Friday, September 14, 2012

"Louise" performed by the Bob Haring Orchestra

"Louise" performed by the Bob Haring Orchestra (April 1929).

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Tullyfest: A Celebration of author Jim Tully

Tullyfest: A Celebration of hard-boiled Hollywood author Jim Tully (1886-1947) is set to take place October 10 through October 15 in Los Angeles. Here are the details, with more info at https://www.facebook.com/events/300265733414321/


Hollywood's forgotten literary bad boy Jim Tully honored with October "Tullyfest"

WHAT: LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, UCLA Special Collections and The American Cinematheque celebrate the life, writings and films of Jim Tully (1886-1947) with a week-long "Tullyfest." Events include: 1) October 10 - LAUGHTER IN HELL screening at the American Cinematheque; 2) October 11 - REDISCOVERING JIM TULLY Bonnie Cashin Lecture at UCLA Special Collections and opening of exhibit (open thru December) of selections from the Jim Tully Papers; 3) October 14 - Jim Tully's Hollywood walking tour; and 4) The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank honors "Jim Tully: A Hobo in Hollywood." (Detailed event info is below.)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Biographie de "Louise BROOKS" par Barry PARIS

This is the 500th post on the Louise Brooks Society blog here on Blogger. (There were more than 1000 posts on the old blog on LiveJournal, which started in 2002.)

To mark this small milestone, and since this blog is on a French kick of late, I thought to post a short French video in which Olivier Barrot talks about the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks published by les Presses Universitaires de France (P.U.F.). For me, and for my interest / obsession in this singular silent film star, it all began with Barry Paris' brilliant biography. I read it after having seen Pandora's Box, and was hooked.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Louise Brooks ~ The Night Was Made For Love ~ Leo Reisman

Here is a sweet video, richly colorized and a bit dreamy..... images of Louise Brooks set to The Night Was Made For Love by Leo Reisman.



Monday, September 10, 2012

Jean-Marc Paumier - Rue meurt d'art : Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks is especially popular, and even beloved, in France..... Take, for example, the noted French artist Jean-Marc Paumier, who has something of a "special affection" for the silent film star.  Paumier is a graffiti artist (akin to Banksy) who has depicted Brooks on more than one occasion on the streets of Paris. Check out this 2009 image from the Square St Laurent in Paris, which is part of a Flickr photostream called "Louise Brooks - Rue Meurt d'Art."

Louise Brooks - Rue Meurt d'Art (064)

A google of the terms "Jean-Marc Paumier" and "Louise Brooks" will turn up more images and webpages. Also, check out this video of another Paumier depiction of Brooks on a building in Paris.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

French documentary: Louise Brooks - Cinq pas vers le mythe

Embedded below is a French documentary in two parts: Louise Brooks - Cinq pas vers le mythe. I just came across it online. This approximately 35 minute film can be found on the three disc box set issued by Coffret in France back in 2004. I have a copy, and it is indispensable! It may also be out of print.

Not only does this set contain this rare short film, but other long and short form documentary material as well - as well as the French versions of Brooks' three European films, Loulou (Pandora's Box), Le journal d'une fille perdue (Diary of a Lost Girl), and Prix de beauté.

Louise Brooks - Cinq pas vers le mythe looks at Brooks her life in the 1920s and reputation as a flapper, the interest the surrealists had in Brooks, her relationship with the French curator Henri Langlois, nouvelle vague, and an interview with the French illustrator Floc'h, who, like Guido Crepax, based a comic book series on the actress.


Monday, September 3, 2012

Man Ray, Lee Miller, William S. Paley and Louise Brooks


File this under "all roads lead to Louise Brooks:" The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are currently hosting the exhibit "Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism" (through October 14) at the Legion of Honor. And forthcoming is "The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism" (September 15 - December 30, 2012) at the M.H. de Young Museum.

Curiously, both of these exhibits bear a relationship with Louise Brooks. Man Ray, for one, long admired Louise Brooks; it was an admiration which likely dated from her brief celebrity in Paris in 1930. Later in life, he sent an admiring letter and small painting to the former actress. His lover, Lee Miller, also had a close encounter with Brooks. As a teenager, Miller saw Brooks dance while Brooks was a member of the Denishawn Dance Company. 

William S. Paley, founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), was a leader in communication, entertainment, and broadcast journalism. His innovations in radio programming and advertising, his  commitment to entertainment and news dissemination, and his acute awareness of popular trends revolutionized broadcasting’s business model, and set new standards in broadcast journalism. He also secretly supported Louise Brooks, giving her a monthly stipend, while she was living in her later years in Rochester, New York. He did so because he and Brooks had likely been lovers back in the 1920s.


