Ukraine and Louise Brooks

In the course of my ongoing research into the world-wide presentation of Brooks' films, I have found that that they were shown in what is now Ukraine, which in the silent and early sound era was unwillingly part of Russia (aka the former Soviet Union dba the U.S.S.R.) The results of my research will be published in Around the World with Louise Brooks, which hopefully will be released later this year.

One archive that I have been able to explore is LIBRARIA, the Ukrainian Online Periodicals Archive. The archive remains online for the time being. But with a threaten Russian takeover, who knows for how long? For more on the silent and early sound era in Ukraine, see my earlier post on The Glories of Ukraine's KINO and Chwila film magazines.

I have written about my newspaper searches in the past, and was able to access one 1929 page from a newspaper in Chernivtsi. As a document, as a record of a place and time, this page has a remarkable history behind it. This city is located in what is now Ukraine, but in the 1920s was part of Romania. With its half-page, German-language spread on Die Buchse der Pandora, this is a notable find which shows just how wide-spread silent film culture once was.

I also found one other clipping which details when and where the actress' films were shown in what is now Ukraine. Below is an advertisement for a showing of Pandora's Box (known as Puszka Pandory or Dzieje Kokoty Lulu) which was published in May, 1929 in Chwila, a Polish-language Zionist daily from Lwów (or Lviv), a city in what is now western Ukraine, around 70 kilometers from the border with Poland. In the 1920s, Lviv was part of Poland.

I also did a search for Louise Brooks' name in Ukrainian, Луїза Брукс, and found this thumbnail image, which I was unable to access in a larger format.

Certainly, there is more to be found ....I say this because I do have a number of clippings from nearby nations such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. For me, Ukrainian newspaper and magazine archives  are difficult to access. For more on the silent and early sound era in Ukraine, see my earlier post on The Glories of Ukraine's KINO and Chwila film magazines. 

I posted this blog because I support a free and independent Ukraine, whose existence is being threatened by Vladimir Putin and his Russian gang. Hey Putin, the Soviet Union is gone. Get over it.