Louise Brooks, Lee Israel, and Dorothy Kilgallen

The newly released film, Can You Every Forgive Me?, is getting a lot of attention. Many, if not most of the articles and reviews about the film have name-checked Louise Brooks. And just as many have name-checked Dorothy Kilgallen.

For those who haven't yet seen the film (and we recommend that you do), Can You Every Forgive Me? is a biographical drama based on Lee Israel's 2008 memoir of the same name. It stars Melissa McCarthy as Israel and follows her as she tries to revitalize her failing writing career by forging letters from deceased authors and celebrities, including Brooks. (Louise Brooks receives a shout-out in the film itself, and her portrait can be seen in the film hanging above Israel's desk.)

Dorothy Kilgallen, a popular newspaper columnist, is also mentioned because she (along with actress Talullah Bankhead) were both the subject of earlier bestselling books by Israel. Though not well remembered today, Kilgallen was a major celebrity in her time who was once called “One of the greatest women writers in the world” by Ernest Hemingway. Famed attorney F. Lee Bailey called Kilgallen “A very bright and very good reporter of criminal cases, the best there was,” and as one of the first female media icons, her accomplishments rival modern day legends like Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, and Diane Sawyer.  Kilgallen also played a small but significant role in helping keep Louise Brooks' name in the public eye. (More on that below.)

Dorothy Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an American journalist and television game show panelist. She started her career shortly before her 18th birthday as a reporter for the Hearst's New York Evening Journal. In 1938, she began her newspaper column "The Voice of Broadway,", which was eventually syndicated to more than 140 papers. Her radio program, also called "Voice of Broadway," was broadcast on CBS during World War II. In 1950, she became a regular panelist on the television game show What's My Line? (pictured at the end of this blog), continuing in the role for 15 years until her death. (Read more about Kilgallen on Wikipedia.)

Kilgallen's columns featured mostly show business news and gossip, but ventured into other topics, such as politics and organized crime. She wrote front-page articles on the Sam Sheppard murder trial, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy;  the latter infuriated President Lyndon Johnson and his administration. (Kilgallen was publicly skeptical of the conclusions of the Warren Commission's report into the assassination of Kennedy and wrote several newspaper articles to that effect.) Kilgallen also feuded with Frank Sinatra, and was one of four witnesses who testified for the defense of comedian Lenny Bruce during his obscenity trial in New York City.

Kilgallen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard - in fact, she is among the first 500 people who were chosen to receive the first stars on the walk of fame. (The stars were installed on sidewalks in 1960 and 1961, several years before her passing.)

Kilgallen died in 1965, under what some consider mysterious circumstances. A 2016 book on Kilgallen by Mark Shaw, titled The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, looks at her life and death.


But what about Kilgallen and Brooks?

From a survey of Kilgallen's many, many columns, it seems that the reporter had a something of an interest in the former silent film star, as Kilgallen wrote about Brooks at a time when the former film star was well out of the public spotlight. And, she wrote about her in affectionate terms. Both were smart women trying to make their mark in a man's world; I suspect Brooks herself fed Kilgallen bits of information over time (in order to keep herself from being forgotten), and these bits ended up in Kilgallen's newspaper pieces.

I don't know that the two women ever met, but I wonder if they did.

Here are a few instances over a 23 year period of Brooks' being mentioned in Kilgallen's column. Dates are approximate, as Kilgallen's syndicated columns appeared in various newspapers on various dates. (These dates are drawn from the extensive Louise Brooks Society chronology on the Louise Brooks Society website.)

June 26, 1941
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes: "Louise Brooks, the silent screen star, suffered severe burns recently. Had all her hair singed off."

Nov. 11, 1941
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen notes Brook is "stranded in Wichita, Kan. and s-o-s-ing friends for any kind of job."

January 29, 1943
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes, "Do you know that Louise Brooks, the black-haired silent cinema star, is in town looking unbelievably young and pretty and in the mood to do a show?"

August 20, 1946
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes "Remember Hollywood When - Louise Brooks was a flapper siren with the Rivoli Theater in New York City."

May 31, 1952
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen notes, "Remember a silent screen actress named Louise Brooks? She is writing an autobiographical novel which is said to be a sizzler. Several Hollywood personalities have begged her to include them out...."

Nov. 28, 1952
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports Brooks will marry merchant marine Jimmy Dunn.

