Louise Brooks mural debuts in Wichita, Kansas

A new outdoor mural depicting the Kansas-born silent film star Louise Brooks has debuted in Wichita, Kansas -- the actress' one-time hometown. The mural is the work of an artist known as Deber614. And what's more, the mural (shown below) was painted on the north side of the Dockum building (Douglas and Hillside), the very building whee Louise Brooks opened a dance studio in the 1940's.

A fan of the actress, Danzel Bond, sent me a couple of snapshots of the mural. They are great pics. Thank you Danzel !

 

Earlier this month, I contacted the artist and asked about the mural. He told me "This mural is part of a personal / public art project called “The Gaze of History”. I have been painting public spaces for close to 20 years, and last year I decided to focus my practice into paying homage and remembrance to historical figures. So far I have completed large scale murals of Sarah Lloyd Green, John Brown, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Dr.William Polite, and now Louise Brooks. This mural is my first piece in College Hill, so I decided to bring all I have to offer in terms of artistry and painting skills. I want to break away from purely decorative murals, and build a collection of public artwork that allows me to highlight these figures that I feel deserve their flowers and to not be abandoned/vanished from our historical memory."

The artist added, "Talking more specifically to Louise Brooks. As a muralist / public artist, after doing research into relevant figures in the area, it was an obvious choice to pay tribute to her, not just because she was local. After learning about her experiences in Wichita, I could not help but to feel the same disappointment she often expressed at the attitudes of the city towards her. The misogyny, and social shaming. Everything. After reading about it, I decided that it would be an honor to be the artist that could give Louise her so well deserved flowers, to pay homage to her memory and to do a tiny bit to correct the wrongs of history."

The artist's Facebook page has a few short videos of the painting of the mural. Check 'em out.

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.    

Reminder, Pandora's Box screens in Wichita, Kansas on October 14

A reminder that the classic 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box, will be shown in Wichita, Kansas on Tuesday, October 14th at 7 pm. This special screening will be accompanied by Donnie Rankin on the Mighty Wurlitzer. This event is sponsored by the Tallgrass Film Festival and Wichita Wurlitzer. More information HERE.

The film will be screened at the Century II Exhibition Hall. Tickets are on sale and may be purchased HERE.   

UPDATE: A local TV news story about the organ at cab be found HERE. 

More information about the celebrated G. W. Pabst film can be found on the acclaimed and recently expanded Pandora's Box (filmography page) on the Louise Brooks Society website.  

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Pandora's Box screens in Wichita (Louise Brooks' home town) on October 14th

The classic 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box, will be shown in Wichita, Kansas on Tuesday, October 14th at 7 pm. This special screening will be accompanied by Donnie Rankin on the Mighty Wurlitzer. This event is sponsored by the Tallgrass Film Festival and Wichita Wurlitzer. More information HERE.

The event description reads: "Step back in time to the golden age of silent film with a stunning screening featuring the magnetic Louise Brooks (Kansas native and Wichita resident) in her most unforgettable role as Lulu. Experience this landmark film as it was meant to be seen - with a live musical score performed by Donnie Rankin on the Wichita Wurlitzer organ, a treasured piece of Wichita history and the finest theater organ in the country." 

The film will be screened at the Century II Exhibition Hall. Tickets are on sale and may be purchased HERE.  

I described the event as "special," not only because it will be taking place in Wichita (Louise Brooks' hometown) and that it will have a live musical accompaniment (which is always a treat), but because of the history of the Mighty Wurlitzer instrument on which the musical accompaniment will be performed. The organ located in the Century II Exhibition Hall has accompanied Brooks films in the past. 

According to Wikipedia, this 1926 Wurlitzer organ was removed from the Paramount Theatre in New York City prior to that theater's demolition and installed in the Century II Convention Hall! The October 14th screening will reunite the instrument which accompanied some of Brooks' American silents. More about Wichita Wurlitzer can be found on their Facebook 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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

On Second Thought: Louise Brooks and Jay House

Jay E. House (1868-1936) was a nationally known newspaper columnist in the 1920s. Early on, he wrote for the Topeka Daily Capital and other small town Kansas papers. Beginning in 1919, his column "On Second Thought" began running in the Philadelphia Public Ledger and then the New York Evening Post. He wrote, as well, for the Saturday Evening Post and other publications, authored books, and once even served as mayor of Topeka, where he first got his start.

