About the Louise Brooks Society (and its website)

The Louise Brooks Society™ is an online archive and pioneering “fan site” — a stop on the information superhighway where individuals can learn about the life and times of this singular silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society (or LBS) website was established in 1995 as a “virtual fan club in cyberspace”. The site’s visitors include fans of the actress, film buffs, and movie industry professionals, as well as students, teachers, writers, artists, celebrities and other interested individuals from all walks of life. It is hoped that those who visit this site and share an interest in the actress will join in furthering its efforts.

The Louise Brooks Society™ was founded by Thomas Gladysz. This website is written, designed and maintained by Gladysz with the assistance of Christy Pascoe, and is aided by a community of fans. (See the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page on the LBS website for a list of the names of the many individuals who have assisted the LBS.) The Louise Brooks Society operates with the written consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), who “approve and support” its use of the name and likeness of the actress. Content original to this site is © 1995 – 2025 by Thomas Gladysz / Louise Brooks Society. All rights reserved.

The Louise Brooks Society (at www.pandorasbox.com) is proud to be a retrosite. In this day and age, accuracy and authenticity still matter. It is hoped that this website is a work of art in an age of mechanical digital reproduction. Thus, the LBS is intentionally a clickbait, colorized, and A.I. free zone. 

For more information about the LBS, check out the Mission Statement below, or the LBS F.A.Q. on the LBS website. 

Christy Pascoe and Thomas Gladysz at
the George Eastman House in 2006

MISSION STATEMENT

The Louise Brooks Society is devoted to the appreciation and promotion of the life and films of Louise Brooks. The mission of the society is to honor the actress by 1) stimulating interest in her life, films and writings, as well as her place in 20th century culture; 2) fostering and coordinating research; 3) serving as a repository for relevant material; and 4) advocating for the preservation, restoration, and dissemination of Brooks’ films and other related material.

The LBS website strives to promote interest in the actress by 1) serving as a focal point for related activities; 2) disseminating historically accurate information including authoritative texts and images; and 3) offering individuals a variety of materials to aid in their appreciation of the actress. Above all, the LBS encourages the viewing of Brooks’ surviving films and the fellowship of her admirers. Along with the ongoing development of its website, blog, and social media accounts, the LBS has published new material about the actress in the form of articles, books, online videos, and DVDs. Future activities, such as e-books, podcasts, zoom chats, screenings, and related events, are under consideration. Be sure to follow both the LBS website and blog for updates and the latest news.

SHORT HISTORY OF THE LBS

Since first becoming interested in Brooks, I’ve enjoyed meeting and talking with others who shared my enthusiasm for this singular film star. Early on, I searched for some kind of group. I remember going to my local public library and looking through a directory of fan clubs — but found no group dedicated to Brooks. This was in the early 1990s, just as the internet was getting going. With my growing interest in computing, it occurred to me that I might form my own group, and the idea of starting a Louise Brooks website was born.... and soon, I realized there would be no better way of reaching other fans and forming a group of like-minded individuals than over the internet. Enabled by the world wide web, the Louise Brooks Society was born.

When I launched the LBS in 1995, I thought about what to call my website, my group of pages. As I have long noted, the Louise Brooks Society drew its name from (and was inspired by) a turn-of-phrase in John Lahr’s New York Times review of Lulu in Hollywood. In this 1982 review, Lahr refers to the famed critic & screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as the “founder of the Louise Brooks Literary Society, ” Lahr did so because Mankiewicz, a sometime member of the Algonquin Round Table, was a kind of mentor to the 18 year old Louise Brooks, to whom he gave reading material, invited to opening nights on Broadway, and in general tried to educate. I liked Lahr’s turn-of-phrase and its suggestion of an educational purpose, and as it reminded me of other groups with which I was familiar — like the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, I decided to name my website the Louise Brooks Society. That was in the Spring / Summer of 1995. 