August 7, 1957
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes "Remember Louise Brooks, the cutie-pie of the early movies? She's living in Gotham now, and has just finished a book about her life in the turbulent twenties. Those who've previewed it say it's hilarious."

August 14, 1959
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes "The Museum of Modern Art's recent homage to Marlene Dietrich will be emulated by the 92nd St. YMHA when they inaugurate a similar tribute to Louise Brooks, a star of the silent screen. Miss Brooks, now in Rochester doing research for a book on famous women in cinema history, will come to Gotham for the festivities in October."

December 18, 1964
Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes "Louise Brooks, a cinema star of long ago (no living in Rochester N.Y.) is almost finished writing her autobiography, titled Naked on My Goat. It's reported to be 'really wild,' and quite a few Hollywood old-timers are worrying because word is around that she's naming names and pulling no punches."

San Francisco Silent Film Festival announced

SFSFF is happy to announce the complete program for its holiday extravaganza A DAY OF SILENTS: one glorious day of live cinema on December 1 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California with six programs, 10 musicians, and plenty of holiday cheer.

From Laurel and Hardy to Beatrice Lillie, from French Impressionism to German Expressionism, from the romanticism of Frank Borzage to the feminism of Dorothy Davenport, plus live musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker, Jon Mirsalis, Alloy Orchestra, and Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra—an all-around wonderful day is in the offing. TICKETS and PASSES on sale now!

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were part of Hal Roach's Comedy All Stars when filmmaker Leo McCarey had an inspiration—to team them up. McCarey served as the team's supervising director in the late silent era and he and Laurel developed the classic Laurel and Hardy slow-burn style that made them stars worldwide far into the sound era. As the brilliant new film Stan & Ollie—starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly—prepares for an early 2019 release, it's time to check in with the comedy duo that inspired it.

The program includes THE FINISHING TOUCH (1928, d. Clyde Bruckman, Leo McCarey), LIBERTY (1929, d. James W. Horne, Leo McCarey), and BIG BUSINESS (1929, d. James W. Horne, Leo McCarey). Total running time approximately 65 minutes

Live musical accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis

Prints (35mm and DCP) from the Library of Congress and Lobster Films with permission by Jeff Joseph 

Inspired by a true story in ripped-from-the-headlines style, The Red Kimona was the third in a trilogy of social-issue dramas by actress/screenwriter/director Dorothy Davenport. The story of a small-town teacher lured into prostitution was adapted for the screen by Dorothy Arzner from Adela Rogers St. John’s sensational story, and produced and co-directed by Davenport (as Mrs. Wallace Reid). Gabrielle (Priscilla Bonner) is a young naïf who’s swept off her feet by a Lothario, who abandons her in New Orlean’s red-light district. When she sees him buying an engagement ring for another woman, she shoots him dead. At trial Gabrielle becomes a cause celebre—and the pawn of a self-aggrandizing socialite.

USA, 1925. Directed by Walter Lang and Dorothy Davenport. With Priscilla Bonner, Nellie Bly Baker, Carl Miller, Mary Carr, Virginia Pearson, and Tyrone Power Sr.

Live musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra Print (DCP) courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive. The film is part of Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers collection. Preservation was funded by The Stanford Foundation, George Eastman Museum, and UCLA Film & Television Archive

 

 

One of legendary stage actress Beatrice Lillie’s few films—the superbly comic Exit Smiling, her debut and her only silent—demonstrates why theater audiences found her so captivating. Lillie’s character works wardrobe in a touring theatrical company—“Violet, the drudge of the troupe”—and she’s determined to break into the limelight. A talented crew in front of the camera (Jack Pickford, Franklin Pangborn in his feature debut!) and behind (writer/director Sam Taylor was a veteran of some of Harold Lloyd’s best comedies) adds nuance and grace to the hilarity. The portrayal of low-rent theater life is beautifully realized, with the seedy small-town halls, crummy dressing rooms, and camaraderie that come with the theatrical calling.

USA, 1926. Directed by Sam Taylor. With Beatrice Lillie, Jack Pickford, and Franklin Pangborn. 80 minutes
Live musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker

Print (35mm) courtesy of the British Film Institute with permission by Warner Bros.