Sunday, September 2, 2012

This colorized photograph of Louise Brooks


This colorized photograph of Louise Brooks has been making the rounds of social media. And for good reason, it's lovely. It is the same image as the one on the cover of Laura Moriarty's recent novel, The Chaperone. What's unusual about it is that Brooks is not wearing bangs, yet people seem to like it.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

September Schedule at Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum

The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California is starting the Fall off right with an eclectic and exciting line-up of films. There is a locally made classic based on a famous story by a one-time San Francisco author, a little seen Jazz Age satire, an early Western, and a non-Western starring an actor best known for his cowboy roles - as well as a selection of early Felix the Cat cartoons. Each features live musical accompaniment.

And that's not all.... There is also the regular Comedy Short Subject Night, a indie film from 2011 described as The Wizard of Oz for dogs, and a Laurel & Hardy Talkie Matinee. All together, it is another exceptional month of early cinema in the East Bay. Here's what's playing.

"Saturday Night at the Movies" with Judy Rosenberg at the piano
Saturday, September 1 at 7:30 pm

William S. Hart and Anna Q. Nilsson star in The Toll Gate (1920, William S. Hart Corp.), the first film produced by Hart’s own company. Directed by his frequent collaborator Lambert Hillyer, Hart plays an outlaw on the run from both lawman and his scheming partner’s henchmen. It is a story of betrayal, revenge and repentance. The feature will be preceded by two shorts, Futuritzy (1928, Pat Sullivan) featuring Felix the Cat, and Line’s Busy (1924, Cumberland Productions) with Billy West.

"Saturday Night at the Movies" with Frederick Hodges at the piano
Saturday, September 8 at 7:30 pm

The myth of D. W. Griffith’s decline as a director following the loss of his production company is disproven in The Battle of the Sexes (1928, Art Cinema Corp.), a comedy/drama of the jazz age featuring a gum-chewing frizzy-haired golddigger, a jazz hound, and a real estate tycoon. The film stars Jean Hersholt, Phyllis Haver, Belle Bennett, Sally O'Neil, and Don Alvarado. The Battle of the Sexes, a film one could easily picture Louise Brooks in, will be preceded by two shorts, Felix Gets the Can (1924, Sullivan) featuring Felix the Cat, and Vacation Waves (1928, Paramount) with Edward Everett Horton.

The Battle of the Sexes (1928, Art Cinema Corp.)
"Laurel & Hardy Talkie Matinee"
Sunday, September 9 at 4:00 pm

This month's Laurel & Hardy Talkie Matinee includes one of their classic features, A Chump at Oxford (1938), in which a Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy go to college as a reward for capturing a bank robber, and two comedic shorts, Mush and Milk (1933) with Our Gang, and Scram (1932) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

"Comedy Short Subject Night" with Greg Pane at the piano
Saturday, September 15  at 7:30 pm

Love to laugh? Then don't miss this monthly program featuring some of the most famous comedians of the silent film era. On the bill are The Immigrant (1917, Lone Star) with Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance, I Do (1921, Rolin) with Harold Lloyd, The Scarecrow (1920, Comique) with Buster Keaton, and The Finishing Touch (1928, Hal Roach) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Love to laugh? Then don't miss this monthly program!

"Saturday Night at the Movies" with Bruce Loeb at the piano
Saturday, September 22 at 7:30 pm

Based on the famous Bret Harte story, Salomy Jane (1914, California Motion Picture Corp.) tells a story of love, murder, and mistaken identity all of which whirls about its female heroine. The title role is played by Beatriz Michelena, a noted San Francisco singer, who began her film career with Salomy Jane and went on to star in eleven features for the San Rafael-based CMPC between 1914 and 1917. House Peters, William Nigh and an uncredited Jack Holt are also in the cast.

Salomy Jane was first shown at the Edison Theater, the current home of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, on August 30, 1915. This special 2012 screening 105 years later, featuring a 35mm print from the Library of Congress, is co-sponsored by the Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library, with assistance from the California Film Institute. The feature will be preceded by two shorts, Felix Dopes It Out (1925, Sullivan) featuring Felix the Cat, and Cactus Nell (1917, Keystone) with Polly Moran and future Oscar winner Wallace Beery (Louise Brooks co-star in two films).

"Saturday Night at the Movies" with Jon Mirsalis at the Kurzweil Keyboard
Saturday, September 29 at 7:30 pm

In the little seen Lazybones (1925, Fox Film), Buck Jones departs from his better known cowboy roles in this simple story of a young farmer who raises an abandoned baby. Besides the square jawed Jones (who starred in Empty Saddles, featuring Louise Brooks), the cast also features lovely Madge Bellamy, quirky Zasu Pitts, and Jane Novak - Hart's one time fiancé and the sister of Eva Novak. Credit for a deft handling of material and the film's continuing appeal go to acclaimed director Frank Borzage and renowned writer Frances Marion. Lazybones will be preceded by two shorts, Felix in Love (1922, Sullivan) featuring Felix the Cat, and Gymnasium Jim (1922, Mack Sennett, later reissued as Love’s Intrigue) with Billy Bevan and Mildred June.

Lazybones (1925, Fox Film), Buck Jones
For more info: The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is located at 37417 Niles Blvd. in Fremont, California. For further information, call (510) 494-1411 or visit the Museum's website at www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/.
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