This past weekend I experienced project creep. While working on the Pandora's Box chapter in Around the World with Louise Brooks, I ventured off on a few internet side-trips, one to Cuba, one to the Dominican Republic, and the other to The Free City of Danzig. Happily, I came away with my first ever records of the showing of Brooks' films in both Danzig and the Dominican Republic. Hooray! I now have documentary records (newspaper advertisements and newspaper listings) for Brooks films having been shown in nearly 65 sovereign states and non-sovereign territories.
I also came across some rather unusual clippings which don't go into my new book, but which I wanted to share. Because they are so damned cool. Like this montage from Carteles, a general interest magazine from Cuba which often ran pieces about American movie stars including Brooks. Can you identify each of the movie stars in the piece below?
And then there is this page of movie advertisements from the Danziger Volksstimme, a German-language newspaper from The Free City of Danzig. At the bottom of the page is an ad for Wings, the acclaimed WWI film which won the first Best Film at the first Academy Awards ceremony.
In case you don't know, The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created in 1920 in accordance with the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and settlements that were primarily inhabited by Germans. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic, but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland. One of the most famous people born in Danzig was the German novelist Gunter Grass, who's great novel The Tin Drum, is set in the Free City. (The Tin Drum was also made into a great film.)
Here are a couple of more pages of movie advertisements from the same German newspaper. How many films or movies might you be able to pick out of the bunch? Bonus points for those who can spot the Louise Brooks' films lurking in the jumble.
I also came across some rather unusual clippings which don't go into my new book, but which I wanted to share. Because they are so damned cool. Like this montage from Carteles, a general interest magazine from Cuba which often ran pieces about American movie stars including Brooks. Can you identify each of the movie stars in the piece below?
And then there is this page of movie advertisements from the Danziger Volksstimme, a German-language newspaper from The Free City of Danzig. At the bottom of the page is an ad for Wings, the acclaimed WWI film which won the first Best Film at the first Academy Awards ceremony.
In case you don't know, The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created in 1920 in accordance with the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and settlements that were primarily inhabited by Germans. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic, but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland. One of the most famous people born in Danzig was the German novelist Gunter Grass, who's great novel The Tin Drum, is set in the Free City. (The Tin Drum was also made into a great film.)
Here are a couple of more pages of movie advertisements from the same German newspaper. How many films or movies might you be able to pick out of the bunch? Bonus points for those who can spot the Louise Brooks' films lurking in the jumble.
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