Happy Holidays from the Louise Brooks Society !

 Happy Holidays from Thomas Gladysz and the Louise Brooks Society.

If Wishes Come True: "When these stars get up Christmas morning, their trees will be a strange sight if their desires are answered.... Louise Brooks, right, hass a weakness for slippers -- and her friends know it. Enough said." -- Picture Play magazine, January 1929

More about the one-and-only Louise Brooks can be found on the newly
revamped Louise Brooks Society website at www.pandorasbox.com

And here is where else you can find the LBS:

WEBSITE:  The Louise Brooks Society has been online since 1995. It's website & homepage are located at www.pandorasbox.com  

BLOG:  The Louise Brooks Society has a long-running blog, where you will find news, announcements, and more. It can be found at louisebrookssociety.blogspot.com/

SUBSTACK:  The Louise Brooks Society has a Substack account, where you can find long-form essays. It can be found at substack.com/@louisebrookssociety

YOUTUBE:  The Louise Brooks Society also has a long-standing YouTube account. It can be found at www.youtube.com/@LouiseBrooksSociety (For more related audio and video, be sure and check out the LBS accounts on TIKTOK and SOUNDCLOUD.)

INTERNET ARCHIVE:  The Louise Brooks Society is developing a repository of materials related to the actress and silent film. Stay tuned for further details.

SOCIAL MEDIA:  The Louise Brooks Society has taken part in social media for many years. It has a FACEBOOK groups page, as well as an INSTAGRAM and THREADS account. The LBS can also be found on REDDIT and BLUESKY and elsewhere. A complete list of the various social media accounts which fly the LBS banner can be found on its SOCIAL MEDIA page.

FILMVERSE:  The Louise Brooks Society and its director, Thomas Gladysz, can be found on a few film-related sites such as NITRATEVILLE and IMDb, as well as LETTERBOXD, MUBI, and VIMEO,.

ELSEWHERE:  The Louise Brooks Society can also be found on LINKEDIN, as well as ALL MY LINKS and LINKTREE.

KEY ABOUT PAGES: More about the Louise Brooks Society, including its mission statement and history, can be found on its ABOUT page. Some of its other key pages include its MEDIA "IN THE NEWS" page, as well as a PUBLICATIONS page and a GIFT SHOP. Otherwise, be sure and check out the WHAT'S NEW page to see what's been added or revised.

KEY CONTENT PAGES: Some of the websites key content pages include the FILMS and ARCHIVE pages, as well as the LIFE & TIMES and HOMAGE pages. Menus at the top of every page direct individuals to relevant content. 

 Be part of the smart set: 
DON'T FORGET TO LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE! 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

The Street of Forgotten Men and the Little Church Around the Corner: A look at an historic location shoot

Wanted to encourage everyone to check out the latest Louise Brooks Society Substack, "The Street of Forgotten Men and the Little Church Around the Corner: A look at an historic location shoot." It is a free-to-read stocking stuffer to Louise Brooks fans interested in learning a little more about the actress' first film.

The piece looks at the historic New York City church and the role it played in Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men. Much of the material is taken from my 2023 book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, a deep dive into the history of a single film - its literary source, its making, exhibition history, critical reception, and, most surprising of all, its little-known legacy. 

Here are a couple of additional images I hoped to include in the article, but I didn't have room. 

A view of the Little Church Around the Corner, 
from around the time the film was to have taken place, c. the early 1900s.

 

The Street of Forgotten Men lobby card showing detail from the church's lich-gate

More about The Street of Forgotten Men can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its The Street of Forgotten Men (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 content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Empty Saddles, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1936

Empty Saddles, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1936. The film is a B-Western starring one of the biggest cowboy stars of the time, Buck Jones. The somewhat confused plot revolves around Buck, who attempts to convert the seemingly haunted “Empty Saddles” ranch into a resort, but soon discovers a group of crooked sheep ranchers have other plans. Louise Brooks plays Boots Boone, Bucks’ love interest, who helps out on the ranch.

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

In 1930, Brooks turned down an offer to appear in a Buck Jones Western. In 1936, however, she could not afford to be so picky. Brooks had been out of films for five years and was attempting a second comeback. Universal issued a press release quoting a supposed interview with the actress:  “I am delighted with my role in Empty Saddles. It gives me an opportunity to do something, not just stand around and look pretty. I wouldn’t trade it for all the other roles I ever had because I am really acting now, not just being an ornament, and I feel that, at last, I am on the road toward getting some place in pictures.” Brooks received $300 for a week’s work.

