Anita Loos and the Talmadge Girls

Recently finished reading The Talmadge Girls by Anita Loos. This book is an anecdotal biography of film stars Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge (and to a lesser extent Natalie Talmadge, the sister who married Buster Keaton). It is a very good read. I liked Loos' writing so much (her own life story is intertwined with that of the Talmadge sisters) that I followed it up with a dip into the recently published Anita Loos Rediscovered. Some day I will have to read more about Loos' life and career. She is a really interesting figure.

Two films

I recently rented two films which I watched for the first time ever. They were Cabaret (1972) and Mephisto (1981). Each depicts Germany in the 1920's and 1930's. I liked Cabaret a good deal, but found Mephisto interesting but a little slow.

Stanford University

This month, I made four trips to the library at Stanford University. I have been wanting to visit this large academic library - located about an hour south - for some time. 

I browsed "the stacks" - examining the large collection of books on film and film history. I found a number of interesting German and French titles which included fresh bits of information on Brooks and her three European films. I also found some interesting books on the German writer Frank Wedekind, author of the Lulu plays. 

No trip to a library would be complete without a search through periodicals! I looked through bound issues of old Italian and German film magazines, as well as some French and English newspapers on microfilm. I also looked through issues of the Stanford University student newspaper dating from the 1920's. All of these sources yielded a smattering of articles, reviews and advertisements.

Neve Campbell plans to portray Louise Brooks

This news item has been making the rounds . . . . 

"Neve Campbell plans to portray Louise Brooks, the bob-haired beauty who emerged from George White's Scandals and the Ziegfeld Follies and escaped flapper roles in Hollywood to achieve acclaim in Germany in G. W. Pabst films like Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl (both 1929) before becoming a recluse. Ms. Campbell has bought Lulu, a biographical screenplay by Peter Nickowitz and Bill Oliver, titled after the nymphomaniac portrayed by Brooks (1906-1985) in Pandora's Box. Ms. Campbell is looking for a director and for financing, according to a Reuters - Hollywood Reporter report."

Barry Paris on WQED

I just clicked on the WQED link on the Barry Paris page of Louise Brooks Studies and noticed that the station is once again being broadcast over the internet. Barry Paris has a show on this radio station on Sunday afternoons. Check it out.

Diana Serra Cary ("Baby Peggy")

Two books I recently finished reading - and really enjoyed a whole lot - are Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King by Diana Serra Cary, and What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy?, also by by Diana Serra Cary. After having read the Coogan book - I wanted more, and so immediately turned to the author's equally compelling autobiography. Each were very charming, anecdotal-filled stories of success and hardship. In the 1920's, Diana was an actress known as "Baby Peggy." And next to Jackie Coogan (whom she knew back then!), Diana was one of the most famous child movie stars in the whole world. In both books, she offers an insider's perspective on fame and fortune.

I really admire the author, who is now in her eighties. I have had the pleasure of meeting her on a few occasions. She has written four books to date, and I would recommend them to anyone.

                      

Paul Robeson

Recently viewed Paul Robeson: Here I Stand, an excellent 1999 documentary which originally aired as part of the American Master's series on PBS. I thought this film was one of the better documentaries I have seen, and very interesting as well. 

A footnote: according to Martin Duberman's biography of the singer and actor, Robeson once met Louise Brooks. Sometime around April 21, 1925, Robeson met Brooks at a party at the apartment of writer / photographer Carl Van Vechten, according to Essie Robeson's diary. Essie Robeson wrote of Brooks, she "was very late and I couldn't wait for her, but . . . Paul said she was very conceited and impossible."

Italian website devoted to Brooks

There are a number of web pages and websites devoted to Louise Brooks. One of the best is this multi-page site from Italy, which contains biographical information, articles, interviews, obituaries, pictures and much more. If you haven't already checked it out, please do so.

Happy Birthday, Louise Brooks!

Mary Louise Brooks was born on this day in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1906. The Cherryvale Daily News ran a small item on the front page of newspaper.

