Edgar Blue Washington, an African American in a Louise Brooks film

To mark Black History Month, the Louise Brooks Society blog offers this post about actor Edgar "Blue" Washington, a supporting player in the 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life. Unusually so for an African American actor at the time, Washington received sixth billing, and his name appeared on the screen alongside stars and supporting players Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Robert Perry and Roscoe Karns. 

In an article about the film, the Afro-American newspaper wrote, “In Beggars of Life, Edgar Blue Washington, race star, was signed by Paramount for what is regarded as the most important Negro screen role of the year, that of Big Mose. The part is that of a sympathetic character, hardly less important to the epic of tramp life than those of Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, who head the cast.” 

Edgar Washington, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen

The following biographical sketch is derived from my 2017 book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film.  

Washington was an actor (sometimes credited as Edgar Washington and sometimes Blue Washington) as well as a one-time Los Angeles prizefighter and Negro League baseball player. He appeared in 74 films between 1919 and 1961. In between acting jobs, he was an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. Like Beggars of Life actor Robert Perry, Washington appeared mostly in bit parts throughout his career. And like Perry, Beggars of Life marked a high point in his career. The nickname "Blue" came from famed director Frank Capra, a friend.

The actor was discovered while pitching for the Los Angeles White Sox of the Negro League. "Rube" Foster (the father of Black baseball) spotted Washington during the Chicago American Giants’ 1916 West Coast tour. Washington was invited to travel along and pitch for the legendary team, which would eventually produce three National Baseball Hall of Fame players. During Washington’s brief tenure with the American Giants, he pitched in seven games, recording three victories against one loss versus white aggregations of the Pacific Coast and Northwestern Leagues. “Ed Washington,” as sports writers initially referred to him, made a name for himself as he ruled the mound with an unorthodox pitching style. In 1920, Washington joined the newly formed Kansas City Monarchs, where he started at first base and batted .275 in 24 games. After a few months of barnstorming, however, Washington left the Monarchs and returned to Los Angeles. That same year, after his first try at acting, Washington rejoined the Los Angeles White Sox for yet a few more games. Between acting gigs, Washington continued to play ball, and is believed to have occasionally played for Alexander’s Giants in the integrated California Winter League.**

Harold Lloyd helped Washington break into acting -- this pioneering African-American actor appeared in the legendary comedian’s Haunted Spooks (1920) and Welcome Danger (1929). Sporadic roles followed, and Washington appeared in other films alongside early stars like Ricardo Cortez, William Haines, Richard Barthelmess, Ken Maynard, and Tim McCoy.

Richard Arlen, William Wellman, and Edgar Washington

Beggars of Life director William Wellman worked with Washington again in The Light That Failed (1939). The actor also appeared in a few films directed by John Ford, including The Whole Town's Talking (1935) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). Other notable movies in which Washington had a small part include King Vidor's all-black production, Hallelujah (1929), Mary Pickford's Kiki (1931), King Kong (1933), Roman Scandals (1933), Annie Oakley (1935), The Plainsman (1936), and Gone with the Wind (1939). 

Washington was in three installments of the Charlie Chan series, and appears as a comic sidekick in the John Wayne B-Western Haunted Gold (1933). Washington also had small roles in The Cohens and the Kellys in Africa (1930), Drums of the Congo (1942), Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949) and other lesser fair. Unfortunately, though unlike his role in Beggars of Life, many of these parts traded on racial stereotypes. His last role, as a limping pool hall attendant, was in The Hustler (1961), starring Paul Newman.

Richard Arlen and Edgar Washington

** Washington's son, Kenny Washington, was also a notable athlete. In fact, he was a two-sport great—the first African-American to play baseball at UCLA, the first Bruin to be named an All-American, and the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League team in the post-World War II era. His  baseball  teammate, Jackie Robinson, described him as the greatest football player he had have ever seen.

This blog is indebted to Mark V. Perkins excellent biography on the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) website. Give it a read. To learn more, check out Edgar Washington's Wikipedia page or his IMDb page. 

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1929

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in Germany in 1929. Based on two plays by the acclaimed German dramatist Frank Wedekind, Die Büchse der Pandora (or Pandora’s Box), tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, the singular femme fatale. As Brooks’ biographer Barry Paris put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men. . . Lulu’s sexual magnetism had few bounds, and this once controversial film features what is thought to be the screen’s first lesbian character.

