A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
Over the years, I've come across newspaper advertisements for one or another of Louise Brooks' films which have included musical acts on the bill. That's because back in the 1920's, many theaters programmed musical or vaudeville acts to accompany films.
For example, I have found advertisements which had a Brooks' film and performances by Paul Ash and Vincent Lopez (each a noted band leader of the time), as well as another with a Brooks' film and the great jazz pianist Art Tatum!
And here is another I just came across, proclaiming an appearance by the great Clara Smith (c. 1894 – February 2, 1935), an African America blues singer billed as the "Queen of the Moaners". Also showing was the 1926 Louise Brooks' film Love Em and Leave Em.
This particular ad promotes the Royal Theater, one of Baltimore finest and one of a circuit of
five such theaters for Black entertainment in big cities. (Its sister
theaters were the Apollo in Harlem, the Howard Theatre in Washington,
D.C., the Regal Theatre in Chicago, and the Earl Theater in
Philadelphia.) The biggest stars in Black entertainment, including jazz and blues singers aand musicians, performed at the Royal. Ethel Waters debuted there,
as did Pearl Bailey, who sang in a chorus line. Louis Armstrong and Fats
Waller worked as accompanists, while Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington and others performed at The Royal.
In search of all things Louise Brooks... I had the chance to look through past issues of the Times of India, the English-language daily newspaper. Today, it is the largest selling English-language daily in the world.
Back in the 1920s and 1930's, the Times of India covered the Bombay (now Mumbai) and New Delhi entertainment scenes. That included films, and of special interest, the films of Louise Brooks.
As far as I could find, at least eight of the actress' films were shown in India. I found editorial coverage and / or advertisements for The American Venus (1-26 / 9-27), Just Another Blonde (12-26 / 7-27), Evening Clothes (3-27 / 5-29), Now We're in the Air (10-27 / 9-29), Beggars of Life (10-28 / 3-29), The Canary Murder Case (2-29 / 5-30), and as well, When You're in Love (2-37 / 9-37), and King of Gamblers (5-37 / 11-37). The dates in parenthesis represent the month of the film's American release / followed by the month of the film's showing in either Bombay or New Delhi, India.
In terms of editorial, both Beggars of Life and The Canary Murder Case received a fair amount of coverage, as did When You're in Love. In terms of newspaper advertisements, many of the ads were something like the one pictured to the left for Now We're in the Air. Cool, but somewhat modest. However, I did find a couple of rather large advertisements for both The American Venus andBeggars of Life. Each took-up nearly 1/5th of the page! Wow!!
Wurlitza, a five piece band from South East Cornwall in England who have been specializing in adding live soundtracks to silent films since 2006, will be playing their live soundtrack to the Louise Brooks' film Diary of a Lost Girl in Yelverton Village Hall, Devon, England on Sunday, July 26th.
The group will also be performing their live soundtrack on other dates later in the year including Thursday, July 30th at the Port Eliot Festival and possibly on Friday, November 6th at the Newnham on Severn Film Club. More about the band and their music can be found on their website at www.wurlitza.co.uk/
From the Wurlitza website: "Two years in the making is Wurlitza’s soundtrack for GW Pabst’s 1929 movie Diary of a Lost Girl. Fast moving and at times shocking, Diary of a Lost Girl traces the story of Thymian, played by the mesmerising screen idol Louise Brooks, as her life yoyos between episodes of lightness and innocence, darkness and despair. Moments of great comedy involve life in a reform school for fallen girls headed by a villainous nun, and a modern dance lesson with an incompetent buffoon. This gripping film defies convention, confounding expectations as joy and compassion are found in the most unlikely places. Repertoire for the soundtrack of Diary of a Lost Girl includes music by Jango Reinhardt, Fun Boy Three, Portishead, Wire, Chopin, Leonard Cohen, Madonna and Grace Jones. "
West Edge Opera is presenting Alban Berg's opera Lulu in the abandoned 16th Street Train Station in Oakland, California. A very blonde un-Louise Brooks like Emma McNairy takes the role of Lulu. More information HERE.