One syndicated newspaper article, no doubt echoing the language of the studio press sheets, reported “Of outstanding interest is the fact that the picture marks the return to the screen of lovely Louise Brooks, the Ziegfeld Follies girl who won film fame and then quit pictures at the height of her career. Her brunette beauty and her fine acting making her a splendid leading lady.” Another stated “Do You remember Louise Brooks? She is the lovely brunette whose beauty carried her from the Ziegfeld Follies to screen stardom. Well, she has returned to the screen. She Is back in pictures again as Buck Jones’ leading lady in Empty Saddles, the Universal outdoor adventure film at the Grand Theatre. The actress is the same shapely Louise Brooks. The only change in her is that she is wearing her hair with a new style of dress.”

Prior to its release, Empty Saddles was previewed at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, a neighborhood house considered similar to the small town theaters where the film was likely to show. According to reports, “The audience was satisfied with what it saw on the screen.”

Most of the trade journals were similarly satisfied. Daily Variety reported, “The yarn has plenty of suspense, numerous spooky situations, a good love theme and enough of a western touch to top a western dualer or fill out the action requirements of a mixed bill and leave the cash customers well satisfied.” Selected Motion Pictures stated the film was “A somewhat unusual western story, packed with excitement, fast-paced dramatic action, mystery and superb riding. . . . The natural scenic effects are of exceptionally high quality.” Box Office added, “Several new angles and Buck Jones’ usual capable performance as a hard-riding, square shooting son of the saddle makes this an above par offering in the Western class.”

Until Empty Saddles, Jones’ westerns were generally well regarded — each crisply edited and action-packed, and each with lots of the aforementioned hard riding and straight-shooting. Despite satisfactory reviews, this and Jones’ following films marked a decline in the actor’s productions. The Hollywood Reporter offered the lone critical review, “This Buck Jones Western must be set below par because of a rambling and cluttery story that is almost menaceless until the last reel or two and then, in the final chase and battle, is confusing and inconclusive.”

The film showed in the west and in small towns and neighborhood theaters elsewhere around the United States. J.E. Stocker, manager of the neighborhood Myrtle Theater in Detroit, reported in Motion Picture Herald, “I tried out a Buck Jones picture for a Sunday play date once before, on January 17^th, which drew better than average so I tried again with Empty Saddles, March 14-15, and again it drew better than average so we can assume that Buck Jones is still popular.”

Film Daily liked Brooks in Empty Saddles, stating “Louise Brooks has quite a dramatic role as the heroine, which she handles very well.” Variety wrote, “Louise Brooks, cast as a poor trader’s child, is not flattered by the camera, but does a good bit of acting. She is the outstanding femme player in the slight romance.” Despite these few favorable notices, Empty Saddles failed to reignite Brooks’ career. Only one more featured role, another Western, awaited.

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao), Palestine (Israel), South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland).

Elsewhere, Empty Saddles was shown under the title O Rancho das Feitiçarias (Brazil); Prázd né sedlo and Vyprázdnit sedla (Czechoslovakia); Cowboyens Hvilehjem (Denmark); Elátkozott farm (Hungary); Puste siodła (Poland); and De tomma sadlarnas hus (Sweden).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— Buck Jones (1891–1942) was a major star in the 1920s and 1930s. He had his own fanclub, endorsed products, and developed a huge following, especially among youngsters attending Saturday matinees. Some of his silent films were directed by the likes of John Ford, William Wellman, and ‘Woody’ Van Dyke. Though much of his work was in genre films, especially Westerns (and some of those were B-pictures known as “oaters”), he was still among the higher paid actors of the day. In 1936, the year that Empty Saddles was released, Jones’ reported income was $143,333. By comparison, fellow cowboy star Ken Maynard earned only $37,100. The highest salaried movie star in 1936 was Gary Cooper, who earned $370,214. With the vogue for singing cowboys, Jones career went into eclipse in the late 1930s.

— Buck Jones was one of the 492 victims of the historic 1942 Coconut Grove fire in Boston, Massachusetts. He died two days after the November 28th blaze. For years, legend held that Jones’ fatal injuries were the result of his going back into the burning building to save victims.

— Jones’ daughter Maxine was born in 1918. She also had an uncredited bit part in Empty Saddles. She later married actor Noah Beery Jr., the son of the actor who co-starred in the Brooks’ film Evening Clothes (1927).

More about Empty Saddles can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Empty Saddles (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 content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.   

Just Another Blonde, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926

Just Another Blonde, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926. The film is a romantic drama about two small-time gamblers and the two Coney Island girls they romance. For the film, Louise Brooks was loaned out by Paramount to First National. Of the four principals, Brooks has the smallest role, playing a supporting role as the brunette to blonde Dorothy Mackaill, the star of the film.

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page. And what's more, this is one of the four films featured on the forthcoming Flicker Alley Blu-ray, Focus on Louise Brooks. Pre-order your copy today.