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website's filmography page.

When the film premiered at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin at the beginning of 1929, critics and the movie-going public were largely dismissive of the much anticipated work. The very idea of the film had been rejected by some who claimed “Lulu is inconceivable without the words that Wedekind made her speak.” Hoping to deflect such criticism, director G.W. Pabst conducted a well-publicized search for an actress who was just the right type: according to one film journal of the time, the search was a topic of considerable interest, and “Everywhere one went one heard ‘What about Lulu?’ and ‘Is Lulu found yet?’” Once the part was cast, however, Germans objected to the little known Brooks in the role, doubting an American actress could play what was thought to be an essentially German character.

As a psychological study, some also found Pandora’s Box a disappointment; such critics regretted Pabst’s seeming retreat from the social and political engagement of his earlier works. Critics and censors were likewise taken aback by what was then considered a rather frank portrayal of sexuality. Even from afar, the poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), writing in the English/Swiss film journal Close Up, noted the controversy when she stated the film had “passed by the German censors after a stormy discussion of several hours duration.”

Pabst’s choice of Brooks was said to be a mistake, and her acting came under fire. Many German critics stated she looked attractive but appeared unconvincing. Siegfried Kracauer, writing in Frankfurter Zeitung, thought Brooks not enough of a whore. While one German critic called Brooks “an inanimate dummy.” Variety’s correspondent in Germany chimed in with a critique hardly more sympathetic, “Louise Brooks, especially imported for the title role, did not pan out, due to no fault of hers. She is quite unsuited to the vamp type which was called for by the play from which the picture was made.”

Pandora’s Box played across Europe, where it was similarly received and cut according to local standards. In France, for example, censors thought it indecent for a father and son to vie sexually for the same woman. Their solution was to tinker with the titles and convert Alwa (Franz Lederer) from Dr. Schön’s son to his male secretary. Other changes were made in other countries. The film was shown in north Africa, South America, and Asia.

By the time Pandora’s Box debuted in the United States in late 1929, nearly a third of the film was reportedly missing. The 55th Street Playhouse in New York City, the small art house that debuted the film, projected a statement lamenting that the film had been censored. The theater also apologized for the “added saccharine ending” in which Lulu joins the Salvation Army.

Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, wrote “It was the privilege of a few reviewers to see Pandora’s Box shortly after it was received by its American exhibitors and before the New York censors got at it. In the beginning it appeared to this one to be a rather harmlessly lewd little exhibition with misery and murder and a touch of abnormalcy along other lines, but at that time, at least, it told a sort of story. Now, it is recommended principally, if at all, for its striking photographs of Miss Louise Brooks, the American actress. At least, the persons who have charge of our film morals have seen fit to leave Miss Brooks’s back, legs, and haircut as they pictured at the outset. Miss Brooks, therefore, retains all of her original charms. . . . It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”

Billboard magazine had a similar take, “This feature spent several weeks in the censor’s board’s cutting room: and the result of its stay is a badly contorted drama that from beginning to end reeks with sex and vice that have been so crudely handled as not even to be spicily entertaining. Louise Brooks and Fritz Kortner are starred, with Miss Brooks supposed to be a vampire who causes the ruin of everyone she meets. How anyone could fall for la belle Brooks with the clothes she wears in this vehicle is beyond imagination. . . . This is a silent production that has no business playing anything but guild theaters.”

Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time, noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor. It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.” Mordaunt Hall, critic for the New York Times, famously countered when he wrote, “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe, anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Variety put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”

Regina Crewe, writing in the New York American, said “But not even the censors may be blamed for all the film’s deficiencies – the acting, for instance, and the rather absurd melodramatic story. . . . Unlike Anna May Wong, and other Hollywood actresses who have blossomed into skilled players under European influence, Miss Brooks doesn’t seem to have improved since her departure. She is comely as ever, but her pantomimic abilities are sadly limited. . . . The picture is one of the less deserving efforts and was received with apathy by the audience.”

But was it? Despite poor reviews, the film was widely written about (for a limited release) and did well in its New York debut. The New York Sun reported Pandora’s Box “ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office records. It will therefore be held for another week.” At a time when most new or first-run films played only one week, a two-week run was considered noteworthy, and a little above average.