Director Jean Epstein was one of the central figures in French cinema of the 1920s and his writings and cinematic innovations have inspired filmmakers from Buñuel to Cassavetes. The romantic triangle at the center of Couer Fidèle is played out on the streets and docks of working class Marseilles as Marie (the breathtaking Gina Manès) dreams of escaping a bad relationship with drunken layabout Petit Paul (Edmond van Daële) for dockworker Jean (Léon Mathot). Epstein aimed to create, in his own words, “a melodrama so stripped of all the conventions ordinarily attached to the genre, so sober, so simple, that it might approach the nobility and excellence of tragedy.” In Coeur Fidèle he achieves that nobility—his blend of experimentation and naturalism is visually and emotionally riveting. In Cahiers du Cinema, Henri Langlois wrote, “Coeur Fidèle is the triumph of impressionism of movement, but it is also something else – the triumph of the modern spirit. Its images were seemingly in 3D; they literally burst from the screen…”

France, 1923. Directed by Jean Epstein. With Léon Mathot, Gina Manès, and Edmond van Daële. 75 minutes

Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra

Restoration by Cinémathèque Française. Print (DCP) courtesy of The Festival Agency
 

 

One of three titles nominated for Best Picture at the very first Academy Awards, 7th Heaven helped to establish Fox Film Corporation as a major studio. Although it lost to Wings (the category was called Outstanding Picture at the time), director Borzage took the top prize for directing, star Janet Gaynor for acting, and screenwriter Benjamin Glazer for adaptation. Set in Paris on the cusp of WWI, 7th Heaven is the story of two ordinary people who become involved by chance, separated by war, and transfigured by love. Beautifully photographed and supremely romantic in the telling, 7th Heaven was the first pairing of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, who would become the romantic duo of the era.

USA, 1927. Directed by Frank Borzage. With Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. 110 minutes
Live musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra


Restoration by MoMA. Print (DCP) courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Lotte Eisner’s groundbreaking history of cinema The Haunted Screen (1952) had the unintended effect of popularizing the idea of expressionism—suddenly every Weimar title was considered an example of German Expressionism. Eisner set out to redress that misreading and in 1958, she declared that there were no more than three genuinely expressionist films: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Waxworks, and From Morn to Midnight. With its painted sets, distorted perspectives, and artificial acting, Morn is quintessentially expressionist in style. The story is of a small-town bank teller who, after becoming bewitched by a glamorous customer, decides his own life is paltry, steals a large sum of money from his bank and flees to the big city to pursue fulfillment. Produced a few months after Caligari’s release, the film had a negligible release in Germany but it found success in Japan in 1922. The film was considered lost for many years but in one of those wonders of cinema history, a copy was found at the National Film Center, Tokyo (now the National Film Archive of Japan) in 1959. Our print from NFAJ is from the 2004 restoration with the Munich Filmmuseum.

Germany, 1920. Directed by Karlheinz Martin. With Ernst Deutsch, Roma Bahn, and Ema Morena. 69 minutes

Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra
Print (35mm) courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Brazil at MOSTRA

Pandora's Box, the sensational 1929 silent film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Brazil in the coming days. More information about this special screening, which is part of the 42nd International Film Festival in Sao Paulo (aka MOSTRA), can be found HERE, and below.

Pandora's Box will be shown with an orchestral accompaniment at the Ibirapuera Auditorium on October 27th at 7 pm. The live score, by the German composer Peer Raben, will be performed by the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra under the command of maestro Fábio Prado. Raben's score was composed in 1997 to accompany a recent restoration of the film.

Diary of a Lost Girl screens in Italy

Diary of a Lost Girl, the sensational 1929 silent film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Italy. More information about this special event can be found HERE, and below.

Giovedì 18 ottobre 2018 ore 21.30 Auditorium Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca Chiesa di San Francesco Lucca Evento speciale in memoria di Riccardo Berutto DIARIO DI UNA DONNA PERDUTA di Georg W. Pabst – Germania, 1929 – 90' con Louise Brooks, Joseph Rovensky In collaborazione con Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca e Associazione Domenico di Lorenzo Thymiane, figlia di un farmacista, è violentata dall'assistente del padre e resa incinta.

