My First Time in Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp

I just received a new book in the mail that I am especially excited about. It is My First Time in Hollywood, by Cari Beauchamp. I think it is a book every fan of early Hollywood will want to read. Go get a copy today!

Beauchamp is the author of such acclaimed books as Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood  (IMHO required reading for every film historian), Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years (which I named to my best film books of 2009), Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", and as editor, the fascinating Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s.

Beauchamp is a fourth generation Californian who brings her love of history and dedication to women's rights to her writing about film. Her award winning books have been named to many "best of" lists (New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, examiner.com and amazon.com) and she is an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Scholar. She was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for her documentary, Without Lying Down: The Power of Women in Early Hollywood, which she wrote and coproduced for Turner Classic Movies.

In My First Time in Hollywood, over forty legends of the film business (from Mary Pickford and Harold Lloyd to Gloria Swanson and Cecil B. DeMille) recount their first trip to Hollywood. Actors, directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, and editors recall the long journey, their initial impressions, their struggle to find work, and the love for making movies that kept them going. Also included in this wonderful anthology is Colleen Moore, Norma Shearer, Marie Dressler, Mary Astor, Hedda Hopper, and Louella Parson, among others. Though Louise Brooks is not included, alas, readers will get a sense of what she experienced when she arrived in Hollywood in 1927.

Drawn from letters, speeches, oral histories, memoirs, and autobiographies - and illustrated with over sixty vintage photographs and illustrations - each story is intimate and unique, but all speak to our universal need to follow our passions and be part of a community that feeds the soul. This anthology is edited and annotated Beauchamp, the only person to twice be named as an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar.

"What every film fan years for-first-hand, eyewitness accounts of a Hollywood none of us can remember and all of us wish we'd known. Completely fascinating." -- Kevin Brownlow

"What a priceless parade of evocative and highly entertaining memories. Once you start reading you won't want to stop." -- Leonard Maltin

"Through the first-person voices of some of the most fascinating, insightful, funny, ego-maniacal, and brilliant people, Cari Beauchamp's My First Time in Hollywood chronicles the years when Los Angeles became the Hollywood of the world's imagination and movies our internationally shared mythology. Essential reading for anyone interested in film history." -- John Landis

My First Time in Hollywood ( Asahina & Wallace) is available through amazon.com and better bookstores everywhere. Author Cari Beauchamp will also be signing books at the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival in the mezzanine of the Castro Theatre on May 30th at 5pm.

Louise Brooks on a ladder in Hollywood

A picture of Louise Brooks (on a ladder) alongside actor Adolph Menjou and Evening Clothes director Luther Reed is included in this months Los Angeles Magazine. The three are pictured outside of "The Barn" in Hollywood, the site of Cecil B. DeMille's production of The Squaw Man, said to be the first feature film shot in the greater Los Angeles area. Production of Evening Clothes took place in January of 1927. The historic snapshot was likely taken around that time. (Thank you to film historian Mary Mallory for tipping us off to this clipping.)

And here is a snapshot of Christy Pascoe and Thomas Gladysz (Director of the Louise Brooks Society) outside The Barn many years later. This historic building is located just across the road from the Hollywood Bowl. Should you ever visit Tinsel Town, be sure and pay a visit.

Louise Brooks in the 1940 census

Sharped eyed fan Ray Zantarski found Louise Brooks on the 1940 census. And, he was kind enough to send me a scan. I believe this is our Louise Brooks, as the location, place of birth, age, and prior place of residence all line-up. The page depicted below is the page from the 1940 census which records Brooks as a resident of Los Angeles. See line 13.

When the availability of the census was first announced earlier this year, I tried looking through Kansas records (knowing Brooks had returned home around that time), but couldn't really find my way through the records and gave up. I figured I would wait until the census became keyword searchable.

However, as is indicated on the above form, the census was conducted in early 1940, while Brooks was still living in Los Angeles. And that is why she is recorded in the California records - with her residence being given as 1317 N Fairfax Ave in Beverly Hills. As the census page indicates, Brooks lived in an apartment building. She lived in unit #3, and paid $55.00 per month in rent. (That was an average amount for the street, where renters also listed on the census page paid between $40.00 and $60.00 per month.) Here is a Google street view of the address. I don't know if this is the same building or not, though it looks possible.

View Larger Map

Her neighbors in her apartment building included a couple in unit #1, Denison and Lillian Clift. His occupation was listed as an "independent moving picture" writer. San Francisco-born Denison Clift was a prolific writer and less prolific director of films who got his start in the silent era. He directed a handful of films in England starring Fay Compton, perhaps the best known being A Bill of Divorcement (1922). Other of his British silents were Demos (1921) and Sonia (1921), both of which included Evelyn Brent. (Brooks and Brent appeared in two films together.) Today, Clift's best known film may be The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935), starring Bela Lugosi, Gibson Gowland, and Clifford McLaglen, the brother of Victor McLaglen. [In the United States, The Mystery of the Marie Celeste is known as Phantom Ship.]

Denison Clift during the filming of The Mystery of the Marie Celeste

Another of Brook's neighbors in her apartment building was a 30 year old Russian-born freelance musician named Arcady Konchester, who lived in unit #4. He is credited with performing on Dick Haymes and Bing Crosby records. I believe he was a violinist, and in 1935 performed in Singapore under the name Arkady Konchester. Mason and Alice Cline, a couple in their mid-fifties who came from Stockton and who lived in unit #2, managed the apartments.

What's especially interesting about this census record is that Brooks occupation is listed as "copy writer" in the magazine field. Her income for 1939, however, was given as none - and Brooks was listed as unemployed. 

Except for "Hints for Dancers" - the series of text-heavy advertisements which ran in local newspapers which Brooks likely helped write, the former film star is not known to have written or published anything at this period in her life. Her listing as a "copy writer" may have been aspirational. (Once she returned to Kansas, Brooks did write and self-published a booklet titled The Fundamentals of Ballroom Dancing.)

These bits of information beg the question. How did Brooks get by? Did someone else support her? Or did she have a part-time job for which she did not declare any income?