In 1929, however, sound had come in and poorly reviewed silent films from abroad were little in demand. Although exhibition records of the time are far from complete, the film was rarely shown in America in the years following its New York debut. Following New York, Pandora’s Box was shown at the Little Theater in Baltimore (January 1930), Acme Theater in New York City (May 1930), Little theater in Newark, New Jersey (May 1931), and 5th Ave. Theater in New York City (December 1933). The film’s last known public showing in the United States prior to its later revival was at the Sunday playhouse at Taliesin, the Wisconsin estate of Frank Lloyd Wright, in May, 1934.

After that, Pandora’s Box fell into obscurity, and was only recalled in reference works as a failed film by a noted German director. It took decades for film historians and audiences to rediscover the work. In his 1989 biography of Brooks, Barry Paris put it this way: “A case can be made that Pandora’s Box was the last of the silent films—not literally, but aesthetically. On the threshold of its premature death, the medium in Pandora achieved near perfection in form and content.”

Under its German title, Die Büchse der Pandora, documented screenings of the film took place in Austria, Danzig (a free city-state), Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia), Latvia (then part of the U.S.S.R), Luxembourg, Ukraine (then part of the U.S.S.R), and the United States.

Outside Germany, Die Büchse der Pandora was exhibited or written about under the title Loulou (Algeria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Argentina); Le boîte de Pandore and Loulou (Belgium); A caixa de Pandora (Brazil); Кутията на Пандора (Bulgaria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Chile); Lulu La Pecadora (Cuba); Pandořina skříňka or Pandořina skříňka (Lulu) and Umrít Büchse der Pandoru (Czechoslovakia) and Pandorina skrínka (Slovakia); Pandoras æske (Denmark); De doos van Pandora (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Pandora’s Box (England); Pandora laegas (Estonia); Pandoran lipas (Finland); Loulou and Le boîte de Pandore (France); Λούλου and Lulu- το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Greece); Pandóra szelencéje (Hungary); Lulu and Il vaso di Pandora and Jack lo Sventratore (Italy); パンドラの箱 or Pandoranohako and The Box of Pandora (Japan); Korea (Box of Pandora);  Pandoras lade and Pandoras Kaste (Latvia); Pandoros skrynia (Lithuania); Lou lou La Boite de Pandore (Luxembourg); La caja de Pandora (Mexico); De doos van Pandora (The Netherlands*); Pandoras eske (Norway); Lulu and Puszka Pandory (Poland); A Bocéta de Pandora and A caixa de Pandora (Portugal); Cutia Pandorei and Lulu and Pandora szelenceje (Romania); Lulu and Pandorina skrinjica (Slovenia); La caja de Pandora (Spain); Pandoras ask (Sweden); Meş’um Fahişe and Meş’um Fahişe (Lulu) (Turkey); Dzieje Kokoty Lulu (Ukraine); Box of Pandora and Pandora’s Box (English-language press) and Pandora szelencéje (Hungarian-language press) and Ящик Пандоры (Russian-language press) (United States); La caja de Pandora and Lulu and El alma de la herrera (Uruguay, sound version); Lulu and Лулу and Ящик Пандорьі (U.S.S.R.); La caja de Pandora (Venezula).

Since the late 1950s, numerous screenings of the film have been taken place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Pandora’s Box in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere. Within the last decade, a first ever showing of the film took place in Turkey under the titles Pandora’nın Kutusu and Pandora’nýn Kutusuö. The film has also been shown on television in a few countries in Europe as well as in Australia, Canada, the United States.

* According to European censorship records, the film was banned in Finland (1929), Norway (1929), and Sweden (dates unknown). Despite the film also being banned in The Netherlands in 1930, it was shown on October 18, 1935 in Amsterdam at De Uitkijk theater. With the rise of Nazi party, the film was banned in Germany from 1933-45. It was also banned in Portugal from 1936-1945.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— The jazz combo seen playing in the wedding scene is Sid Kay’s Fellows. They were an actual musical group of the time. Founded in 1926 and led by Sigmund Petruschka (“Sid”) and Kurt Kaiser (“Kay”), Sid Kay’s Fellows were a popular ten member dance band based in Berlin. They performed at the Haus Vaterland (a leading Berlin night-spot) between 1930 and 1932. And in 1933, they accompanied the great Sidney Bechet during his recitals in the German capitol. Sid Kay’s Fellows also accompanied various theatrical performances and played in Munich, Dresden, Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona and elsewhere. The group’s depiction in Pandora’s Box predates their career as recording artists. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Sid Kay’s Fellows were forbidden to perform publicly. They disbanded, and transformed themselves into a studio orchestra and made recordings for the Jewish label Lukraphon.