The film was shot in and around Luna Park, an amusement park on Coney Island in Brooklyn. During production, stories came out on the excitement generated by the making of the film. The New York Evening Post reported that the stars mingling among the crowds generated too much attention, so much so visitors threatened to demolish the dance hall were one scene was set. Director Alfred Santell was forced to wait until the park closed, and then recruited 200 extras and “kept them busy dancing for the rest of the night.”

Despite its promotion as a “dainty, dazzling, golden glorification” of a “thrill packed tale of love and romance,” Just Another Blonde fared poorly among critics. To capture local interest, the film was shown in-and-around New York City as The Girl from Coney Island. But even the local angle couldn’t spare the film from the barbs of local critics. The New York Telegram was the most blunt, “The Girl from Coney Island, the so called feature picture, is interminable and stupid.” Dorothy Herzog of the New York Daily Mirror was less cutting, “Dorothy Mackaill, as Blondie, and Louise Brooks, as Blackie, enter in celluloid during the second reel. Apparently most of them was left on the cutting-room floor to permit the sub-titler a chance to resurrect jokes so old that even Cleopatra would have been prompted to justifiable murder.”

Some criticized what they saw as a rather slight story. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote, “The new film at the Strand Theater in Manhattan, The Girl From Coney Island, appears to be an excellent example of the common practice in Hollywood to stretch two-reel screen materials in to so-called feature productions. This mildly amusing picturizatlon of Gerald Beaumont’s story, ‘Even Stephen,’ would, I daresay, have made a fairly interesting short-reel movie. In its padded state of six or seven reels the drama falls considerably short of maintaining its pace beyond the very earliest sequences…. And so The Girl From Coney Island wallows along, a mawkishly sentimental narrative heavily burdened with lengthy subtitles.” Eileen Creelman of the New York American was a bit more forgiving, “Santell has taken a fifth rate plot, surrounded it with first rate atmosphere and a couple of amusing characterizations, and turned out a picture.”

What critics did appreciate was the acting, and Brooks. The Atlanta Constitution wrote “Although Miss Mackaill and Mr. Mulhall’s parts are listed as the leading roles, the acting of Louise Brooks and William Collier, Jr., as second roles, has a vital part in the picture and must be given due credit. Their acting was unusually good throughout.”

The Cincinnati Post went a little further, “Jack Mulhall is assisted in this bit by William Collier Jr., and two really good-looking girls, Dorothy Mackaill and Louise Brooks. Somebody told us Brooks was ‘Miss America’ a year or two ago. At any rate, she will knock your eye out and Mackaill will attend to the other one.” The Cedar Rapids Republican gushed, “Louise Brooks, who is said to be Clara Bow’s only rival as cinema’s most ravishing flapper, is a convincing argument in favor of modernism."

Under its American title, Just Another Blonde, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia, Canada, China, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa and the British Isles (England, Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland). When shown in and around New York City, Just Another Blonde was promoted under the title The Girl from Coney Island. In the United States, the film was advertised under the title Just Another Blond (Portuguese-language press). The film was also shown under the title The Charleston Kid in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia.

Elsewhere, this motion picture was known to have been shown under other-language titles including The Charleston Kid and Una de Tantas (Argentina); Die Braut am Scheidewege (Austria); The Charleston Kid (Australia); The Charleston Kid and Entre a Loura e a Morena and O Garoto do Charleston and Laços de amor (Brazil); The Charleston Kid (Cuba); The Charleston Kid and Pouze jiný svetlovlasý (Czechoslovakia); Den blonde fares (Denmark); Le Danseur de Charleston and Marchands de Beaute (France); Die Braut am Scheidewege (Germany); Girl from Coney Island (Hungary); Blonde Piker and Sommerflirt (Norway); Caixeiro Viajante (Portugal); Una de Tantas (Spain); and Den blonda faran (Sweden).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— Just Another Blonde was based on Gerald Beaumont’s short story, “Even Stephen,” which appeared in Red Book magazine in October, 1925. Beaumont (1880 – 1926) died shortly before the film was made, and a few advertisements noted his passing. During the silent and early sound era, dozens of his stories would be turned into films.

— Just Another Blonde began production under the working title The Charleston Kid. Though released under Just Another Blonde, the film was shown in and around New York City under the title The Girl from Coney Island.

— Just Another Blonde was also an early effort by cinematographer Arthur Edeson. By the time he shot Just Another Blonde, Edeson had already shot The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Lost World (1924), Stella Dallas (1925), and Subway Sadie (1926). His later credits include All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca (1942).

— According to rare surviving records of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, the film came under the glare of local censors in St. Louis, Missouri who thought advertising copy which accompanied the film, i.e. “Neckier than Subway Sadie,” was in poor taste, and an example of “bad advertising.”

More about Just Another Blonde can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Just Another Blonde (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 content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks set for first ever e-book edition!