Lulu, by Alban Berg
The summit of German Expressionism in opera
SATURDAY JULY 25, 8PM
SUNDAY AUGUST 2, 2PM
SATURDAY AUGUST 8, 8PM
Lulu, the second and final opera of composer Alban Berg (1885 - 1935), is considered one of the masterpieces of 20th-century composition. Berg, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, adapted the libretto himself from two plays by Frank Wedekind.
The central character Lulu is the embodiment of sex appeal - Lulu is married to three men successively in the opera. They worship her, but her untamed sensuality spells their ruin, with Lulu even killing the third, the wealthy Dr. Schoen. Jailed for this murder, she escapes, but she descends into poverty and ultimately prostitution. She is killed by a client, Jack the Ripper.
Here is a delightful vintage recording by Frankie Trumbauer paired with a contemporary video of images of Louise Brooks. The song is "Bye Bye Blues", from 1930.
I have seen this recording on a newish CD suggesting it is sung by Louise Brooks. It ain't.
There is an amazing letter from Theodor Adorno to Alban Berg contained in Correspondence 1925-1935, edited by Henri Lonitz, published by Polity in 2005.
Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society. He was also friends with Alban Berg, an Austrian remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Most importantly, Berg wrote Lulu (1937), an opera based on Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. Though unfinished at the time of Berg's death, Lulu is considered one of the great opera's of the 20th century.
Adorno was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Vienna in March 1925 to study musical composition with Berg. And over the years, they would exchange many letters.
The letter I noticed in Correspondence 1925-1935 was sent from Frankfurt, Germany and is dated September 8, 1933.In it Adorno wrote that he had just seen Pandora's Box, the G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks as Lulu.
What is amazing is that Adorno's viewing of Pandora's Box came four years after the silent film's release at the beginning of the sound era, and in Frankfurt am Main - a center of Nazi activity. Pabst was known to be left of center, so its surprising the extreme right, meaning the Nazis, allowed it to be show. And were was it shown? A second run theater, or cine-club of some sort?
I have tried to find an online Frankfurt newspaper archive in order to comb through the newspaper to find a listing for this screening, but have had not luck in finding an available digitized archive.
In celebration of the recent discovery of the 1928 film Show Girl, starring Alice White as the Louise Brooks-inspired character Dixie Dugan, here is a 1928 British newspaper article on American slang which focuses on Dixie Dugan and the Show Girl film.
William Collier Jr. and Louise Brooks enjoy a Coke on the set of Just Another Blonde (1926). Boxes of Crackerjacks can be seen just over her right shoulder.
From contemporary Switzerland comes this complete set of 30 creamer tops as issued by
Floralp, featuring some of the most famous Movie stars of all
time - including Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Mae West, Steve McQueen, Clara Bow, Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart -- and Louise
Brooks! These are foil tops from the small plastic milk / cream pots used by restaurants.
It's kinda strange, but someone has posted two Louise Brooks films on the Internet Archive but under different titles. The two films are Beggars of Life (1928) - retitled The Lawless Train, and The Canary Murder Case (1929) - retitled The Voice from Beyondthe Grave. The retitling is crudely done. The images below are not the videos themselves, just screen grabs of the retitled screens.
"Louise Brooks on the Subway" by The Tombstone Teeth, from the full length album Bells of Orchids. Band personnel: Lord Claudius von Vile Silencer (keyboards, bass), C W Cobalt (vocals), Bread Morton (guitar), Djangus Khan (drums). Give it a listen.
This Kickstarter campaign sounds pretty worthwhile. I have already made a contribution. Check it out, spread the word, and consider making a pledge.
Milestone Films presents NOTFILM, a feature-length exploration of FILM—a
1965 short written by Samuel Beckett & starring Buster Keaton. More info HERE.
