Friday, January 29, 2010

Pandora's Box screens in upstate New York

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown on January 30, 2010 at the Butterfield Library in Cold Spring, New York. The program will start at 7 pm and will be accompanied by the performance of a live, original musical score by Cary Brown.

The Putnam County News and Recorder ran a small item about the event. Futher details may be found on the Butterfield Library website.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

J.D. Salinger & Louise Brooks

J.D. Salinger, the novelist and short story writer and the author of Catcher in the Rye, has died at the age of 91. Today, the New York Times ran a long obit about this equally renown and reclusive author.

I am sure that Salinger never met Louise Brooks (though I can imagine them somehow  encountering one another in NYC in the late 1940s or early 1950s), nor is it known if the author was especially aware of the actress. However, they did have something in common.They both had the same editor, William Shawn.

A good deal of Salinger's short fiction appeared in the New Yorker* magazine, where Shawn was its legendary editor. Salinger considered Shawn a good friend, and even went so far as to dedicate one of his works to Shawn. Shawn also edited and wrote the introduction to the first edition of Louise Brooks' own book, Lulu in Hollywood.

Besides a common friend, Salinger and Brooks also shared something deeper - a psychological impulse which shaped their lives. In 2008, Forbes.com ran interview with Kevin Bazzana, author of Lost Genius, a biography of the eccentric Hungarian pianist Ervin Nyiregyház. A child prodigy, Nyiregyház was acclaimed on two continents and championed by the likes of Bela Lugosi and Arnold Schoenberg before giving up performing in public.

In the interview, Bazzana is asked "Are there historical figures in music, or in the other arts, who, by virtue of their combination of talent and lack of success, might be compared to Nyiregyházi?" The biographer answered with something I thought quite interesting.

"In the conclusion of the book, I wrote: 'The spectacularly gifted but psychologically cursed artist who seems reluctant to practice his art is a type uncommon but not unknown.'

When I wrote this, I was thinking of artists like the writer J. D. Salinger, the conductor Carlos Kleiber, the pianist Glenn Gould, the actors Louise Brooks and Marlon Brando, the chess master Bobby Fischer. These are artists of incredible talent and individuality, yet the price of their particular gift was the kind of psychology that seemed not to permit them to enjoy an ordinary career and the high productivity that their fans would have liked.

Salinger simply couldn't stand being famous, and so refused to be a public figure any longer, even to the point of refusing to publish anything. Kleiber is widely considered the greatest conductor of our time, yet his perfectionism made it scarcely possible for him to conduct; his output was tiny, highly selective--yet of unrivaled quality. Gould had so many personal and musical hang-ups about live performance that he quit the concert scene entirely and retreated to the recording studio. Brooks and Brando simply couldn't stomach what was required to have a Hollywood career; you are left with the irony of someone of Brando's talent and individuality being so convinced of the triviality of what he does that he's scarcely willing to do it anymore! And Fischer, well …

Some of these figures had huge success; some had limited success; some had success and then failure. But what they all had in common was a particular kind of gift that was incompatible with the normal professional exercise of that gift.

It's a tragedy, really, because those artists with that particular kind of career-sabotaging psychology are often the greatest and most individual of all. We can only sigh heavily, and accept them as they are and be grateful for what little of them we have."


* The New Yorker also published Kenneth Tynan's celebrated essay about Louise Brooks, "The Girl in the Black Helmet."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Louise Brooks on the cover of new book

Because she passed away 25 years ago, and hadn't appeared in a film in more than 70 years, its a bit curious that Louise Brooks continues to fascinate. And, she continues to adorn the covers of new books.


Just out from Berghahn Books is The Concise Cinegraph, edited by Hans-Michael Bock & Tim Bergfelder. Its an expensive, information packed, dense, 575 page, nearly 3 pound  encyclopedia of German cinema now in English translation. It's also an outstanding resource. In his forward, film historian Kevin Brownlow laments the fact that this book hadn't been translated and published earlier at the time he was working on his outstanding documentary, Cinema Europe.

