Louise Brooks included in just opened NY MOMA exhibit

Two rather unusual images of Louise Brooks are included in a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition, "Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography," runs June 28, 2025 through June 21, 2026. For anyone interested in old Hollywood, I think it is a must see show. More about the exhibit can be found HERE.

"Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography" is the first major exhibition of Hollywood studio portraiture to be drawn from the Museum’s film stills archive since 1993. On view in the Titus and Morita Galleries, the exhibition offers a revisionist look at the Department of Film’s photographic archive, examining the evolution of editorial practice before the digital age, AI technology, and social media reshaped our experience of celebrity. 

The exhibition features over 200 works by 60 photographers dating from 1921 to 1996, including studio photography of such celebrity subjects as Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Dennis Hopper, Lena Horne, Rock Hudson, Carmen Miranda, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elvis Presley, Jackie Robinson, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Ethel Waters, Oprah Winfrey, and others.

George P. Hommel. Clara Bow, c. 1929.
Gelatin silver print, 14 × 11" (35.6 × 27.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York

However, it's early Hollywood actors and actresses which dominate the show. Included in "Face Value" are Clara Bow, Lon Chaney, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Bebe Daniels, Bette Davis, Marie Dressler, Douglas Fairbanks, Dorothy Gish, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Boris Karloff, Hedy Lamarr, Elsa Lanchester, Harold Lloyd, Bela Lugosi, Mae Murray, Nita Naldi, ZaSu Pitts, Basil Rathbone, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, Erich von Stroheim, Gloria Stuart, Spencer Tracy, and Alice White.

Additionally, a small number of actors associated with Louise Brooks' career are included in "Face Value," are Jean Arthur, Wallace Beery, Joan Blondell, Evelyn Brent, W.C. Fields, Laura LaPlante, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Grace Moore, William Powell, and Will Rodgers.

Otto Dyar. Carole Lombard, c. 1933.
Gelatin silver print, 13 7/8 × 10 1/2″ (35.2 × 26.7 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York

According to the NY MoMA press release, "Since the Museum’s founding, photography has played a vital role in how it has documented the history of motion pictures. 'Face Value' traces the origin of this early initiative to MoMA’s first film curator, Iris Barry, whose archival efforts led to the acquisition of editorial
collections from Photoplay (1911–80) and Dell (1921–76), two leading publications that helped define Hollywood’s star system. The exhibition includes images of comic stars Buster Keaton, W. C. Fields, Lupe Velez, and Mae West; pioneering actress Hattie McDaniel with Ruby Berkley, the first Black accredited Hollywood correspondent; famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart on a Hollywood film set; and the last photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe."

The exhibit also features "promotional portraits crafted to cultivate celebrity personas, such as Ray Jones’s
Anna May Wong portrait for the film Limehouse Blues, Soul of a Dragon (1934), the exhibition explores how these images were manipulated for public consumption through hands-on editing techniques long before digital tools became standard."

Ray Jones. Anna May Wong portrait for the film Limehouse Blues, Soul of a Dragon, 1934.
 Gelatin silver print, 12 7/8 × 10″ (32.7 × 25.4 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York

"Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography" is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, with Katie Trainor, Film Collections Manager and Cara Shatzman, Collection Specialist, Department of Film.

Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.

Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, with major funding from The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

If readers of this blog are interested to see which rather unusual images of Brooks are included in the exhibit, I would recommend a visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.... I am not trying to be coy, but all I can say is that they are by Otto Dyar, not Eugene Richee or even M.I. Boris, which surprised me.

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. 

Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" Screens Around the World

Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, a newly restored 4K version of Charlie Chaplin‘s classic silent comedy The Gold Rush will be released in cinemas worldwide on June 26, one hundred years to the day that it first screened at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles. Organized by distributor mk2 films, the same-day global rollout will include more than 250 screenings spanning over 70 territories. 

First released in 1925, The Gold Rush was met with widespread critical acclaim. The first ever showing at the Egyptian Theater was a huge event, with newspaper advertisements promoting it as the "world's greatest premiere."

