Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Research notes


There were five boxes of microfilm waiting for me at the library this morning. Such excitement . . . . I spent four hours looking through the Cincinnati Enquirer (found reviews and articles on four films) and Phildadelphia Inquirer (found a couple of brief articles and advertisements for Denishawn performances). One of the articles in the Philadelphia newspaper told how the Denishawn performance was cancelled because a train wreck had prevented the costumes for the dance company from arriving at the same time as the dancers themselves. (Apparently, the costumes and the dancers travelled on different trains.) "There was a dissapointed audience hanging about the doors," the article stated. Tickets had to be refunded. And the performance was rescheduled for a month later.
Also looked through the Muskogee Daily Phoenix (found lots of Denishawn material and an advertisement for American Venus in this Oklahoma newspaper), theCedar Rapids Republican (found Denishawn articles and advetisements, as well as a few film reviews in this Iowa newspaper), and Pittsfield Advertiser (this small town weekly newspaper from Maine did not yield any Denishawn material).
Some time in the next few years, I plan on writing a narrative history of Louise Brooks' two seasons spent with the Denishawn dance company. This account will be based on the hundreds of articles and reviews I have already collected (and will collect) covering the hundreds of performances Brooks and Denishawn gave across the United States. This account will follow their two tours of the United States and Canada.

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