Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Two pieces on Pandora's Box on Eat Drink Films

The excellent multi-topic blog Eat Drink Films has a couple of new pieces on Louise Brooks star turn in Pandora's Box. Both pieces are by Nancy Friedman. The first, "Pandora’s Box – A Stunning Film on the Big Screen at the Spectacular Paramount," looks at the acclaimed G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks. It even quotes me, Thomas Gladysz!. (I will add it to the LBS In the News page.) The excellent second piece, "Club Foot Orchestra Plays Pandora’s Box," is a profile of the musical group which will accompany the film on May 6th in Oakland, CA. (See the poster depicted below.) 

Rumor has it, Eat Drink Films will be running a couple of more pieces on Pandora's Box next week, as the San Francisco Bay Area gears up once again for Lulumania. (As I have noted, Pandora’s Box has screened more often in the San Francisco Bay Area than anywhere else in the United States, more than 60 times since 1972.)

A reminder.  Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Paramount theater in Oakland, California on Saturday, May 6. More about that special screening, which will feature live musical accompaniment by the Clubfoot Orchestra and members of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, can be found HERE. If you live in the Bay Area, don't miss this special event. 

Pictured below is yours truly wearing a vintage Clubfoot Orchestra / Pandora's Box t-shirt obtained from the musical groups a long time ago. I also have a massive 3' x 5' poster depicting the same image.

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. 

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Two brief interviews regarding the Timelock rerelease of Louise Brooks


The Dutch rock band Timelock has re-released its 1992 debut album, titled Louise Brooks, as a remastered, expanded double CD. I wrote about it in my previous post, which can be found HERE. This new release also features new cover art by Dutch artist Corné Akkers, which is eye catching to say the least.

Louise Brooks [2022 version] features the original album, newly remastered, along with three additional tracks from the early 1990s. As well, one track from the original release, "The Seance," has been fully rerecorded by the current band. The second CD contains a full concert the band performed at Planet Pul in Uden on 10 June 1995. Follow THIS LINK to the album's Bandcamp page, where you can learn more and listen to various tracks including the 6:40 title track from the reissue. Everyone is encouraged to check it out.

A few days ago I sent slightly different sets of questions (via email) to Timelock singer Ruud Stoker and to cover artist Corné Akkers. Both are big fans of Louise Brooks. Both answered in impressively good English, which have been very slightly edited for readability. Here are their responses. First up, Timelock singer Ruud Stoker.

Timelock singer Ruud Stoker (via Facebook)

LBS: When and how did you first come across Louise Brooks?

RUUD STOKER: The first time I was inspired by Louise Brooks was in 1991. We formed the progressive rock band Timelock. I often write songs about little known subjects or persons. I was in a bookshop in The Hague and saw the book LuLu in Hollywood. I had never heard of her but recognized her hairstyle in pictures I had seen. So I bought this book and another book about her written by Barry Paris and that led me to honour this lady in a song we then wrote. I also thought it would be a good idea to name the album after her.

LBS: Is Louise Brooks well known in The Netherlands?

RUUD STOKER: I think she is not well known in The Netherlands. She is known only by those 'insiders' who love movies from the twenties and thirties. But now and then you see women with bobbed hair and I  imagine that is a sort of legacy of hers to the women of today.

LBS: Have you seen many of her films? Or read her book, Lulu in Hollywood?

RUUD STOKER: I read LuLu in Hollywood and the book by Barry Paris. When I got more and more interested in her I saw many trailers or pieces of her movies on YouTube. I have not seen a full length movie of her.

LBS: The band's Facebook page says you have a "soft spot" for Louise Brooks? What does she mean to you?

RUUD STOKER: Louise Brooks is very special to me. I always think she is a sort of mystery. She wasn’t as big as Garbo or other great actresses of her time. But she shines when she appears in the movies she made.

LBS: What led you to name a song and your 1992 album after the actress?

RUUD STOKER:  I think I was inspired by her looks and by the way she moves. You can’t mistake her appearance. It is a shame that her life did not turn out the way she wanted. I think she gave the movie world, and especially the people who saw her movies and fans, something special.

LBS: The original 1992 release of Louise Brooks features a photograph of a young women with bobbed hair who only resembles the actress. Your new re-release features a colorful painting of the actress herself. Why the change?

RUUD STOKER: We wanted to have a real picture of her since it was the 30th anniversary of the CD. And because the song is still mentioned in magazines and played on radio stations, we felt we could not have a women who merely resembles the actress on the front cover.

LBS: How did you find Corné Akkers, the artist who did the cover art?

RUUD STOKER: Thanks to our label FREIA Music we got in touch with a fellow townsman and Louise Brooks admirer, Corné Akkers, a 53 years old artist from The Hague [NL]. Just like us, he is fascinated by the life story of Louise. In the 1920s she was already more modern than many women and behaved and dressed as such. She was always on her own and at one point said goodbye to Hollywood. Corné finds that very inspiring. From an art perspective, Corné likes images from the 1920s and 1930s (art deco). The high level of chiaroscuro (light/dark in art deco) also provides beautiful contrasts for a painting or drawing, which somehow reflects Louise's ambivalent nature. In 2014, Corné made an oil version of a study in pastel of Louise Brooks. Eight years later this painting made it to the cover of the remastered Timelock album Louise Brooks.

LBS: Have you met other fans of Timelock who are also fans of Louise Brooks?

RUUD STOKER: Yes, they know her by name but never saw a movie of hers. The fans have become interested in the mystery of her - her movies and person. Especially when I wrote about her in my lyrics.