Neve Campbell w roli Lulu

[ An article in Polish about Neve Campbell's desire to play Louise Brooks. ]

Neve Campbell w roli Lulu

Neve Campbell ("Krzyk", "Krzyk 2", "Krzyk 3") przygotowuje się do roli w filmie opowiadającym o życiu Louise Brooks, legendarnej gwiazdy kina niemego. Obraz pod tytułem "Lulu" przedstawi okres sławy aktorki, a potem zaskakujące porzucenie przez nią kariery ekranowej. Campbell sama nabyła prawa do scenariusza projektu, a obecnie poszukuje producentów i reżysera.



Louise Brooks urodziła się w 1906 roku w stanie Kansas. Karierę rozpoczynała jako tancerka rewiowa, pojawiała się także na Broadway'u.

Na ekranie zadebiutowała w 1925 roku. Po występie w kilkunastu filmach hollywoodzkich (m.in. "Amerykańskiej Wenus" i "Dziewczynie w każdym porcie") przeniosła się do Europy, gdzie dwoma dziełami (i niezwykle charakterystyczną fryzurą) zapewniła sobie ważne miejsce w historii kina.

Tytułami tymi były zrealizowane w 1929 roku "Puszka Pandory" i "Dusze bez steru" niemieckiego reżysera Georga Wilhelma Pabsta. Louise Brooks stała się jednym z klasyczych wampów ekranowych.

Po powrocie do USA niepokorna i niezależna aktorka zagrała w jeszcze kilku obrazach i... w 1938 roku definitywnie rozstała z kinem. Zarabiała na życie jako tancerka, poświęcała się malarstwu i lekturze, a z czasem została cenioną pisarką. Wśród jej licznych książek znalazła się również autobiografia.

Louise Brooks zmarła na zawał serca w Nowym Jorku w 1985 roku.

Neve Campbell chciała przenieść historię gwiazdy na ekran już od wielu lat. Teraz, gdy kupiła scenariusz "Lulu", który napisali Peter Nickowitz i Bill Oliver, znalazla się bardzo blisko realizacji tego celu.

Kanadyjska aktorka wystąpiła niedawno w opartym na własnym pomyśle filmie "The Company" Roberta Altmana (była także producentką tego projektu) i komedii "Churchill: The Hollywood Years" z Christianem Slaterem.

Wśród kolejnych planów Campbell są m.in. thriller "Blind Horizon" z Valem Kilmerem oraz dramat "When Will I Be Loved" Jamesa Tobacka.

Empty Saddles / Overland Stage Raiders

The other day, I got a flier in the male from Grapevine Video. Among their new offerings is a "Louise Brooks Double Feature" dvd-r featuring Empty Saddles and Overland Stage Raiders. The item number is #LBDFDVD abnd it retails for $14.95.

As was announced earlier, Grapevine is going out of business. So, if you are interested in this release or any of their earlier dvd-r or vhs items, the time to order is now. More info at http://www.grapevinevideo.com

Nude on eBay

There is an image for sale on eBay which is described as "NUDE LOUISE BROOKS AS ZIEGFELD GIRL, photo."

To my eyes, this is not actually Brooks, but just someone who merely resembles her. (The face doesn't quite resemble the actress, and her partially exposed breast seems too big. Brooks had small breasts, like "little pears.") Many Ziegfeld Follies girls wore bobs, and many posed for this sort of cheesecake photo.

What do you think ? There are a couple of copies of this image for sale, both from the same seller. Here is a link for those interested.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3637182104&category=2211

Recent research

I managed to borrow a few years of the Musical Courier, a performing arts trade journal. That publication yielded some articles, reviews and advertisements for Brooks' appearances with the Denishawn dance company. I also found some brief reviews of Brooks' films when they showed in NYC.

Some of the newspapers I have been looking at of late include the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, St. Louis Times, Milwaukee Leader, and Louisville Courier-Journal.

Greta Garbo biography by Barry Paris

Finished reading Barry Paris' excellent biography of the Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo. In many ways, she is as elusive a personality as Louise Brooks. But, her mystery - her appeal - comes from somewhere else. After having read Barry Paris' biographies of both film stars, I am certain there was more going on in Brooks' head (as well as deeper motivations) than in Garbo's. 