"At the Berlin premiere, the film was rolled back so that the 'Dance of the Rolls' sequence could be enjoyed for a second time." And, according to the mk2 press release, "At the Tivoli Theatre premiere in London, the BBC tried a sort of experiment—to record 'a storm of uncontrolled laughter, inspired by the only man in the world who could make people laugh continually for the space of five minutes, viz., Charlie Chaplin’, an achievement that proved to be an historic moment in film and broadcasting history."

In 1942, Chaplin re-released a “talkie” version, reissuing it with synchronised music and narration and re-editing the original camera negative. He removed all the titles, rearranged some sequences and discarded several scenes. He also took steps to ensure that all existing prints of the 1925 version were withdrawn. In 1993, Kevin Brownlow and David Gill reconstructed the film by combining the few surviving elements with the 1942 reissue, restoring the film as closely as is possible to how Chaplin first released it. (The 1942 reissue received two Academy Award nominations. And in 1992, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”)

To mark the film's centennial, a worldwide search was launched to locate additional 1925 full-frame material. Following Brownlow and Gill's reconstruction, and thanks to the joint efforts of several film archives around the world, this new restoration offers an opportunity to see Chaplin's masterpiece closer to its original form.

The restoration was made possible by elements held by Roy Export, including materials originally  prepared for Kevin Brownlow and David Gill’s 1993 reconstruction, and by materials generously made
available by the BFI National Archive, Blackhawk Films and the Lobster Films collection, Das 
Bundesarchiv, Filmoteca de Catalunya, George Eastman Museum, and the Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA). The restoration itself was carried out by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory (Bologna), under the aegis of Association Chaplin and Roy Export SAS, with the support of mk2.

The music, originally composed by Charles Chaplin in 1942, was adapted, arranged, and conducted by
Timothy Brock for this restoration of the 1925 version of the film, and performed by Orchestra Città
Aperta.

 

The release of The Gold Rush was not only a important event in Chaplin's career as well as film history, but it also played a significant event in the life of Louise Brooks, who was not otherwise involved with the film. The film star and the aspiring actress met sometime after Chaplin arrived in New York City for the premiere of The Gold Rush at the local Mark Strand theater. Shortly afterward, the two enjoyed a short term romance fling. 

 

 

To accompany the special re-release of The Gold Rush, a new international poster has been unveiled, presenting a fresh design that aim to honor the timeless image of the Little Tramp. If you have the opportunity, go see The Gold Rush on the big screen!

 

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.  

Rolled Stockings, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1927

Rolled Stockings, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1927. The film is a drama set among students at the fictional Colfax College. It was one of a number of similarly-themed films aimed toward the youth market of the 1920s. Besides Louise Brooks, who was then 20 years old, its cast included a few of Paramount's "junior stars" -- then up-and-comers Richard Arlen, James Hall, Nancy Phillips, and El Brendel. Brooks plays the love interest of two brothers, one a fop, the other an athlete. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

To add verisimilitude, Rolled Stockings was largely filmed on and around the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. It also includes footage of actual crew races between the University of California and the University of Washington.

A summer release, the film proved popular wherever it was shown. Harrison’s Reports, a film industry trade journal, described Rolled Stockings as "a light comedy drama of college life" that was "Pretty good entertainment for the hot weather." The Chicago Tribune named it one of the six best films of June, 1927. Not surprisingly, the film found a receptive audience in college towns across the country. The critic for the Ann Arbor Times News, for example, appreciatively stated "The three stars, Louise Brooks, James Hall and Richard Arlen are so thoroughly likable and the story so different from the usual line of college bunk, that Rolled Stockings proves to be a delightful bit of cinema entertainment."

Rolled Stockings was a cut above many of the other motion pictures about the younger generation. The Seattle Times praised the film, noting "Paramount’s ‘youth’ picture, which is now at the Coliseum Theatre, has everything -- a thrilling college crew race, some exciting automobile scenes, snappy comedy, a good love story and lots of pep." Regina Cannon of the New York American proclaimed, "This is another college story and it is realistic enough to be entertaining. . . . Louise Brooks is seen for the first time in a ‘straight’ role. This child is so smartly sophisticated that it has seldom been her lot to portray anything but baby vamps on the screen. She has an unusual personality which the camera catches and magnifies, dresses snappily and makes the most of her every movie moment.”