LBS: Your 2002 album, Circle of Deception, contains a track titled "Louise Brooks Revisited". Will it also be re-released?

RUUD STOKER: Yes, the re-release will be in spring 2023.

Dutch artist Corné Akkers (via Facebook)

Corné Akkers is a Dutch artist who has been drawing and painting since he was a child. He sites cubism, impressionism and surrealism as some of his many influences. And like Timelock singer Ruud Stoke, Akkers is also a longtime fan of Louise Brooks. His website, which is well worth checking out, contains a few different artworks featuring Louise Brooks. Here are the answers to the questions I sent him via email.

LBS: When and how did you first come across Louise Brooks?

CORNE AKKERS: I have the feeling I have known about her for all my life. It must have been as early as the 1970s when I saw Pandora’s Box as a young child.

LBS: Do you think Louise Brooks is well known in The Netherlands?

CORNE AKKERS: She might have been in the past but you might as well ask young people who Fred and Ginger are. Many won’t know celebrities from the 1920s and 1930s. She has earned herself a cult status though. That’s for sure. Quite a lot of my art students know her and have portrayed her.

LBS: Have you seen many of her films? Or read her book, Lulu in Hollywood?

CORNE AKKERS: Not many but the ones that I saw left an unerasable mark on my memory. I haven't read her book. I want to buy a copy one day.

LBS: What inspired you to paint your portrait of Louise Brooks. When did you paint it?

CORNE AKKERS:  Now, that’s a lengthy story. I will try to keep it concise. I guess readers of your website focus more on her personality, or acting performance. However, as an artist I always focus on visual aspects, such as lighting, composition, etc.... I always have had a preference for art deco and its photographic and cinematic expressions in particular. Back in the day people had a smashing feeling for the use of light and darkness. These hefty tonal variations in movies and photos always remind me to the use of chiaroscuro by Rembrandt, for example. The absence of color in movies might have been responsible for that. I drew Louise before, in black and white. Her portrait in color in 2014 was an attempt to transfer all my knowledge of color into a painting. Next to tonality it also became a study after color balance and saturation gradients. The reason for using this particular portrait for reference (Louise Brooks lovers know which one, of course) is the peculiar raising of her eyebrow. This induces a different facial expression than the right eye lets on. Beautiful duality!

LBS: How did you come to provide the cover art for the Timelock reissue?

CORNE AKKERS: Their management asked me if they could use my oil. They wanted to use a different cover than the original from 1992. So they searched on google and found me.

LBS: Have you made other images of Brooks, or other film stars?

CORNE AKKERS: In fact I have. I made a graphite pencil drawing in the same year (2014), a prestudy in pastel for this oil. Links to these drawings are in the art statement to the oil. I have also drawn and painted other stars, including Mary Pickford and Marilyn Monroe. You can see them here: https://corneakkers.com/sans-titre/

LBS: Will prints of the Louise Brooks portrait be for sale?

CORNE AKKERS: Yes they are. Printables and prints are available through the following link: https://corneakkers.com/2019/07/01/louise-brooks-26-10-14 

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

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Timelock rerelease Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks was originally released in 1992 as the debut album from Timelock, a prog-rock / neoprogger band from The Netherlands. The cover of the original CD release contained a black-and-white photograph of a young woman with bobbed hair who vaguely resembled the actress. Louise Brooks, the album, also contains a track titled "Louise Brooks." I got a copy of the Timelock CD sometime in the mid-1990s, around the time when I first discovered the silent film star and was searching out everything I could find.


Now, thirty years after the release of their 1992 debut, the Dutch rock band have rereleased Louise Brooks as a limited edition, remastered, redesigned,  and expanded double CD - and with a very groovy, very cool  cover. [The artwork on the cover was supplied by artist Corne Akkers. Like the band, Corne hails from The Hague, in The Netherlands. And like Timelock singer Ruud Stoker, artist Corne Akkers is also a "fanatic" of Louise Brooks. Read this illustrated blog post by him HERE.] 

Follow THIS LINK to the album's Bandcamp page, where you can learn more and listen to various tracks including the 6:40 title track from the reissue. It sounds great. I agree with former Timelock bass player Bert de Bruijne, who stated there is "more depth and sparkle" in the remaster. Notably, just last week, the reissue was reviewed by the Dutch journal Progwereld. Read that review (in Dutch) HERE. And HERE, as well, is a short write up (in English) which appeared in Front View magazine.

Louise Brooks [2022 version] features the original album, remastered by MHX Music, along with three additional tracks from the early 1990s. As well, one track from the original release, "The Seance," has been fully rerecorded by the current band. The second CD contains a full concert the band performed at Planet Pul in Uden on 10 June 1995.  

Dutch artist Corné Akkers (image via Facebook)

p.s. Louise Brooks completists should also be aware that Timelock's 2002 CD release, Circle of Deception, contains a related track titled "Louise Brooks Revisited." Below is some concert footage of the band playing that track. Listen for the spoken word intro.....


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

Sunday, October 24, 2021

The enduring charm of Hailey Tuck - "the millennial's Louise Brooks"

It's no secret I adore Hailey Tuck, not just because she is darn cute and sports a swell bob, but also because she is a gifted jazz vocalist. Hailey is a singer from Austin, Texas who, in her own words, is "based in Paris & London in the 1920's." 

I have been spending a good deal of time on YouTube over the last few days (refurbishing the Louise Brooks Society YouTube channel) when I came across a 2018 interview with Hailey in which she mentions the impact Louise Brooks and Brooks' own memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, had on her life and career. I hadn't seen it before. My bad. And thought to post it here.

