Louise Brooks : Thomas Raverly's "secret film crush"

Chances are you have never heard of Thomas Raverly. That's because he doesn't exist. In fact, Thomas Raverly is a fictional character and the creation of the Austrian writer Josef Robert Harrer (1896-1960), who -- chances are, you haven't heard of either. Neither had I. (Harrer was the author of magazine pieces and a handful of books, including a 1928 volume of erotic sonnets.)

Thomas Raverly and the reference to his "secret film crush" -- namely Louise Brooks -- appeared in a short story published in the November 1, 1939 issue of Die Muskete, an Austrian humor magazine which included popular fiction. According to it's German Wikipedia entry, "Like other humorous magazines founded at that time, Die Muskete combined the works of young Austrian artists and illustrators with the work of young Austrian writers. At the same time, the magazine placed great emphasis on artistic design and the high quality of its content." From what I can determine, at least some of the magazine's humor was satirical in nature.

What is interesting to me is the fact that this allusion to Brooks appeared at the end of the actress' film career, and 10 years after Brooks made her last film in Germany. Which suggests she wasn't as "forgotten" in Europe as some might think in the years leading up to the second World War. In actuality, this story appeared five years after Pandora's Box had been banned in Germany by the Nazi regime, a year and a half after the Anchluss (in which Nazi Germany annexed Austria), and two months after the beginning of WWII in which Germany invaded Poland. By the way, Die Muskete ceased publication in 1941.

The story, which is titled "Thomas Raverly," begins this way "Thomas Raverley, thirty years old, small, inconspicuous, with not quite straight legs, with a nose that would not have been too small even for a professional snooper, with ears whose only disadvantage was that they stood out at a right angle from his head, a church beadle by profession, unmarried, sits at a coffee house table and listens with his large ears, which would not have missed a word even with less attention, to the speech of his school friend Victor Sottle...."

Raverly, a minor church official, is a nebbish, a dweeb. There are two passages in the story which reference Brooks. The first occurs when Raverly is visiting an office and is taken aback by the attractive assistance who greats him. "'Whom can I announce? ' asks a delightful girl, almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks, his secret film crush. 'I am Thomas Raverley and wish to speak to Mr. Christopher Hodge; my old school friend Victor Sottle sends and recommends me.' He silently congratulates himself on the courage that allowed him to utter this sentence without any particular excitement, even though the girl was almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks. 'Just a moment!' she says, and with a smile enters a room on whose door one can read in gold letters: Management. Thomas thinks to himself: Surely a bank director, this Mr. Hodge. My friend has truly distinguished acquaintances. I am proud of him. The Brooks girl appears again and says: Mr. Hodge sends his regards!"

Later in the story, there is this passage: "You've heard everything and know that you're the woman he's looking for. The curtain slides aside, and the girl who resembles Louise Brooks approaches Thomas, smiling."

Here is the "Thomas Raverly" story, as published in Die Muskete. It is noticeable that Raverly's "secret film crush" does not resemble Brooks, but rather is a statuesque blonde -- with the couple's contrast adding to the humor. Perhaps the illustrator did not know what Louise Brooks looked like. Or perhaps she was little remembered at this time after all. [The pretty American actress who appeared of the cover of the November 1, 1939 issue was blonde Alice Faye.]

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German-language story from 1939 references Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks remained a recognizable, if not especially popular figure in Europe for at least a few years following the release of the two films she made in Germany -- Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Both were released in 1929, and both continued to be shown on and off around Europe for another two years. Brooks' sole French production, Prix de beaute, was released in 1930, and like the two German films, it too was shown all over Europe for another two years. (Despite speculation to the contrary, Prix de beaute enjoyed a rather robust exhibition history around the globe.) Also still in circulation in 1930 and 1931 in France and Germany and Poland and elsewhere were a few or Brooks' American films including Beggars of Life (1928) and The Canary Murder Case (1929), as well as A Girl in Every Port (1928), which enjoyed a singular vogue in Paris. In fact, A Girl in Every Port was a favorite of the intelligentsia, and Jean Paul Sartre took Simone de Beauvoir to see the film on one of their first dates.

I mention all this because I sometimes wonder about Brooks' "continuing popularity" in Europe, especially after she stepped away from her Hollywood career in 1931. Fame fades for everyone, even our beloved Louise Brooks. As I have found, and as I document in my forthcoming work, Around the World with Louise Brooks (due out later this year), the number of magazine and newspaper articles about the actress dropped off in 1932, as does the paper trail of product advertisements (notably the Lux soap ads), ephemera (postcards, product cards, etc...), and references in "Where are they now?" type articles.

And that's why I was surprised to find Brooks referenced three times in a short humorous story published in an Austrian magazine in November of 1939, two months after the beginning of the Second World War and a few years after Germany had occupied Austria. The publication where I found the reference was a weekly humor magazine titled Die Muskete, and it was published in Vienna between 1905 and 1941. According to it's German-language Wikipedia entry, "Like other humorous magazines founded at the time, Die Muskete combined the works of young local artists and draftsmen with the work of young Austrian writers. At the same time, the magazine attached great importance to the artistic design and the high quality of the content. The magazine was originally intended for officer circles and quickly gained great importance, as the aim was to make it an Austrian counterpart of Simplicissimus, which later made it more widely used and very popular. It fought against excesses in the political, bureaucratic, clerical, military and social areas. During the First World War it developed into a 'funny soldier's sheet'. In 1919 the subtitle 'Humorous Weekly' disappeared and the magazine changed from jokes to an illustrated men's magazine." 

The references to Brooks occur in a short story by Josef Robert Harrer titled "Thomas Raverley." I wasn't able to find out much about Harrer except that he was a writer of the time, mainly active during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, with a few novels and books of short fiction and poetry to his credit. Besides this story in a 1939 Austrian magazine, I also found a story of his in a 1930 Estonian publication.

 

 

I haven't translated the piece as of yet, but from best I can tell the awkward, unmarried protagonist of the piece, Thomas Raverley, meets a young women who seems to be a receptionist, or secretary. He describes her as an "adorable girl who is almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks," with the added implication that this "Brooksian girl" resembled his secret screen crush. Later, on the same page of the story (page 35, depicted below), the actress is again referenced when the feminine character is again described as "almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks." Two pages later, Thomas and the young women meet again, "A curtain is pushed aside and the girl, who looks like Louise Brooks, approaches Thomas with a smile."

 

I don't yet know what the author meant by evoking Brooks' name, but I would guess that it has something to do with her type - i.e. a flapper or neue frau, as another once popular American actress is also mentioned later in the story, "the sweet Clara Bow."  Perhaps, even at this late date, Brooks still served as someone one could reference in a story. [Obviously, though, the drawings which accompany the story look nothing like Brooks, especially in regards to her hair.]

 

 

American actress Alice Faye appeared on the cover of this issue, notably. And also referenced on the last page of this story are references to other bits of American culture, namely a saxophone and a Jazz band, Prohibition, and even Mark Twain.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with this story, or with the work of the author, Josef Robert Harrer. This story is not the only shout-out to Louise Brooks which I have come across dating from the 1930s. There was a similar usage in a crime fiction story published in a French pulp. Evidently, as a figure still remembered by some, Brooks served as a descriptor... a cultural reference.