In researching the life and career of Louise Brooks, there are two brief intervals which remain something of a mystery. The first was Brooks' first visit to Paris in 1924. The second were the months following Brooks' marriage to Deering Davis when the couple was traveling and living in the American Southwest. I have wondered where she was exactly, and/or what might she have been doing?
In compiling a chronology of her day-by-day activities, which can be found at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 and Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1940-1985, I have been frustrated in my attempts to locate any online records (i.e. newspapers articles, etc....) which might shed even a little light on Brooks' activities during these time periods. Until now....
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| 1924 passport photo |
On September 18, 1924, Brooks applied for and was given an emergency passport. On September 20, she left the United States aboard the RMS Homeric bound for Europe. The trip took a week. Brooks was traveling with friend Barbara Bennett (of the famous Bennett family), and we know they went to Paris. But we know little else, except that the boat landed in Cherbourg, France on the 27th.
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| the RMS Homeric |
Here is the clipping from the International Herald Tribune (the European edition of The Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News), an English-language newspaper located in Paris, which mentions Brooks' arrival. This is the earliest mention of Brooks in an European publication.
Just recently, I came across a brief mention of the trip in the Wichita Eagle. On October 12, 1924, the newspaper reported Brooks is in Paris, France, noting, "Her departure was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris. She went abroad as a member of a company expecting to appear in the French capital."
A comment and an observation. First, how did the Wichita Eagle know Brooks was traveling to Europe? My guess is that one of her parents likely told the paper - this being a time when locals traveling abroad or even just visiting the next town over made the news. And if her parents did alert the paper, they likely did so because they were worried about Brooks and had not heard from her; this might have been their way to find out something, anything, via the newspapers of the day. Secondly, Brooks did not travel to Europe with a company of performers, as the Wichita Eagle says. She went on a "vacation" with a wealthy friend. The Wichita paper was likely misinformed, or told something that wasn't exactly true. Perhaps Louise herself told or suggested to her parents that she was traveling to Europe to work, when in fact that wasn't her intention. I wonder what Brooks did in Paris for the couple three week she was there. I have searched the Parisian newspaper of the time, but have never found any mention of the budding performer.
By October 19, 1924, Brooks was in London, England living at 49A Pall Mall. And on October 20, she began dancing at the famous Cafe de Paris nightclub in the heart of the English capital.
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Here is another mystery. Why did Louise Brooks marry Deering Davis, a decidedly unglamorous looking Chicago playboy?
The other brief period of time that is something of a mystery is interval following her more-or-less sudden marriage Davis in October 1933. As Barry Paris writes in his thoroughly researched biography, "The Associated Press reported that, for a honeymoon, the Davies would go by car to a ranch in Tucson, via Colorado Springs. Davis liked the Southwest and wanted to settle there, but it was too close to Kansas for Louise's comfort. Nothing is known of their three months traveling, except that Davis and Louise - with the aid of a Victrola and the odd nightclub here and there - had plenty of time of time to work up their dance act." The underline is mine for emphasis.
What we know is this: on October 10, 1933, Brooks (age 26) married wealthy Chicago playboy Deering Davis (age 36) at City Hall in Chicago, Illinois. The ceremony was read by Judge Francis J. Wilson, and witnessed by Davis' brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Nathan S. Davis III. After a few days, the couple left for a three month honeymoon in Tucson, Arizona, where they were expected to "live on a ranch." The marriage made news across the country. On October 11, the two newspapers in Tucson carry stories reporting Brooks would soon come to reside on a ranch near the Arizona town. I recently came across those two Tuscon clippings. Here is one of them - they are both very similar.
News of the Deering Davis - Louise Brooks wedding ran in newspapers across the country for the next few days. All of these stories, which were mostly captioned photos on the picture page, said pretty much the same thing.
And then that's it until February of 1934, when the couple reemerges in Chicago and perform as dancers on a few occasions. I know they were on their honeymoon, but I have wondered why they otherwise dropped off the radar. Too me, it doesn't make sense. Certainly, a celebrity couple driving around the Southwest would have made the news in local papers in Colorado or Arizona. Did they pass through Kansas? Did they in fact live on a ranch in Tucson, Arizona? I wonder if something else was going on.
If they did live on a ranch, which ranch was it? What kind of ranch was it? Was it a "dude ranch"? Or was the ranch the kind individuals with a drinking problem spent time at in order to dry out or pull themselves together? I think we know Brooks was unhappy at this time in her life. In 1932, she declared bankruptcy, and couldn't get work in films. And the United States was in the grips of the Depression. This stretch of three to four months was about the longest I have found (for the 1920s and 1930s) for Brooks not to have had her name in the papers. There was always something, a mention in a gossip column, an appearance at a restaurant or nightclub or theater. But for three or four months, they was nothing. Who knows? Perhaps Brooks and Davis were just practicing their dance routine.
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