The first ever e-book edition of Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks is set to be released on February 3, 2026 by the University of Minnesota press. The print edition has just recently been re-released with a bold new front and back cover, shown below. (I have seen the back cover, but it hasn't yet been made public.)

I am pleased to report that both the e-book edition of Lulu in Hollywood and its re-release as a print edition has come about through behind-the-scenes efforts of Thomas Gladysz and the Louise Brooks Society.

The book description on amazon.com, as of now, reads:

"Essential writings by this icon of the silent era―rereleased in print and now available as an e-book 100 years after Louise Brooks arrived in Hollywood. 

Lulu in Hollywood is an intimate collection of eight autobiographical essays by Louise Brooks, silent film darling and icon of the flapper era. Ranging from her childhood in Kansas and her early days as a Denishawn and Ziegfeld Follies dancer to her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, William Paley, G. W. Pabst, and others, Brooks’s writing offers a rare glimpse into her extraordinary life. Including her revelatory “Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs,” Lulu in Hollywood also features Kenneth Tynan’s 1979 essay “The Girl in the Black Helmet,” which revived interest in Brooks’s work and was the best discussion of her film work to appear in her lifetime."

# # #  

The publication of Lulu in Hollywood was very important to Louise Brooks. It was her testament to the world. Notably, Brooks’ own copy of the book was on her night table next to her bed at the time of her death in 1985.  

the 1982 edition

The book sold steadily, but sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, Lulu in Hollywood fell out-of-print. In the year 2000, aided in part by a grass-roots campaign led by the Louise Brooks Society, Lulu in Hollywood was republished in an expanded edition by the University of Minnesota Press. The copyright page of this new edition reads, “The University of Minnesota press gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society, in the publication of this book.” Happily, for fans everywhere, it has remained in print since, and has now been rereleased and will be issued as an e-book.

The University of Minnesota edition was given a new look, with a redesigned front and back cover. It was also revised. The now eight essays included in this most recent edition are “Kansas to New York,” “On Location with Billy Wellman,” “Marion Davies’ Niece,” “Humphrey and Bogey,” “The Other Face of W. C. Fields,” “Gish and Garbo,” “Pabst and Lulu” and, additionally, “Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs.” The original William Shawn introduction was replaced by Kenneth Tynan’s acclaimed New Yorker profile, “The Girl in the Black Helmet”. Retained in the new edition was the original afterword by Lotte H. Eisner, “A Witness Speaks”, as well as the condensed filmography and the various illustrations.

the 2000 edition

Someday, I hope to get an annotated edition released, but that might have to wait seven years. 

Read and learn more about Lulu in Hollywood on the Louise Brooks Society website. A page about the book can be found HERE. The LBS also hosts a BIBLIOGRAPHY of reviews and articles, as well as a GALLERY page of international editions. 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

An interesting find regarding the lost Louise Brooks film, The City Gone Wild

While preparing the previous post on the Louise Brooks Society blog, Searching for the lost films of Louise Brooks, I came across something -- something peculiar -- I had never seen before. It was in regards to the lost Brooks film, The City Gone Wild (1927), and one of its lesser known actors, Luke Cosgrave.

Admittedly, Cosgrave (1862-1949) wasn't someone I was much familiar with. He had a minor, uncredited role in The City Gone Wild, possibly as a bar keep or as the owner of a dive where the gangsters in the film congregated. There is a piece about him in the film's press sheet. And, there were a number of articles in the fan magazines from the time about this famously bearded old actor.

All-in-all, I wasn't able to find out much about him; I believe he was a touring stage actor who entered films later in life. According to his IMDb page, "Luke Cosgrave was born on August 6, 1862 in Ballaghdreen, County Mayo, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was an actor, known for Hollywood (1923), The Light That Failed (1923) and Merton of the Movies (1924). He died on June 28, 1949 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA." Having been born in 1862, he is likely one of the earliest born individuals to have appeared in any Brooks' film.

Cosgrave got a role in The City Gone Wild through his friendship with the film's director, James Cruze. Some years before, Cosgrave had given the young Cruze his first work as an actor. Once Cruze established his own career as a director, he regularly brought on Cosgrave to play small parts in his films. 

A short bit penned by Will Hays Jr. in 1925 for the New Yorker put it this way. "From the Coast Cruze brought Luke Cosgrave, an old actor who has appeared in several of his pictures. Cosgrave is to have the leading role in Minick. The odd friendship of Cosgrave and Cruze is one of those curious stories of the movies. Years ago Cruze was making his way across country on the brake beams. Cosgrave was running a tent medicine show. They patched up an acquaintance and soon Cruze was joint proprietor, entertainer and cure-all salesman. The scene changes. Cruze is now a $1,000-a-day director. And Cosgrave is a feature movie actor." 

