Greetings from a Rochester Louise Brooks Fan

The other day, the Louise Brooks Society received an email from Tim Madigan, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. Aside from his academic interests, Tim is also a self-professed major fan of Louise Brooks. On October 2, spoke about Louise Brooks at the Rochester Public Library (see previous post).

Tim wrote, "Many thanks for giving my October 2nd talk about Louise Brooks at the Rochester Public Library a shout-out on your website. I have long been an admirer of your work on Brooks and I had some fear and trembling giving a talk about her at the Rochester Public Library, knowing that at least some of the people attending would be far more learned about her life and career than I am. But it turned out to be a nice gathering and I actually reconnected with some folks I hadn’t seen in several years. I also met with Tim Moore, who filled me in on local Brooks activities I was unaware of."

Tim continued, "There was some method to my madness in giving the presentation. At its end I made a modest proposal that the Rochester Public Library have an annual Louise Brooks Event (or Happening), of which mine could be the first. I’d also like to see the library have a dedicated Louise Brooks Room, with photos and other memorabilia (perhaps including, in a case, some of the library books she annotated).... As I mentioned in my talk, like many others I’ve been obsessed with Brooks for decades and often teach about her in my Philosophy through Film courses at St. John Fisher College. I also held a 100^th birthday party for her in 2006, complete with a cake with her image on it. And as the attached photo demonstrates, her image can be found throughout my office, including a photo of me visiting her grave at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery."

"I think there were about 40 or so folks in attendance, some of whom remembered seeing Louise when she was still able to walk the streets of Rochester. At some point I hope to type up the remarks I made."