I wasn't familiar with House, but just recently I ran across a couple of clipping in the Hutchinson News (a small town Kansas newspaper) which both piqued my interest and referenced Jay House and Louise Brooks.

Apparently, House mentioned Brooks in one of his Philadelphia Public Ledger columns, which in turn led the Hutchinson News to respond in an article on December 18, 1926. The Hutchinson News response was occasioned by the local showing of Love Em and Leave Em, the latest Louise Brooks' film. 

House's reference seemingly ruffled a few feathers, because a few days later, he responded to this tempest in a teapot. On December 21, the Hutchinson News ran House's column, which read in part.

This all may be nothing more than ballywho and local boosterism, but still, it shows that Brooks was kinda famous in Kansas even in 1926.

[I haven't been able to get a hold of House's original column -- nor access the archives of the Philadelphia Public Ledger for the period in question in order to track down the House column that started it all. Can anyone help?]

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Answers to a vintage newspaper quiz with Louise Brooks

A couple of days ago, this blog ran a vintage newspaper quiz featuring Louise Brooks. It ran in the Hutchinson News in November, 1926. Hutchinson, Kansas is a small city located some 50 miles from Wichita, Kansas. 

 

... And here are the answers to the quiz. How many did you get right?

 

 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

A vintage newspaper quiz with Louise Brooks

Just recently, I came across this newspaper quiz featuring Louise Brooks. It ran in the Hutchinson News in November, 1926. Hutchinson, Kansas is a small city located some 50 miles from Wichita, Kansas. How many questions can you answer? I will run the answers, as printed on page 10, in a couple of days.

 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Kansas Silent Film Festival to Screen Louise Brooks film A Girl in Every Port on February 28

 

As it has a few times in the past, this year's Kansas Silent Film Festival will include a film featuring the Kansas-born silent film star, Louise Brooks. This year, the venerable event will screen the Howard Hawks directed film, A Girl in Every Port (1928), starring Victor McLaglen, Louise Brooks and Robert Armstrong. Brooks will light-up the screen on Friday, February 28. More about the Kansas Silent Film Festival can be found HERE. 

Here is the full line-up of films and related events, which included screenings of films starring Buster Keaton & Phyllis Haver.(both Kansas-born actors), Clara Bow (from Brooklyn), Harold Lloyd (from Nebraska), and the Canadian-born Nell Shipman, among others. HERE is a link to an article which just appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal.

LIVE EVENT, with FREE ADMISSION for all showings
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn Univeristy, 1700 SW Jewell, Topeka, KS 66603

Friday Afternoon, Feb. 28, 2025: Begins @ 1:00 PM

Overture & Welcome
___________________________

The Curtain Pole 10 min.	(1909)	Mack Sennett, a D.W. Griffith film  —Music by Bill Beningfield
Valley of the Giants 51 min.	(1919)	Wallace Reid, directed by James Cruze  —Music by Ben Model

Guest Talk: Scott Eyman 20 min.

Scott talks about how he chooses subjects for his celebrity biographies and their roots in silent film

The Johnstown Flood 68 min.

(1926)

George O'Brien, directed by Irving Cummings —Music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

—BREAK, 15 min.—

A Girl in Every Port 78 min.

(1928)

Victor McLaglen & Louise Brooks, directed by Howard Hawks —Music by Marvin Faulwell & Bob Keckeisen

_________________________

—DINNER BREAK—
_________________________

Friday Evening, Feb. 28, 2025: Begins @ 7:30 PM
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

His New Mama 15 min.	(1924)	Harry Langdon, directed by Roy Del Ruth —Music by Jeff Rapsis
The Second Hundred Years 21 min.	(1927)	starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by Fred Guiol —Music by Ben Model
Lady Windermere's Fan 89 min.	(1925)	Ronald Colman, directed by Ernst Lubitsch —Music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Sat. Mar. 1, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-Noon
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

Overture & Welcome

Film Documentary 60 min.

An opportunity to see a documentary on the history of silent film comedy.