Il bambino nasce ma muore quasi subito. Thymiane viene rinchiusa in una casa di correzione, da cui evade per lavorare in un bordello. Qui conosce un giovane ma dopo la morte di quest'ultimo ne sposa lo zio, diventando una signora per bene. Melodramma sulla complessa carriera di una ragazza che passa attraverso l'inferno della prostituzione per giungere ai fasti della società borghese: il regista Pabst sarcasticamente dipinge i crimini e misfatti di una società in disfacimento, avvalendosi del fascino morboso della bella e dotata Louise Brooks. Un capolavoro del cinema muto che vi proponiamo, in collaborazione con la Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca e Associazione Domenico di Lorenzo, nel ricordo dell'amico Riccardo Berutto.

Early reviews of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the film

Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the just released Fox Searchlight film based on Lee Israel's 2008 memoir of the same name, is out in theaters Friday. And so far, there have been a handful of early reviews, each of them glowing in the assessment of the film and star Melissa McCarthy's portrayal of a desperate Israel.

For those who may not be aware. Lee Israel was a respected biographer whose career went south. To earn a living, she turned to a life of crime, namely forging letters from various celebrities including Louise Brooks. The actress' name even appears xxxed out on the cover of Israel's memoir on which the movie was based. (Brooks' name is third down, between Noel Coward and Lillian Hellman.)

The publisher has changed the cover and reissued a movie tie-in edition of Israel's book, depicted below. Read the original New York Times review of the book, which mentions Brooks, HERE. Also, check out the Los Angeles Times review HERE. And the NPR story can be read or listened to HERE.

Israel's first book on actress Tallulah Bankhead was a New York Times bestseller, and her second, on the newspaper reporter and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, made a splash in the headlines. (Bankhead and Kilgallen were both friends of  Brooks; Bankhead and Brooks socialized, and Kilgallen wrote of Brooks a number of times in her columns beginning in 1941, and did so until 1957.)

But by 1990, almost broke and desperate to hang onto her Upper West Side studio, Israel made a bold and irreversible career change: inspired by a letter she’d received once from Katharine Hepburn, and armed with her considerable skills as a researcher and celebrity biographer, she began to forge letters in the voices of the famous and great. Between 1990 and 1991, she wrote more than three hundred letters in the voices of, among others, Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neil, Edna Ferber, Lillian Hellman, and Noel Coward—and sold the forgeries to memorabilia and autograph dealers. Until she got caught....

In 2008, she penned a memoir detailing her life in crime, Can You Ever Forgive Me? The new film of the same name shows what happened and how a talented but desperate author traveled down the slippery slope toward crime. Yesterday's New York Post published a profile of Israel, "Meet the author who considered her forgeries to be her best work," which can be read HERE. And so do many of the early reviews of the film, like this Associated Press review and this piece in the UK Daily Mail. [I haven't seen the film, and don't know for sure, but I was told by someone involved in scripting the film that Brooks is mentioned in the film itself.]

Why Louise Brooks? Israel's forging of letters from the actress coincided with the resurgence of interest in Brooks following Barry Paris' celebrated 1989 biography. It was widely written about, and so was Brooks.

After her memoir was published in 2008, Israel turned to selling her forged letters (as such) on eBay. As I noted on this blog at the time: "The eBay description reads, 'Lee Israel, author of the recently published Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger, which The New York Times called 'pretty damned fabulous,' is offering several letters for sale – the hilarious forgeries that experts from coast to coast could not distinguish from the extraordinary letters written by the silent film star. These are the letters Lee Israel had not yet sold when the FBI came knocking at her door. $75 each, suitable for framing to bamboozle your literary friends. Letters of inauthenticity provided."

I didn't buy any of Israel's forgeries, but did email her. We exchanged a couple of notes, but all-in-all, she was reticent to talk about what she did. In an interview with Vice magazine, she said this:

VICE: Well, it could’ve been that they didn’t fuss because you went to such great lengths to make the content of the letters believable and entertaining.

LEE ISRAEL: Yes. For instance, my Louise Brooks letters were based on her actual letters. In the beginning, I spent weeks reading these fabulous letters by her in the library. I got into her soul and her sensibilities and gained lots of knowledge about her life. So when I sat down to do the forgeries, I was just taking baby steps. In the beginning those letters were mostly Louise’s words with a bunch of stuff just changed around. But when they started to sell like hotcakes, I got surer of myself and moved farther and farther away from the model. The Noël Coward and Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber stuff was not even based on real letters. I was using things written in other forms and incorporating them into my work.

