Louise Brooks Motion Picture Star - a copyright curiosity

I was poking around the records of the United States copyright office, as one does, and I came across a handful of interesting contemporary items as well as this vintage copyright curiosity. Dating from November, 1928, it is application for copyright for a print or pictorial illustration published in the United States. The company which applied for the copyright was The Knapp Company, which was based in the state of New York. The copyrighted work, apparently a lithograph, was titled "Motion Picture Star - Louise Brooks Paramount Pictures."

 

I had never seen such a thing! I was also uncertain as to what this application refereed to, as there was no artist named and no illustrative specimen or example attached to the form. Off hand, does anyone know?

I did a Google search on "Knapp company new york 1928" and the results turned up including a few promising leads. Here's a breakdown of different "Knapp" entities in that era:

• The Knapp Company (American Lithographic Co.): A large printing conglomerate founded by Joseph Palmer Knapp, it was a dominant force in lithography (like cigar labels) and was bought by United States Printing & Lithographic Co. around 1928, making it a significant player in the industry.
• Knapp & Co.: A long-standing lithographic printer, established earlier by Joseph Fairchild Knapp (father of Joseph Palmer Knapp), with roots going back to the 1850s, known for its established presence in NYC.
• John Augustus Knapp: An artist who, in 1928, was creating illustrations for books, including a poetry collection, connecting the name to the thriving arts scene in New York, notes Wikipedia. 

The latter did illustrations for movie studios... my search will go on... using a lantern, I will look through magazine and newspaper archives dating to November, 1928 -- the given date of publication. Besides a depiction of the actress, all there is to go on is a rather generic title, "Motion Picture Star - Louise Brooks Paramount Pictures."

If I were to guess, I might speculate that this copyright application ties in with Beggars of Life, which was released in October of 1928. Also, I would guess that the printed image in question might not have been printed in a magazine or newspaper, but might have been a promotional give away. But who knows? I will conclude with a rare promotional image from the film.

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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Focus on Louise Brooks Blu-ray release delayed

FIRST THE BAD NEWS: Due to an unforeseen slow-down in the production process (including disc replication and quality control), the release of Focus on Louise Brooks has been delayed by two weeks. Flicker Alley had initially announced the Blu-ray disc would be released on January 13th, but that date has now been set back to January 27th.

AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS: The two week delay in the release of Focus on Louise Brooks means fans of the actress have a little more time to pre-order this must-have new disc. And what's more, those who pre-order can save $5.00 on either the standard or limited edition releases. More information can be found HERE.

Focus on Louise Brooks is a must-have disc. Why? Because this is Louise Brooks like you haven't seen her before... this is Louise Brooks as she hasn't been seen in nearly 100 years! 

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)

But wait, there's more.... 

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!

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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

An earlier Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks is not the only Louise Brooks. There have been others. Many people have been named Louise Brooks, though few have gained a reputation as an artist. 

The American trading card depicted below dates to the 1890s. It is part of the Kinney Actors & Actresses series. I was curious to find out more, and looked around a newspaper database in which I came across an opera singer and a touring stage actress who shared the name of Louise Brooks. Based on this image, I am going to guess this card depicts the mezzo-soprano.

 

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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Louise Brooks and a lost technicolor tableau from The American Venus

Back in 2018, a three second fragment of technicolor film featuring Louise Brooks was discovered at the BFI (British Film Institute) National Archive. The all-to-brief piece is from The American Venus (1926),  Brooks' second film though her first credited role. 

The American Venus was one of the earlier examples of the use of Technicolor. In fact, the use of Technicolor in the Frank Tuttle-directed film was considerable, as there are at least three scenes -- according to reportage from the time -- which utilize the process. One is the boardwalk parade of beauty contestants at the Atlantic City beauty pageant, the second is of a series of artistic tableaux, and the last is of a fashion revue. 

In all likelihood, the three second fragment comes from one of the tableau, which does not survive. Here is a screen grab from that three-second fragment.

In The American Venus, Brooks plays Miss Bayport, a beauty contestant and "mannequin" (then a term for a fashion model). The film includes at least one tableau, which were a kind of still-life staging of a scene.  The three second fragment is certainly from a staged scene in which models held their pose --  notice the dark pole at Brooks' feet, which was used to position and steady the actress.

That tableau was pictured in the June, 1926 issue of Film Fun magazine. The window grate seen in the clipping below matches the grate seen in the video fragment. I wonder if the faint figure behind the left window grate shown below might be Louise Brooks? As in the video fragment, this figure is also standing on a raised platform.

Film Fun was a humor-focused movie magazine, and the caption to the image below read "Lady in the left window: I wonder why Helen of troy had such a reputation for beauty. Lady in the right window: Why, that's easy to see. She got all her clothes from Paris."