—BREAK, 5 min.—

Max Linder Compilation 20 min.	(1907-1912)	Max Linder —Music by Ben Model
Ice Cold Cocos 20 min.	(1926)	Billy Bevan, directed by Del Lord —Music by Ben Model
Something New 57 min.	(1920)	Nell Shipman, directed by Bert Van Tuyle —Music by Jeff Rapsis

___________________________

Lunch Break (on your own), resuming at 1:30 p.m
___________________________

Sat. Mar. 1, 2025, 1:30-5:00 p.m.
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

Overture & Welcome
___________________________

An Eastern Westerner 27 min.	(1920)	Harold Lloyd, directed by Hal Roach —Music by Jeff Rapsis
The Enchanted Cottage 80 min.	(1924)	Richard Barthelmess, directed by John S. Robertson —Music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

—BREAK, with Scott Eyman Book Signing—

The Balloonatic 22 min.	(1923)	Buster Keaton, directed by Edward F. Cline —Music by Marvin Faulwell
Mantrap 71 min.	(1926)	Clara Bow, directed by Victor Fleming —Music by Ben Model

Dinner

Special Dinner Event, Our Sixteenth Annual CINEMA-DINNER, Seating begins @ 5:15 p.m. Dinner from 5:30 to 7:20 p.m. Special Guest Scott Eyman speaks about his work as writer of celebrity biographies of those with roots in silent filmmaking. — This event is by reservation only. Dinner is $40. Contact Bill Shaffer at bill.shaffer@washburn.edu to reserve your space —

---

Sat. Mar. 1, 2025, 7:30-10:00 p.m.
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

---

Overture & Welcome

Ambrose's First Falsehood 11 min.	(1914)	Mack Swain, directed by F. Richard Jones —Music by Bill Beningfield
A Night in the Show 24 min.	(1915)	Charlie Chaplin, directed by Charles Chaplin —Music by Ben Model
Don Q: Son of Zorro 111 min.	(1925)	Douglas Fairbanks, directed by Donald Crisp —Music by Marvin Faulwell & Bob Keckeisen

 

 

More about A Girl in Every Port can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its A Girl in Every Port (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 contents copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Happy birthday to Louise Brooks BOTD in 1906

Happy birthday to the dancer, silent film star and 20th century icon Louise Brooks, who was born on this day in 1906 in Cherryvale, Kansas. Not surprisingly, little (Mary) Louise Brooks started getting press from the day she was born. The first image shown below, a clipping dated November 14, 1906, comes from the Cherryvale Daily Republican. It is followed by another clipping, from the Cherryvale Daily News, which appeared that same day on the newspaper's front page.

 

 

And a few years later ....

The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Overland Stage Raiders to be shown at the Cherryvale Historical Museum

Louise Brooks last film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), will be shown on September 3 at the Cherryvale Historical Museum, 215 E. Fourth St., in Cherryvale, Kansas. The a 55-minute western, which stars John Wayne and the Three Mesquiteers, will be shown on the lawn outside the museum beginning at about 7:45 p.m. 

On this day in 1922 in the life history of Louise Brooks

Nineteen twenty-two was a pivotal year in the life of Louise Brooks. It was a whirlwind year. Brooks was a teenager, just 15 at the beginning of the year, and she was following her passion for dance while performing in local theaters and before clubs and civic organizations in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. By the end of the year, she was a member of the prestigious Denishawn Dance Company, touring the United States and performing alongside such dance greats as Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn. This blog commences a new series of posts documenting significant happenings in Brooks' life on this day one-hundred years ago.

* * * * * *

On this day in 1922 in the life history of Louise Brooks . . . . Brooks, along with other students from the Mills-Fischer School of Dance and Dramatic Arts, attends a performance in nearby Hutchinson, Kansas by dance legend Anna Pavlova and her Ballet Russe. The Mills referenced in the name of the dance school was none other than Alice Mills, who was immortalized as "The Chaperone" in Laura Moriarty's splendid novel of the same name which centers on Brooks and events in her life in 1922.

What a remarkable happenstance -- the coming together of two iconic figures of the 20th century. Its only equivalent was when Ruth St. Denis took Brooks and the other Denishawn dancers to see Isadora Duncan perform.

In case you are not familiar with Pavlova (or Pavlowa), she was one of the great dancers of the 20th century. Her Wikipedia entry begins, "Anna Pavlovna was born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova (12 February 1881 – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for her creation of the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour around the world, including performances in South America, India and Australia." Her likeness and legend are commemorated in artwork all around the world. 

Myra Brooks, leading Wichita book reviewer

Like her daughter Louise, Myra Brooks was a reader of books. And what's more, she was also a reviewer of books. On and off from the mid-to-late 1930s through the early 1940s, Myra appeared before various groups in Wichita speaking about new and recent releases. She also spoke about the news of the day, classical music - especially Richard Wagner, and other topics of interest. Myra's talks were given in local halls and auditoriums, hotel meeting rooms, restaurants, and in private homes.