The American-born Louise Brooks is depicted on the cover, as is the Austrian-born director G.W. Pabst. One might ask, "what are they doing on the cover of a German film encyclopedia?" The short answer, of course, is that Brooks and Pabst made two films together in Germany, Pandora's Box and The Diary of a Lost Girl. Both were released in 1929. Each also receives an entry in the book, with Pabst's being more substantial. Pabst is a far more significant figure, and is widely considered one of the great directors (along with Murnau and Lang) working in Germany during the interwar period.

The long answer lies in the scope of the series to which this book belongs. The Concise Cinegraph is volume 1 in Film Europa: German Cinema in an International Context. It's description reads, "German cinema is normally seen as a distinct form, but this new series emphasizes connections, influences, and exchanges of German cinema across national borders, as well as its links with other media and art forms. Individual titles present traditional historical research (archival work, industry studies) as well as new critical approaches in film and media studies (theories of the transnational), with a special emphasis on the continuities associated with popular traditions and local perspectives."

Together, the work of Brooks and Pabst certainly does represent "connections, influences, and exchanges of German cinema across national borders." And is thus a fitting cover.

In her entry, the Kansas-born Brooks is described as"one of Weimar cinema's most recognisable icons." I agree. However, I have a tiny quibble with a few details in the entry.

The entry states, "First performing in public alongside her mother at fairgrounds in Kansas, Brooks was by 1922 a member of the Denishawn Dancers, supporting Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn throughout their East Coast appearances."

If by "alongside her mother" the editors mean to imply that they danced together, that's not true. According to the biography by Barry Paris, Brooks' mother only accompanied her child on piano at dance recitals and performances around the state. As well, Brooks later tour with the Denishawn Dance Company rambled not only up and down the East Coast (as the entry states), but the American South, Midwest, and Far West. Their tours went as far west as Texas and Colorado, and even ventured into Canada. Otherwise, the entry is right on and a worthwhile summation of Brooks life and career.

The Concise Cinegraph is an exceptional resource which covers German cinema from its beginnings through today. It's also a work anyone serious interested in the subject will want to own. The Concise Cinegraph is available on amazon.com.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Cara Black

Cara Black, the acclaimed crime fiction writer with a penchant for penning Parisian police procedurals, gave a shout-out this past weekend to RadioLulu on her Twitter account. Cara tweeted, "a la Louise Brooks 20's music on Radio Lulu http://www.live365.com/stations/298896"

As many readers know, Cara Black is the author of the bestselling and award nominated Aimée Leduc Investigation series - each of which is set in a different district in Paris. The series has has been translated into five languages. Her most recent book is last year's Murder in the Latin Quarter. Forthcoming in March from Soho Press is the tenth book in the series, Murder in the Palais Royal.

It's something of an understaement to say Cara Black is a Francophile. This San Francisco-based author really knows her stuff, and visits the City of Lights at least once a year to gather material. That's why her books are so good, and so popular.

The author may have come across RadioLulu (which plays its fair share of 1920s / 1930s French music) after having responded to a recent LBS blog about French novels which mention Louise Brooks. The author offered to help! Thank you Cara Black.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Denis Marion and Louise Brooks

Just yesterday, I received an email from Gianluca Chiovelli, the leading Louise Brooks scholar in Italy. Gianluca maintains an outstanding website at http://xoomer.virgilio.it/louisebrooks/ which is well worth checking out. Gianluca, who is multi-lingual, is always finding new things about about the actress in Europe.

Gianluca wrote to tell me about a somewhat recently published book, Denis Marion: Pleins feux sur un homme de l'ombre (Bruxelles, Le Cri, collection "CIEL", 2008). The book, which is a collection of essays, contains a chapter (pages 113-130) which explores the relationship & exchange of letters between Louise Brooks and Denis Marion.

From what I have been able to find out (via the French-language version of Wikipedia), Denis Marion was a Belgian-born intellectual and a Belgian Francophone writer who worked as a scholar, journalist, film critic and University professor. He started publishing works of literary criticism in the early 1940's, and at one point authored an undated book, Filmographie et bibliographie de Erich von Stroheim, which is listed in the collection of the National Library of Australia.

