Another rare early image of Louise Brooks

Yesterday's Louise Brooks Society blog depicted a rare early image of Louise Brooks. Here is another. This is Louise Brooks' photo from her 1924 passport application. Notably, this was the passport that got her to London, where she would later find work as a dancer at the city's Cafe de Paris, and become the first person to perform the Charleston in the English capital (see yesterday's blog).

Apparently, Brooks applied for her passport at the last minute, on September 18th, 1924, in order to travel to England aboard the Homeric, which was scheduled to depart on September 20th. Her application request was granted over the telephone by a Miss Baukhages. Brooks went to London in the company of Barbara Bennett, the younger sister of the soon-to-be famous Bennett sisters. Bennett was Brooks' witness, and stated that they had known one another for 10 years (not true). On her application, Brooks stated that she was going to England and France to study and travel."Study and travel" was crossed out, and replaced by "visit relative & travel."

Both Louise and Barbara were only 17 years old at the time. Brooks' youth likely explains why a series of telegrams then flew back and forth between New York City and Wichita, Kansas and between the Department of State and Brooks' parents, who granted her permission to travel abroad.