Critics were divided on Brooks, the star of the film. Some noted her "provoking presence" and "demure charm, with its tricky suggestion of mild sophistication." The Los Angeles Examiner wrote, "Louise Brooks is utterly adorable as Carol Fleming. She is exactly the type college boys swoon over. She displays a sincerity in her work that has been absent from her previous roles. Though this particular part offers little opportunity to show any great acting, she measures up splendidly in the few scenes that border on the emotional." Across town, the Los Angeles Daily Illustrated News stated "Louise Brooks, judging by this film, is destined to go a long way. She has some of Colleen Moore's qualities with a dash of Florence Vidor thrown in, and a lot of her own distinctive personality."

The New York Daily Mirror countered, stating "Louise Brooks looks remarkably like Clara Bow, though she lacks the famed pep of our national flapper." The Washington Times went even further, "The leading role is borne by Louise Brooks and the part could have been better cast. Miss Brooks has the bad habit of stalking through her screen parts like an automaton and her face is devoid of emotion under all circumstances." In a piece titled "Louise Brooks Shows Acting Ability in Rivoli Feature," Mark K. Bowman found middle ground in the Portland Oregonian, "In the past Miss Brooks has been accused of strutting instead of acting, but it is apparent in this latest picture that she is endeavoring to do less posing, which is a promising move."

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In the United States, the film was also presented under the title Reclutas por los Aires (Spanish-language press) and Agora Estamos no Ar (Portuguese-language press).

Elsewhere, Now We’re in the Air was shown under the title Deux Braves Poltrons (Algeria); Dos tiburones en el aire (Argentina); Riff und Raff als Luftschiffer (Austria); Nous sommes dans les air (Belgium); Dois aguias no ar (Brazil); Reclutas por los Aires (Chile); Reclutas por los Aires (Costa Rica); Reclutas por los Aires (Cuba); Ted my jsme ve vzduchu and Rif a Raf, Piloti (Czechoslovakia) and Riff a Raff strelci (Slovakia); To muntre Spioner (Denmark); Reclutas i Retaguardias (Dominican Republic); Nüüd, meie oleme õhus and Riffi ja Raffi õiged nimed (Estonia); Sankareita Ilmassa and Sankarit ilmassa and Hjaltar i luften (Finland); Deux Braves Poltrons (France); Riff und Raff als Luftschiffer (Germany); O Riff kai o Raff aeroporoi (Greece); Megfogtam a kémet! and Riff és Raff (Hungary); Kátu Njósnararnir (Iceland); Nou Vliegen We (Dutch East Indies / Indonesia); Aviatori per forza and Aviatori … per forza and Ed eccoci aviatori (Italy); Reclutas por los aires (Mexico); Hoera! We Vliegen (The Netherlands); Luftens Spioner (Norway); Riff i Raff jako Lotnicy (Poland); Riff es Raffal a foszerepekben (Romania);  Recrutas Aviadores (Portugal); Reclutas por los Aires (Spain); Hjältar i luften (Sweden); and Deux Braves Poltrons (Switzerland).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

-- The film was based on a topical story, "Sheiks and Sheibas," by Frederica Sagor. Along with raccoon coats, flagpole sitters, goldfish swallowers, hip flasks, and ankle watches, rolled stockings worn by women were one of the many fads of the Jazz Age.

-- Rolled Stockings was first called Sheiks and Sheibas, but the title was changed because it conflicted with a First National property. At different times, different trade journals reported that Monty Brice and then Frank Strayer would direct the film, with Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Sterling Holloway among the cast.

-- Sally Blane, who had an uncredited part in Rolled Stockings, was born Elizabeth Jane Young and was the sister of actress Loretta Young.

-- Grover Jones, a gag man, doubled as director while the Rolled Stockings  company was on location in Berkeley, California. Director Richard Rosson was summoned to Hollywood by the death of his mother and Jones took the microphone and directed shots of the California-Washington boat race.