I have written about Hailey in the past, as have many other publications including Marie Claire, who once described her as “The millennial's Louise Brooks.” Back in 2015, Hailey contributed a piece to the Louise Brooks Society blog in which fans of the actress were asked to submit their story of discovery -- of how they first came across Louise Brooks and what the actress means to them. Before I reprint that piece, here is another 2018 video clip of Hailey's UK TV debut, singing "That Don't Make It Junk" on the BBC show, Later... with Jools Holland.


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Hailey Tuck's story of discovering Louise Brooks
by Hailey Tuck

When I was 18, I was working in a rare and out of print bookstore in Austin, TX and lazily attending a mess of random liberal arts classes at the community college across the street. I'd graduated from a Baptist military boarding school early, and subsequently 'suffered' two heart wrenching defeats in attempting to gain admittance to Julliard, and though I can look back on that malaise with the same wry smile as reading my self-aggrandizing childhood diaries, I do acutely remember looking at my options and feeling very "none of the above."

The job itself was a total dream, and still my number one back up in case I didn't manage to become wildly successful in jazz. My grandmother was a bookseller and called in an old favor for her bibliophile granddaughter, and voila I became their only employee. The shop opened at noon (ideal) and I was mostly left to my own devices, or occasionally joined by my boss, Luke -- an obviously extreme literate, and general good time -- or one of the eccentric collectors who would come and have a whiskey, or tutor me in French. 

Like some sort of adult Montessori school, my browsing led me to a total cultural revolution for a curious 18 year old. After dully expressing my distaste for poetry, Luke pointed me to Pablo Neruda and Rainer Maria Rilke, and like a light-bulb I suddenly understood the art behind the subtlety of expressing something sensuous or painful without the directness or girth of literature. I pawed through sections on occult, anthropology, Swedish furniture. I bought the entire play section. I dated a professor from the university who slept in a soundproof, light proof box and cut off my black hair because I wanted to look like a New York art dealer in the 90's. And luckily, I picked up a book called Lulu in Hollywood because the illustration of the chick on the front had my hair cut. 

Reading, or inhaling rather, doesn't cover it. For once I felt I was reading a real story, and one that closely echoed my own -- sexual abuse, alcoholism, family troubles, and then looking at traditional success and saying, "Fuck that I'm going to make weird ass art house movies in Germany!" Some might view Louise's subsequent eeking descending fall into obscurity as a classic tragedy, however from my current vantage point as a young performer, I see someone who made deliberate u-turns based on a desire to be the most authentic version of themselves, regardless of the viability for commercial success. And most importantly, I saw myself, and felt steeled to seek out my own adventure, regardless of the wobbling uncertainty of ditching college, my father's approval, and the American dream. 

My newfound hubris manifested into a one way ticket to Paris. I should add that I also had the rare luck of a modest trust fund of sorts -- before you start gagging -- it was an insurance settlement. A lonely month or so later on the metro, this American girl complimented my vintage dress, and I asked her how she knew I spoke English, and she said, "I don't, I just speak to everyone in English!" 
 
For some reason it seemed entirely charming, and I asked her if she wanted to get off and have a glass of champagne together. She told me about her strange marriage to an older wealthy record producer (they have separate houses, and she collects dollhouses) and I told her that I was sort living in this squat and was too scared to tell my Dad, or he'd make me come home. She happened to be house sitting this beautiful apartment in Voltaire and offered for me to sleep on the red velvet fainting couch. One night later we were throwing a party and I was sitting on my bed/fainting couch and this completely decadent red headed American, in head to toe 1920's sat down next to me and I told her I'd been living there on this couch, then asked her the proverbial, "Do you come here often?" She looked at me sardonically, and patiently replied that this was her house. And her couch. After a second/hour or so of complete embarrassment I bumbled and mumbled my way through an explanation about being fresh off the boat, wanting to do acting or singing or something, and a few glasses of Prosecco later she had yanked off the music and had me singing Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You" on her dining room table. 

When I read Lulu in Hollywood I had this grand idea of what Europe might be -- cavorting with intellectuals and passing out at orgies at Rothschild mansions. But when I got there everything seemed garishly contemporary, and lonely. I just felt like an American at an overpriced cafe.

But whatever Sorrel saw in me on her dining room table was the catalyst for everything I could have imagined. I got upgraded from fainting couch to painting studio, introduced to a swath of filthy Italian phrases, chess on trains, regency balls, schooled on not offending Venetians at Carnival, posing nude in an Art Deco harem, literally physically force-dressing me for winter time, and above all encouraged and supported to sing at every single event, party, and opportunity possible until, like learning the other side of poetry, or understanding the inevitability of forever, I became the most true, authentic version of myself as a jazz singer trying to evolve and challenge myself in Europe, and of course offending Venetians and passing out at Mansion parties. 
 
I'm still sort of making wobbly guess-choices, but I do know that everything that has led me to where I am now feels right, and nothing about it seems like the beaten path to any real commercial success, and that feels great. And when Marie Claire did an article on me this year, I definitely felt a wry self-aggrandizing smile when reading the title "The Millennial Louise Brooks".
 
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In 2020, Hailey released another splendid album, Coquette. To keep up with Haily and her career, be sure and check out her website at haileytuckmusic.com/ or follow her on Twitter or YouTube. That's where I am headed now to watch a few more videos.