I mention all this because it ties in with The City Gone Wild, the now lost 1927 Louise Brooks film. Three years after its release, Cosgrave returned to Boise, Idaho -- where he had once lived, and gave a stage performance of his best known roles.  

When I first saw the ad shown above, I was stunned to think that this show included film clips from some of the many movies Cosgrave had appeared in -- which included The City Gone Wild; but, then I thought "no way," how would a minor actor get access to film stock? He was more likely re-enacting on stage whatever film scene he had been in. But then I came across this 1930 newspaper article, "Veteran Thespian in Capital City," published a few days later which states, "Next his act will consist of cut-outs of film from some of his best known pictures -- Toll of the Sea, The Mating Call, The Red Mark, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The City Gone Wild." Did cut-outs = film clips? Who knows?

Click on the image for a larger view

 

If film clips (including a clip from The City Gone Wild) were actually screened, that would make for a unique happening in the annals of the film career of Louise Brooks. If a scene from the film was re-enacted on stage, that would also make for a unique happening in the annals of Louise Brooks. Either way, Cosgrave's one-off stage show (I don't think it was repeated elsewhere) is a singular occurrence, something I have never seen done before in relation to actress. I wonder where those film clips are now? If they somehow survived, it might be the only surviving material from The City Gone Wild. 

BTW, a few years after his death, Cosgrave's 1952 memoir, Theater Tonight, was published by a small press. I was able to track down an online copy, and while it is chock full of references to James Cruze and other Hollywood stars the actor worked with, it doesn't seem to mention The City Gone Wild. 

More about The City Gone Wild can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its The City Gone Wild (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 content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Searching for the lost films of Louise Brooks

Last week's announcement that Flicker Alley and the San Francisco Film Preserve is set to release Focus on Louise Brooks - a single disc compilation of the surviving material from four Brooks films once considered lost, got me thinking... thinking about which other of Brooks "lost" films I would like to see. What is their status today? What are the chances prints of these films might be found? A fan can hope, can't he?

Screen Test (1925) 

Louise Brooks

In early 1925, Louise Brooks was a featured dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies. The Broadway revue was widely celebrated, and all manner of notables turned out to see shows, with some making a bee-line to the performer’s dressing rooms. Among those who visited Brooks was producer Walter Wanger, then a Paramount talent scout. In late April, Variety reported that Brooks, “one of the most popular members of Louie the 14th” (a Ziegfeld production) had “mysteriously disappeared from the cast of this musical comedy several days ago and her absence has been traced to the scouting agents of a moving picture company with studios on Long Island.”

According to various sources, Wanger had heard Edmund Goulding (the British-born screenwriter and director) rave about Brooks, and so Wanger and Townsend Martin (a Paramount screenwriter and another dressing room visitor) arranged to test Brooks for a role in Herbert Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men, which was already filming at the Astoria Studios on Long Island. Brooks’ screen test was overseen by famed director Allan Dwan. It went well, with the result being the absent Ziegfeld dancer was assigned a bit part as a moll, the girlfriend / companion to a criminal. Wouldn't it be marvelous to see that screen test?

The American Venus (1926)

This film is presumed mostly lost, though a few bits and pieces were found in the late 1990’s. The surviving material includes fragments, variously in black and white, tinted, and in Technicolor, from two theatrical trailers, as well as fragments from the film itself. Cumulatively, this surviving material — some of which repeats — runs about 8 minutes. The footage from the film includes interior scenes involving Brooks and Ford Sterling and another woman, an outdoor chase scene involving an automobile and a train, and a technicolor sequence of a fashion show. In 2018, the BFI announced they had found a three second piece of Technicolor stock from the film which depicts Louise Brooks. Most all of this material was restored in 2025, and will be seen in Focus on Louise Brooks.

The American Venus is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a beauty pageant, namely the actual 1925 Miss America contest in Atlantic City. (The American Venus features the actual Miss America from 1925, Fay Lanphier.) The film is the second in which Brooks appeared, though the first for which she received a screen credit. Brooks made something of a splash, and it was this film and her next, A Social Celebrity, which proved to be her “break-out” roles. Though largely eye-candy and once described as a "flesh show", many fans and at least a few critics responded positively to The American Venus. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see this film in its entirety?

Louise Brooks in The American Venus

A Social Celebrity (1926)

A Social Celebrity is a romantic comedy about a small town barber who follows his heart and heads to the big city where he hopes to join high society. Brooks plays the barber’s love interest, a small town manicurist who also heads to the big city to become a dancer. The film is the third in which Brooks appeared, the second for which she received a screen credit, and the first in which she had a starring role.

