Two recently published books feature a chapter about or related to Louise Brooks. Each book is something the Louise Brooks fan will want to check out.... Let me add that this post is not a review, just an announcement of sorts. I have copies of both books, and will be writing about them later. In fact, I have an assignment to write about one of the books for an online publication. More to come....
The two books are Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood by Ira Resnick and Raissa Bretaña with a foreword by Jane Fonda (Abbeville Press, November 2024), and Silent Film's Last Hurrah: The Remarkable Movies of the Long 1928 by David Meuel (McFarland, March 2023).
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According to the publisher,
Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood (
amazon link) is a "
celebration of the fearless, fabulous actresses of Hollywood’s Golden
Age―illustrated with stunning photographs from a world-class collection.Lauren
Bacall, Louise Brooks, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Marlene
Dietrich, Kay Francis, Lillian Gish, Gloria Grahame, Katharine Hepburn,
Veronica Lake, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Ida Lupino, Barbara Stanwyck,
Anna May Wong―and more!
To make it in Hollywood, it takes more than beauty, brains, and talent―it takes moxie.
This was especially true for women in the heyday of the studio system, a
period from the 1920s to the 1950s when a small number of companies
dominated the production and distribution of films in America. It was an
industry controlled by male studio executives, in which directors and
producers called the shots and contract players had little say in which
roles they would play. Still, a trailblazing group of actresses forged
successful careers out of sheer conviction, perseverance, and
professional know-how. These spirited women captivated audiences, shaped
the film industry, and remain enduring icons of classic cinema.
This gorgeous volume profiles some fifteen leading ladies who had moxie
to spare. It is illustrated with more than two hundred film stills,
publicity photos, and lobby cards from the collection of Ira M.
Resnick―many published here for the first time. Together these
captivating images reveal how the stars of the Golden Age used pose and
performance, fashion and glamour to shape their images both onscreen and
off. Moxie will dazzle and seduce all devotees of classic Hollywood."
And here are a couple of sample page spreads with favorites such as Anna May Wong and Carole Lombard.... About the authors: Ira M. Resnick is the founder of
the Motion Picture Arts Gallery, the first gallery devoted to the art of
the movies. He is a trustee of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and
the author of Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood and The Seventies: A Photographic Journey. [He is also a longtime collector of Louise Brooks and a longtime friend to the Louise Brooks Society.] Raissa Bretaña, a
New York–based fashion historian, teaches at the Fashion Institute of
Technology. She has appeared on the Turner Classic Movies series "Follow the Thread", about film and fashion, and hosts the video series "Would They Wear That?" for Glamour.
# # #
According to the publisher,
Silent Film's Last Hurrah: The Remarkable Movies of the Long 1928 (
amazon link) is a "
history and critical appreciation of an unusually fertile period
for the production of great or near-great silent films: late 1927
through early 1929, in the midst of the tumult and upheaval of
Hollywood's transition from silent to sound. The book offers in-depth
looks at several of the best of these films and discusses the gifted
artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Lillian Gish who
helped bring them to life, even as the art they had taken to remarkable
heights was about to be obliterated. It depicts some of the silent
medium's most talented filmmakers and their efforts--in the face of
inescapable technological change--to give their dying art a rousing last
hurrah."Among the films covered in this book are two by Josef von Sternberg, The Last Command and The Docks of New York, as well as My Best Girl with Mary Pickford and The Iron Mask with Douglas Fairbanks; there's also Sadie Thompson with Gloria Swanson and Our Dancing Daughters with Joan Crawford, along with Chaplin's The Circus, Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., and Harold Lloyd's Speedy; other chapters cover Todd Browning's West of Zanzibar, Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March, Victor Seastrom's The Wind, King Vidor's The Crowd, and William Wellman's Beggars of Life, with Louise Brooks.
As well, there is chapter listing twenty-eight other notable American silent and hybrid films released in 1928. It includes Herbert Brenon's Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Lon Chaney, Street Angel, with Janet Gaynor, and Ramona with Dolores Del Rio; there also Keaton's The Cameraman, two by King Vidor with Marion Davies, The Patsy and Show People; and Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port, with Louise Brooks, among others.
According to Library Journal, "Meuel’s latest book marks a specific, prolific time in silent-film
history that signaled the end of an era as Hollywood transitioned to
sound. This title covers films from the end of 1927 to early 1929. Each
chapter details a silent-film star or director and a renowned film of
theirs from that period.... Meuel analyzes what made these films special
and provides details about the stars’ personal lives and their other
notable works.... Film-history fans will enjoy Meuel’s contextualization
of some of the greatest silent films and biggest actors.... Great for
libraries with lots of movie buffs, especially fans of silent films and
classics, and for institutions with film studies programs."
About the author: David Meuel has published multiple books on film history, as well as two
books of poems, more than two dozen short stories, and hundreds of
articles on subjects ranging from U.S. national parks to high
technology. He lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.
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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use
prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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