Thursday, July 22, 2021

A Louise Brooks musical tribute from Rick Gallego & Cloud Eleven

Recently, I received a CD in the mail from independent recording artist Rick Gallego. His latest record is titled Pandora's Box (Kool Kat Musik). Rick enclosed a brief note that read, "Hi Thomas, thought you might find this interesting, since this was inspired by Louise!" Rick is right. I liked it a lot.

Pandora's Box is a melodic joy ride whose retro power pop influences include the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Todd Rundgren, Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, early solo Paul McCartney, and latter-day XTC. Rick has been putting out music since 1996. In short, he has a number of recordings to his credit, either as a solo artist or as part of Jiffipop and/or Cloud Eleven. He and his bands have received rave reviews, and had his music featured in TV shows on ABC, NBC and elsewhere. For more on the songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Rick Gallego and Cloud Eleven, be sure and visit his website and / or his Facebook page.

Some of the linear notes, which are printed over an image of Louise Brooks, explain how this, his latest effort, came about: "Pandora’s Box isn’t so much a ‘new’ album than a collection of previously unfinished song fragments that had been buried on old cassette tapes, plus some outtakes from other albums, and a few covers. During the lockdown of 2020, I would discover a stray chorus here, a verse there, and commence to completing the songs, then record them. In some ways, Pandora’s Box is Terrestrial Ballet part deux. Sometimes it just feels good to clean out that old junk drawer."

I emailed Rick about his new CD, and he wrote back, saying "I already had the song called "Pandora's Box" (dedicated to Lulu), so I decided to name the album that too." I asked Rick the question I ask everyone. How did you first hears about Louise Brooks? Rick answered, "In January 2020 I was doing a YouTube search for anything 1920's, as I have always been fascinated with that decade. I landed on a video (don't really remember who posted it) that reviewed various cultural attributes of the '20s, and it mentioned Louise Brooks as an icon of the period. I had never heard of her before and was really taken by her look, so did a Google search. It kind of snowballed from there into wanting to know everything about her. After seeing a couple of her movies (swoon!) and getting the Barry Paris book (the University of Minnesota Press 2000 paperback version - I ended up buying the first edition hard cover from you later on!), I was pretty much a big fan of hers by then. Since then, I joined your LBS page on Facebook, bought all of her movies on DVD/Blu-ray, and bought every book I could get my hands on, including of course, Lulu In Hollywood. There's a certain magical quality about Louise Brooks that just draws you in, kind of like the movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, where everyone is compelled with this 'thing' (Devil's Tower), but they don't know why. Louise Brooks is truly a fascinating person, not only beautiful, but intelligent and witty too. So very happy I found her!

The first track on Rick's new CD is titled "Pandora's Box (Schöne Lulu)." The linear notes for this track read, "This song began as a sort of Rundgren-esque synth jam and evolved into what we have here. Basic tracks were recorded in 2018 and completed in 2020. At the time of completion, I was absorbed into all things 1920s, including art deco, silent films, and specifically actress/writer/icon Louise Brooks. Her most memorable role was that of Lulu, in the classic 1929 German film Pandora's Box. This, my first ever instrumental (silent!) track, is dedicated to the lovely Lulu." Here is the video for that track. Just turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream.


And here is the video of the CD's second track, "Row Row Row," Cloud Eleven's version of the children's nursery rhyme. I really like this gorgeous recording. The song features a homage to the Beatles, while this video features a homage to a couple of Kansas icons. You can likely guess which ones.

And lastly, here is the video for one of my very favorite tracks on Pandora's Box, a mock garage rock cover titled "I Can Do Anything I Want!" I think Kansas-born artist Bruce Conner, a Louise Brooks devotee, would have liked this.


Friday, July 9, 2021

Stephen Horne spellbound in darkness, and silents

Musical accompanist Stephen Horne is a longtime friend, not only to myself but also to Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. In fact, he has probably accompanied the screening of a Louise Brooks film as much as anyone. 

I likely met him "over the internet" well more than 10 or 12 years ago when we did an email interview about Prix de beaute back when I was writing for examiner.com. In the years since, we have met a few times in person when Stephen came to San Francisco to accompany a film at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. He is a great guy and a great musician. As examiner.com no longer exists,  HERE is a link to a later incarnation of the interview I did with Stephen about Prix de beaute.

The other day, Stephen was a guest blogger on Pamela Hutchinson's wonderfilled Silent London blog. (It is a blog well worth subscribing to, and supporting.) Stephen's thoughtful piece, which is titled "Silent Sirens: Stephen Horne on playing for the ghosts of silent film," begins with the musician's near mystical experience when he once accompanied a Louise Brooks film. There was nothing "new age" about Stephen's account. Instead, it has to do with the special experience so many of us experience when we view a silent film. We are transported. 

Stephen wrote "At one point Louise was held in an extended close-up – her smiling, enigmatic beauty framed by silver light. Then she started to speak and, although there was no intertitle, it was very clear to me what she was saying. In fact, just for a few seconds, I could actually hear her voice speaking the words. At least, that’s how it seemed. In retrospect, I realised that I had almost certainly been lip-reading. However, something about the moment, as immersive as it was, made the words transform into the sound of a voice within my head." 

He continued, "I didn’t give it another thought until some time later, when I realised that there seemed to be something pleasantly haunting about silent films, particularly when accompanied by live music. They can sometimes feel like a form of cultural séance: the audience gathers in a darkened space, hoping to make contact with long departed cinematic spirits. The musicians are almost like musical mediums and, at its best the music they produce can be a form of channelling." 

That last paragraph really struck me. I hope you will check out Stephen's entire piece "Silent Sirens: Stephen Horne on playing for the ghosts of silent film."