-- Years later, in an interview, Brooks said director Richard Rosson didn't want to direct the film, and in fact, didn't even want to be a director. "He'd been Allan Dwan's assistant, and it was an assistant that he wanted to be. During [this picture] he sat sweating, with a trembling script. There wasn't enough Bromo-Seltzer to float him out of his chair."

 

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.  

A Louise Brooks screenplay and the Louise Brooks Society

A few weeks ago I noticed something unusual and pricey for sale on eBay. It was a bound photocopy of a typescript of a screenplay. I've come across other screenplays for sale in the past -- either on eBay or in person while haunting the memorabilia shops in Hollywood whenever I make it to Southern California. The screenplays which are offered for sale, I suppose, have at one time been in the possession of agents, studio personal, or other interested parties in the film world.

Three things stood out about this particular script. One thing was that it was for a film that was never made. Usually, the photocopied screenplays offered for sale are for films that have gone into production and have either become a hit or have fade into cult obscurity. The second thing about this screenplay that caught my eye was that it was about Louise Brooks. I knew that there had been interest in making a film about the actress in the past -- decades ago actually, but I never realized there was an actual screenplay. The third thing about this "bound photocopy of a typescript of a screenplay" that especially surprised me was that multiple pages from my Louise Brooks Society website were included in the "pitch" material attached to the screenplay. I hadn't known.... 

The title page reads:

"THE GIRL IN THE BLACK HELMET"

First Draft Screenplay

by Sarah Kernochan

based on the book "Louise Brooks"

by Barry Paris 

The author, Sarah Kernochan, is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist -- as well as the winner of two Academy Awards, one in 1973 and one in 2002. By the time Kernochan had drafted this screenplay around 1997 or 1998, she had already seen a handful of her efforts turned into films. Among them were the erotic drama 9½ Weeks (1986), Dancers (1987) starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, the period drama, Sommersby (1993), and other films including Learning to Drive (2014). Another work which Kernochan has characterized as "maybe the best thing that I will ever do" was another period) drama, Impromptu (1991), the debut film directed by her Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning husband James Lapine. 

1991 newspaper article

Recently, I emailed Kernochan, who confirmed that her screenplay was originally written for Julia Roberts, (the Kansas-born actress) who at one time, I believe, might have held the film rights to the 1989 Barry Paris biography. When this project fell through, as so many do, Kernochan's screenplay was under consideration by Madonna, but that apparently didn't come about as well. Time passed....

from the original eBay listing

Fast forward seven years.... and seemingly, Kernochan's screenplay was repackaged and a "pitch" section added. The comb-bound typescript which showed up on eBay a few weeks ago is made up of two distinct parts, Kernochan's 114 page draft screenplay, and a few dozen additional pages made up of 1998 magazine clippings from Vanity Fair, Interview, Vogue and other publications. These clippings (which include a major piece on Brooks by Tom Dardis) are either about Louise Brooks or actors who could be cast in principal roles. Seemingly, in this screenplay package, Shiva Rose is suggested for the role of Louise Brooks. 

(Strangely, Shiva's Wikipedia page, but not her IMDb page, credits her with the role of Louise Brooks in another film, Silent Madness - Hollywood Babylon. However, I couldn't find any record of that film having been released. I emailed the actress, who responded that the film had in fact been made, but she wasn't sure what happened to it. UPDATE 6-18-2025: Thanks to an astute reader, we now know that the film, released as Return to Babylon, can be found on YouTube. Shiva Rose's brief turn as Louise Brooks takes place at the 10:30 mark.)

Also included in the pitch are two sections from the Louise Brooks Society website (each printed out in early 1998). One is the "Louise Brooks Bookshelf" which prints out to six pages, and my "Louise Brooks Chronology" which prints out to eight pages. Another page of quotes about Louise Brooks -- by Henri Langlois, Kevin Brownlow, David Thomson, and Ado Kyrou, was, I believe, also lifted from the LBS. Though now heavily revised, all of this material still exists in one form or another on the LBS website.

