Alameda

Spent the afternoon at the Alameda Free Public Library, where I scrolled through a few years of the Alameda Times Star in search of Louise Brooks material. The two microfilm readers at this small town library were in especially poor condition. The microfilm, as well, was quite worn.

Alameda is on the other side of the Bay from San Francisco. It took about 30 minutes to drive there. Alameda is just south of the much larger and better known towns of Oakland and Berkeley, and like them, in the 1920's, it had a few movie theaters. I found a few short reviews and some advertisements. The most interesting material had to do with The American Venus (1926), which featured Fay Lanphier, a local girl who was named Miss America in 1925.