Reading Garbo got me onto a Garbo jag. I am wanting to read more. Scouring the bibliography in the back of Paris' book led me to track down and purchase over the internet two early books on the actress, The Private Life of Greta Garbo by Rilla Page Palmborg (published in softcover in London in 1931), and Greta Garbo: The Story of a Specialist by E. E. Laing (published in London in hardcover in 1946). I am looking forward to receiving each of these books.

p.s. When I saw Barry Paris a few years ago, he gave me a special Garbo bookmark which was made by a friend of his. I keep it in my copy of his book. It measures approximately 2.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and is reproduced below. 

LBS Research update

My quest to uncover more articles and reviews related to Louise Brooks' career as a dancer and film actress continues. Some of the publications I have been looking at lately (on microfilm via inter-library loan) are the Kansas City Star, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Salt Lake Telegram, Syracuse Post-Standard, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star and Indianapolis Star. I was able to find some material in each of these papers. The Pittsburgh Dispatch, it might be noted, is now defunct. It ceased publishing not too long after Louise Brooks and the Denishawn dance company passed through town. Other newspapers I have looked at in my research have also closed, have changed names, or have merged with another publication. 

My goal is to survey the leading newspapers in the 20 largest cities in America in the 1920's. I have also looked at - or plan to look at - newspapers from each region of the United States. All together, the accumulated results should offer a representitive critical perspective on Brooks and her films.

Ramon Novarro bio

I just finished reading an excellent film biography, Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, by Andre Soares. It is one of the most sympathetic biographies I have read in a long time. I really liked this book. It is well written and well researched. And is highly recommended. (And if you haven't seen the original Ben-Hur, go out and rent it today. It is excellent. I have seen it at least a half-dozen times.)

Here is a description of the book from its publisher. "Ramon Novarro was for years one of the top lead actors in Hollywood - the first Latin-American performer to become a Hollywood superstar. Born Ramón Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, Novarro arrived in Hollywood in 1916 as a refugee from the civil wars that rocked Mexico in the early 20th century. By the mid-1920s, he had become one of MGM's most important leading men, going on to star in a series of now classic films including The Student Prince, Mata Hari, and the original version of Ben-Hur. He shared the screen with the era's most important leading ladies such as Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer and become Rudolph Valentino's main rival in the "Latin Lover" category. But despite his considerable professional accomplishments, Novarro's most enduring claim to fame is his tragic death - his bloodied corpse was found in his house on Halloween 1968 in what has become one of the most infamous scandals in the vast lore of Hollywood.

Novarro was a life-long bachelor who had carefully cultivated his image as a man deeply devoted to his family and to his religious convictions. His murder shattered that image as it was revealed to the general public that the dashing screen hero had been not only homosexual, but had been killed by two young male hustlers. Since then, his death has achieved near mythic proportions. Increasingly outlandish stories have become accepted as truth, obscuring Novarro's notable professional legacy.

Beyond Paradise presents for the first time a full picture of the man who made motion picture history - from his amazing rise to stardom to the destructive conflicts faced by this traditional Catholic Mexican man who was also a gay film star. Compellingly told and impressively researched - including original interviews with Novarro's surviving friends, family, co-workers and the two men convicted of his murder - Beyond Paradise provides a unique insight into the groundbreaking life and career of one of the most important early Hollywood stars - a man whose myth continues to fascinate today."

Newspaper research

Some of the newspapers which I have looked at lately include the Austin American-Statesman, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Topeka State Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (the future home of Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris), Boston Evening American, Memphis Commericial Appeal and Dallas Morning Herald. Research, research, research. I love it.

Rudolph Valentino biography

Currently reading the new Valentino biography, Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, by Emily W. Leider. I am about 125 pages into the book, and am enjoying it a great deal. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in the life and times of the actor, or anyone interested in silent film. I will post further thoughts on the book once I am done reading it.