This film is presumed lost. Some of it's last known public screenings took place is Asia, in Shanghai in September, 1930 and in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in March 1931. According to the Barry Paris biography, Brooks reported seeing the film at the Eastman House in 1957. Lotte Eisner also stated she saw the film, in Paris in 1958, at the Cinémathèque Française. The latter copy was destroyed in a disastrous vault fire in 1959, while the Eastman House copy has since deteriorated. [A mysterious individual named F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre, whose claims could not be verified and were often thought suspect by film historians, once told me that he had seen a deteriorated nitrate print of A Social Celebrity (owned by a private European collector) in the 1990s. MacIntyre died in 2010, and so have his spurious claims that the film has survived.]

Louise Brooks and Adolphe Menjou in A Social Celebrity

Evening Clothes (1927)

Evening Clothes was the first film Louise Brooks made in Hollywood, and at Paramount’s suggestion, the first in which she did not wear her signature bob hairstyle. It's a romantic comedy about a gentleman farmer (played by Adolphe Menjou) who — spurned by his bride, goes to the big city to loose his rustic ways and win back his new wife. Brooks plays Fox Trot, a hot-to-trot Parisian.

This film is presumed lost. Evening Clothes continued to circulate for some four years following its American release. Along with Costa Rica and present day Vietnam, there were also documented screenings in the Australian outback in 1930, and another in New Guinea in September, 1931. 

Adolphe Menjou and Louise Brooks in Evening Clothes

Rolled Stockings (1927)

This film -- one of a number of similarly-themed films aimed toward the youth market of the 1920s -- is presumed lost, which is a shame, as Rolled Stockings (the second film Brooks made on the West Coast) is the only one of Brooks' American silents in which the actress was given top billing. 

As with Evening Clothes, it continued to be shown into the early sound era, with documented screenings taking place overseas in Suriname (August, 1930), Papua New Guinea (October, 1930) and in a tent in Darwin, Australia (October, 1931). Rolled Stockings, along with A Social Celebrity, are the two Brooks films I would most like to see. Who knows, perhaps a print of the film is sitting on a shelf in some far flung place?

James Hall, Louise Brooks, and Richard Arlen in Rolled Stockings

The City Gone Wild (1927)

This early gangster film directed by the noted director James Cruze is presumed lost. In it, Brooks once again plays a moll, this time the deliciously named Snuggles Joy, the “gunman’s honey.” The film was well regarded, and continued to be shown into the early sound era. Documented screenings took place in Fairbanks, Alaska (pre-statehood) and elsewhere around the United States well into 1930. As with Rolled Stockings, the last documented public screening of The City Gone Wild took place at the open air venue known as The Stadium in Darwin, Australia in September 1931. Also showing as part of a double bill was Under the Southern Cross, a New Zealand film with a “purely Maori cast.” 

According to Kevin Brownlow, the film was largely extant as recently as 1971. In his 1990 book, Behind the Mask of Innocence, Brownlow wrote, “David Shepard, then with the American Film Institute’s archive program, had a list of 35mm nitrate prints held in a vault Paramount had forgotten it had. He asked me which title I would select, out of all of them, to look at right away. I said The City Gone Wild. He called Paramount to bring it out of the vaults for our collection that afternoon. The projectionist went to pick it up. ‘O, there was some powder on that,’ said the vault keeper ‘We threw it away.’ The film had been unspooled into a tank of water (recommended procedure for decomposing nitrate). Shepard complained officially to Paramount, who promised it would not happen again. He tried to rescue it, even from its watery grave, but a salvage company had carted it off by the time he got there.” 

This account was confirmed in a conversation I had with David Shepard in June 2016. Shepard recalled that Paramount would, at the time, discard any film which showed any degree of decomposition.

Louise Brooks and Thomas Mieghan in The City Gone Wild

And here are two additional films worth looking for....

Beggars of Life (1928) - the sound version

This outstanding William Wellman directed film was released as both a silent and part sound film; in fact, Beggars of Life is considered Paramount’s first sound film!

The sound version included music, sound effects, a bit of dialogue, and a song reportedly sung by Wallace Beery (either “Hark the Bells” or “Don’t You Hear Them Bells?” or “I Wonder Where She Sits Tonight”). While the silent version is extant -- and has been released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, what's now considered lost are the sound elements. Wouldn't it be remarkable to find / restore the sound version.

The Canary Murder Case (1929) - the silent version

This early murder mystery was also released as both a silent and sound film. The film was initially shot as a silent, and shortly thereafter reworked for sound. Malcolm St. Clair shot the silent version, while retakes for the sound version were directed by Frank Tuttle. Both versions were shown and reviewed at the time of the film's release, and some thought the silent version the better movie.

The sound version of the film is extant. A 35mm print is held at the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. The print of the "silent version" is also held at the Eastman Museum, but reportedly, this print is only the sound version without sound. Lesser quality prints have been released on VHS and DVD over the years; the best sound version was recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber as part of a Philo Vance set.