 

Readers may also want to know that Stephen's first CD, Silent Sirens, is to be released on July 9 on the Ulysses Arts label. Silent Sirens is an album of music composed and performed by Stephen Horne. And, it is something I am really looking forward to hearing.

The tracks on the album are intended to stand alone from the films from which they were initially inspired. However, according to the artist, most of these films have two things in common. "Firstly, they share a certain haunting quality, leaving unanswered questions to reverberate in the viewer’s mind long after ‘The End’. Secondly, at least for me, the strongest impression is made by the films’ leading women – the actresses and their roles. Combining these two elements suggested the theme of Silent Sirens."

More information on Stephen Horne's Silent Sirens, including purchase and streaming options, can be found HERE.

For more on this musician's approach to accompanying silent film, here is a video interview from 2009. Stephen Horne spoke to Marek Bogacki at the Killruddery Silent Film Festival about his career in silent film music.


 

Saturday, April 4, 2020

RadioLulu off the air, with a few recommended videos

After 18 years of streaming Louise Brooks and silent film related music, Radio Lulu has come to an end. The Louise Brooks Society online station was begun in 2002, and has reached countless listeners all over the globe. For more on this sad occasion, see the earlier LBS blog post, "Louise Brooks Society announcement regarding RadioLulu".


The station rotation began with "Louise," sung by Maurice Chevalier. In fact, it was my love of this song that led me to launch RadioLulu. In the early days of the Louise Brooks Society, a brief snippet of Chevalier's famed recording launched whenever someone clicked on the LBS website. I was not alone in my love for this particular recording. I recall once receiving an email from a fan who said they visited the LBS website everyday just to hear the snippet!


Because you likely want to hear it again, here is another video recordings of "Louise, a song which originally had nothing to do with our Louise. "Louise" was a show-stopping number from the 1929 film, The Innocents of Paris, Paramount's first musical. The song is sung by Maurice Chevalier, with the Leonard Joy Orchestra,  and it peaked at #3 on US Music Charts in 1929. Today, however, "Louise Brooks" has become associated with Brooks.


And finally, here is Chevalier performing the song in 1932. Chevalier recorded the song a few times over the years, but usually stuck to this original arrangement. Enjoy!

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Louise Brooks Society announcement regarding RadioLulu

The economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic is leading many of us to reevaluate our needs and expenses. Who knows what the future holds? For me, these expenses includes various costs incurred in running the Louise Brooks Society and its website. There are domain and web hosting fees, subscription fees, costs associated with research and with editing software, etc.... I have been running the Louise Brooks Society for 25 years, and it all ads up.

Listen while you can!


I intend to continue the Louise Brooks Society for as long as I can, but have decided to cut costs where I am able. Thus, with great regret, I am announcing that RadioLulu will cease streaming in the first week of April. I will also be cutting back on other background expenses associated with my wordpress website.


A melancholy Louise Brooks listens to a 78 rpm record in Prix de Beauté (1930)

I launched RadioLulu back in 2002, and enjoyed sharing with others the considerable amount of Louise Brooks-related audio and musical material I had gathered. The station's description reads "RadioLulu is a Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film-themed internet station streaming music of the 1920s, 1930s, and today. Located on the web at http://192.99.8.170/start/radiolulu/ — RadioLulu features vintage and contemporary music related to Louise Brooks as well as the silent and early sound eras."



In the early years, I found an audience.... Famed film critic Leonard Maltin once rated the station a “Wow” on his website. The Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman (author of Maus) told me he tuned-in on occasion. As had the award-winning science fiction writer Richard Kadrey, and celebrated Dr. Who actor Paul McGann. In fact, when I first met McGann some years ago, his first words were "You’re the guy that does RadioLulu. It’s incredible. I listen all the time." In 2015, I received an email from a listener named Nick. He was employed at the Vito Russo Library at the Gay Center in New York City; Nick wrote to say that RadioLulu was played at the library every Saturday, and that “Everybody loves it.” It was nice to have a fan or two!


In the beginning, RadioLulu found a home on Live365, a streaming service for aspiring DJ's like myself. However, when that platform crashed in 2016 (read more HERE), and the expense involved in streaming skyrocketed, RadioLulu was left without a home. After a couple of months, it found a second home on SHOUTca.st, which was syndicated to other channels and devices through TuneIn. For a time, you could even listen to RadioLulu through your TV via ROKU.

However, that second home on SHOUTca.st, while affordable -- was limited and problematic. If too many individuals listed, then I exceeded my bandwidth and the station was knocked off the air until the beginning of the next usage cycle. All too often, I received emails from individuals asking what happened to the station. I was dissapointed to be dissapointing others.

I am not sure what the future holds for RadioLulu. Hopefully, I would like to make use of its many hours of content and turn it into thematic podcasts with shows devoted to different topics -- like the music of Prix de beaute or Beggars of Life, with shows of songs recorded by Brooks' co-stars and contemporaries, with vintage music about the movies, etc.... RadioLulu features more than 850 recordings! And notably, many of them come from rare 78 rpm discs you’re unlikely to hear anywhere else. It is important that this old music still be heard.  I am referring to vintage track like George Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me” (Brooks knew Gershwin, and this was her favorite Gershwin song according to Barry Paris), Xavier Cugat’s “Siboney” (recommended by Brooks in her rare booklet, Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing), and a few numbers by Sid Kay’s Fellows (the jazz band seen playing in the wedding reception scene in Pandora’s Box). Read more about RadioLulu's programming HERE.

