A rare advertisement for Pandora's Box from 1929 Ukraine

This is a follow-up post to the August 22 blog, "A newly uncovered article about Louise Brooks - from war-torn Eastern Europe," I teased this post in that blog, and here it is, as promised, a glorious advertisement for the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Pandora's Box, as published in an Ukrainian newspaper.

In that earlier post, I mentioned that I subscribe to a handful of online newspaper and magazine archives, and also pay to acquire scans of documents & images from other academic and institutional archives. One of those archives to which I subscribe is Arcanum, Eastern Europe's "largest continuously expanding digital periodical database". The Ukrainian newspaper advertisement shown below was found in that archive. 

Before I go further, let me mention that the earlier post had an unexpected though pleasing affect. Two individuals, appreciative of my research, made a donation to the Louise Brooks Society through its BUY ME A COFFEE app. 

Those two individuals are Bill LeFurgy and frantzen@mailbox.org. Each thanked me for my ongoing efforts... and that means a lot to me. I would not be able to subscribe to archives and find new material without their help and the help of others who have supported the Louise Brooks Society, including those who have bought me cup of coffee or two or five. This post is dedicated to Bill LeFurgy and frantzen. (And a thank you as well to the individual who thanked me for sharing this article. Apparently, it made their day.)

This March 31, 1929 newspaper advertisement was published in Vorwärts, a now defunct German-language socialist newspaper published in present-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine. (There were a number of German-language newspapers scattered across Eastern Europe, in cities and towns where there were pockets of German speakers. With the region's shifting borders, Chernivtsi was once located in Austria-Hungrary, and then Romania, before being absorbed into the Ukraine - which in 1929 was part of the old U.S.S.R.) I have come across images of this newspaper page in different databases, and have blogged about it in the past. This version, however, is the best. 

 

Here is a Google assisted translation of the block of text beneath the film title: 

"Pandora was the wondrous woman of Greek legend to whom the gods entrusted a vessel containing all the evils and sins of the world. Rashly, she opened the box, unleashing all manner of calamity upon the earth... Lulu, too—that ravishingly beautiful woman—brings ruin to the men who cross her path and are consumed by their sin, like moths drawn to a flame. She senses her boundless power over men and rises to splendor and wealth like a meteor in the night sky. One by one, they meet their downfall at her hands. The dynamic, domineering Dr. Schön is hopelessly ensnared in Lulu’s web. His son, the idealistic Alwa, is destroyed by her. The muscular athlete Rodrigo Quast is driven to his death by her. Thus she spreads misfortune, until the triumphant huntress—in a sudden twist of fate—becomes the hunted prey. She encounters a male beast who is a kindred spirit: Jack the Ripper. Beneath the knife of this tragic monster, the life of that young woman—ravishingly beautiful to the very end, yet destined, like the legendary Pandora, to bring only calamity to the world—comes to its close."

The text beneath the cast listing reads:

"This film of global significance will premiere at the "Altes Stadttheater" cinema starting March 31st as part of the Easter program. Not suitable for young people."

The former Altes Stadttheater (Old City Theatre) in Chernivtsi is now known as the Olga Kobylianska Chernivtsi Drama Theatre, and is named after Olga Kobylianska. (A statue of Kobylianska, an Ukrainian national poet, now sits outside of the building.) The theater was built between 1904 - 1905 by the Viennese architectural firm Fellner & Helmer, which designed dozens of European theaters. Over the years, Altes Stadttheater has hosted legendary performers like Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin - as well as screening legendary films like Pandora's Box.

This TripAdvisor page has numerous images of the buildings exterior and interior. 

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