For those interested in checking out the book (and the author), Emily Leider will be giving a talk in San Francisco. Here are the details.

EMILY W. LEIDER
reading & booksigning for "Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino"
May 7th, 7 pm
at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street, San Francisco)
This event is free and open to the public. For further information, call 415-863-8688 or visit www.booksmith.com

Site Updates

Added a few more images to the Vintage Magazine Covers page, including a 1926 Danish magazine with Louise Brooks on the cover. Also, scanned my recent eBay purchase of a 1928 issue of Film Weekly with Brooks on the cover. That image was also added to the aforementioned page. Recently, I added a page of vintage Related Magazine Covers, though there are only three examples. Hopefully, I will find others.

S.S. Van Dine

Recently finished reading Alias S.S. Van Dine, a biography by John Loughery of the man who wrote The Canary Murder Case. I enjoyed the book a good deal, and would recommend it to those interested in 20th century American cultural history. Willard Huntington Wright (aka S. S. Van Dine) was an interesting, though perhaps disagreeable, person who knew many leading figures of the time. (Louise Brooks is mentioned in passing in this book; she had the left the set of the Canary Murder Case by the time Van Dine arrived to lend his then considerable fame to the film.) Having finished the biography, I then decided to read the celebrated mystery novel which served as the basis for the 1929 film. As of today, I am nearly through with the book. Just about 50 pages to go. I will finish it, though I find the book somewhat tedious.

New material

Yesterday, I received photocopies of some six dozen vintage clippings from various Philadelphia newspapers. The clippings are part of the Philadelphia newspaper morgue housed at Temple University. (I came across a reference to this material while searching for newspaper archives on the internet.) Though the clippings I received were mostly small, wire service articles from the 1930's, they are of some interest. Citations for this material have been added to the appropriate bibliographies.

Through interlibrary loans over the last few months, I have been slowly working my way through the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Syracuse Post-Standard, Chicago Daily News, and Newark Star Eagle - and have recently started looking through the Houston Chronicle, Omaha World Herald, Seattle Times and Birmingham News. Last week, I also spent a day at home looking through some of the websites which reproduce old newspapers. There, I found scattered articles and reviews from a number of small town newspapers such as the Reno Gazette from Nevada, Denton Journal from Maryland, and Daily Northwestern from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. One goal behind this research is to accumulate a representitive selection of reviews from across the United States.

One of the websites I looked through had some Canadian and Mexican newspapers. While I didn't find any articles about Brooks or her films in these North American newspapers, I did manage to find advertisements for the actress' films. The best material were some half-dozen advertisements for films featuring Luisa Brooks in Il Informador from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Sacramento trip

At the California State Library in Sacremento, I looked through the Pasadena Star-News, La Opinion and some Los Angeles newspapers for the period of the mid-to-late 1920's. I found a bunch of film reviews, advertisements and articles in the Pasadena newspaper, but little in La Opinion. (This Spanish-language paper, based in Los Angeles, ran frequent articles on Hispanic film stars such as Dolores del Rio, Raquel Torres, Ramon Navarro, etc . . . , but nothing that I could find on Louise Brooks.) I also took the time to search through four Los Angeles newspapers for material on Just Another Blonde, Evening Clothes and The City Gone Wild. My efforts in this regard were successful, and I found reviews, articles, ads and more. Citations for all of the material that I have found have been aded to the bibliographies.

Clara Bow

Finished reading Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild by David Stenn. A good biography, sympathetically told. I would love to see a picture book devoted to her. Clara Bow was so lovely, and such a gifted, natural actress. She is one of my favorite silent film stars.

Trip to Sacramento

Depending on (the war and) how things go, I plan to travel to the California State Library in Sacramento next week. (I live in San Francisco, and Sacramento is about 100 miles away. It's a two hour drive.) This will be my fifth trip to the State Library, which is a major repository of California newspapers on microfilm. To date, I have been able to survey newspapers from most all of the major metropolitan areas in California. (See the various bibliographies for the citations and material that has been collected so far.) On this trip, I hope to dig through the Pasadena Star-News and La Opinion (a Spanish-language newspaper based in Los Angeles) for the period of the mid-to-late 1920's. I will be looking for film reviews and other articles. If there is enough time, I may also look at the papers for Long Beach and Santa Monica.