Louise Brooks holding a portable record player, circa 1925

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life to show in UK on March 15

The Stroud Film Festival has announced that the 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, will be shown on Sunday, March 15, 2020 at the Lansdown Hall in Lansdown, England. This special screening, with live musical accompaniment, is being presented by the Lansdown Film Club. More information and ticket availability can be found HERE.


The promoter's description of this event reads thus: "Silent movie with live musical accompaniment composed and played by luminary of American old-time country music, Kate Lissauer with arguably the UK’s finest Bluegrass guitarist, Jason Titley, plus internationally awarded 5-string banjo great, Leon Hunt. Beggars of Life directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (first film to win an Academy Award) is a tense drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. With the help of a young hobo, she rides the rails through a male dominated underworld in which danger is close at hand. Picture Play magazine in 1920’s described the film as 'Sordid, grim and unpleasant,' adding, 'it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie.' If you like country music and iconic silent movies, this is a rare treat not to be missed… ."


A brief write-up about the event in the local Gloucester Punchline stated, unusually so, "It's a silent classic western starring, unusually for the time, a woman in the lead role. Louise Brooks was big news at the time and still has a number of followers."



Want to learn more about this outstanding drama? In 2017, I authored Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. My book grew out of the considerable research I did for the audio commentary which I provided for the Kino Lorber DVD / Blu-ray release of the film that same year.

This first ever study of Beggars of Life looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), Beggars of Life is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (screen legend Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). Beggars of Life showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.”

My book features 15,000 words of text and more than 50 little seen images, as well as a foreword by actor William Wellman, Jr., son of the legendary director. The book is available from amazon.com, B&N and select independent bookstores in the United States. Both my book and the Kino disc are also available on amazon.com in the United Kingdom. On the UK amazon site the book has received two 5 star ratings, with readers stating:

"A great companion to go with the film, Thomas is the go to man for anything Louise Brooks."

"It's a very fine and informative small book about [the] Wellman movie Beggars of Life."


SPECIAL OFFER: I HAVE TWO COPIES OF MY BOOK AVAILABLE AUTOGRAPHED BY MYSELF AND WILLIAM WELLMAN JR. ONE COPY IS AVAILABLE WITH A REGION 1 DVD OF THE FILM, AND ONE IS AVAILABLE WITH A REGION 1 BLU-RAY. EACH IS $100.00, PLUS POSTAGE. PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO INQUIRE.  ADDITIONAL POSTAGE REQUIRED OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES. (I WILL ALSO ADD ONE OR TWO NIFTY RELATED ITEMS AS A BONUS.)

 

Friday, July 26, 2019

Music ~ La Poupée Qui Fait Non by The Birds >>> Film ~ Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks

Posted on YouTube in 2017

Music ~ "La Poupée Qui Fait Non" by The Birds Film ~ Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks

Monday, April 15, 2019

RadioLulu back on Tune-In with Louise Brooks & silent film inspired music

Good news! RadioLulu is back on Tune-in with Louise Brooks & silent film inspired music. That's means you can listen to this Louise Brooks Society streaming station across multiple devices - your computer, phone, or even your television. The Tune-In page for RadioLulu can be found at https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLulu-s299232/  Or, listen here and now while you read this incredibly fascinating post! To do so, simply click on the player below.


Want to learn more about RadioLulu? Visit the information page on the Louise Brooks Society website at THIS LINK.

RadioLulu is a Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film-themed internet station streaming music of the 1920s, 1930s, and today. Or in other words, RadioLulu features vintage and contemporary music related to Louise Brooks as well as the silent and early sound eras. Launched in 2002, this unique station features vintage music from five of Brooks’ films....  and so much more.


If you love the films of the silent era, tune into RadioLulu. Among the film stars and Jazz Age personalities heard on the station are

Dorothy Mackaill ~ Helen Morgan ~ Libby Holman ~ Lee Wiley ~ Annette Hanshaw
Paul Whiteman ~ Theda Bara ~ Charlie Chaplin ~ Clara Bow
Fanny Brice ~ Ethel Shutta ~ Rudolph Valentino ~ Marilyn Miller ~ Rudy Vallee
Leon Errol ~ Ramon Novarro ~ Dolores Del Rio ~ Adolphe Menjou 
Al Jolson ~ Lupe Velez ~Noah Beery ~ Lawrence Gray ~ Marlene Dietrich
Conrad Nagel ~ Blanche Ring ~ Janet Gaynor ~ Charles Farrell
Ruth Etting ~ Victor McLaglen ~ Lillian Harvey ~ Pola Negri ~ Blanche Sweet
Harry Richman ~ Brigitte Helm ~ Helen Kane ~ Buster Keaton
Anny Ondra ~ Buddy Rogers ~ Betty Compson ~ Bebe Daniels ~ Ben Lyon
Maurice Chevalier ~ Josephine Baker ~ Kiki de Montparnasse ~ Frank Fay
Norma Talmadge ~ Gilbert Roland ~ James Hall ~ Joan Bennett ~ Jimmie Fidler
W.C. Fields ~ Claudette Colbert ~ Gloria Swanson ~ Joan Crawford 
Alice Faye  ~ Jean Harlow ~ Joan Blondell ~ Russ Columbo ~ James Cagney


Friday, March 15, 2019

Beggars of Life with the Dodge Brothers in Nottingham, England on March 17

Thanks to longtime Louise Brooks Society member Meredith Lawrence for letting us know about this Sunday, March 17th screening of Beggars of Life at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, England. The acclaimed 1928 silent film will be shown with live musical accompaniment by acclaimed The Dodge Brothers together with acclaimed musician Neil Brand. More information on this can be found HERE.