From the eBay listing, here is a scan of a couple of my Louise Brooks Society webpages. 

from the original eBay listing

 

from the original eBay listing

I don't know who created this pitch section, but I understand it wasn't Kernochan. She told me so. Perhaps it was an agent or someone from an interested studio? Nevertheless, as I mentioned earlier, "I hadn't known...."  and actually, I am flattered, and secretly pleased. If anything, the Louise Brooks Society is about banging the drum for Louise Brooks and her legacy. And the fact that my website, which was just three years old at the time, was used to help pitch a film project is pretty cool.

There must have been something in the air.... because in 1998, my website actually helped "inspire" the production of another film, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. Inspired by the popularity of the LBS website, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) gave a green light to the Emmy nominated documentary. And in fact, the part played by the LBS in bringing the film to television was acknowledged by TCM as well as by the director of the documentary. 

According to an article in Wired magazine, “Fan Site Sparks Biopic“, a TCM spokesman was quoted as saying “the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society, the most in-depth Web site devoted to the once nearly forgotten star, convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and a mini-festival of Brooks’ work.” Another article, “Lovely Lulu Lives Again,” in the San Francisco Chronicle, noted “Hugh Munro Neeley, director of Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, credits Gladysz’s site with helping to sell the idea for the documentary to Turner executives.” And the Fresno Bee newspaper put it this way, “Internet users have embraced the actress… Her career and her life off the set have become a source of interest unparalleled by many other film stars. And those bits and bytes of information were a catalyst for this TV special.”

It's nice to be acknowledged.... And it feels good to know my work has made something of a difference, at least a small one. This summer, the Louise Brooks Society turns 30 years old. My website is still banging the drum for Louise Brooks and her legacy. 

I will close with a curiosity, something I found while fact checking this blog. It's a 1991 page from Portland Oregonian. There, side-by-side, is an article about a Louise Brooks film and its music -- and an article about Sarah Kernochan's film Impromptu, which is "about" a musical life, Chopin.

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. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American novel, The Great Gatsby, turns 100

Three Penguin editions of Fitzgerald's books which feature Louise Brooks on the cover

F. Scott Fitzgerald is certainly the one American author most emblematic of the Jazz Age. He authored a handful of brilliant novels including The Beautiful and the Damned and Tender is the Night, as well as numerous short story collected in books such Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age. Of course, his greatest achievement as a writer and certainly his best known work is The Great Gatsby, which this year turns one hundred years old. It is the "great American novel." This classic story of yearning helped define the Jazz Age -- it was also a novel that Louise Brooks "lived". 

This past weekend, CBS Sunday Morning ran a short piece on the book: "One hundred years ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, a tragic tale of striving featuring an enigmatic millionaire, was published – and it bombed. Since then, its reputation has only grown, to where many consider it the Great American Novel. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with a Fitzgerald descendant about the author's legacy; and visits Fitzgerald's old haunts, where his characters would have rubbed shoulders with 'the very rich' during the Jazz Age."

I don't know if Louise Brooks ever read The Great Gatsby or any other of Fitzgerald's novels or short stories, but it is possible. She was a reader whose tastes inclined toward the classics as well as contemporary literary fiction. 

What is certain is that Brooks knew of Fitzgerald, and in fact, they encountered one another on at least a few occasions. Brooks first met Fitzgerald in Hollywood. According to the Barry Paris biography, they first met in 1927 in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel. Brooks described the incident, "They were sitting close together on a sofa, like a comedy team, and the first thing that struck me was how small they were.” Brooks “had come to see the genius writer,” adding, “but what dominated the room was the blazing intelligence of Zelda’s profile… the profile of a witch.” 

In later letters and interviews, Brooks recounted a few other meetings at parties over the years, but apparently, they didn't leave much of an impression on each other. Instead, it was the similarly bobbed actress Colleen Moore about which Fitzgerald famously said, "I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble." (For more on this actress, see Jeff Codori's fine biography Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star, from 2010.) Fitzgerald was also smitten with another actress of the silent era, Lois Moran, who served as the basis for a character or two in Fitzgerald's fiction. It is widely believed that Moran and Fitzgerald had a brief affair during the 1920s, despite their difference in years. (For more on the actress, see Richard Buller's outstanding biography A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran, from 2005.)