“While the creation of most motion pictures requires an army of professionals, Notfilm is largely the brainchild of one remarkable filmmaker, Ross Lipman. But even auteurs
need assistance and we have been thrilled to help Ross make this
beautiful and challenging new documentary. Now with support from our
friend Jonathan Marlow and his incredible team at Fandor (one of our
favorite streaming sites for great cinema) and with your generosity, Ross will be able to complete Notfilm and we will get it out into the world!” — Dennis Doros and Amy Heller, Milestone Films
This 1929 newspaper advertisement from a West Seattle newspaper which promotes the Portola Theater and other local businesses includes Louise Brooks and a number of other film stars from the time. Brooks' segment is sponsored by the Ellenwood Apartments.
The French singer, actor and entertainer Maurice Chevalier is familiar to fans of Louise Brooks for his lovely cover of "Louise", the early vocal hit. The song peaked at number 3 on the American music charts in 1929. Though not about Brooks, it has come to be closely associated with the actress. Give it a listen here, or on RadioLulu, where version besides those by Chevalier can be heard.
This French Belgian candy card says it depicts Chevalier and Brooks, but it doesn't. Not sure who the look-alike actress is, but it ain't Brooks. Does anyone know? She looks familiar. The front and back of the card is shown.
The big news from Ron Hutchinson and the Vitaphone Project is that the long missing First National silent feature, Show Girl (1928), has been found and is being restored with music and
effects from its original Vitaphone disks. The Alfred Santell directed film stars Alice White as Dixie Dugan. It's expected the
film will be shown at the Pordenone Film Festival in Italy in October.
As Louise Brooks fans know today, and as was known then, the Dixie Dugan character and the many works she appeared inwere inspired by Brooks and her brief time as a show girl with the Ziegfeld Follies. (Show Girl author J.P. McEvoy had worked with Brooks in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.) When work began on Show Girl, many expected Brooks would be cast as Dugan. There were even reports to that effect in the Los Angeles newspapers.
Unfortunately, Brooks didn't get the part. Working against her was the fact that she was under contract with Paramount, and Show Girl was a First National film. (Despite the fact that its director, Alfred Santell, had already directed Brooks in a loan out in 1926, Just Another Blonde.) Brooks was never even tested for the part.
According to Ron Hutchinson, Show Girl features much of the same sort of
hot dance music as Why Be Good?, the recently found and restored Vitaphone film starring Colleen Moore. Here is a sample. Notice that the record label indicates it is from the Show Girl motion picture.
Why Be Good? is terrific. If Show Girl is half as good, then it will certainly delight. And heck, Alice White is pretty darn cute and the film looks fun. Here are a couple three stills from the film, which I am looking forward to seeing someday.
For more, be sure and check out the Vitaphone website and Facebook page. And remember, silent film were never silent, and early talkies were often musical.
UPDATE:Also found was a Billie Dove feature The Man and the Moment (1929) with Rod La Rocque; both it and Show Girl discovered in the
Milan (Italy) Archive. A few other titles uncovered were all First
National Picture silents, have yet to be announced. Lets keep out fingers crossed for Just Another Blonde. or a Colleen Moore film.
The French film, Prix de beauté, screens in Berkeley, California tomorrow, July 11th, at the Pacific Film Archive as part of "Henri Langlois: A Centennial Tribute." More details and tickets information here. And here is the short piece that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle. What follows is the PFA description.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
6:30 p.m.
Prix de beauté
Augusto Genina (France, 1930)
Imported Print!
Live Music Judith Rosenberg on piano
(Miss Europa 1930).
Living humbly in Rochester, New York, the great silent-era actress
Louise Brooks was rediscovered and thrust back into the spotlight in
1955 by Langlois and George Eastman House curator James Card. In 1958
Langlois invited her to Paris for a retrospective of her works, and her
legend was solidified. “You have created a new Louise Brooks, entirely
yours,” Brooks wrote to Langlois in 1959. Featuring Brooks in her last
major role (at age twenty-four), Prix de beauté has a history as
illustrious and troubled as its star's. Based on a treatment by G.W.
Pabst, it was scripted as a silent by its intended director, René Clair.
