German-language story from 1939 references Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks remained a recognizable, if not especially popular figure in Europe for at least a few years following the release of the two films she made in Germany -- Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Both were released in 1929, and both continued to be shown on and off around Europe for another two years. Brooks' sole French production, Prix de beaute, was released in 1930, and like the two German films, it too was shown all over Europe for another two years. (Despite speculation to the contrary, Prix de beaute enjoyed a rather robust exhibition history around the globe.) Also still in circulation in 1930 and 1931 in France and Germany and Poland and elsewhere were a few or Brooks' American films including Beggars of Life (1928) and The Canary Murder Case (1929), as well as A Girl in Every Port (1928), which enjoyed a singular vogue in Paris. In fact, A Girl in Every Port was a favorite of the intelligentsia, and Jean Paul Sartre took Simone de Beauvoir to see the film on one of their first dates.

I mention all this because I sometimes wonder about Brooks' "continuing popularity" in Europe, especially after she stepped away from her Hollywood career in 1931. Fame fades for everyone, even our beloved Louise Brooks. As I have found, and as I document in my forthcoming work, Around the World with Louise Brooks (due out later this year), the number of magazine and newspaper articles about the actress dropped off in 1932, as does the paper trail of product advertisements (notably the Lux soap ads), ephemera (postcards, product cards, etc...), and references in "Where are they now?" type articles.

And that's why I was surprised to find Brooks referenced three times in a short humorous story published in an Austrian magazine in November of 1939, two months after the beginning of the Second World War and a few years after Germany had occupied Austria. The publication where I found the reference was a weekly humor magazine titled Die Muskete, and it was published in Vienna between 1905 and 1941. According to it's German-language Wikipedia entry, "Like other humorous magazines founded at the time, Die Muskete combined the works of young local artists and draftsmen with the work of young Austrian writers. At the same time, the magazine attached great importance to the artistic design and the high quality of the content. The magazine was originally intended for officer circles and quickly gained great importance, as the aim was to make it an Austrian counterpart of Simplicissimus, which later made it more widely used and very popular. It fought against excesses in the political, bureaucratic, clerical, military and social areas. During the First World War it developed into a 'funny soldier's sheet'. In 1919 the subtitle 'Humorous Weekly' disappeared and the magazine changed from jokes to an illustrated men's magazine." 

The references to Brooks occur in a short story by Josef Robert Harrer titled "Thomas Raverley." I wasn't able to find out much about Harrer except that he was a writer of the time, mainly active during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, with a few novels and books of short fiction and poetry to his credit. Besides this story in a 1939 Austrian magazine, I also found a story of his in a 1930 Estonian publication.

 

 

I haven't translated the piece as of yet, but from best I can tell the awkward, unmarried protagonist of the piece, Thomas Raverley, meets a young women who seems to be a receptionist, or secretary. He describes her as an "adorable girl who is almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks," with the added implication that this "Brooksian girl" resembled his secret screen crush. Later, on the same page of the story (page 35, depicted below), the actress is again referenced when the feminine character is again described as "almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks." Two pages later, Thomas and the young women meet again, "A curtain is pushed aside and the girl, who looks like Louise Brooks, approaches Thomas with a smile."

 

I don't yet know what the author meant by evoking Brooks' name, but I would guess that it has something to do with her type - i.e. a flapper or neue frau, as another once popular American actress is also mentioned later in the story, "the sweet Clara Bow."  Perhaps, even at this late date, Brooks still served as someone one could reference in a story. [Obviously, though, the drawings which accompany the story look nothing like Brooks, especially in regards to her hair.]

 

 

American actress Alice Faye appeared on the cover of this issue, notably. And also referenced on the last page of this story are references to other bits of American culture, namely a saxophone and a Jazz band, Prohibition, and even Mark Twain.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with this story, or with the work of the author, Josef Robert Harrer. This story is not the only shout-out to Louise Brooks which I have come across dating from the 1930s. There was a similar usage in a crime fiction story published in a French pulp. Evidently, as a figure still remembered by some, Brooks served as a descriptor... a cultural reference.