The Loves of Lulu - the First American Lulu (not Louise Brooks) part 2

A follow-up to yesterday's post about Margot Kelly, the first American actress to play Lulu. Kelly played Wedekind's famed character in The Loves of Lulu in New York in May, 1925. Despite its groundbreaking, provocative nature, the play received poor reviews. Burns Mantle, one of the most famous drama critics of the time, called it ugly... "an ugly story of ugly people, with a nasty suggestiveness common to one type of German drama." Mantle suggests he doesn't understand the play, but from his description, I think he does - even alluding to Countess Gerschwitz, a "mannish woman."

 

Despite the play receiving poor reviews, actress Margot Kelly was evidently enthusiastic about the Frank Wedekind's drama, so much so she bought the rights to it.

The lovely Margot Kelly, pictured in the 1920s

A month after The Loves of Lulu opened, Kelly sailed for England, and before departing, announced that Pandora's Box would be staged in the Fall. I don't believe it ever was. Perhaps the critical drubbing was too much.

And lastly, another bad review of The Loves of Lulu. This one appeared in Percy Hammond's column, though was not written by the famed critic. Instead, it was penned by Charles Belmont Davis.

As I mentioned in the last blog, all this is interesting to me as background on the way Louise Brooks role as Lulu was received in the United States just four years later.

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

The Loves of Lulu - the First American Lulu (not Louise Brooks) part 1

Recently, while doing some research on Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men, I came across a 1925 magazine clipping mentioning the The Loves of Lulu, which reportedly was the first American stage presentation of Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. Notably, the play opened in New York City in May of 1925 - at the same time as Brooks was dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies and The Street of Forgotten Men was in production just across town. How's that for historical overlap?

I was intrigued to find out more, and to learn more about Margot Kelly, the actress who first played Lulu in America. She has a few film credits, but seems primarily to have been a stage actress. Below, is a rather striking photo of Kelly as Lulu. Notably, this photo was taken by Edward Thayer Monroe, who also photographed Brooks. How's that for coincidence?

Interestingly, I also came across a 1924 letter from the Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan in which O'Neill mentions Margot Kelly and his interest in the Lulu plays. O'Neill writes, "I've been going over, with the English translations of the separate plays as a trot, the combination made by Wedekind himself of Erdgeist & Pandora's Box which he called Lulu. Margot Kelly dug up a copy of it in Library of Congress. It looks good. I'm strong for it, provided we can get a good translator. I'll even promise to help on the dialogue. This Erd-Pandora work of Wedekind's ought to be done somehow. It's the best thing of its kind ever written and we ought to do it at the P.P." [Provincetown Playhouse] Ah, what might have been.

Kenneth Macgowan, to whom the letter was addressed, ran the Provincetown Playhouse as its producer, and with Eugene O'Neill as a business partners. In the 1930s, Macgowan went into film as a producer, and even won an Academy Award. Later, he authored a notably early history of film titled Behind the Screen (1965). While it briefly discusses G. W. Pabst, it does not mention Louise Brooks. 

Well, anyways, here is another striking portrait of Margot Kelly. While looking her up online, I came across another portrait, which looks like it was taken ship-board. Kelly, it seems, had been to England, where she played Lulu. The caption on the back of the photo reads, "American actress too daring for London stage Margot Kelly returns from London where she received the "cold shoulder" in the play Loves of Lulu which was a big hit in this country but too risky for Englishmen." She seems like quite a personality.

I have dug up some more on Margot Kelly and her role as Lulu which I will post in the next blog. All this is interesting to me as background on the way Louise Brooks role as Lulu was received just four years later.

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

Louise Brooks in the summertime on Instagram

I hadn't realized how many pictures I have of "Louise Brooks in the summertime" when I started a recent  series of posts on the Louise Brooks Society account on Instagram. (That account, by the way, can be found at @louisebrookssociety.) If you haven't check out Instagram or the relatively new LBS account there, please do so. As of today, it has gathered 978 followers. 

A few weeks ago, back in June, the weather was warm and I thought to post a pic or two of Louise Brooks hanging around outdoors. Something summertime.... That was followed by some pictures of the actress at the beach, playing tennis, modelling summer fashions, and going for a swim.  More will follow.

My approach to Instagram is to get an idea about something, an announcement, or a theme, or whatever, and post pics on that topic until I don't. What follows are just a couple of the pics I have posted so far. If you want to see more, be sure and "follow" the LBS insta at https://www.instagram.com/louisebrookssociety/

 

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

Back at it, with a new Louise Brooks treasure in hand

I haven't blogged in a month, taking a bit of time off in order to work on my current book project, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen. It is coming along splendidly, and I have approximately 122 pages and more than 21,000 words done. The finish line is still a ways off, but is now beginning to come into sight.

This project arose and interjected itself into my life while I was contributing to the restoration of The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), which debuted at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in May. That was a splendid, even historic event. I wish everyone could have been there to see Louise Brooks in her first film. I have been told that screenings of the restored film will likely take place elsewhere in the Fall. And as for a DVD release, who knows?

While I was at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I had a chance to meet the esteemed film historians Richard and Diane Kosarski. That was a thrill, not only because they signed a stack of books for me - so cool, but because Richard had met, interviewed and corresponded with Louise Brooks.

I have been in touch with Richard Kosarski since then, and just recently, he sent me a small treasure from his archive which I received today. It is a flyer for a 1982 Louise Brooks retrospective, "Career of a Comet: Louise Brooks." I have scanned it and reproduced it below. The retrospective took place at the Astoria Motion Picture and Television Foundation, which is housed at the old Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, where Louise Brooks filmed The Street of Forgotten Men. Kosarski has long been associated with the foundation.

The retrospective featured a number of Brooks' films, divided into four parts over four days: "Brooks in Astoria" (The Show Off and Love Em and Leave Em), "Brooks in Hollywood" (A Girl in Every Port and Beggars of Life), "Brooks in Berlin" (Pandora's Box and Interview with Louise Brooks - a NYC premiere), and "Brooks Exotica" (Interview with Louise Brooks - reprise showing, Windy Riley in Hollywood, and Overland Stage Raiders). Unfortunately, The Street of Forgotten Men was not shown, as it NOT in circulation then.

Richard also sent a short note, which I will also share with everyone. I hope Richard won't mind. He wrote, "Found this in my archive from 1982. When I sent this to Louise she wrote me to send any info on Windy Riley ASAP, to her editor, because she didn't remember a thing about the picture."

 

 

 This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited, especially by shithead blog aggregators who have ripped off this blog in the past. How pathetic.