But Clair left the project when he was forced to rework the script for
the addition of sound, and direction was taken over by Augusto Genina,
who, with master cinematographer Rudolph Maté, brought an air of
actuality to this tale of a Parisian typist who wins a beauty contest
and a movie contract, only to face the violent disapproval of her
husband. The simple plot becomes a potent vehicle for reflections on the
mechanics of celebrity and the power of the photograph. Melodrama and
real life ironically converge in the breathtaking ending, with the
tragically mortal heroine juxtaposed against her own immortal filmic
image—the image of Brooks, a timeless star whose meteoric career was
already beginning its rapid decline.
• Photographed by
Rudolph Maté. With Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Jean Bradin, Augusto
Bandini. (108 mins, Silent, French intertitles translated live, B&W,
35mm, From La Cinémathèque française)
----------
In honor of this special screening, here is a gem from the Louise Brooks Society archive, a newspaper advertisement for Prix de beauté from 1932. The ad comes from Haiti (a former French colony), where other newspaper advertisements indicate the film was shown again in 1933, 1935 and 1936!
Comic book author Rick Geary
is a longtime fixture at Comic-Con International. Back in 1980, he took
home their Inkpot Award given to individuals for their contributions to
the world of comics. And this year, as it has in the past, his artwork
(The Toucan) adorns the cover of the official events guide and "Reader"
t-shirt.
Geary is at the 2015 Comic-Con International,
which starts this week in San Diego. He is taking part in a panel,
signing books, and celebrating the release of a new hardbound work, Louise Brooks: Detective (NBM Publishing). See some sample pages here.
This
new comic is something of departure for Geary. Of the last number of
years, he has been engaged in an ongoing non-fiction series, A Treasury of XXth Century Murder -- a follow up to his popular and well regarded A Treasury of Victorian Murder which launched 20 years ago with Jack the Ripper. Both series are true-to-life comic book accounts of sensational death.
Geary's
new comic is a departure because its fiction, though it is based on the
life of a real person, the iconic Kansas-born silent film star Louise
Brooks.
The story centers on the actress' return to Wichita after quitting
Hollywood. It was one of the low points of her life, though she was
still just in her early thirties. Living at home, she becomes intrigued
by a murder involving a new friend, her friend's shady beau, and a
famous reclusive writer. Not before she gets herself into trouble will
Brooks emerge with the solution the local police have failed to grasp.
It's a taut page turner, and an intriguing story that might make for a
clever screenplay.
Publishers Weekly calls Louise Brooks: Detective, "A fun, twisty mystery for both film buffs and crime fiction lovers.
Geary
is an Eisner award-winning cartoonist and illustrator with a
distinctive visual style. He is the author and illustrator of several
books, and has worked for Marvel Entertainment Group, DC Comics, Dark
Horse Comics, and the revived Classics Illustrated series. For thirteen
years, Geary was a contributor to National Lampoon. His work has also appeared in Heavy Metal magazine, MAD, Spy, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Book Review. In 1994, the National Cartoonist Society awarded Geary its Magazine and Book Illustration Award.
Recently, Geary answered a few questions about the bobbed-hair actress and his new work, Louise Brooks: Detective.
-----
Thomas Gladysz:
Your ongoing multi-volume true crime series, "A Treasury of Murder", is
a great achievement in comic art. You done a number that center on
historic mysteries, and few of which focus on old Hollywood. How did you
come to write one about Louise Brooks?
Rick Geary:
After about 25 years of producing true murder books, my publisher Terry
Nantier of NBM Publishing, suggested I do a work of fiction. I had long
had an idea in my head for a murder mystery set in Kansas in the 1930s,
so from there I made the leap of casting Louise Brooks as the
detective. It seemed just outrageous enough to work.
TG: In Louise Brooks: Detective,
you take a little documented time in the actress' life -- after she
quits Hollywood and returned home -- and imagine her getting involved in
a murder. Was there room then in Brooks' real life story to "make
something up"?
