.


Shown below are Chester Conklin and Clara Bow in a scene from the 1926 Paramount Pictures production, Fascinating Youth.


Few newspaper articles (which are typically shorter and less detailed) mentioned cameos by the big name stars. One that did appeared in the Washington Evening Star on July 7, 1926. The author changes the standard line-up of stars ever so slightly, adds Ralph Lewis, and misspells Lois Wilson's name. The Evening Star article, shown below, also mentions that the film offered "behind-the-scenes glimpses of Paramount's Long Island Studio."


A similar piece in the Boston Globe mentions Adolphe Menjou, Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Clara Bow and Percy Marmont. While a May 10 review in the Brooklyn Times-Union notes only Adolphe Menjou, Richard Dix, and Lois Wilson. However, the latter piece does ad some interesting detail to the roles played by the name stars. It is excerpted here, beginning with "The rather vapid story tells of a young man threatened...."


Of all the few dozen magazine and newspaper articles I looked at, only Bill Reilly's "The School for Scandalous Success" mentions Louise Brooks. I wonder why? Was it a simple mistake? Did Reilly confuse a similar looking background actor with Brooks? Or did Reilly confuse Clara Bow (who isn't mentioned) with Brooks, a not uncommon mistake? We may never know....

Compared to Menjou, Dix, Marmont and the other Paramount actors said to have appeared in Fascinating Youth, Brooks was little known. Their cameos were deliberate, meant to ad star luster to a film whose cast featured talent who hadn't made a name for themselves. If Brooks made an appearance in the film, it was in all likelihood accidental.

By March of 1926, Brooks had achieved a certain degree of renown in New York City - when Fascinating Youth was screened at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. While not yet known nationally as an actress, Brooks was known around NYC as a showgirl & personality, having performed with both the George White Scandals and Ziegfeld Follies. She had also gotten her name and picture in local papers on numerous occasions. Perhaps Reilly knew her or knew of her and recognized her and gave her a shout-out? We may never know....

While it is unlikely Brooks appeared in Fascinating Youth (based on scant evidence = one mention in an article in a film magazine), it is not impossible. According to friend and film historian J. B. Kaufman, who authored a stellar article "Fascinating Youth: The Story of the Paramount Pictures School," Fascinating Youth was in production "between 23 November and 24 December 1925. Then the location shooting started the week after Christmas and lasted until mid-January 1926." According to articles from the time, location shooting on Fascinating Youth was done in the Adirondacks, while  the earlier work was done at Paramount's Astoria Studio on Long Island, and as well, possibly, in Greenwich Village, as some articles mention.

At the time Fascinating Youth was being made, Brooks was also in New York City, and was set to begin work on A Social Celebrity. Brooks' third film was directed by Mal St. Clair, starred Adolph Menjou, and featured Chester Conklin - each of whom made a cameo in Fascinating Youth. Production work on A Social Celebrity began on December 21, 1925 and continued through the third week of January, 1926. Like Fascinating Youth, the Brooks' film was shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island, with location work done elsewhere on Long Island (in the village of Huntington) as well as in Manhattan.


Today, Fascinating Youth is considered a lost film. And truth be told, we may never know who else - including Louise Brooks - may have made an appearance in the film, no matter how brief. She was in the right place at the right time, but we may never know....

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Book recommendations from the Louise Brooks Society

If you are stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic and are wanting to catching up on your reading... may we recommend the following books on Louise Brooks, silent film, and early Hollywood. Many, but not all, of these titles are available through local independent bookstores like Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, national chain stores like Barnes & Noble, online stores like amazon.com, or specialty shops like Larry Edmunds in Hollywood. The latter was written up here in the previous post. Some of these titles, especially those published by larger publishers, might also be available as an e-book through your local library.


Before getting into books on the silent and early sound era, let's look toward the Louise Brooks bookshelf. Three essential books any fan will want to read are the biography by Barry Paris and Louise Brooks' own volume of memoirs, Lulu in Hollywood. Both are still available thanks to the efforts of the Louise Brooks Society, which helped bring them back into print. I would also recommend both Jan Wahl's wonderful Dear Stinkpot: Letters From Louise Brooks, and Pamela Hutchinson's recently reissued Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora), from BFI Film Classics. And, I might also put in a plug for a few of my recent books, Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star (a collection of essays), Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, and Now We're in the Air: A Companion to the Once "Lost" Film.

There are a few other titles available, like Peter Cowie's Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever and Roland Jaccard's Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star, but they are out of print and a bit harder to track down. Tom Graves' My Afternoon with Louise Brooks is also of interest, and I've written about it a number of times here on the Louise Brooks Society blog. Otherwise, be sure and check out the Books for Sale table here on the blog for even more related and recommended titles. On a final note, let me add that a title like Louise Brooks: Her men, affairs, scandals and persona is a pile of crap, and unless you like stepping in dog-shit, I would avoid it all together.

Among the new and recent releases realted to the silent and early sound era, I would recommend Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle, by Steve Massa. I recently wrote it here on the LBS blog. It is an interesting read, and not only because Arbuckle directed Louise Brooks in a 1931 short, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood.

Also recently released and more than deserving of a read is Donna Hill's Rudolph Valentino: The Silent Idol, His Life in Photographs. As Kevin Brownlow remarked, "Besides being superbly researched, Silent Idol is filled with outstanding photographs, [and] given the standard of reproduction they deserve. I recommend it wholeheartedly."


