Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Books for sale - Louise Brooks and the Jazz Age

Looking for something good to read? Want to learn more about Louise Brooks, silent film, or the Jazz Age? The Louise Brooks Society has a small number used books for sale of interest to the dedicated fan. These are titles found at used book stores and thrift shops. Some are hard to find, some less so. Each are in good to very good condition. First come, first served. To place an order via PayPal, please send to tgladysz AT pandorasboxDOTcom

Louise Brooks (hardcover, 1st edition)
by Barry Paris
-- A must read, the ultimate biography of Louise Brooks. This edition, with illustrations, was published in 1989. Purchase this item and receive a free copy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2012 program with Louise Brooks on the cover (see below), as well as 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival program containing an essay on Prix de Beauté.

One copy available
$30.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


Lulu in Hollywood (hardcover, 1st edition)
by Louise Brooks
-- Brooks' own collection of autobiographical essays. This edition, with a photo insert, was published in 1982. Introduction by William Shawn. Purchase this item and receive a free copy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2012 program with Louise Brooks on the cover (see below), as well as the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival program containing an essay on Prix de Beauté.


One copy available
$25.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)
 
Lulu in Hollywood (softcover)
by Louise Brooks
-- Brooks' own collection of autobiographical essays. This edition, with a photo insert, was published in paperback in the 1980s. Introduction by William Shawn.



A few copies available
$12.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star (signed softcover)
edited by Roland Jaccard
-- scarce first book on the actress, contains writings by and about Louise Brooks and Lulu along with 90 illustrations, edited by the noted French film critic and novelist. This rare copy SIGNED by Roland Jaccard. Purchase this item and receive a free copy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2012 program with Louise Brooks on the cover (see below), as well as the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival program containing an essay on Prix de Beauté, and a copy of Photoplay Edition by Emil Petaja.



One copy available
$300.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


The Lulu Plays and Other Sex Tragedies (softcover)
by Frank Wedekind
-- This volume, translated from the German by the noted English poet Stephen Spender, includes Earth Spirit, Pandora's Box, Death and the Devil, and Castle Wetterstein. Hard to find. Purchase this item and receive a free copy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2012 program with Louise Brooks on the cover (see below).


One copy available
$25.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


San Francisco Silent Film Festival (softcover)
2012 program
-- This illustrated 88-page program, with Louise Brooks on the cover, contains an illustrated 2-page essay on Pandora's Box by Thomas Gladysz. Purchase this item and receive a copy of the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival program which contains an essay on Prix de Beauté.


A few copies available
$10.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


The 1920s (hardcover)
by American Heritage
-- A nostalgic look back at the Jazz Age This special issue of American Heritage runs 112 pages and includes informative essays and many illustrations.



A few copies available
$12.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


This Fabulous Century 1920-1930 (hardcover)
by Time-Life Books
-- A nostalgic look back at the Roaring Twenties. This 288 page book includes informative essays and lots of illustrations about the fashion, celebrities, culture, cars and crime of the era. Recommended. [Be the first to buy you'll also receive This Fabulous Century 1910-1920 for free.]


A few copies available
$15.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)


The 20's (softcover)
by Frederick J. Hoffman
-- A very interesting look at the literature and writing of the 1920s.




One copy available
$12.00 (includes shipping & handling within the USA)

Monday, April 28, 2014

Cool Pic of the Day: Louise Brooks, a white dress

Here is the "Cool Pic of the Day" - Louise Brooks, her portrait, softly focused, a white dress


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Nominate Louise Brooks movies for the National Film Registry

The United States Congress established the National Film Registry in 1988. Along with mandating continuing implementation of a plan to save America's film heritage, the law authorizes the Librarian of Congress to select up to 25 films each year for inclusion in the Registry. The 625 films chosen to date illustrate the vibrant diversity of American film-making.

The Library of Congress is currently seeking nominations from the public - meaning you! Public nominations play a key role when the Librarian of Congress and Film Board are considering their selections. To be eligible for the Registry, a film must be at least 10 years old and be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Recommendations are due in September. New selections are usually announced at the end of December.

The  Louise Brooks Society suggests you recommend these Louise Brooks films. Each are worthy of inclusion in the registry:

 
Beggars of Life (1928)


The Street of Forgotten Men (1925)


The Show Off (1926)


A Girl in Every Port (1928)


Looking for other films to nominate? Check here for hundreds of titles not yet selected to the National Film Registry. Please include the date of the film nominated, and number your recommendations. And if you would, tell how you learned of the Registry. Please forward your recommendations via email to dross@loc.gov  Email is preferred; to submit via postal mail, send your nominations to:

National Film Registry
Library of Congress
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
19053 Mt. Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701
Attn: Donna Ross

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Louise Brooks on examiner.com

I've been writing for examiner.com for 5 years; I've written hundreds of pieces, and naturally, I've penned many about Louise Brooks. To mark my fifth anniversary as the San Francisco Bay Area silent film correspondent, I've put together this checklist of some of my favorite and most interesting pieces about Louise Brooks which ran on my silent film column.

