Thursday, January 15, 2004

San Mateo

Spent the morning and afternoon at the San Mateo Public Library, where I scrolled through nearly five years of the San Mateo Times in search of Louise Brooks material. Searching took a while, as the two microfilm readers at this small town library were in poor condition. The microfilm, as well, was worn.
San Mateo is about half-way between San Francisco and Palo Alto, and in the 1920's, it had a few movie theaters. I found a bunch of brief articles, a few short reviews, and some advertisements. The most interesting material had to do with The American Venus (1926), which featured Fay Lanphier, a local girl who was named Miss America in 1925.

Saturday, January 3, 2004

Yet more citations

Some of the non-American newspapers I have been looking at on microfilm include La Epoca and ABC from Madrid, L'Action Francaise and Le Populaire from Paris, Kurjer Warszawski from Warsaw, and the Ottawa Citizen and Toronto Globe from Canada. Some of the American newspapers I have been looking at include the Morning Tulsa Daily WorldDaily OklahomanTopeka Daily JournalKansas City TimesBoston Post and Boston Daily Advertiser. Each yielded a review, article or clipping. It is remarkable how many newspapers there were back in the Twenties and Thirties.
(n.b. L'Action Francaise was a French fascist newspaper. I managed to find reviews of both Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl in that publication. I have looked in a right-wing German newspaper affiliated with the Nazi party, but was unable to find any relevant material. However, it's unlikely that they would have written about the Pabst films, as Pabst was known as being left of center.)

Monday, December 29, 2003

Anita Loos and the Talmadge Girls

Recently finished reading The Talmadge Girls by Anita Loos. This book is an anecdotal biography of film stars Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge (and to a lesser extent Natalie Talmadge, the sister who married Buster Keaton). It is a very good read. I liked Loos' writing so much (her own life story is intertwined with that of the Talmadge sisters) that I followed it up with a dip into the recently published Anita Loos Rediscovered. Some day I will have to read more about Loos' life and career. She is a really interesting figure.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Two films

I recently rented two films which I watched for the first time ever. They were Cabaret (1972) and Mephisto (1981). Each depicts Germany in the 1920's and 1930's. I liked Cabaret a good deal, but found Mephisto interesting but a little slow.

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Stanford University

This month, I made four trips to the library at Stanford University. I have been wanting to visit this large academic library - located about an hour south - for some time. 

I browsed "the stacks" - examining the large collection of books on film and film history. I found a number of interesting German and French titles which included fresh bits of information on Brooks and her three European films. I also found some interesting books on the German writer Frank Wedekind, author of the Lulu plays. 

No trip to a library would be complete without a search through periodicals! I looked through bound issues of old Italian and German film magazines, as well as some French and English newspapers on microfilm. I also looked through issues of the Stanford University student newspaper dating from the 1920's. All of these sources yielded a smattering of articles, reviews and advertisements.

Friday, December 12, 2003

Neve Campbell plans to portray Louise Brooks

This news item has been making the rounds . . . . 

"Neve Campbell plans to portray Louise Brooks, the bob-haired beauty who emerged from George White's Scandals and the Ziegfeld Follies and escaped flapper roles in Hollywood to achieve acclaim in Germany in G. W. Pabst films like Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl (both 1929) before becoming a recluse. Ms. Campbell has bought Lulu, a biographical screenplay by Peter Nickowitz and Bill Oliver, titled after the nymphomaniac portrayed by Brooks (1906-1985) in Pandora's Box. Ms. Campbell is looking for a director and for financing, according to a Reuters - Hollywood Reporter report."

Sunday, December 7, 2003

Barry Paris on WQED

I just clicked on the WQED link on the Barry Paris page of Louise Brooks Studies and noticed that the station is once again being broadcast over the internet. Barry Paris has a show on this radio station on Sunday afternoons. Check it out.
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