— When Pandora’s Box debuted in Berlin in 1929, an orchestra playing a musical score accompanied the film. The score was reviewed in at least one of the Berlin newspapers. The score, however, does not apparently survive. What is also not known is if the music of Sid Kay’s Fellows, or any sort of jazz, played a part in the music of Pandora’s Box. [Director G.W. Pabst also included a jazz combo in his next film, The Diary of a Lost Girl.]

More about Pandora's Box can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Pandora's Box (filmography page).

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926

The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926. The film is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a beauty pageant, namely the actual 1925 Miss America contest in Atlantic City. The film is the second in which Louise Brooks appeared, but the first for which she received screen credit.

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website's filmography page. 

Ford Sterling and Louise Brooks

The American Venus proved popular upon release, and continued to be shown around the United States for an unusually long two years. Though largely eye-candy, many fans and at least a few critics responded to the numerous scantily clad bathing beauties, an elaborate tableaux and fashion show, and the film’s pioneering use of Technicolor. The critic for the Boston Herald wrote, “The scenes made at Atlantic City and during the prologue are artistically done in Technicolor. Comedy relief in abundance is furnished by a wild automobile chase replete with giggles and thrills. The picture on the whole is entertaining.”

However, not all were pleased with this otherwise frothy comedy. Harrison’s Reports, an industry trade journal, echoed the comments found in other publications: “The only striking feature about it is the technicolor scenes; they are extremely beautiful. But some of them will, no doubt, prove offensive to church going people, particularly in the small communities, because of the fact that women’s legs, backs, sides and abdomens as low as below the navel, are shown aplenty. Women in tights have been shown in his pictures by Mack Sennett, but he has never been so ‘raw’; at least he had the girls wear brassieres, whereas Jesse Lasky has his girls wear nothing under the bathing suits, with the result that the women’s outlines of their breasts are clearly seen. In places there isn’t even the thin cloth of the bathing suit to cover the flesh.”

The Washington Herald added, “Many of the tinted scenes of the fashion review were very daring in their exposure of the Atlantic City bathing girls. Once scene especially drew forth gasps from the audience; whether from shock or admiration, we cannot say.”

The stars of the film, which was called a “shape show” by some publications, were Esther Ralston, a renown beauty, and Fay Lanphier, the reigning Miss America. Though she had only a small role, Brooks was featured on a lobby card and film poster, as well as in advertisements. She was also singled out by a handful of critics. The female critic for the New York Evening Journal noted Brooks’ “distinct screen personality”, while the male critic for the New York World stated Brooks was “better looking than any of the other brunettes now acting in films”.

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada*, China, Dutch Guiana (Surinam), India **, Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In the United States, the film was presented under the title La Venus Americana (Spanish-language press) and A Venus Americana (Portuguese-language press).

Elsewhere, The American Venus was shown under the title Vénus moderne (Algeria); Die Amerikanische Venus (Austria); A Venus Americana and La Venus Americana (Brazil); La Venus Americana (Chile); La Venus Americana (Cuba); Americká Venuše (Czechoslovakia) and Die amerikanische Venus (Czechoslovakia, German language); Den amerikanske venus (Denmark); La Venus Americana (Dominican Republic); De Moderne Venus (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Vénus moderne (Egypt); The Modern Venus (England); Miehen ihanne (Finland); Vénus moderne and Vénus américaine (France); Die Schönste Frau der Staaten (Germany); Az amerikai Vénusz (Hungary); Il trionfo di Venere and Trionfo di Venere (Italy); 美女競艶 or Bijo dai Kei tsuya  (Japan); Venus Moderne–Die Modern Venus (Luxembourg); La Venus americana (Mexico); De Moderne Venus (Netherlands);  Amerykan’ska Wenus and Venus Pokutujaca (Poland); A Vénus American (Portugal); Miss Amerika (Slovenia); Американская Венера (Soviet Union); La Venus americana and La Venus Moderna (Spain); Mannens ideal and Mannens ideal–Venus på amerikanska (Sweden ***); and La Venus moderne (Switzerland).