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.    

Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926

Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, featuring Louise Brooks and Evelyn Brent, was released on this day in 1926. Based on a popular stage play, the film is a topical drama about two flapper sisters — one “good” and one “bad” — who work as shop girls in a department store. A popular and critical success, the film marked a turning point in  Brooks’ career. Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em was the last movie Brooks made on the East Coast. And soon, she would leave for Hollywood and Paramount’s studio on the West Coast.

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

The Chicago Tribune named the film one of the six best movies of the month. Its critic, Mae Tinee, proclaimed, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em is one of the snappiest little comedy dramas of the season. Full of human interest. Splendidly directed. Acted beautifully.” Dorothy Herzog, film critic for the New York Daily Mirror (and Evelyn Brent’s later romantic partner) penned similarly, “A featherweight comedy drama that should register with the public because of the fine work done by the principals and its amusing gags. . . . Louise Brooks gives the best performance of her flicker career as the selfish, snappily dressed, alive number — Janie. Miss Brooks sizzles through this celluloider, a flapper lurer with a Ziegfeld figure and come-on eyes.”

Critics across the country thought Brooks stole the show. The Los Angeles Record wrote, “Evelyn Brent is nominally starred in Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, but the work of Louise Brooks, suave enticing newcomer to the Lasky fold, stands out most. The flippant, self-centered little shop girl is given sly and knowing interpretation by Miss Brooks, who is, if memory serves aright, a graduate of that great American institute of learning, the Follies.” The Kansas City Times went further, “Louise Brooks does another of her flapper parts and is a good deal more realistic than the widely heralded Clara Bow. Miss Brooks uses the dumb bell rather than the spit-fire method. But she always gets what she wants.”

And once again, New York critics singled out the actress, lavishing praise on Brooks with the film almost an after-thought. The New York Herald Tribune critic opined, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em . . . did manage to accomplish one thing. It has silenced, for the time being at least, the charge that Louise Brooks cannot act. Her portrayal of the predatory shop girl of the Abbott-Weaver tale was one of the bright spots of recent film histrionism.”

John S. Cohen Jr. of the New York Sun added, “The real surprise of the film is Louise Brooks. With practically all connoisseurs of beauty in the throes of adulation over her generally effectiveness, Miss Brooks has not heretofore impressed anyone as a roomful (as Lorelei says) of Duses. But in Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, unless I too have simply fallen under her spell, she gives an uncannily effective impersonation of a bad little notion counter vampire. Even her excellent acting, however, cannot approach in effectiveness the scenes where, in ‘Scandals’ attire, she does what we may call a mean Charleston.”

 

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, Papua New Guinea, 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 Amalos y Dejalos and Amalas y Abandonalas (Spanish-language press) and Ama-o e Deixa-o (Portuguese-language press).

Elsewhere, Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em was shown under the title Amalos y déjalos and Se corrió una fija (Argentina); Zwei Mädel und ein Mann and Zwei Mädchen und ein Mann (Austria); Een Galant uitstaller (Belgium); Amal-as e deixal-as (Brazil); Amalos y déjalos (Cuba); Láska ’em a odejít ’em (Czechoslovakia); Het Meisje van ‘t Warenhaus (Dutch East Indies – present day Indonesia); Le galant etalagiste (Egypt); Oekesed võisfejad and Schwestern als Rivalinnen (Estonia); Rakasta heitä ja jätä heidät (Finland); Le galant etalagiste (France); 浮氣はその日の出来心 or Uwaki wa sonohi no dekigokoro (Japan); Le galant Etalagiste! (Luxembourg); Het Meisje Van ‘T Warenhuis and Meisjes die je Vergeet (The Netherlands);  Hvad en kvinne tilgir (Norway); Kobieto nie grzesz (Poland); Amá-las e Deixá-las (Portugal); and ¡Amalos y déjalos! (Spain).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— John Van Alstyne Weaver, Jr. (1893-1938) was a poet, novelist and screenwriter whose slangy, vernacular poems (written in what was once described as “Americanese”) attracted the approval of the famed critic H. L. Mencken. Weaver’s stage play, Love ’em and leave ’em; a comedy in three acts (with George Abbott) was adapted from his earlier verse novel.

— The character Lem Woodruff was played by Osgood Perkins, an accomplished stage actor and the father of famed actor Tony Perkins.

— Ed Garvey, who plays Mr. Whinfer, was a star football player at Notre Dame.

— In 1929, Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em was remade as The Saturday Night Kid, a talkie starring Clara Bow, Jean Arthur, and James Hall with Jean Harlow in a bit part. The remake was directed by Brooks’ ex-husband Eddie Sutherland.