Site redesign

A comprehensive redesign and site rebuild is underway. (This page is an example of the new look which most every page on the LBS will eventually assume.) The implementation of the rebuild will take some time, as the size of the Louise Brooks Society now stands at more than 200 pages. The intention of this redesign is to give the LBS a more up-to-date look. Also, some outside links - notably the old translation module at the bottom of every page, were no longer functioning. A comprehensive site rebuild will fix broken links, conform site code to current html standards, and give the overall site a cleaner, more contemporary feel.

Site update

Just updated is Kansas: For Further Reading, a page on the News of Lulu website.

Paypal

At the bottom of the LBS home page is a newly installed PayPal donation button. I am hoping individuals who enjoy this free site will make a small donation to help keep things going. (One person already has!) Monthly dial-up charges, server costs, the recently launched RadioLulu (I pay a royalty fee), and subscriptions (like those to database sites) are just some of the expenses that go into keeping the LBS on the web and groing. A donation (in any amount) will help defray the cost of photocopies, postage and research expenses. Contributions will also be used to ensure new material is added on an ongoing basis, and that the LBS continues as the largest and most comprehensive web site in the world devoted to any silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society is a money losing labor of love, and a not-for-profit web site devoted to the promotion and study of the life and films of Louise Brooks. Your interest and assistance is appreciated.

News of Lulu updates

Yesterday, a "News of Lulu" email was sent to members of the LBS. This email newsletter is hosted by Yahoo: Groups on a web site called News of Lulu. That adjunct site can be found at
groups.yahoo.com/group/newsoflulu/

News of Lulu contains a lots of interesting material, including colorized portraits, fan art, text files, a calendar of events, links and more. Recently updated is a nifty set of links called "Around the World with Louise Brooks." Also new, located under Files, is a set of folders to which LBS members may contribute original work including poems & song lyrics, essays & school papers, and short stories (including "fan fic") about Louise Brooks. If you have something to contribute along these lines,
please post your work to the appropriate folder. Pieces can be uploaded as Word documents, plain text files or html.

On-line petition

Thank you to Amanda for alerting everyone to the on-line petition regarding silent films on DVD. The petition hopes to encourage Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and other major studios to release their silent films on DVD. I agree. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself. (Wouldn't be great to have Love Em and Leave Em or Beggars of Life on DVD?) The petition can be found at www.petitiononline.com/silentDV

Two additions to the LBS website

Two recent additions to the Louise Brooks Society web site include: issue number 1020 of the Illustrierter Film-Kurier devoted to A Girl in Every Port www.pandorasbox.com/louisebrooks/archive/girlportIllFilKur.html

and

issue number 1314 of the Illustrierter Film-Kurier devoted to The Canary Murder Case www.pandorasbox.com/louisebrooks/archive/canaryIllFilKur.html These additions came about through the purchase of material on eBay.

Websites worth visiting

One web sites used in the compilation of the LBS bibliographies can be found at www.ancestry.com  This genealogy site contains a database of scanned historic newspapers which are searchable by - in effect - keyword. Normally, individuals use this resource to locate family records, but I have found it to be a valuable resource for film research.

So far, searches on ancestry.com have turned up a handful of articles, captioned photographs, advertisements and film reviews in small town newspapers across the United States. The result are citations from the Zanesville Times-Signal from Ohio, the Appleton Post-Cresent from Wisconsin, the Helena Indepenedent from Montana, etc. . . . Among the fascinating and sometimes rather surprising items which came to light are a February, 1925 captioned photograph mentioning Brooks return to New York from London aboard the S. S. Homeric; an interesting December, 1925 article
"Follie's Girl Sues to Supress Her Very Artistic Photographs;" a mention in a 1940 syndicated gossip column that "Louise Brooks, ex-star, is teaching the rhumba and La Conga in Wichita, Kansas;" and a small town newspaper advertisement from the mid 1950's (long after Brooks was forgotten by just about everyone) evoking glamorous movie stars of the past who started as showgirls.

