A follow-up to Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In my last post, I wrote about two little documented periods in the life of Louise Brooks. One of them was the couple three weeks Brooks spent in Paris, France in the Fall of 1924. She had gone there with Barbara Bennett, and not long after their arrival, Bennett decided to return to the United States. Suddenly on her own, and with little money, the 18 year old Brooks was at loose ends.

According to Brooks, she was sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Edouard VII (39 Av. de l'Opéra) in Paris when Archie Selwyn encountered her. The well connected American producer persuaded her to go with him to London, where he got her a job dancing at the Cafe de Paris in London. According to the International Herald Tribune, Selwyn was reported to be in Paris as of October 14; he was in Paris with his wife and staying at the Hotel Claridge (37 Rue François), working to secure a contract with the Spanish singing star Raquel Meller, who is performing in Paris to great acclaim at the Palace.

So, now we know how Brooks got to London (where she lived at 49A Pall Mall) and how she got a job at the Cafe de Paris (3-4 Coventry St.), at which she began dancing on October 20. On October 21, 1924, Variety reports that Brooks was "cordially received upon opening last night at the Cafe de Paris cabaret," and that Layton & Johnstone have returned to the establishment for an extended engagement.

From January 1925, the first depiction of Louise Brooks in a European publication. As this early portrait doesn't show up in American publications, I am going to assume it was taken in London.

News sometimes travels slow, especially in small-town Kansas. On November 6th, the Burden Times from Burden, Kansas reported that the Cherryvale Republican reports that the Wichita press reports that Brooks was in Paris, France. The Burden paper notes, "Her departure from France was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris." Unfortunately, the Cherryvale Republican is not available for 1924, and I am not sure it is even extant. Thus, I cannot trace the lineage of the reportage mentioned in the article pictured here.