The clipping shown here, from March 1941, notes Myra would talk about Art of Living, by the noted French writer Andre Maurois. The book is an inspirational title, not unlike some of the other books Myra read and reviewed. Evidently, Louise's Mother decided to review this book after Maurois, a famous novelist at the time and someone still read today, spoke in Wichita a month earlier in February.

The article goes on to state that Myra is a popular book reviewer known throughout Kansas. This was at a time when daily newspapers like the Wichita Eagle did not, generally speaking, review books. (One notable exception back then was the New York Times.) If one wanted to learn about new books, one might have to subscribe to a magazine that ran reviews, or, attend a local book club or study group. Myra, in fact, was a member of a few different groups, including the Study Guild which discussed the news of the day, as well as the Saturday Afternoon Musical Club which discussed opera and classical music.

Based on newspaper clippings which I recently came across, here are some of the titles and topics Myra Brooks spoke about. (A few clippings noted Myra would speak, but did not specify which book or topic. Lacking specifics, I didn't list those happenings.) Myra Brooks got a fair amount of press in Wichita, which must have been gratifying, as her contract as a speaker with the Redpath Chautauqua had not renewed back in 1927. She was also popular, and held her own against the competition, as th clipping below shows. What is also notable is the quality of books Myra Brooks spoke about. Like Andre Maurois, many of these authors are still known and  read today.

January 1934  reviews The Meaning of Culture by John Cowper Powys for the R.E.D. Club (at the Y.M.C.A) 

April 1934  reviews Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain for the Tuesday morning book review club

November 1934  reviews Nijinsky by Romola Nijinsky for the Social Order of Beauceant

December 1934  reviews Nijinsky by Romola Nijinsky for the Twentieth Century Club

December 1934  reviews Nijinsky by Romola Nijinsky for the R.E.D. Club (at the Y.M.C.A)

December 1934  reviews Stars Fell on Alabama by Carl Carmer for the Current Book club

January 1935  reviews The Life of Nijinsky by Lucy Moore for the Leal Book club

January 1935  reviews The Biography of Richard Wagner for the Sedgwick County Medical auxiliary; Brooks also played some of her records of Wagner's music

February 1935  reviews Heaven is My Destination by Thorton Wilder for The Current Book Club 

April 1935  reviews The Life of Nijinsky by Lucy Moore for the Monday Book Review club

April 1935  speaks on the operas of Richard Wagner at a concert honoring the composer at the University of Wichita; news reports state the auditorium was filled

May 1935  reviews Phantom Crown by Bertita Harding at a tea party held for the Girl Reserves

May 1935  reviews The Biography of Richard Wagner for a local chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution; Otto Fischer plays Wagner on the piano

May 1935  speaks on the operas of Richard Wagner at a concert at the University of Wichita

October 1935  reviews Mary, Queen of Scots by Stephan Zweig for the Social Order of Beauceant; preceding the review, Myra Brooks spoke for 20 minutes on current events 

December 1935  reviews A Personal History by an unknown author for the Social Order of Beauceant

January 1936  reviews an unknown title for the pledges of Alpha Tau Sigma

February 1936  reviews A Women's Best Years by W. Beran Wolfe for the Social Order of Beauceant 

March 1936  reviews The Dupont Dynasty by John K. Winkler for the Social Order of Beauceant 

April 1936   reviews The End of Summer (a play) by S.N. Behrman for the Social Order of Beauceant; preceding the review, Myra Brooks spoke for 20 minutes on current events  

April 1936  reviews an unknown book for the members of the Osteopathic Women's club

April 1936   participates (as a numerologist) in a numerology coffee put on by the Iota Mu chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha

April 1936  talks on a "Biography of Cosima Wagner" at The Current Book Club

May 1936  reviews Sparkenbroke by Charles Morgan for the Social Order of Beauceant 

November 1936  reviews Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell for the Iota Mu chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (at the Lassen Hotel); at least five to six dozen attend the event

November 1936  reviews I am the Fox by Winifred Van Etten for the College Hill P.T.A. (at the College Hill School auditorium)

December 1936  reviews Inside Europe by John Gunther for the Iota Mu chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (at the Lassen Hotel); at least five to six dozen attend the event

January 1937  performs selections from The Ring of the Niebelung with Otto Fischer on the piano at a meeting of the Kansas Bar Association

February 1937  reviews The Street of Fishing Cats by Jolán Földes for the Iota Mu chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (at the Lassen Hotel)