* The film was banned in the province of Quebec due to “nudities.”

** Bengali censorship records from 1927 called for the elimination of close-ups of women in the film’s tableaux, noting “The figures are too naked for public exhibition.”

*** restricted to those over 15 years old

 SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

– The American Venus was among the earlier films to feature Technicolor. There are three scenes which utilize the process. One is of the boardwalk parade of beauty contestants at the Atlantic City beauty pageant, the second is of series of artistic tableaux, and the last is of a fashion revue.

– The film was privately screened at the Atlantic City Ambassador Hotel as a benefit under the auspices of the Atlantic City Shrine Club on December 26, 1925. A benefit screening of the film also took place at midnight on December 31, 1925 in Oakland, California — the hometown of star Fay Lanphier.

– Miss Bayport, the role played by Louise Brooks, was originally assigned to Olive Ann Alcorn, a stage and film actress who had bit parts in Sunnyside (1919) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

– Townsend Martin, whose story served as the basis for the film, was a college friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to the New Yorker and other publications, famed humorist Robert Benchley wrote the film’s titles.

– According to the 1999 book, Russian Writings on Hollywood, author Ayn Rand reported seeing The American Venus in Chicago, Illinois not long after she left the Soviet Union.

Louise Brooks and Josephine Dunn ?

More about The American Venus can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its The American Venus (filmography page).

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

New Beggars of Life DVD coming

Alpha Video is set to release Beggars of Life on DVD on January 25, 2025. As Alpha Video is a budget label, there is little to recommend this release except its cheap price. I DON'T expect this release of the film to be as good as the Kino Lorber release, but as I haven't yet seen this new disc, I can't say. The run-time is given as one hour and twenty three minutes. For those interested, more information about the Alpha Video release of Beggars of Life can be found HERE (amazon link).

Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award for best picture), Beggars of Life is a terse drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. With the help of a young hobo (Richard Arlen), she rides the rails through a male dominated underworld in which danger is close at hand. Picture Play magazine described the film as “Sordid, grim and unpleasant,” adding, “it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie.”

The film stars Wallace Beery, though it's Louise Brooks who steals the show. According to the director's son, Beggars of Life was Wellman's favorite silent film. And today, it is widely considered Brooks' best American silent. 

Here is the front and back cover.

For more about Beggars of Life, be sure and check out the newly revamped Beggars of Life (Filmography page).

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Naked on My Goat, Louise Brooks' lost book, included in new exhibit

For those who mat not know, the Grolier Club is a private club and society devoted to books and the book arts. The group is located in New York City. Founded in 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The Grolier's mission is "the literary study of the arts pertaining to the production of books, including the occasional publication of books designed to illustrate, promote and encourage these arts; and the acquisition, furnishing and maintenance of a suitable club building for the safekeeping of its property, wherein meetings, lectures and exhibitions shall take place from time to time." The Grolier Club also maintain a library of more than 100,000 volumes devoted to the history of books.

I have never been to the club, but would certainly like to visit it someday as I have long had an interest in books, book collecting, and the book arts. In fact, my former employer at the Arion Press in San Francisco, noted printer Andrew Hoyem, was a member. I recall him speaking about the Grolier Club on a number of occasions.

As mentioned, the Grolier Club hosts exhibitions related to books and print culture. Currently on display at the club is "Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works From the Collection of Reid Byers" (through February 15, 2025). In short, it is an exhibit of books which only exist in other books.

This description comes from the Grolier Club website: "Part bibliophilic entertainment and part conceptual art installation, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books features a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Grolier Club member Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost; Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, stolen from his wife’s bag on a French train in 1922; and the Necronomicon, John Dee’s copy of the eldritch grimoire that has been kept sealed in a Wells Fargo strongbox, as a precaution, since the Krickle accident of 1967."

This exhibit came to my attention when it received a write-up by critic (and LB fan?*) Michael Dirda in the Washington Post. Dirda mention one of the books on display. That book was Louise Brooks' legendary destroyed manuscript, Naked on My Goat. (Click HERE to see the exhibition web page devoted to the book, which is highlighted below.)