Louise Brooks stars in Los Angeles series
May 3, 2009

Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box still attract
June 30, 2009

Jan Wahl through a lens darkly
August 14, 2009

New Doctor Who comic celebrates silent film
October 31, 2009

Dear Stinkpot: Letters from Louise Brooks
November 14, 2009

Stuart Oderman: talking to the piano player
November 23, 2009

Rufus Wainwright pens tribute to silent film star Louise Brooks
January 12, 2010

Rare Louise Brooks films issued on DVD
January 25, 2010

Pandora's Box opened
February 10, 2010

Louise Brooks' film centerpiece of 2010 Silent Film Festival
May 21, 2010

Six questions with . . . silent film accompanist Tom Peters
May 25, 2010

Screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas turns 110
July 7, 2010

Rufus Rufus Rufus on Lulu Lulu Lulu
August 8, 2010

Rare Louise Brooks film to screen in Niles
September 21, 2010

A Girl in Every Port set to screen at BFI in January
November 30, 2010

Louise Brooks lights up screens in Bay Area and beyond
January 15, 2012

A Girl in Every Port goes to Stanford 
May 1, 2012

Author of Louise Brooks novel to speak in Bay Area
June 23, 2012

A Brief History of Pandora's Box in the San Francisco Bay Area
July 11, 2012

Jim Tully takes Hollywood, again
October 10, 2012

Louise Brooks to shine in Orinda
February 26, 2014

Friday, April 25, 2014

Snapshot of Louise Brooks at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

Here is a snapshot taken at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. This portrait of Louise Brooks by Nicholas Murray is part of the "American Cool" exhibit (through September 7). Thanx to Pete for the photo.


Thursday, April 24, 2014

Louise Brooks in the Missouri Review

The current issue of the Missouri Review (Winter 2013) features an excellent essay by Kris Somerville on "The Logic of Dreams: The Life and Work of Ruth St. Denis". The piece is illustrated with a number of images of  Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, including a  remarkably erotic picture of St. Denis on page 130. And of course, Louise Brooks is part of the Denishawn story.

That piece follows another equally fine piece also by Kris Somerville in the Fall 2012 issue of the Missouri Review titled "The Thoroughly Modern World of Louise Brooks". Both pieces are worth checking out.

As is Robert McNamara's Summer 1983 piece in the Missouri Review, "Lulu in Rochester: Self-Portrait of an Anti-Star". 
More information on this leading literary journal can be found at www.missourireview.com   [Thanks to my friend Lisa Buchanan for pointing out this latest piece.]

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Louise Brooks and Poland: Ziyo does Lulu

Speaking of Louise Brooks and Poland . . . . Here is a video of scenes from Pandora's Box (known in Polish as Puszka Pandory) which features a song by the popular Polish band Ziyo.


Ziyo is a post-punk band formed in Tarnow (southern Poland) in 1984. After a successful set at the Jarocin Festival in 1986, they got the attention of the Polish music industry and released their eponymous debut the following year. Their sound here reminds me of Joy Division. At other times they have been compared to Ultravox and U2.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Sincerely yours, Louise Brooks

"Sincerely yours, Louise Brooks"
(later 1920's fan photo of the kind distributed by Paramount)

Monday, April 21, 2014

Kino Venus, a Polish thriller with a Louise Brooks-like character

Kino Venus is the name of a Polish thriller set in 1930s Lublin which may feature a Louise Brooks and/or a Marlene Dietrich inspired character. The book's author is Marcin Wroński. I was alerted to Kino Venus after coming across a reference to the actresses on a French bookseller's webpage.

Has anyone read these books? I found three different covers while searching online. They sound intriguing.

Below is biographical information on the author from his website. And here is a the author's Wikipedia page in Polish.

Marcin Wroński (b. 1972, Lublin, Poland) studied Polish literature and language at the Catholic University of Lublin. Before devoting himself wholeheartedly to becoming a writer he worked as a columnist, a radio journalist, a secondary school teacher and an editor at various Polish publishing houses.

Wroński’s debut book appeared in 1992. Since then he has published six novels. He has also written many short stories and articles, cabaret sketches, essays and plays. In his work, Wroński combines literary tradition with elements from mass culture, whereby the complex Polish-Jewish-Russian-German history of his native city of Lublin often plays a role.

In Poland he is known mainly as the author of historic crime fiction featuring Police Commissioner Zygmunt Maciejewski as the main character. So far, he has published in the series Morderstwo pod cenzurą ("Murder Under Censorship", 2007), Kino Venus ("Cinema Venus", 2008), A na imię jej będzie Aniela ("And She Shall Be Called Aniela", 2011) and Skrzydlata trumna ("The Flying Coffin", 2012). Wroński also wrote a political thriller about contemporary Poland: Officium Secretum. Pies Pański ("Officium Secretum. Domini Cane", 2010). The 5th retro crime novel featuring Maciejewski is Pogrom w przyszły wtorek ("Pogrom on the Next Tuesday")

Morderstwo pod cenzurą, Kino Venus and Officium Secretum were nominated to the ‘Great Calibre Prize’ (the most prestigious prize for authors of crime fiction in Poland). The Russian rights for these books were sold to Gesharim/Bridges of Culture Publishing in Moscow. Studio Kalejdoskop, a Polish production company, has bought the film rights.

In 2009 Marcin Wroński was awarded the honorary title of Bene Meritus Terrae Lublinensi (Meritiorious for Lublin's Region) for the way in which he managed to conjure up the history of Lublin in his novels about 'Zyggie' Maciejewski. In 2012 he was awarded the Medal of the Mayor of Lublin.

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