From the venue website:

BEGGARS OF LIFE WITH LIVE MUSIC BY THE DODGE BROTHERS AND NEIL BRAND
Presented in partnership with the Royal Concert Hall

BEGGARS OF LIFE is an intense and entertaining story about oppressed and desperate people on a dangerous journey through the dark underworld of pre-depression America. Cinema icon Louise Brooks plays a girl on the lam after killing her lecherous adoptive father. Dressed in boy's clothes, she navigates through the dangerous tramp underworld with the help of a handsome drifter and encounters the hobo legend, Oklahoma Red. Loaded with stunning visuals and empathetic performances, this dark, realistic drama is Brooks' best American film and a masterpiece of late-silent era feature films. All aspects of his rollercoaster of a story are enhanced by the live soundtrack, composed and performed by skiffle/bluegrass combo The Dodge Brothers, together with silent film pianist Neil Brand.

Tickets: £15 full / £13 memb+conc

This event takes place as part of Soundstage, Nottingham's Festival of Music and the Moving Image.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL START PROMPTLY AT THE ADVERTISED TIME**

Want to learn more about this acclaimed silent film, one fo the best of 1928. Check out the Beggars of Life page on the Louise Brooks Society website, or check out Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, an illustrated and informative book by Louise Brooks Society director Thomas Gladysz. The book is available at both amazon USA and amazon UK.

This first ever study of Beggars of Life looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), Beggars of Life is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (screen legend Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). Beggars of Life showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.” With more than 50 little seen images, and a foreword by the director's son, actor/author William Wellman, Jr.



Tuesday, November 13, 2018

A hopeless song of love for Louise Brooks

Here are two version of the Louise Brooks inspired song, "Hopeless." The first is a video by Stuart Pound to a recording by the UK band Evangelista. The song dates from the 1990's, and is a tribute to Louise Brooks. The song is about an impossible love for Brooks, an impossible love
because she died in 1984.


Hopeless from Stuart Pound on Vimeo.

The second version is a live recording by the Great Admirers of the "Evangelista cult classic."
The video was shot at the Seven Stars pub in Bristol, England on a Sunday afternoon, June 22, 2008.
Sound by Alfie Kingston. Long live Lulu!

Monday, June 18, 2018

Adam Aston melancholic songs with appearances by Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Anita Berber and others

Here are a couple of melancholic songs by Adam Aston, a Polish singer, actor, and pianist of Jewish origin.

First up is the 1935 song "Miasteczko Bełz," sung by Adam Aston, this video with illustrations by the Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Observant viewers may notice a rare drawing of Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks.


And here is another number sung by Aston, a Polish tango from 1933 titled " Czemuś o niej zapomniał?" ("Why Have You Forsaken Her?"). Observant viewers may notice images of Anita Berber in this video. Berber starred in The Story of Dida Ibsen (1918), the film of the sequel to the earlier, pre-Brooks version of The Diary of a Lost Girl (1918)


And finally, here is another polish Tango by Aston, "Fordanserka" (A Gigolette). Observant viewers may notice more swell video imagery.

Friday, June 8, 2018

A Celebration of Louise, Lulu, LouLou, and Lolita in sheet music

A thematic musical follow-up to my previous post, this being a celebration of Louise, Lulu, LouLou, and Lolita in sheet music. First up, every little breeze seems to whisper the 1929 classic "Louise" - Music: Richard A. Whiting / Lyrics: Leo Robin; Albert Willemetz & Charles-Louis Pothier.


Next is "Louisa" - Music: Ursmar V. O. / Lyrics: Marcel Antoine.


From 1911, "Lulu" - Music: Charles de Bucovich / Lyrics: Janor & F. L. Bénech.


And here is, from 1927, "Lulu" - Music: Philippe Parès & Georges Van Parys / Lyrics: Serge Veber.


And from 1914, "Lulu-Fado" - Music: Nicolino Milano / Lyrics: Nihil.


From 1919, "Loulou" - Music: Eugène Rosi / Lyrics: Eugène Joullot.


"Loulou restons chez nous" - Music: Charles Borel-Clerc  / Lyrics: Félix Mortreuil.


And from the 1931 revue A l'eau de Divonne, "Lou-Lou! Cou-Cou! (Lou-Lou)" - Music: Frank Stip /
Lyrics: André Mauprey; Fernand Rouvray; Karl Brüll & Rudolf Eisner.


And let's not forget lovely "Lolita" (Zigeuner, du hast mein Herz gestohlen) - Music: Austin Egen & Franz Grothe / Lyrics: Max-Blot & Jean Cis


We will end this thematic celebration a turn, from 1919, to the side with "Pandora" - Music: Ernest Tompa / Lyrics: Nihil



And from 1930, "Pandora" - Music: Torsten Paban / Lyrics: Rolf Gander


Friday, May 4, 2018

Jazz Singer Hailey Tuck - The millennial's Louise Brooks

Hailey Tuck describes herself as a "Jazz singer from Austin, Texas, based in Paris & London in the 1920's."

Marie Claire describes her as “The millennial's Louise Brooks.” In fact, the alt-jazz singer takes inspiration from the similarly bobbed Brooks and her 1982 book, Lulu in Hollywood. Tuck says as much in the video embedded below.


Tuck's new album. Junk, is out today on the Sony Music label. (Autographed copies are available.) To find out more about this oh-so charming artist, visit her website or Facebook page, each of which are loaded with songs and images and videos and more.

