Monday, January 12, 2009

Onion Radio News

The Onion, America's leading satirical newspaper, has an on-line faux radio station called Onion Radio News. I read the paper on occasion (and usually either chuckle or laugh out-loud), but haven't checked out the radio station. Until recently, that is, when I became aware of the station founder's tongue-in-cheek connection to Louise Brooks.

A visit to the Onion radio news home page reveals that 

The Onion Radio News has been the most highly regarded broadcast news source in the world since visionary Onion publisher T.Herman Zweibel made the bold move in 1922 to shut down the popular Onion Telegraph News and focus on the then embryonic medium of radio. From day one Zweibel intended to employ this new technology for the public good, and for the first two years he devoted much of his airtime to denouncing silent film actress Louise Brooks.

Overnight, Zweibel's vitriolic attacks gained sufficient listenership to attract wealthy sponsors like Campbell's Liquid Beef and Spotto potato detergent. The financial success of the Onion Radio News led Zweibel to hire professional "pronouncers," as they were called then, who were charged with the important task of reading items from the printed version of The Onion to fill time between Zweibel's marathon anti-flapper rants.

I hadn't been aware!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide

There is a new book out called Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era, by Noah Isenberg. This 368 page book is published by Columbia University Press. Besides its rather striking cover.



What caught my attention is the lengthy chapter by Margaret McCarthy entitled "Surface Sheen and Charged Bodies: Louise Brooks as Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929)." I haven't had time to sit down and really read this dense essay, but I hope to as I expect to have a lot of time on my hands sometime soon. Have any readers of this blog had a chance to look at this book?

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bob blogs

Within the last week, there have been a number of newspaper articles and on-line blogs about the bob. Apparently, as some are claiming, the hairstyle worn by Louise Brooks and numerous others in the early decades of the 20th century is celebrating its 100th anniversary. According to "What's the Story with . . . the Bob," an article in today's British Herald newspaper, the cut wascreated in 1909 by Polish-born French hair stylist  Antoine de Paris. I hadn't known that. Fashion historian Christy Pascoe once told me that the American dancer Irene Castle deserves the credit - as she helped popularize short hair for women during the teens. During the 1920's, the popular screen star Colleen Moore (see link) sported a bob. It was part of her look, and it looked great on her.

Louise Brooks, of course, wore her hair short most all of her life. From the time she was a little girl, as images of the actress show, Brooks sported a bob - or Buster Brown type cut. It was not an uncommon cut for little girls. Years later, the famous stylist Sydney Guilaroff claimed to have given Brooks her signature look. "He gave her that trademark hairstyle (which became known as a shingle) at the grand cost of $1.50, which, he states in his autobiography ' was quite expensive for those days.' " That according to a 1996 article by Robert Osborne in the Hollywood Reporter.


I mention all of this because of the numerous recent articles and blogs about the bob - which also mention Louise Brooks. In "The Bob is 100 years Old," LOOK (from England) proclaimed "One of the first celebs to make the bob truly her own was actress Louise Brooks, who sported the style in '20s. Since then, the style has evolved through the ages - the latest reinvention of which has to be Victoria Beckham's Pob!"  A google news search on "Louise Brooks" will turn up additional results. Articles mentioning the bob and the actress recently ran in the Courier Mailfrom Australia and the Telegraph in England. Brooks is mentioned and prominently pictured in both pieces. Also, there is an excellent article in the Independent. And again, Brooks is prominent. 

And thus is history written.

There are many who claim the bob as a Louise Brooks invention. She didn't create the cut, and really can't be credited with helping popularize it. Certainly, in her day, she was identified with the bob - in all of its stylistic varieties. I have come across numerous instances of articles from the 1920's remarking on the appearance of the actress, especially her trademark hairstyle. And today - ever since the late 1980's - that look has come to be identified almost exclusively with the actress.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Louise Brooks manga

I came across this image of Louise Brooks, which is part of a vintage Hollywood manga contest. Not sure who the artist is. More on the on-line contest, as well as further examples of older Hollywood stars done manga style, can be found here.  It's kinda cute. Kinda.

Monday, January 5, 2009

RadioLulu stats

For those who don't know, the Louise Brooks Society has its own online radio station, called RadioLulu. (the station can be found at www.live365.com/stations/298896.) 