If you find yourself drawn to the exoticism of early Hollywood, then you will likely find yourself drawn to the Agata Frymus' Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood (Rutgers University Press). Film scholar Michael Williams stated, "Written with engaging clarity and scholarly vigour and founded on first-class archival research, Damsels and Divas is a hugely welcome addition to scholarship on Hollywood stardom in the 1920s. The book shines much-needed light on the extraordinary careers of European female stars Pola Negri, Vilma Bánky and Jetta Goudal as well as the discourses of ethnicity, gender and class that shaped the firmament in which they, as Frymus puts it, ‘shone briefly, but very brightly’."

Two other recent titles worth noting are Dan van Neste's They Coulda Been Contenders: Twelve Actors Who Should Have Become Cinematic Superstars (Bear Manor), a highly enjoyable read, and Barbara Tepa Lupack's Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema (Cornell University Press). Regarding the latter, Jack Garner (Louise Brooks' friend and former staff film critic at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) stated, "Silent Serial Sensations shines an overdue spotlight on a little-known but essential part of cinema history. Barbara Tepa Lupack tells the surprising and rich story of the creative Wharton brothers and their Ithaca studio in this well-researched and engaging history."


And finally, here are some links to some of my past book recommendations and where they were published.

Best Film Books of 2017: Silent Comedy Edition. Huffington Post

Best Film Books of 2017. Huffington Post

The BFI Re-Opens Silent Film Pandora’s Box. PopMatters

Pola Negri: Her films were silent. She wasn’t. Huffington Post

The Case for Marion Davies. Huffington Post

Two Film Historians and Their Lifelong Labor of Love. Huffington Post 

Son of Best Film Books of 2016. Huffington Post
 
Best Film Books of 2016. Huffington Post

Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies. Huffington Post

New Book Surveys Jules Verne on Film. Huffington Post

Spooky Film History Books for Halloween. Huffington Post

Best Films Books of 2015. Huffington Post

Best Film Books of 2014. Huffington Post

Best Film Books of 2013. Huffington Post 

Best Film Books of 2012. Huffington Post

The Movies: 10 Must-Read Books Coming This Fall. Huffington Post   

Best Film Books of 2011 Are Biographies. Huffington Post 

Director John Huston – the story of a story-teller revealed in new book. San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate

Walt Disney’s silent inspirations. San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate

Thomas Gladysz’s most treasured book. San Francisco Chronicle

Best Film Books for 2010. Huffington Post 

Dear Stinkpot: Letters from Louise Brooks by Jan Wahl. Huffington Post  

New Chaplin book by Kevin Brownlow. San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog

New book on Edison’s Frankenstein. San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog

Best film books of 2009. examiner.com

Monday, March 11, 2019

Around the World with Louise Brooks - Paramount in the Middle East

A follow-up to last week's blog about how and where Paramount films were distributed, as well as Paramount's presence in the Middle East in the late 1920's and early 1930s, at the height of Louise Brooks' career.

As I also noted earlier, fourteen of the twenty-four films in Brooks' filmography were Paramount productions, which leads me to wonder if and when and where some of those fourteen films might have been shown anywhere in the Middle Eastern. Of course, much has changed since the 1920s, cities have changed names and new nations have arisen, but then - as now - major cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, and others all presumably had movie theaters.


According to the "List of Paramount Offices Around the World" reproduced in my March 6th post, the Italian office was responsible for distribution of Paramount films into Turkey, and the French office was responsible for distribution into Egypt, Algeria, Tunis, and Morocco. Back in the 1920s' and 1930s, film distribution and which theaters showed which films was a territorial affair, and one wouldn't - generally speaking - find an MGM or Warner Bros film playing in a Paramount house. I haven't been able to find information about how Paramount films might have found there way to those countries named above, nor have I been able to find clippings, advertisements or even reviews of any of Brooks' films in the Middle East, with only a few exceptions.

I know The Canary Murder Case was shown in Cairo, and I have found listings for most all of Brooks' Paramount films in French-controlled Algeria. All these clippings date to around the time of the film's first release. As reproduced in the March 6th post, I have also found an advertisement for Prix de beaute in Turkey in 1931. And, I have found listings for the Buck Jones western Empty Saddles (which featured Louise Brooks) showing in Jerusalem in 1937 - and the John Wayne western Overland Stage Raiders (also featuring Louise Brooks) showing in Haifa and Jerusalem in 1942, during the second World war and some four years after it was first released.

I have a feeling other of Brooks' films were shown in Arab speaking countries, either in the Middle East or North Africa - but I haven't been able to explore newspapers from those regions. What few publications I have been able to look at "operate" differently from American or European newspapers, in that their entertainment listings and coverage is sparse. Documentation is a challenge.

The in-house publication, Paramount Around the World, ran material on the film company's operations overseas. For example, there was a piece when the Paramount smash hit Beau Geste received it's first Arabic review.

Here is an interesting clipping on the distribution of Paramount films into Egypt and beyond. It notes, among other things, that there were only 30 theaters in Egypt, and only 27 in both Syria and Palestine. It also notes that those theaters ranged from movie palaces in Cairo to "desert shacks that are a long way removed from even the nickelodeon of yore." Lastly, it mentions that the exhibition of films lagged behind the United States, and that Middle eastern audience preferred outdoor action films, which likely explains why the non-Paramount productions Empty Saddles and Overland Stage Raiders were shown in Palestine.


If you are reading this post and know of instances of Louise Brooks' films being shown anywhere in Middle East or North Africa, please let me know! I would love to get clippings from Tunis or Casablanca or Cairo or Amman or Ankara. [With the use of the word legionnaire, I realize all this has the whiff of cultural imperialism about it, but nevertheless, this is interesting stuff and well worth diocumenting. I'll finish with the prerequisite picture of Louise Brooks, here dressed in vague Arabesque costume.]

Friday, June 28, 2013

Louise Brooks Society :: shop for books and movies and more

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