More about Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em (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 content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.    

Once lost Louise Brooks films to have Blu-ray release

At last it can be told.... Flicker Alley and San Francisco Film Preserve have announced the release of Focus on Louise Brooks, a single-disc Blu-ray compilation of the iconic star’s early performances, including her film debut in Herbert Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men. This exceptional 1925 melodrama has been fully restored and is being made available for the very first time, joined by extant materials from three additional Brooks features, The American Venus (1926), Just Another Blonde (1926), and Now We’re in the Air (1927). More information on this new release can be found HERE.

The Louise Brooks Society has long been intimately involved with this project, which was ten years in the making. This multi-region Blu-ray contains a treasure trove of early & rare Brooks performances with extant material from her earliest films brought together in one place, newly restored, and presented in a deluxe edition. Fore more about each title, see the LBS pages about each film.

• The Street of Forgotten Men /1925 / Directed by Herbert Brenon / 75 minutes / U.S. / Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (LBS pages on the film)
  
  
• The American Venus (Extant Materials) / 1926 / Directed by Frank Tuttle / 8 minutes / Famous Players–Lasky (LBS pages on the film)
  
  
• Just Another Blonde (Fragment) / 1926 / Directed by Alfred Santell / 32 minutes / First National (LBS pages on the film)
  
  
• Now We’re in the Air (Fragment) / 1927 / Directed by Frank R. Strayer / 23 minutes / Paramount Pictures (LBS pages on the film)

Besides the above mentioned films and the rarely seen trailer of Just Another Blonde (which contains footage not seen in the surviving fragment), Focus on Louise Brooks also contains a generous selection of bonus materials. 

• Restoration Demo - A look at the painstaking process that went into preserving the films included in this set

• Audio Commentaries - Informative audio tracks are included with film scholar Pamela Hutchinson on The Street of Forgotten Men, with author and film historians Thomas Gladysz and Kathy Rose O’Regan on Just Another Blonde, and with Gladysz and Robert Byrne on The American Venus and Now We’re in the Air.

• Looking at Lulu - Explore the fascinating behind the scenes life of Louise Brooks with an extended featurette hosted by historian Pamela Hutchinson 

• Image Galleries - Featuring production stills and promotional material

• Booklet Insert - With an essay by film historian Thomas Gladysz and restoration notes by Rob Byrne

• English closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing, as well as subtitle tracks in English, Spanish, French, and German

• Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion

• All Region Encoding (A,B,C)

And if that isn't enough to tempt you... There is a gorgeous limited edition spot gloss slipcover only available at the Flicker Alley website and select indie retailers. No major retailers will be stocking this item. Pre-order your copy today! The listed release date is January 13, 2026.

 

Louise Brooks may well be the only actress in the history of film who's uncredited bit part in her film debut nevertheless got her a review, in the Los Angeles Times, no less. As another newspaper stated following the release of Just Another Blonde, “Louise Brooks, who is said to be Clara Bow’s only rival as cinema’s most ravishing flapper, is a convincing argument in favor of modernism.” Amen.

Focus on Louise Brooks presents Louise Brooks as she hasn't been seen in nearly 100 years. She is lively, coy, flirty, drop-dead gorgeous and a joy to behold. She is, indeed, something else. This new release is a disc silent film and Louise Brooks fans will want to own. Pre-order your copy today!

Focus on Louise Brooks represents the first entry in a new Flicker Fusion series that will explore newly restored films, some lost and/or fragmentary, ripe for rediscovery, and featuring some of early cinema’s biggest names. I'll end this post with a few screen grabs which may tempt you further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If this disc succeeds, who knows what else might be released. Do your part, and Pre-order your copy today! 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.   

BIG announcement coming tomorrow

 BIG announcement coming tomorrow re: Louise Brooks. Stay tuned to this channel.

 THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Louise Brooks movies and books make for great gifts

Louise Brooks movies and books make for great gifts! For a complete and up-to-date selection of recommended releases, be sure and check out the Louise Brooks Society GIFT SHOP. 

There, you'll find a curated selection of Louise Brooks related merchandise, items which most every fan will want to own for themselves. Displayed on the page is an assortment of movies and books recommended by LBS director Thomas Gladysz. This selection fulfills through Amazon.com (unless otherwise noted) and includes both new and used items, as well as a few rare, out-of-print, and hard-to-find collectibles. Your purchase through this page benefits the Louise Brooks Society. As an Amazon Associate, the LBS earns a very small amount from qualifying purchases. 

Here are a couple of items to temp you.

Lulu in Hollywood (expanded ed.) - the 2025 re-release
by Louise Brooks
purchase via amazon

 Pandora’s Box (Criterion Collection) - the 2K restoration
by G.W. Pabst
purchase via amazon

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.