At the time of the film's release, both newspapers and local censorship boards noted the skimpy outfits worn by many of the women in the film. To our eyes today, this is pretty tame stuff. But back then, such skimpy outfits -- like the one Brooks is seen wearing in the video fragment, amounted to nudity. (The term "nudity" was in fact used in a few critiques of the film.) As is evident in the above clip, Brooks' belly button and midriff are clearly visible. At the time, such exposure pushed the boundaries of decorum.

The American Venus was a big success, and was widely reviewed. Rose Pelswick, writing in the New York Evening Journal, stated “Famous Players-Lasky tied up with the recent beauty contest, and the result is a bewildering succession of events that range from artistic tableaux to a Keystone comedy chase.” However, Quinn Martin, writing in the New York World, called the film “A glittering piece of dramatic trash, as cheap a thing and still as expensive looking as anything I have seen from the Paramount studio…. It presents a raw and effortful desire to photograph scantily attired women without any sensible or appreciable tendency to tell a reasonably alive or plausible story. Any nervous high school boy might have done the plot and there isn’t a director in captivity who could not have told the cameraman when and where and how to shoot.”  

Soon-to-be famous poet Carl Sandburg liked it, calling the film a "a smart takeoff on our national custom," meaning beauty contests. The film also found favor with playwright Robert E. Sherwood. Writing in Life magazine, Sherwood call the film “The primmest bit of box-office bait ever cast into the sea of commercialism…. The American Venus is to cinematographic art what the tabloid newspaper is to journalism. It is designed to appeal to those charming people who fill out the coupons and enclose their dollars for ‘Twelve Beautiful Photographic Studies of Parisian Models in Nature’s Garb’. Not that it is the least bit immoral. On the contrary, it is flamingly virtuous and teeming with the highest principles of 100 per cent American go-gettery.”

The still below from The American Venus, another posed scene with very little movement, features a small group of models wearing what appear to flesh-colored body stockings. (Louise Brooks is not among them.) On first glance, they appear "nude" -- which suggest why some called the film a "shape show". There were also reports from the time of audiences gasping at what they perceived to be nudity, or near nudity. Consequently, there were calls for censorship from Chicago to Canada and India and beyond. The film was banned in the province of Quebec due to “nudities.” While 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.”

Another tableau in The American Venus (and which likewise does not survive) was made into a still and later featured on a German postcard. In Germany, the film was titled Die Schönste Frau der Staaten. And, BTW, that is Louise Brooks seated front and center.

One other tableau-like fashion show can be seen in the surviving footage from The American Venus on the soon-to-be-released Blu-ray, Focus on Louise Brooks, from Flicker Alley. This same staged scene is also pictured on one of the film's jumbo lobby cards, which is shown below. (My apologies about the poor quality, but this is the best I have.) Louise Brooks makes an appearance in this scene, slapping the MC.

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 content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Louise Brooks - Looking back at 2025

This past year has been a heck of a year, to say the least. Admittedly, it has been a year of both highs and lows (I won't talk about the latter, for now), as well as accomplishment and even a few disappointments.

The Louise Brooks Society marked a significant milestone in 2025. The LBS was launched in 1995, and this past year the website celebrated its 30th anniversary. To describe the Louise Brooks Society as "pioneering" is not a stretch, as few websites on any subject can claim to have been around as long. The Louise Brooks Society is a  labor of love, and I hope to keep going as long as I can.

The mission of the Louise Brooks Society is to honor the actress by stimulating interest in her life, films and legacy. To that end, the LBS has been involved in a couple of long-term projects which were first announced in late 2025, and which will see release within just a few weeks!

The most exciting of these long-term projects in the forthcoming Blu-ray, Focus on Louise Brooks, due out from Flicker Alley. I first pitched the idea of just such a disc 10 years ago, and thanks to the efforts of the person who made it happen, film preservationist Robert Byrne -- that disc is finally seeing release. Byrne was the person to whom I first pitched my idea of "The Lost Louise Brooks" -- which was to gather all of Brooks' unreleased / surviving / fragmentary / once "considered lost" films. There is more than you might think. I first had the idea around the time the surviving material from Now We're in the Air (1927) was found in Prague and later preserved by Byrne. I had a hand in its preservation (and am acknowledged in the credits). 

Focus on Louise Brooks also includes another film with whose preservation I also provided assistance (and am also acknowledged in the credits). That film is The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), which marked Brooks' screen debut. It is a terrific film from director Herbert Brenon, who directed Peter Pan (1924) the year before and Beau Geste (1926) the year after. The latter has been receiving a good deal of attention lately as it has also been restored and released on Blu-ray. Focus on Louise Brooks also includes surviving material from The American Venus (1926) -- which was Brooks' first credited screen role, and Just Another Blonde (1926), an enjoyable Jazz Age romance shot, in part, on location at Luna Park on Coney Island. Fans of the actress will adore the surviving footage of the actress. I do.