The phrase “Louise Brooks Literary Society” was an invention of John Lahr. There was no actual “Louise Brooks Literary Society” during Brooks’ lifetime, nor is one mentioned in the definitive biography of the actress by Barry Paris. In 2024, I contacted John Lahr and he confirmed that he, not Mankiewicz, originated the term “Louise Brooks Literary Society”. It was merely a descriptive turn-of-phrase, not a historical reference. But still, it reverberated.

The Louise Brooks Society website was launched in August, 1995. That makes it an internet pioneer. One of its very first media mentions and earliest print reference dates to May 23, 1996, when it was named a USA Today “Hot Site” and mentioned in the newspaper’s syndicated “Net: New and notable” column. 

The earliest Wayback Machine capture of the site at its current domain, www.pandorasbox.com, dates to April 11, 1997, while the earliest homepage captured by the Wayback Machine featuring a © symbol dates to June 27, 1998. 

Some of its earliest efforts at reaching other fans was through posting messages on various bulletin board systems (BBS), listserv’s and newsgroups (Usenet), as well as on AOL and Prodigy, back when those platforms were popular. The earliest archived Google newsgroup post mentioning the Louise Brooks Society, from October 27, 1995, announces the website. Another, a query from the LBS asking about a screening of Pandora’s Box in Poland, dates to January 29, 1996. Another, from December 31, 1996, announces the site’s move to its domain at pandorasbox.com, where it has resided since.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, LBS director Thomas Gladysz regularly posted news and announcements to relevant newsgroups, such as alt.movies.silent and rec.arts.movies.past.films and alt.fan.louise-brooks. (Newsgroups, for those not familiar, were a form of proto-social media.) In 2004, he started his own newsgroup, LouiseBrooksSociety. These posts and others are now part of the Google groups / Usenet Archive. Complimentary to these efforts was another LBS group begun on Yahoo, News of Lulu (founded October 1, 2000, though now defunct).

Since its founding, the LBS has grown to become one of the largest websites devoted to any film star — silent or sound. It now stands at more than 250 distinct pages, or URLs. The Encyclopedia of Associations, a standard reference work found in many libraries, contains an entry on the Louise Brooks Society in editions of the book published in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2017. Over the years, the LBS has been praised by the likes of Leonard Maltin on his Moviecrazy website, and by the late Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic. Before his passing, Ebert said he made use of this site while researching an essay on Pandora’s Box. 

The LBS has received media attention from its earliest days. The first feature story on the LBS, “Fan Site Sparks BioPic” by acclaimed journalist Steve Silberman, appeared on the Wired magazine website way back in 1998. 

Other pieces mentioning the LBS have appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, Wichita Eagle, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Grand Rapids Press and elsewhere. In 2000, syndicated film critic and friend to Louise Brooks, Jack Garner, wrote an article for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle which described the Louise Brooks Society as “A fine example of a fan page, a thoughtful, artful site devoted to the life and times of a fabled silent movie legend.” That’s high praise coming from someone close to the actress. Elsewhere around the world, the LBS has been mentioned in the Guardian, London Times, Le Temps, Stuttgarter Zeitung, and Melbourne Age. “The renewed interest in the actress," The South China Morning Post noted in 1999, was “fueled by the cyberspace Louise Brooks Society.” A comprehensive checklist of LBS media, much of it linked to its cite source, can be found on the LBS website.

The Louise Brooks Society has received the approval and support of the Estate of Louise Brooks, as well as that of Brooks’ biographer Barry Paris and other film scholars. In 2017, Pamela Hutchinson, author of the book Pandora’s Box (British Film Institute), stated “Nobody knows more about Louise Brooks than Thomas Gladysz. Having founded the Louise Brooks Society in 1995, he has spent more than two decades researching her life and work, curating memorabilia and writing about this most fascinating of silent era actresses.”

Thomas Gladysz
Director, Louise Brooks Society

At a Louise Brooks Society exhibit at
the San Francisco Public Library

More about the Louise Brooks Society and its various activities (exhibits, books, scholarship, articles, promotion, etc...) can be found on the LBS website.