Thursday, April 15, 2004

Bibliography updates

Recent additions to the various LBS bibliographies include citations from a bunch of American newspapers. I found Denishawn articles, reviews and advertisements in the Pittsburgh Chronicle TelegraphBaltimore NewsPeoria JournalSavannah Morning Press and Lexington Leader.  I also dug up some films reviews in the Buffalo Courier ExpressMinneapolis TribuneHartford Courant, and San Antonio Express. The search goes on!

Sunday, April 11, 2004

New LBS / Cafepress stuff

There are new LBS products available at Cafepress, which can be found at www.cafeshops.com/louisebrooks  Check it out.

Sunday, April 4, 2004

Buster Keaton

How I love Buster Keaton! I love his films. I love his never smiling face. I love his inventive brilliance. My wife and I own the recently released eleven disc boxed set of DVD's featuring many of Keaton's silent films. We have watched them all.
Two excellent books on the actor which I read in rapid succession are Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down, by Tom Dardis, and Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase, by Marion Meade. I liked each of them a great deal.
I read Dardis' book first. It is one of the earliest books on Keaton, and contains a number of quotations by Louise Brooks regarding the "great stone face." (Dardis had interviewed Brooks, and had also corresponded with the actress.) Dardis' book is anecdotal and sympathetic in its telling of Keaton's rise and fall and rediscovery as an actor and film genius. When I was done, I wanted more. That's when I turned to Meade's detailed and thoroughly researched biography. The two books compliment each other.

Friday, April 2, 2004

More citations in Bibliography

The search goes on for more articles about Louise Brooks. Among the publications I've recently been looking at are the Lexington HeraldRichmond Times-DispatchWheeling Intelligencer, and Selma Times-Journal. I found vintage reviews and articles in each. I also dug up some rare material in the Palm Beach Daily Post on Brooks' appearance as a ballroom dancer in Florida in 1935. Perhaps the most remarkable item I found was a short review of Pandora's Box published in 1929 in Kurjer Polski, a Warsaw newspaper. I would love to find reviews of Pandora's Box from each of the major Eastern European capitals.

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Cape Town in San Jose

Another trip to the combined libraries of the city of San Jose and San Jose State University, where I have been going through microfilm the Cape Times, a newspaper from Cape Town, South Africa.  I have largely completed my survey of this very British paper. I was hoping to find something about Pandora's Box, as other German productions were shown in Cape Town. But alas, no luck. Though I found some worthwhile material, I am glad to be done with this particular search. The Cape Times was pretty boring, all-in-all. Citations for the reviews and articles I did come across have been added to the LBS bibliographies.

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Site updates

The portrait galleries are off-line for the time being. The Merchandise and Recommended Books page have been updated.

Sunday, March 7, 2004

I know the way to San Jose

Lately, I have been visiting the combined libraries of the city of San Jose and San Jose State University, where I have been going through microfilm of various regional and international newspapers. For some strange reason, this library has a run of the Cape Times, a newspaper from Cape Town, South Africa. I have been slowly working my way through the mid to late 1920's, where so far I have found a few short reviews of films featuring Louise Brooks. I have also found some simple advertisements promoting screenings of various Brooks films in theaters around Cape Town. (Some films were shown two or three times months apart in the course of a year.) Nifty to think that Brooks' films were shown 'round the world way back in the 1920's.
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