February 1937  gives a lecture recital about Cosima Wagner, assisted by Otto Fischer on the piano at the Twentieth Century Club (the Wichita Eagle reported that Myra Brooks wore a "stunning floor length gown of black satin"

March 1937  reviews Phantom Crown by Bertita Harding for the Iota Mu chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (at the Lassen Hotel)

March 1937  reviews The Street of Fishing Cats by Jolán Földes at a meeting of the Oxford Art Club

October 1937  Myra Brooks and Otto Fischer perform in Coffeyville at the Coffeyville Matinee Music club 

October 1937  Myra Brooks and Otto Fischer perform a program of music by Richard Wagner at Friends of Contemporary Music in Wichita

November 1937  give a lecture recital with Otto Fischer of music by Richard Wagner at a meeting of Job's Daughters (at the York Rite Temple)

November 1937  Myra Brooks and Otto Fischer perform a two-piano transcription of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Niebelung at The Current Book Club

December 1937  Myra Brooks and Otto Fischer give recital of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Niebelung at the University of Wichita

December 1937  gives a presentation of a number of current biographies at the Wichita Art Association

March 1938  reviews The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang at an art class at Wichita Art Museum

April 1938  reviews The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang at The Current Book Club

March 1939  reviews Prohibiting Poverty by Prestonia Martin at The Current Book Club

November 1939  reviews My America by Louis Adamic at The Current Book Club

January 1940  speaks on "music in the European capitals since the outbreak of World War II" at the Saturday Afternoon Musical Club

March 1940  reviews an unknown book at the Wichita Art Museum

April 1940  gives a lecture recital about Cosima Wagner, assisted by Otto Fischer on the piano, at the Study Guild

May 1940  lectures on Pagliacci, an Italian opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, at the Music Study Group 

July 1941  lectures on the Ring Operas, specifically Die Walkure, at which she played recordings including Wotan's Farewell sung by Lawrence Tibbett, at a Study Guild meeting (at Droll's English Grill)

September 1941 lectures on "What Every Woman Wants to Know" at a Study Guild meeting (at Droll's English Grill)

November 1941  reviews The Voyage by Charles Morgan

January 1942  reviews From Many Lands by Louis Adamic at The Current Book Club 

 ++++++

Louise Brooks returned home to Wichita in August of 1940. Around that same time, Myra Brooks' book reviewing began to taper off. Myra, who shared her interests and passions with her daughter as well as the he people of Wichita, passed away at the age of 60 in 1944.

A follow-up to Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In my last post, I wrote about two little documented periods in the life of Louise Brooks. One of them was the couple three weeks Brooks spent in Paris, France in the Fall of 1924. She had gone there with Barbara Bennett, and not long after their arrival, Bennett decided to return to the United States. Suddenly on her own, and with little money, the 18 year old Brooks was at loose ends.

According to Brooks, she was sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Edouard VII (39 Av. de l'Opéra) in Paris when Archie Selwyn encountered her. The well connected American producer persuaded her to go with him to London, where he got her a job dancing at the Cafe de Paris in London. According to the International Herald Tribune, Selwyn was reported to be in Paris as of October 14; he was in Paris with his wife and staying at the Hotel Claridge (37 Rue François), working to secure a contract with the Spanish singing star Raquel Meller, who is performing in Paris to great acclaim at the Palace.

So, now we know how Brooks got to London (where she lived at 49A Pall Mall) and how she got a job at the Cafe de Paris (3-4 Coventry St.), at which she began dancing on October 20. On October 21, 1924, Variety reports that Brooks was "cordially received upon opening last night at the Cafe de Paris cabaret," and that Layton & Johnstone have returned to the establishment for an extended engagement.

From January 1925, the first depiction of Louise Brooks in a European publication. As this early portrait doesn't show up in American publications, I am going to assume it was taken in London.

News sometimes travels slow, especially in small-town Kansas. On November 6th, the Burden Times from Burden, Kansas reported that the Cherryvale Republican reports that the Wichita press reports that Brooks was in Paris, France. The Burden paper notes, "Her departure from France was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris." Unfortunately, the Cherryvale Republican is not available for 1924, and I am not sure it is even extant. Thus, I cannot trace the lineage of the reportage mentioned in the article pictured here.