LOUISE BROOKS

Naked on My Goat 

 

New York

Scribner’s

1954

Burned by the author. 

 

"Brooks, an American actress and international movie star, never achieved the same success in her home country and in her mid-thirties withdrew to a life of alcohol and high-end prostitution. Brooks was bright and well-read, and during this period she wrote this tell-all memoir. The title she took from the speech of the Young Witch in the Walpurgisnacht scene of Goethe’s Faust, a speech delivered in the eponymous condition. She later incinerated the manuscript." -- Reid Byers

 

Naked on My Goat, whose title is drawn from Goethe, is included in "Imaginary Books" in the section devoted to Abandoned Books along with titles by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath and others. I don't know about Karl Marx, who is also in the section, but it occurs to me that each of the authors in this section had an issue with substance abuse.

The exhibit has received a fair amount of press. The New York Times called it an “…irresistible conceptual-art installation.” Michael Dirda, the only critic to mention Brooks, described "Imaginary Books" as "learnedly entertaining as Byers’s earlier study, “The Private Library,” was exhaustive and magisterial". Elsewhere, the Guardian called it  “…a very elaborate and whimsical bit taken to its most creative extremes [by] Reid Byers …​ a good-natured expert on private libraries and rabbit holes.

However it has been described, it seems well worth checking out. The exhibition remains on view at the Grolier Club in New York City through February 15 before traveling to the Book Club of California in San Francisco, where it will be on display March 18 through July 21. (I hope to see it there.) Notably, an accompanying book will be published by Oak Knoll and Club Fortsas. (Click HERE for more information or to purchase a copy.) I assume it will include a passage on Naked on My Goat.... which makes it something to look for and add to my collection of books about Louise Brooks.  

For more about the artist, Reid Byers, be sure and check out his website at https://reidbyers.com/

Although Louise Brooks reportedly destroyed the manuscript of Naked on My Goat by throwing it into an incinerator, it still managed to get a bit of attention while it existed. Here is a rare press clipping which actually mentions the book. (Reportedly, a few passages from the book still exist... but don't ask me where, or in which forgotten closet they are kept....) For now, fans of the actress will have to content ourselves with Reid Byers' simulacra.

I don't know if Reid Byers' edition of Louise Brooks' Naked on My Goat has the "author's" bookplate in it, but if it does, it may well have this design by Frank Papé. This is Brooks' actual bookplate, which could be found inside many of the books from her personal library. Brooks loved books, and was serious enough about her personal library that she had these bookplates printed with her name on them. Below is an image of Brooks' bookplate inside one of the actress' books. Notably, it features a demonic goat.

* I suggest the possibility of Michael Dirda (an author and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist) being a Brooks admirer because he has written about the actress in the past, including a review of Brooks' memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, following its actual publication in 1982. She is also mentioned in Dirda's Book by Book (2005).

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Repost: Exploring the 1927 Laurel Canyon Home of Louise Brooks (part 4), by Philip Vorwald

I've been told that Louise Brooks' one-time Laurel Canyon home was in the middle of the Hurst Fire zone in Los Angeles. This is the home of the actress which Philip Vorwald documented in a 2017 series of guest posts here on the Louise Brooks Society blog. I hope all is ok for this home and its historic neighborhood, but fear the worst. What follows is a re-post of the four-part series from eight years ago.

# # #

Today concludes a four part / four day guest blog by Philip Vorwald. It is an exploration of the 1927 Laurel Canyon Home of Louise Brooks.

 
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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Repost: Exploring the 1927 Laurel Canyon Home of Louise Brooks (part 3), by Philip Vorwald

I've been told that Louise Brooks' one-time Laurel Canyon home was in the middle of the Hurst Fire zone in Los Angeles. This is the home of the actress which Philip Vorwald documented in a 2017 series of guest posts here on the Louise Brooks Society blog. I hope all is ok for this home and its historic neighborhood, but fear the worst. What follows is a re-post of the four-part series from eight years ago.

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Today continues a four part / four day guest blog by Philip Vorwald. It is an exploration of the 1927 Laurel Canyon Home of Louise Brooks. Part four will follow tomorrow.

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