###

Melissa McCarthy's co-star in Can You Ever Forgive Me? is the renowned English actor Richard E. Grant. He came to public attention in 1987 for playing Withnail in the celebrated cult film Withnail and I, and achieved even greater recognition as John Seward in the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula and Zander Rice in the 2017 superhero film Logan. Grant's co-star in Withnail and I is the celebrated English actor Paul McGann, who not only played the 8th Doctor Who, but who is as well a big Louise Brooks devotee. McGann even once penned an article for the UK Guardian newspaper on the actress. Which may explain why Brooks can be seen looking over Richard E. Grant's shoulder in this scene still from Withnail and I. 

Two early reviews of The Chaperone, the film

The Chaperone, the yet to be released PBS Masterpiece film based on Laura Moriarty's bestselling novel of the same name, was recently screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF). And so far, there have been two major reviews, one in The Wrap, and one in The Hollywood Reporter. Disappointingly, neither are especially glowing in their praise of the over-all film, though each singles out Haley Lu Richardson for her portrayal of the young Louise Brooks.

I haven't seen the film myself, as their don't seem to be any screeners available. I will reserve judgment for the time being. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is set for release in May, 2019 - which seems to be yet another delay. That's not a good sign, as the film has been completed for some time.

‘The Chaperone’ Film Review: Jazz Era Coming-of-Age Story Could Use More Flap: Los Angeles Film Festival 2018: Haley Lu Richardson steals the show in this period piece adapted by "Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes appeared in The Wrap and then in the London Telegraph. Not surprisingly, there is considerable interest in this production (with its many Downton Abbey connections).

'The Chaperone': Film Review | LAFF 2018: 'Downton Abbey' series regular Michael Engler directs Elizabeth McGovern in a period drama by British screenwriter Julian Fellowes appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Loulou shows at Théâtre National de Toulouse (TNT) in Toulouse, France

Loulou (aka Pandora's Box) will be shown in Toulouse, France on November 7 and 8, with live musical accompaniment. Details follow.

Loulou, 7 novembre 2018 - 8 novembre 2018, Théâtre National de Toulouse (TNT) Toulouse .

Théâtre National de Toulouse (TNT) le mercredi 7 novembre à 19:30 Loulou Culture ### Ciné-concert / Georges Wilhelm Pabst / Karol Beffa La présence et la beauté fascinante de Louise Brooks . Ceux qui l’ont vue ne peuvent l’oublier. Louise Brooks c’est Loulou. À jamais. Belle insouciante capricieuse et innocemment perverse elle ne vit que pour l’amour et ensorcelle aussi bien les hommes que les femmes. Des élégantes fêtes berlinoises à un Londres couvert d’une brume épaisse Loulou c’est aussi l’histoire d’une chute toute en légèreté . Pabst chorégraphie et Brooks danse. Un film sur la révolte sans compromis la voracité de la bourgeoisie et l’hypocrisie morale. _Loulou_ – 1929. Allemagne. N&ampB. DCP. Muet. Séance accompagnée au piano par Karol Beffa . Infos pratiquesMercredi 7 novembre à 19h30 Durée : 134 min. – La Salle – Intertitres en Allemand (soustitré en français) Théâtre National de Toulouse (TNT) 1 Rue Pierre Baudis 31000 Toulouse France Toulouse De 12 à 30 €

Détails

Début :

7 novembre 2018

Fin :

8 novembre 2018

Site Web :

https://www.unidivers.fr

Lieu

Théâtre National de Toulouse (TNT) Toulouse

1 Rue Pierre Baudis 31000 Toulouse France France

 

Silent Films at the Brooklyn Public Library

Believe it or not, but the Brooklyn Public Library has started its 17th season of showing silent films as part of its Silent Movie Matinee. There aren't any Louise Brooks films scheduled this season, though the library hopes to screen one sometime soon. But look, there's Buster Keaton and Janet Gaynor and Lewis Milestone. More information at https://www.bklynlibrary.org/

Louise Brooks Goes to the Movies, a guest blog by Philip Vorwald

Past Louise Brooks Society guest blogger Philip Vorwald returns with a fascinating new piece, "Louise Brooks Goes to the Movies."

Let's suggest Louise Brooks become a Google doodle

It is about time ..... 

Why not suggest Louise Brooks become a Google doodle this year on her birthday, November 14th. 

Send a suggestion to proposals@google.com