For the Record: A Brief History of the Louise Brooks Society Social Media

For the Record: A Brief History of the Louise Brooks Society social media accounts.

The Louise Brooks Society website was launched in 1995. That makes it an internet pioneer. The LBS was the first Louise Brooks website, and one of the earliest sites devoted to silent film or just about any actor or actress. With a goal of stimulating interest in her life and films, the LBS has long sought new ways of getting the word out.

A screen grab of the old LBS

One of its earliest efforts at reaching fans was through posting messages on various bulletin board systems (BBS), listserv’s, newsgroups (Usenet), and on AOL and Prodigy forums, back when these forums were dominant. The earliest archived newsgroup post mentioning the Louise Brooks Society, from October 27, 1995, announces the website. Another, a query from the LBS asking about a screening of Pandora’s Box in Poland, dates to January 29, 1996. Another, from December 31, 1996 announces the LBS move to its new domain at www.pandorasbox.com, where it has resided since. Each of these posts, which can still be read, are now part of the Google groups / Usenet Archive.

The LBS was an early adopter of social media, before the term existed. In the past, it has had its own message board, newsletter, Yahoo Group, Tribe.net page, and still lingering MySpace account. The LBS started blogging in 2002, first on LiveJournal and then on Blogger beginning in 2009. Between the two forums, there are more than 3500 posts, most of which now reside on the LBS blog at Blogger. This LBS blogger site has been visited by more than 1.8 million readers, and is a member of various affiliations, including the CMBA (Classic Movie Blog Association), Classic Movie Hub (CMH), and LAMB (Large Ass Movie Blogs). In 2018, the CMBA profiled the LBS blog, and in 2023, the CMH named it one of the 5 best early film blogs.

The same year that the LBS began blogging, it also jumped on the internet music bandwagon and launched its own “radio station.” RadioLulu streamed Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film themed music of the 1920s, 1930s, and today. The station streamed on Live365.com from 2002 to 2016, when Live365 ceased operations. (Read a Huffington Post article about the demise of RadioLulu.) After that, RadioLulu moved over to TuneIN, where it ran a couple more years before shutting down for good.

 
The LBS joined Twitter in January 2009, has tweeted thousands of times, and has gained thousands of followers. And would you believe, the LBS and its efforts has been retweeted or tweeted about by the likes of Roger Ebert and Neil Gaiman, among others. The LBS Facebook page goes back to 2010. It has also gained thousands of followers, and been “liked” thousands of times; there are many postings of interest. The LBS joined in YouTube 2013, where it has posted original content and created playlists of related videos. The LBS also has a Vimeo and Soundcloud page which features rare video and audio. The LBS Instagram account dates to 2021, and had proven popular with more than 5300 followers until it was suspended due to the bogus claims of a disagreeable individual who shall go unnamed. (Why given him any attention?)

For the record, the “Louise Brooks Society” website was launched under that name in August, 1995. The earliest Wayback Machine capture of the site at it’s current domain, www.pandorasbox.com, dates to April 11, 1997. Prior to its current domain, the site was hosted on servers at slip.net and sirius.com. The first media mention of the website and its earliest print reference dates to May 23, 1996, when it was named a USA Today “Hot Site” and mentioned in that newspaper’s “Net: New and notable” column. See the clipping below, which also noted the site’s early / ugly URL.  

 Later in 1996, the LBS was named one of the five best sites devoted to actresses by Net Directory, a now defunct English computing magazine. Two other early print/web references occurred on April 10, 1998 on the Wired magazine website, and May 3, 1998 in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle. Early on, the LBS was also mentioned in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, San Francisco Examiner, and New York Times. A comprehensive checklist of media mentions can be found on the LBS “In the News” page. There, you will find mention of the LBS in the London Times, Irish Times, Le Temps, Stuttgarter Zeitung, Melbourne Age, South China Morning Post and other publications from around the world.

The Louise Brooks Society was a pioneering website. Mosaic, the first web browser, recognized the LBS by including it on its “What’s New” page on June 27, 1996. The LBS was similarly honored by Netscape, another early browser. Here are some of the other designations (i.e., old-school web bling) received ever so long ago by the LBS.

The very first Internet honor the LBS received was a four-slate rating (best possible) from the North Carolina Institute of Film Arts. Since then, the LBS received other honors and designations, including making Yahoo’s “Desert Island List” in November, 1996. The LBS is proud to have been once named a recommended site by the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica. As well, the LBS was included in the Art & Music Pavilion of the Internet 1996 World Exposition, a “world’s fair for the information age”. The LBS has also been named a “Celebrity Site of the Day” and “Hollywood Site of the Week”.

 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

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