Fitzgerald and Brooks had at least a few things in common. They both came from the Midwest, were both prone to occasional melancholy (IMHO), and both shared a dislike of Hollywood. Despite its reputation as a dream factory, the writer and the actress were profoundly unhappy during their tenures in Tinseltown. They also "shared" two individuals who would play a significant role in their respective lives.

One of them was Herbert Brenon, who in 1925 directed Brooks in her very first film, The Street of Forgotten Men. One year later, he directed the now lost first film version of The Great Gatsby. (Both films featured Neil Hamilton.) The other individual the actress and the writer "shared" was Deering Davis, a polo player, dancer and socialite from a wealthy Chicago family.

Anyone who has read a Fitzgerald biography knows that before Zelda there was another woman with whom Fitzgerald was in love, or at least deeply infatuated. Her name was Ginevra King. The two met at a sledding party in January of 1915, when Scott was a nineteen year old college student at Princeton, and Ginevra was a poised high school sophomore. Their romance flourished in heartfelt letters and quickly ran its course – though Fitzgerald never forgot her. Ginevra became the inspiration for Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise and the model for Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Scott also wrote a few short stories inspired by her – including “Babes in the Woods” and “Winter Dreams". This youthful passion helped shaped Fitzgerald’s life as a writer.

James L. W. West III's book, The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love, reveals that around the same time that Fitzgerald was romancing Ginevra King, she was infatuated with a "Chicago boy" by the name of Deering Davis, the same Chicago playboy who married Louise Brooks in 1933! And, apparently, the two suitors aware of one another. [Whether or not Brooks was later made aware of the affair is uncertain, and considering it was almost 20 years earlier, perhaps unlikely.]

Three ebook editions of Fitzgerald's books which feature Louise Brooks on the cover

Fitzgerald and Brooks also had a friend in common, namely Townsend Martin. He was Fitzgerald's  classmate at Princeton, and, he penned two of Brooks' films, The American Venus (1926) and Love Em and Leave Em (1926). Brooks and Martin met around the time the future actress was appearing in the Follies, with Brooks suggesting Martin persuaded her to play a part in The American Venus. A few year's later, in 1929, they shared passage aboard the Ile de France to France and eventually Paris, where they encountered one another again, and the (in)famous incident of Brooks slapping a bouquet of roses across across Martin's face. (Read all about it in the Barry Paris biography of Brooks.) 

With both Fitzgerald and Brooks being modern day emblems of the Jazz Age, it is not surprising that the actress has ended up on the covers of at least a few editions of Fitzgerald's fiction.

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 Louise Brooks Society page featuring physical media

I've just finished creating a BIG new page on the Louise Brooks Society website devoted to Louise Brooks physical media. Though it took me a couple of weeks to build -- working on it a little bit each day, the page itself has been years in the making, as I have been collecting and documenting all manner of physical media for some time. 

The "Film of Louise Brooks -- physical media" page features more than 125 examples of VHS, Laser Disc, DVD, PAL and Blu-ray releases from around the world. As I mention on the page itself, I recall there once was a Beta Tape release of a Brooks’ film, but I can’t seem to track it down. There may have also been a 9mm film available of one of Brooks’ westerns. Does anyone know? I would like to make this page as complete as possible.

Though I was able to document (via WorldCat records) that a particular film was released sometime in the past, I was not always able to track down a cover image. Other times, I came across a cover image, but was not able to determine which year a particular released was issued. And sometimes, I couldn't determine the release label, or studio. The Louise Brooks Society needs your help in filling in the details.... perhaps you have one of the releases with incomplete information in your collection? Or perhaps I got the name of the releasing company wrong. I think that may well be the case with some of the European releases. Please visit the "Film of Louise Brooks -- physical media" and see if you can fill in any of the information that is missing. Or perhaps you have an old VHS tape of Laser Disc or DVD that I missed altogether.

This page surprised me, as I hadn't realized there had been so many different releases of each of Brooks surviving films. Not surprisingly, Pandora's Box stands as the actress' most popular film in terms of physical media, with some 36 releases from around the world dating as far back as 1983. As a matter of fact, another of Brooks' films, Diary of a Lost Girl, was also released in the early 1980s -- each while Louise Brooks was still alive! 