For Focus on Louise Brooks, I wrote the booklet essay, and provided audio commentaries for three of the disc's four films. I also provided images for the bonus material, and even helped with copy editing some of the bonus and promotional materials. I am pleased with the way this disc turned out, and hope Brooks' fans will be as well. If you want to see more Brooks material released in the future, then please help support this project and purchase a copy of Focus on Louise Brooks. It comes in two different editions.  The regular edition is pictured below on the left, while the limited edition is pictured on the right. 

The limited edition features a spot gloss slipcover only available at the Flicker Alley website and select indie retailers. No major retailers will be stocking this item. For more on this disc, including a breakdown of the various must-have bonus materials (which includes the little seen trailer for Just Another Blonde, which itself includes footage not seen in the surviving fragment), check out the Flicker Alley website. Focus on Louise Brooks is scheduled for release on January 13. The regular edition will also be available on amazon.com at a later date.

Another project which the Louise Brooks Society has been involved is the forthcoming re-release of Lulu in Hollywood, Brooks' 1982 volume of autobiographical essays. The book is being re-released in print with a new cover (shown below) on February 3, AND it is being released for the first time ever as an e-book. I have been working behind-the scenes with Penguin Random House and the University of Minnesota Press for at least a year to make this happen -- especially in regards to the e-book release -- and now, at last, it is! The new edition(s) of Lulu in Hollywood will be available on amazon.com

I had hoped to get the book's publisher interested in an expanded edition, which would include Brooks' uncollected writings on film, but I couldn't get that to happen. That was disappointing. So, that side-project will have to wait until later, perhaps when and if I am able to entice a publisher into issuing an annotated Lulu in Hollywood, perhaps in time for the book's 50th anniversary in 2032. I have already started gathering materials scattered in archives far and wide in order to make that happen.

Speaking of anniversaries, did you know that the Louise Brooks Society has been blogging since 2002. And next year, this blog will mark its 25th anniversary! This year, I posted more than 120 times.... which brings the overall total for the LBS blog to more than 3840 posts, many of them substantive. Earlier this year, back on March 23rd to be exact, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in New York mentioned the LBS blog in an article on Louise Brooks, “'Never has a more beautiful, intelligent, quirky, sexy, uniquely commanding character graced the screen,' Anthony Bourdain said in a column by Thomas Gladysz, the founder and longtime champion of the Louise Brooks Society.” Its nice to be noticed.

The Louise Brooks Society website, its blog, and its group of pages focused on Pandora's Box also got noticed by a terrific site which everyone should check out, WeirmarCinema.org. In fact, there are multiple references and citations to the Louise Brooks Society on its Die Büchse der Pandora film dossier. If you haven't already checked it out, do so ... and don't be scared of this superb site's academic leaning. 

On a related note, I am more than 4,100 words into a long article tentatively titled "How Louise Brooks came to play Lulu". It is a topic I have been looking into for some time, years actually. I won't say much about it until it is done and published (certainly in 2026), but I will say it dismantles the notion that it was A Girl in Every Port that inspired G.W. Pabst to give the role of Lulu to Brooks.

BTW: it was little more than a year ago that I launched the Louise Brooks Society SubStack, which can be found at https://substack.com/@louisebrookssociety  I have spent this past year developing it. There, you will find a bunch of free and subscriber only long-form posts... everything from Louise Brooks trivia to groundbreaking pieces on "Louise Brooks and Early Radio" to "Louise Brooks in Japan". Please check it out, and please subscribe. My resolution for 2026 is to post at least once a month. Fingers crossed.

I have given over a lot of time in 2025 to reworking and expanding the Louise Brooks Society website. I have added dozens of new pages to the films section, as well as to the archive and homage sections. As of now, the site stands at nearly 300 pages. 

To the pages on the 24 films in Brooks' filmography, I have added links to press books, thematic cue sheets and available issues of Mensajero Paramount, censorship information and censorship documents, adjunct pages on film source material, coming attraction slides, location shooting, and physical media, etc.... And to the archive section, I have added dozens of pages on all manner of material, from vintage magazine covers from all around the world to vintage postcards from all around the world to photoplay editions and product advertisements and ephemera, such as match boxes and calendar blotters. There are pages on related 78 rpm records and another on piano rolls which feature a video of one of the rolls being played. (Thank the heavens for YouTube and the Internet Archive.)

Please do take a moment or two to explore my 30 year labor-of-love, the Louise Brooks Society. 

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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Happy New Year from the Louise Brooks Society !

Happy New Year from Thomas Gladysz and the Louise Brooks Society. Here are a couple of 'smarvelous pictures of Louise Brooks in a celebratory mood.

More about 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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.