Saturday, September 19, 2009

Another significant find!

On and off for more than a few years I have been searching for any sort of record regarding a couple of appearances Louise Brooks made in 1935. At the time, she was working as a ballroom dancer as part of a dance act known as Dario and Brooks.

In his biography, Barry Paris recounts a number of Brooks' dance performances. "Louise and Dario danced at the Place Pigalle for almost three months - until January 5, 1935 - a phenomenal run by dance-act standards. From there they went on tour, performing at the Embassy Club in Miami, the Patio in Palm Beach, and clubs in Indiana and Kentucky, returning to New York in between engagements at the Central Park Casino and the Capital Theatre . . . ."

Over the years, I have been able to find material (listings, advertisements, articles, etc...) about each of these performances. Sometimes, that material has been interesting and surprising. However, the only two performances I couldn't find material on were the appearances in Indiana and Kentucky. They were the two I had the least to go on.

Well, eureka. After more than a few years and a number of attempts, I finally found something on the Kentucky appearance. It took hours of looking through microfilm of Kentucky newspapers, scrolling and skimming and reading each day's paper for months on end. Here is what I found.


This plain advertisement may not seem like much, but it is the first record found on this particular 1935 engagement in Kentucky. I was thrilled to find it. And hopefully, I'll be able to uncover even more with additional searching. Now that I know when and where to look.

4 comments:

  1. Well done Thomas! Where in Kentucky was this? I grew up there and I gotta know.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Best,
    rob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Always very exciting when that happens.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Louisville, or should we now call it "Louise-ville"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Today, I got ahold of another Louisville newspaper and found some different adds, and a picture of Brooks and Dario.

    ReplyDelete

Relevant and respectful comments are welcome. Off-topic comments and spam will be removed, and you will be disliked henceforth.