RadioLulu is a Louise Brooks-inspired radio station broadcasting music of the Twenties through today - including film music, songs by the actress' contemporaries, vintage jazz & dance bands, and contemporary pop songs about the silent film star. 
This unique station features music from six of the actresses' films - including the haunting themes from Prix de Beaute and Beggars of Life. There is Maurice Chevalier's much-loved 1929 recording of "Louise," as well as other vintage tracks associated with the actress. RadioLulu also plays Brooks-themed songs by contemporary rock artists such as Soul Coughing, Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark (OMD), Marillion, Ron Hawkins, and Sarah Azzarra.
Brooks co-stars and contemporaries are featured among the rare recordings of silent film stars heard on RadioLulu. Interspersed throughout are tracks by the likes of Rudolph Valentino, Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, Adolphe Menjou, Ramon Novarro, Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, Bebe Daniels and others.
On RadioLulu, you'll also hear torch singers, Jazz Age crooners, dance bands, show tunes, standards and some real hot jazz!  And, there are even tracks featuring the great Polish chanteuse Hanka Ordonówna, the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht (singing "Mack the Knife" in 1929), and the contemporary cartoonist Robert Crumb (playing on "Chanson por Louise Brooks"). And what's more, you're unlikely to find a station that plays more tracks with "Lulu" in the title than the always eclectic and always entertaining RadioLulu! Here's your chance to hear some great music, including many rare recordings from the silent film era.

For lack of anything else to post, here are my newly received radio station stats.

Total Listening Hours
Last Month: 402
This Month: 499

Total Station Launches
Last Month: 858
This Month: 955

Station Presets
Last Month: 1711
This Month: 1734

Favorite Station Designations
Last Month: 41
This Month: 41

Give RadioLulu a listen! The Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman (author of Maus and other works) has. He told me so!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Steven Soderbergh said

According to an article on contactmusic.com, "X-Men star Hugh Jackman has withdrawn from negotiations to star in Cleo, Steven Soderbergh's upcoming rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra. It was revealed in October that Traffic director Soderbergh planned to cast Catherine Zeta Jones as the Egyptian queen with Jackman as her lover, Roman general Marc Anthony.

Speaking at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival, Soderbergh said he wanted Cleo to be similar to "an Elvis musical".  The acclaimed director went on to explain, "I've always wanted to do a musical, I felt like a female protagonist was probably a good idea, because the majority of the audiences for musicals are female. I started thinking about Catherine because I knew she could sing and dance and the list  [of possible subjects for the film] got pretty short at that point."
Soderbergh then added "I know Cleopatra stole that haircut from Louise Brooks, but Catherine looks great in it.

Yes she does. Anyone who saw Chicago knows that Catherine Zeta Jones wears a bob a la Brooks with the best of them.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Two new editions of Lulu in Hollywood

Two new editions of Lulu in Hollywood have just been released. 

Louise Brooks' acclaimed book of autobiographical essays, first published in the United States in 1982, have over the years been published in England and in translation in France, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan. Now comes two new editions - one from France and the other from Russia.



The new French edition was published in October by Tallandier. The book is 187 pages and has been translated by Rene Brest. I haven't yet gotten a copy, but plan to. It can be ordered through Amazon France or Amazon Canada. I usually order French-language books through amazon.ca because it it easier for me to navigate the site.

I don't know much about the Russian edition, except that it was published by a company called Rosebud (it may be their first publication), in cooperation with a Museum of Cinema.  Over the last year or two, I had been in email contact with a Russian publisher concerning a new edition of Lulu in Hollywood. Perhaps this is it.  My google translation add-on indicates, apparently, that the Louise Brooks Society, Estate of the Louise Brooks Estate, and the George Eastman House, all receive special thanks in this new edition.

More about this new edition can be found on this Russian-language LiveJournal page and on this Russian Cinematheque webpage. From what I can deduce, the publication of this new edition coincided with a mini-retropsective of Brooks' films in which three of the actresses films were screened along with Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. Some of the links on the latter Russian-language webpage lead to a Russian-language filmography and discussion of Brooks' films.
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