RG: By fortuitous coincidence, my
idea of setting the story in Kansas fit in with Louise's return there in
1940, after her Hollywood career had dissolved away. She was
definitely at loose ends and, it would seem, ripe for any new kind of
adventure.
TG: I've heard that you're related to Louise Brooks? Is it true?
RG:
Yes, Louise was my mother's second cousin, and they both hailed from
the same area of southeastern Kansas. My mom's maiden name was Brooks
and it's also my middle name.
TG: We've also heard that you are friends with Barry Paris, who wrote the biography of actress published in 1989.
RG:
Yes, Barry and I go back a long way. We're both from Wichita, and we've
worked on various projects together since our high school days.
TG: When and how did you first become aware of Brooks as an actress and silent film star?
RG:
I had been dimly aware of her as an image and icon, but knew very
little about her until the early 1980s. That's when I first found out
that we were related. I read her memoir Lulu in Hollywood and began to seek out her movies and find as much information on her as I could.
TG:
There is an impressive amount of detail, both in the text and in the
images, which suggests you did your research. What you do to prepare?
RG:
I envisioned the book as a kind of tribute to Wichita and the little
town of Burden, where both my mother's and Louise's branches of the
Brooks family converged. This involved many trips there and many photos
taken. Luckily the buildings and other locations in both towns are still
there.
TG: For example, you mention the
philosopher Schopenhauer - a favorite of Brooks, her affair with Charlie
Chaplin, that she scrubbed floors at home as a kind of repentance after
quitting Hollywood, and, as well, the name of the building in which she
opened a dance studio in Wichita. Your attention to detail is
remarkable.
RG: I put to use many of the biographical details I
had learned over the years, from Barry's biography and other sources, to
fill in the details of this period in her life. I've always loved it
that she was such a voracious reader.
TG: There is the matter of Brooks' hair. She is famous for her bobbed hair -- yet you chose to draw it a bit longer. Why so?
RG:
I based her look on photos I had seen of her during this period in her
life. The bangs were still there, but her hair had grown to
shoulder-length.
TG: The crime at the center of
the story seems quite real -- like it could have happened. It's complex,
and believable. Was it based on an actual event?
RG: No, the crime is pretty much all made up.
TG: What about the writer Thurgood Ellis, a key character in the story. Was he real?
RG: Thurgood Ellis wasn't real, but I based him on the kind of writer, a la J.D. Salinger, who develops a dedicated following with groundbreaking work and then vanishes from the cultural landscape.
TG:
There have been a handful of comic strips and graphic novels based on
Brooks, going back all the way to the late 1920's. I am thinking of Dixie Dugan, which ran for decades in American newspapers, as well as Valentina -- the long-running Italian erotic comix by Guido Crepax that appeared in Heavy Metal
magazine. There are other European works based on Brooks by Floc'h,
Hugo Pratt, Marion Mousse and others. Kim Deitch has also drawn her.
Brooks even appears in Dr. Who comic, and inspired a character in the
Sandman series. Why do you think so many artists have drawn Brooks?
RG: I remember the Dixie Dugan strip, which
ran in the Wichita paper for years. There's something about the eternal
image of Louise Brooks that captures the imagination of artists
worldwide.
TG: Were you aware of these earlier efforts? How does your work fit into theirs?
RG:
I've been vaguely aware of those European versions of Louise, but I was
never a regular follower. I'm not sure if my work fits in with theirs
at all.
TG: Louise Brooks makes a great
detective. And the final page suggests she might even write a mystery
novel. Any chance she will return in your work?
RG: My hope is that she will return in a second volume someday.
More about Rick Geary and his work can be found on his website at www.rickgeary.com. As he has for many years, the artist and his wife will be manning their table at Comic-Con International, which is set to run Wednesday July 8th through Sunday, July 12th in San Diego, California.
Here is a link to another interview with Rick Geary about Louise Brooks: Detective, from the comicbookresource website.