[ Other similar, searchable newspaper archives include www.newspaperarchive.com and www.paperofrecord.com. Each of these sites have produced interesting material, and each is worth a visit if you are interested in family history or genealogy. Please note: Each of the previously mentioned sites require subscription.]

Silent film buffs and history buffs alike will want to check out the web site for British Pathe (located at www.britishpathe.com ). British Pathe made short newsreel films beginning around the turn-of-the-century. Thousands of these short two and three minute films are now available on-line (in a low resolution format) and can be viewed for free! There is fascinating stuff here . . . . Though there is no Brooks material, one can view vintage film of Chaplin, Fairbanks, and Valentino. For example, there is footage of Valentino's funeral in New York City, which Brooks attended. (A sobbing Poli Negri can be glimpsed, as well as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. as pallbearer.) Try searching by key words like "Charleston," "flapper" or "cinema" for other interesting material.

Another free site worth checking is the silent film database at the American Film Institute (located at www.afi.com/catalog ). There, you will find details on each of Brooks' silent films. Information on Brooks' later sound films is available only to AFI members.

More updates

Just added is the RadioLulu Playlist, a page on the News of Lulu website. Also updated is the Dancer & Showgirl bibliography on the LBS website.

Louise Brooks bibliographies

One of the most valuable assets of the Louise Brooks Society are the many annotated bibliographies which help document the life and career of the actress. Most importantly, these bibliographies help organize the vast amount of written material about the actress, including vintage reviews of her films. The bibliographies contain not only numerous citations, but also links to select articles. Additionally, many of the citations are annotated with a brief quote or passage which in themselves make for interesting reading. These web pages - all of which are a work in progress - can be accessed at http://www.pandorasbox.com/louisebrooks/bibliographies.html

So far, material has been gathered from the places most important to the story of Louise Brooks - Cherryvale and Wichita, Kansas, New York City, Los Angeles, California, Berlin, Germany and Rochester, New York.

Articles and film reviews are also being gathered from newspapers in nearly two dozen of the largest American cities of the 1920's - as well as select metropolitan areas in the then less populated South, Southwest and Far West. Taken together, these many articles offer a perspective on the actress in the words of her contemporaries. Additionally, many fascinating and previously unknown articles and bits of information have been uncovered. Work on the bibliographies has been going on for nearly two years, with another nine to twelve months of effort (research, interlibrary loans, reading microfilm, etc...) already mapped out.

Need research help in Atlantic City

Do you live near Atlantic City, New Jersey ? If so, the Louise Brooks Society needs your help! The LBS would like to track down newspaper articles which appeared in the Atlantic City Evening Union. However, the only source for that paper on microfilm is the Atlantic County Historical Society (located at 907 Shore Rd., Somers Point, NJ 08244 phone 609-927-5218). And unfortunately for the LBS - which is located in San Francisco, California - that institution does not loan its holdings.

As a member of the Denishawn Dance Company, Louise Brooks performed at the Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City in October, 1923. (The Denishawn engagement ran October 15th through the 23rd.) Nearly two years later, in September of 1925, the Miss America contest was held in Atlantic City. That event provided the backdrop for Brooks' second film, The American Venus. (Participants in the contest began arriving around September 7th, and Fay Lanphier - who is starred in the film - was crowned on September 12th.)

The LBS would like to track down any and all articles, reviews or clippings about the Denishawn performance, relevant articles about the Miss America contest (especially if the making of  The American Venus is mentioned), and reviews of the movie after its showing in Atlantic City in January or February of 1926. Certainly, the Atlantic City Evening Union gave coverage to one or all of these events. (Another possible source for clippings is the Atlantic City Daily Press - though it is uncertain if this newspaper was being published in the mid 1920's.) Please email the LBS if you are able to help with this special research project. The LBS would be happy to reimburse individuals for photocopies made from microfilm.