The "Film of Louise Brooks -- physical media" page features releases that are both familiar and obscure. I had never heard of the Foothill Video company, nor the German Language Video Center release of Diary of a Lost Girl way back in 1984. Along with the United States, I found multiple films have been released in England, France, Italy, and Spain -- but I suspect I missed some from Germany. I've even managed to document a few physical media releases from Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland. 

In the early 1990s, when I first came across Louise Brooks and became determined to see everyone of her surviving films, I used to go to the local Tower Records in San Francisco and flip through the bins hoping to find something new. There just wasn't much to find.... Seemingly, only the KINO releases were distributed to the shops I frequented. Then I discovered that other films could be ordered through mail-order from the like of Video Yesterday, Unknown Video, and Grapevine Video. And the rest is history.... The first few Louise Brooks films I ever bought were on VHS tape. I still have them, along with dupes of films that hadn't been released yet (and still haven't). Images of those early, first purchases are found on this page.

BTW: I also wanted to mention that "Film of Louise Brooks -- physical media" is page number 260 on the still growing Louise Brooks Society website. While waiting for judgement day, I've kept busy working on my longstanding website, which this year celebrates 30 years online. Check it out. In the meantime, I wonder which DVD or Blu-ray will be next added to "Film of Louise Brooks -- physical media" ? I have a good idea, it it will be a doozy!

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.

Happy 87th birthday to Kevin Brownlow

Happy 87th birthday to film historian, documentary film maker, author, pioneering preservationist and Academy Award honoree Kevin Brownlow, whose numerous contributions to world film culture have helped countless individuals, including myself, bring projects to life. He was born in England on this day in 1938. More about Kevin Brownlow and his many accomplishments can be found on his Wikipedia entry.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of meeting up with Kevin on more than a few occasions, including the time he asked me over to his London home while my wife and I were visiting England. We talked about Louise Brooks for more than an hour, and he shared some of his LB research notes with me -- where I was surprised to discover a reference to the Louise Brooks Society!

Another time, we signed books side by side at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. That was an honor. We said "hello" whenever we encountered one another at silent film screenings, once the following day at the Cinema Museum that time in London in 2016 (Kevin introduced his print of Man, Woman and Sin, starring John Gilbert & Jeanne Eagles), at the SFSFF on a few occasions pre-Covid, at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and at a Cinecon screening for John Ford's The Iron Horse at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood. I believe the latter screening was the first time we ever met.

Another early meeting was brunch at Emily Leider's house in San Francisco (with Donna Hill, of course). 

Kevin Brownlow has had a profound influence on my interest in Louise Brooks and early film, and thus my life. When I was in college ever so long ago, I saw his Hollywood series on PBS and was intrigued. I believe that series planted a seed in myself that only bloomed later on.... I appreciate our conversations and emails over the years, his generous sharing of information and images, and the foreword he wrote to my most recent book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. Thank you, Kevin.

I would also like to thank Kevin for all the books he has signed for me (I am a bit of an obsessive collector), and for restoring Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927). Seeing that film at the Paramount theater in Oakland back in 2012 stands as the greatest cinematic experience of my life. Here is something I wrote for the Huffington Post at the time. I hope it conveys a bit of my enthusiasm.

I wrote about Kevin on a few occasions. In fact, Kevin featured in the second piece I wrote for Huffington Post, about another English film historian, back in 2010. Here are a few of those pieces.

2010: Remembering H.A.V. Bulleid, Author and Pioneering Film Historian

2010: Rare Oscar to a Film Historian... and the Award Goes to Kevin Brownlow

2011: Oscar-Winner Kevin Brownlow Continues His Labour on Behalf of Cinema's Past

If you have any interest in silent film be sure and track down as many as possible of Kevin Brownlow's books and documentary films. His classic text, The Parade's Gone By (1968) is a must read. And, his 13-part Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980) series is epic. His 6-part Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood is also outstanding. Louise Brooks features in all three of these works.

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