L’affaire est entendue : je suis le fils – illégitime, bien sûr – de
Louise Brooks et de Cioran. L’actrice américaine et le volcanique
Roumain partageaient la conviction que la création est une aberration,
la procréation un crime et la concision un devoir. Il va de soi qu’ils
ne pouvaient rêver pire héritier : j’ai trahi mon père quelques mois
avant sa mort en révélant dans un quotidien parisien son peu glorieux
passé sous le nazisme, ce qui est une forme particulièrement perfide de
parricide. Pour ma défense, je citerai ce mot qu’il m’avait écrit en
avril 1991, le 10 précisément : « Il est grand temps que vous écriviez vos Mémoires et que vous nous exécutiez tous. »
Avec Louise Brooks, je me suis montré plus indigne encore. Alors
qu’elle me suppliait de lui apporter une arme à feu pour mettre fin à
ses jours, j’ai décliné son invitation de me rendre à Rochester où elle
végétait dans un modeste studio. J’avais là encore une excuse : ma mère,
ma vraie mère, sentant venir sa mort, m’avait fait prêter serment de
lui enfoncer dans le cœur une aiguille à tricoter le jour de son décès
tant elle redoutait d’être enterrée vivante. Mon acquiescement avait été
de pure forme, mais l’avait apaisée. Je n’avais nulle envie de
récidiver avec Louise Brooks. Après tout, que les gens s’arrangent avec
leur propre mort sans compter sur autrui, fût-ce leur famille.
D’ailleurs compter sur autrui mériterait déjà une peine pire que la
mort.
Here are a few more things I found while looking around in the online Polish archives. The Poles loved movies and movie stars. The Poles loved not only Polish stars, like their own Pola Negri, but also American stars.
Pola Negri branded cosmetic, from 1928.
Clara Bow on the front page of Ewa pismo tygodniowe, from 1928.
Greta Garbo on the cover of Nasz Przegląd Ilustrowany, from 1930.
A full page article in Cyrulik Warszawski about Mary Pickford, from 1926. The piece is by the noted writer Antoni Słonimski (15 November 1895 – 4 July 1976), a Polish poet, journalist, playwright and prose writer. He was a member of the Skamander movement. His works include Torpeda czasu (Time Torpedo, 1926), a science fiction novel influenced by H.G. Wells, and Dwa końce świata (Two Ends of the World, 1937), a novel predicting Warsaw's destruction by a Nazi dictator.
Here are a few things I found while looking around in the online Polish archives. The first is the front page of Kurjier Warsawski, featuring Rudolph Valentino. Valentino died on August 23, 1926 and this page dates from September 16, 1926.
The second item below is a poem or song lyrics called "Kinomania", as printed in Trubadur Warszawy, also in 1926. They mention Valentino, as well as other stars of the time like Lillian Gish, Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt and Lya de Putti
A continuation of the six previous posts, the results of my look through online Polish archives in search of any and all Louise Brooks
clippings or advertisements. Here is some more of the material I found. I uncovered some wonderful stuff, but have been saving the best for last.
I have seen the above piece before, in an American publication. I have also seen something like the article below, which discusses the amount of fan mail certain American stars received, including Louise Brooks, ranking 10th on the list (which is all Paramount stars). "Listy do gwiazd filmowych" translates as "Letters to movie stars."
One of Brooks' very last roles was an uncredited bit part in When You're in Love (1937), starring Grace Moore, an international singing star, along with British-born up-and-comer Cary Grant. Here to end this 7 part blog trip to Poland are a couple of related clippings for that almost last Brooks' film. The first is from a Yiddish-language publication from Warsaw. The second depicts stars Grace Moore and Cary Grant.
Coincidentally, it was just recently learned that Louise Brooks "visited" Poland in 1929! While filming the beach and resort scenes in Diary of a Lost Girl, the cast and crew spent time on the Baltic in the German resort town of Swinemünde, which is now called Świnoujście in the extreme north-west of Poland. After the second World War, the border shifted, and so did film history.
The Louise Brooks Society hopes you've enjoyed this trip to Poland. Look
for other visits to other countries in the coming months.