New film in the works

I can't say much - BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW MUCH - but the LBS has been told that a dramatic film based on the life of Louise Brooks is in the works. It centers on the filming of Pandora's Box. An actress has already been chosen to play Louise. Watch the LBS website for details as further information becomes available.

RadioLulu is on the air

The Louise Brooks Society is proud to announce the launch of RadioLulu, an internet-only station featuring music of the Twenties through today. This streaming radio station - featuring "all things Lulu" - includes a handful of songs directly related to the actress. The station - which was created December 29, 2002 - can be found at
http://www.live365.com/stations/298896

Included on RadioLulu is the theme from Beggars of Life, songs by the actress' contemporaries, friends and co-stars, jazz and show tunes of the 1920's, and a handful of standards (including Brooks' favorite Gershwin tune, "Somebody Loves Me"). The contemporary era is represented by rock music, soundtrack recordings and musical tributes from around the world.

Everyone from Maurice Chevalier (singing the ever popular "Louise") and the torch singer Libby Holman (a friend of Brooks) to actors Adolphe Menjou, Noah Berry and Rudolph Valentino are highlighted on this unique station. The playlist is arranged in loose chronological order, with themes such as "Louise Brooks in the Jazz Age," "European Sojourn," "The 1930's - National Depression and Professional Decline," and "Contemporary Lulu" helping to organize dozens of songs.

Besides providing more than three hours of entertaining music, RadioLulu also provides the rare opportunity to actually hear hard-to-find vintage and contemporary recordings associated with the actress.

Additional tracks, such as the Xavier Cugart recordings recommended by Brooks in her 1940 booklet The Fundamental of Good Ballroom Dancing, will be added to the station sometime in the future. Right now, however, your help is needed. Does anyone have an mp3 of the theme song to Prix de Beaute ? Or one for "Darling of the Jazz Age" from the recent Swiss production, Brooksie the Jazz Age Musical ? Or any rock music recordings not already included on the station, such as the little known Louise Brooks by Legendary Bang? If so, please email the LBS.

New citations added to bibliographies

A handful of citations have been added to the film bibliographies, with corresponding articles gathered into the LBS archive. Citiations have been collected from the Indianapolis Star, Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chronicle-Telegram from Elyria, Ohio, and the Appleton Post-Cresent from Wisconsin. Also, a number of pages have been updated or revised - additional information has been added to the filmography pages, and additional images have been added to a few of the portrait galleries.

Also new is the donate (via PayPal) button at the bottom of the homepage. A donation (in any amount) will help pay the expense of hosting and maintaining this website, as well as defray the cost of photocopies, postage and other research expenses. Contributions will be used to ensure that this website is further developed and that additional material is addeds. If possible, please use PayPal to make a donation to the Louise Brooks Society. Click on the PayPal button below to make a contribution of as little as $1.00. The Louise Brooks Society is a not-for-profit website devoted to the promotion and study of the life and films of Louise Brooks. Your interest and assistance is appreciated.

New citations added to bibliographies

A bunch of citations have been added to various bibliographies, with corresponding articles gathered into the LBS archive. Citiations have been collected from the Providence Journal, Kansas City Star, Helena Indepenedent (Montana), and Zanesville Times-Signal (Ohio), as well as a handful of small-town newspapers scattered across the American Midwest and South. A few contemporary reviews have also been gathered from Box Office magazine and the Chicago Reader.

Updated pages

Recently updated are Around the World, on the News of Lulu site, as well as Related Magazine Covers and More Book Covers on the LBS website.

Manchester (UK) screening

Just quick note to let everyone know about a screening of  Pandora's Box that is scheduled for the Cornerhouse Cinema in Manchester, England. This screening will take place on Sunday, January 19, 2003, at Cinema 1 at 8.30 pm. For more info see  www.cornerhouse.org
Live accompaniment will be provided by dark ambient experimentalists Cipher ( Saxophonist / Flautist Theo Travis & Bassist / Sound designer Dave Sturt ). For more info see www.cipher.f9.co.uk