On her Sony debut, Hailey puts her own spin on songs by artists as diverse as Leonard Cohen, The Kinks, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney, as well as cabaret classics and Leonard Bernstein. (I especially love "Tell Her No," an old fave by the The Zombies.) Junk is produced by the multi Grammy Award winning Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Melody Gardot) and was recorded last year at Sunset Sound in L.A. with a band of veteran jazz musicians. Junk is playful and provocative and witty and world-weary and was "tailor-made for good times as it is for tears." (I sure wish Tuck would get around to recording "Louise".... because these days every little breeze seems to whisper Hailey's name. It would be a perfect fit.) Give a listen to Hailey Tuck's new album below.


Back in 2015, Tuck contributed a lovely, long piece to the Louise Brooks Society blog titled "Jazz singer Hailey Tuck - her story of discovering Louise Brooks." It is well worth checking out. She's got It.

Friday, March 30, 2018

A couple of rather good music videos which feature Louise Brooks and which you may not have seen before

Here are a couple of rather good music videos which feature Louise Brooks and which you may or may not have seen before.

First up, The Green Pajamas performing "Any Way the Wind Blows" in this tribute to the film, Pandora's Box and it's star, Louise Brooks. The video dates from around 2008.


And next is the song "Berlin" by Gosta Berling, inspired by the life of Louise Brooks. "It focuses specifically on the period when she left Hollywood in 1928, burning many bridges, to travel to Germany for her greatest starring role, as Lulu in Pandora's Box. Her story and iconic image have inspired many tributes - songs, books, plays and movies. The fascinating and frustrating saga of her life is captured in the biography Louise Brooks by Barry Paris - which I devoured while writing the words to this song. The images for this video were all scanned from the book Lulu Forever by Peter Cowie. This song is on Gosta Berling's first EP, Everybody's Sweetheart (2007).

Monday, March 26, 2018

Invention of Morel : A new sci-fi opera with a Louise Brooks inspired character

This past weekend, the Long Beach Opera (LBO) premiered its co-commissioned opera The Invention of Morel, composed by Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer of The Police, with an English libretto by the London-based actor, director and playwright Jonathan Moore, who also directs the production. I had written about this production on Huffington Post when it debuted in Chicago.



The Invention of Morel is a music theater adaptation of the 1940 novella by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Casares’ book is widely considered the first literary work of magical realism, predating the kindred fiction of Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others. It features a character named Faustine who was inspired by the author’s affection for Louise Brooks. Casares said as much in interviews in later years. Those facts are seemingly not lost on the designers of the opera, who have modeled their Faustine character after Brooks’ appearance, especially her signature bob hairstyle. [Take note of the bouquet to Brooks on the Long Beach Opera website.]


Though not as well known as it should be, The Invention of Morel has had a unique, lingering resonance throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Casares’ book was made into a French movie called L’invention de Morel (1967), and an Italian movie called L’invenzione di Morel (1974). It is also believed to have inspired the Alain Resnais’ film Last Year At Marienbad (1961), which was adopted for the screen by the French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. Brooks herself ended up on the cover of a recent edition of Casares’ book (due to the efforts of the Louise Brooks Society), which in turn was given a shout-out on the television series Lost (2004 – 2010).


Reviews for the Long Beach opera production were glowing, and each and everyone of them mentioned Louise Brooks.

Ginell, Richard S. "Long Beach Opera raises life's questions, loudly, in Stewart Copeland's Invention of Morel." Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2018.
-- "The piece is based on the novel "La Invención de Morel" by Adolfo Bioy Casares, and there is an autobiographical element in that the unrequited love element of the piece was inspired by Bioy Casares' crush on film star Louise Brooks.

Farber, Jim. "Long Beach Opera’s Invention of Morel offers a fascinating journey." Long Beach Press-Telegram, March 20, 2018.
-- "Considered a classic example of Latin American “magical realism” (in the tradition of Jorge Luis Borges), the novella describes the plight of a political fugitive who finds himself cast away on a tropical island. Seemingly alone, he discovers a mysterious building, an abandoned museum, and in its substructure an immense, even more mysterious, machine. Then, as if they had materialized out of thin air from the 1920s, an elegant group of tuxedo-clad gentlemen and willowy flappers appear. One, who bears a striking resemblance to the silent film star, Louise Brooks, instantly becomes the castaway’s obsession. But every time he sees her, she reacts as if he does not exist."

Gordon, Eric A. "The Invention of Morel: A new operatic sci-fi take on eternal life." People's World, March 23, 2018.
-- "The ensemble reminded me of the cast of the Twenties-set The Wild Party. Soon the Fugitive becomes infatuated with an elusive woman from their group named Faustine (Jamie Chamberlin), who resembles the Silent Era’s vixen movie diva Louise Brooks, on whom Casares late in life admitted he had a crush. Yes, the name Faustine is purposely meant to evoke the Faust legend, for this weird encounter will indeed lead to a kind of eternal but, all things considered, perhaps not so unpleasant fate."

Wyszpolski, Bondo. "Seeking eternal love at Long Beach Opera." EasyReader News, March 23, 2018.
-- "The Fugitive spies on the week long day trippers, but they seem to have no interest in him, even when he develops an infatuation for the Louise Brooks-lookalike Faustine (Jamie Chamberlin). In fact, even when he approaches her she seems to ignore him and/or to pretend he’s not there."

Nathan Granner as Morel and Jamie Chamberlin as Faustine.
Photo by Kip Polakoff
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