I hadn't known Brooks had corresponded with Marion. Thus, I intend to try and track down this book, and find out more about the epistolary relationship between the actress and the intellectual.

In early 2009, Denis Marion: Pleins feux sur un homme de l'ombre was reviewed in Le Soir, a Belgian publication.The author of the review, Jacques De Decker, mentioned Brooks in writing about the book. That review can be found on the Le Soir website, or here as a PDF document.

If any Belgian fans of Louise Brooks have access to this book and could send me a pdf or scan of the chapter noted above I would be most grateful.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Louise Brooks Society on LibraryThing

Speaking of books . . . The Louise Brooks Society has a small presence on LibraryThing, a website devoted to books. The LBS profile can be found at http://www.librarything.com/profile/LouiseBrooksSociety

The LBS at LibraryThing is a catalog of essential books (112 and counting) both by and about the actress - her life, her career, and her films. This collection serves as a reference to those interested in finding out more about the actress and her best known role, that of Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929). Also included are related works of literature, biography, and film history, as well as photoplay editions and books which feature the actress on their cover.

Check it out.


Friday, January 22, 2010

Need help finding "Jacques Arnaut" by Leon Bopp

I often spend an afternoon or evening exploring on-line databases looking for Louise Brooks related material. Why? Because I enjoy it, and, you never know what you'll find and where. The other day, I spent a good number of hours picking through Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Gallica is a massive, searchable collection containing nearly one million digitized French documents including 150,000 monographs and books, 675,000 pages from more than 4,000 periodicals (including both newspapers and film journals), 115,000 images, 1,000 sound recordings, 5,500 manuscripts, 2,300 music scores, etc. . . . In other words, all kinds of stuff. Content comes both from the Bibliothèque nationale de France and other partner libraries around the country.

Gallica is an oustanding resource - and one worth visiting for if you have a serious interest in researching Louise Brooks, silent film, or just about any other topic. I don't speak or read French, but was able to make my way through Gallica and find a good deal of interesting material related to the actress and her films.

For example, I uncovered a review of Prix de Beaute published in 1930 in a French-language Algerian newspaper! (That the first article I've found from Algeria, though not the first from Africa.) Of course, Prix de Beaute was made in France, though nearly all of Brooks' American and German films showed there - and were the subject of articles and reviews. All in all, I found a lot of good material - most of it little known.

Among the other items I came across was a collection of short stories, Jacques Arnaut, published by Gallimard in 1933. The book's author is by Leon Bopp, a novelist, literary critic, and philosopher born in 1897. According to my keyword search, Louise Brooks is mentioned in passing in one of the stories. From the snippet offered with the search results, it's mentioned that someone "loves Louise Brooks." However, I can't access the text of the book nor determine the context of the reference beyond this bit of information.



Nor, have I been able to find much information on the internet about Leon Bopp. (What I have been able to gleam is that Bopp may have been a friend or acquaintance of Jean-Paul Sartre, who incidentally, took Simone de Beauvoir to see A Girl in Every Port (1928) on one of their first dates!)

Any reference to Louise Brooks in a work of literary fiction is interesting. Bopp's short story may be among the earliest such literary references on record. (Prior to Bopp's story, there had been a few novelizations of Brooks' films published in France. Each of these books were pulp softcovers, and each featured the actress on the cover. The most notable among them is the post film novelization of  Prix de Beaute published in 1932. It's author, Boisyvon, would later make a name for himself as a film critic.)

I need help in locating a copy of the Leon Bopp story. Only one single solitary lonely copy of the 1933 edition of this book is known to be held in an American library - and I have already requested it via an interlibrary loan. (I have a strong feeling, however, it won't come.) I also need anyone's help in finding out more about Bopp and this early work.

Louise Brooks is much admired in France - perhaps more so than in the United States, a la Jerry Lewis. She is so popular there that she has also inspired a handful of contemporary novels published in France, such as Le Manuscrit Louise B by Matthieu Baumier and Louise Brooks est Morte (with its Hans Bellmar-like cover) by Patrick Mosconi .


While scouring the Gallica databases I also came across two more contemporary works of  fiction which mention the actress. Each is by a still living though now elderly literary writer  named Michel Mohrt. The two novels, each published by Gallimard, are La Guerre civile (1986) and Un Soir, à Londres (1991). I have requests in for each of these books as well.

If anyone, especially fans within France, can help me find out more about Leon Bopp and Jacques Arnaut I would sure appreciate it.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art

A follow-up to the previous blog . . . . Late last year, Bear Family Records released a massive and rather expensive 11 disc set called John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art. Though Bear Family (who are known for issuing large retrospective collections) is an European company, the set is available in the United States. The amazon.com listing for the set can be found here. (There's also one currently for sale on eBay.)


This impressive set includes the soundtrack music to John Wayne's numerous westerns (he made a lot of them), including all the title songs by the original artists as well as songs inspired by the movies. Also included is a 464-page LP-sized book with a biography by historian Richard W. Bann, and reproductions of hundreds of western movie posters as well as stills and lobby cards. A bonus DVD contains trailers and exclusive 'behind-the-scenes' footage.

I don't count myself a John Wayne fan. But what caught my eye, or rather my ear, about this set is the inclusion of a single track among the 10 audio discs. Track 51 on disc 8 is the orchestral sequence from Overland Stage Raiders, the 1938 B-western John Wayne made with Louise Brooks. That film was Brooks' last.



The Louise Brooks Society would be interested in finding out to what degree Overland Stage Raiders is represented in the book included in this set. And, if any Louise Brooks / John Wayne fans want to spring for a copy of John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art for the LBS archives . . . . well then, step right up partner.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Overland Stage Raiders highlighted in new book

McFarland & Company, one of the world's leading publishers of film books, has just released Western Film Series of the Sound Era. This 475 page hardcover book, by Michael R. Pitts, is an impressive reference work.

Pitts is the author of 30 earlier books, including Poverty Row Studios, 1929-1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies (McFarland), and the two volume Famous Movie Detectives (Scarecrow Press). Those notable works, like Western Film Series of the Sound Era, touch on the career of Louise Brooks.


The western was hugely popular genre in the 1930s, and it packed cinemas during the early sound era. This volume covers 30 western film series produced from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s. Included are such long-running series as Hopalong Cassidy, The Durango Kid, and The Three Mesquiteers, as well as those that had moderate or brief runs like The Singing Cowgirl and The Texas Rangers. There are also chapters on The Cisco Kid and The Lone Ranger. Major stars like John Wayne, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, Tim McCoy, and Johnny Mack Brown headlined such popular fare.  

Western Film Series of the Sound Era contains a plot synopsis and analysis of each series, it's place in cinema history, photographs, illustrations, a bibliography and a detailed filmography. Western Film Series of the Sound Era does not contain material on Empty Saddles (1936), the western Brooks made near the end of her film career. That film starred Buck Jones and was a stand alone - and thus is not included in this new book devoted to series films.

However, Western Film Series of the Sound Era does contain a substantial chapter on the many films made under The Three Mesquiteers banner. One of them, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), was the last in which Louise Brooks had a role. It starred a youthful John Wayne, who would soon find film immortality as the Ringo Kid in John Ford's Stage Coach (1939). Brooks wrote about Wayne in an uncollected essay, "Duke by Divine Right."

Pitts' book has interesting background material on The Three Mesquiteers series (it's history and changing actors), as well as on the making of Overland Stage Raiders. For example, I hadn't known that the silent film star Raymond Hatton, who appeared along side Brooks in Now We're in the Air (1928), later appeared in the The Three Mesquiteers series. Brooks herself is mentioned on page 352, and the author notes that the actress "was paid $300 for her work in the Republic feature." Pitts also encapsulates the film's admittedly "rather complicated plot."

Western Film Series of the Sound Era is available on-line and at better bookstores. Check it out.
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