An account of Louise Brooks 1940s Wichita interlude

This post is the third in a series highlighting newly available material uncovered as more issues of the various Wichita newspapers have come online. As mentioned, I have been systematically plowing through them, gleaming bits of new information, some of which I have been adding to my extensive three part chronology on the Louise Brooks Society website beginning at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939. This material focuses on the early 1940s, when Louise Brooks returned to Wichita after giving up o Hollywood. For more on this period in Brooks' life, see Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1940-1985.

In early 1940, Louise Brooks was a resident of Los Angeles. She was living in a modest apartment, and trying to eek out a living. She and her business partner Barrett O'Shea ran a dance studio, which at best was only moderately successful. She and O'Shea also did occasional exhibition dancing, as when on April 20 they danced at the Arrowhead Spring Hotel in nearby San Bernadino. Things came crashing down when in June Los Angeles newspapers reported that Brooks and other "Hollywood folk" had been the victim of a con-man / swindler. Brooks lost $2,000, then a considerable amount of money.

With little seemingly to keep her (Brooks' acting career had come to a halt), the one time silent film actress left Hollywood and returned home to Wichita in August. By September, the Wichita papers were carrying stories about the Brooks new career, as a dancer and dance instructor. 

To Brooks, who had toured the United States as a Denishawn dancer and had been celebrated as an actress and screen beauty around the world, Wichita must have seemed a comedown. But still, she carried on. She also had to earn a living. 

The Wichita newspapers reported that Brooks and a new partner, Hal McCoy, had opened a dance studio. They also reported on their various engagements. On September 23, 1940, Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Crestview Country Club in Wichita, Kansas during a program sponsored by the College Hill Business association. On October 21, Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Young Republican meeting at the state's Central Republican headquarters. Hundreds turned out according to local press reports. The event celebrated National Young Voters for Wilkie Day, which was being observed throughout the nation. A broadcast speech by Wendell Wilkie was heard. On October 27, the Wichita Eagle reports that Brooks was enlisted by the Wichita Country Club to instruct locals on new dances including the Conga and Rumba, with the first such instruction taking place October 29.

On November 7, local newspapers report that Brooks is among the local talent participating in a benefit musical for crippled children for Wesley Hospital. On November 14 (her 34th birthday), Brooks speaks about and demonstrates new dances (the tango, rhumba, conga, etc...) at the Wichita Little Theater as part of its workshop program. And on November 24, a classified advertisement for Brooks' self-published booklet, The Fundamental of Good Ballroom Dancing, begins running in the Wichita Eagle. The ad runs nearly every day for a month.

All this activity likely didn't add up to much. We can't be sure how many dance engagements the Brooks - McCoy team had, but it wasn't likely very many. In January of 1941, Brooks ran an advertisement for what today may be called a life coach. The advertisement in the Wichita Eagle promotes private Tuesday morning classes in which Brooks offers "a rare opportunity to reap the benefits of her career among the most fascinating women of the theatre, screen, and society. Learn the way to grace and dominant sureness...." The depression was still on, and Brooks, likely in need of money, was trading on her onetime fame.

Brooks continued on continuing on. The second world war had begun in Europe. On March 28, Brooks participates in a benefit for Greek war relief at the Miller theater in Wichita. Brooks originated a comedy jitterbug number performed by locals Jim Kefner and Jack Walker. Advertisements for the event credit the Louise Brooks Dancing School. And on April 29, Brooks demonstrated ballroom and South American dances at Jubilesta, a fundraiser for the local P.T.A. and student council of the Wichita high school East. According to press reports, Brooks directed a student conga chain. Funds raised by the event went toward the purchase of a movie screen for the school.

For Brooks, the sky fell in again on May 21, 1941. According to Wichita press reports, Brooks was involved in an automobile accident when the car she is traveling in overturned after encountering an oil slick on South Hillside, just outside Wichita city limits. The car was badly damaged, and Brooks was treated at St. Francis Hospital. "Hospital attendants said that she suffered a three -inch laceration on the scalp and numerous bruises. Miss Brooks said attending physicians shaved a portion of her head to stitch the wound. 'I hate to lose my hair worse than to suffer the hurts,' Miss Brooks said." 

Reporting by then old news in her nationally syndicated gossip column, Dorothy Kilgallen wrote in June: "Louise Brooks, the silent screen star, suffered severe burns recently. Had all her hair singed off." In November, Kilgallen again gave a shout-out to Brooks, writing the actress was "stranded in Wichita, Kan. and s-o-s-ing friends for any kind of job."

Evidently, Brooks attempt to establish a career as a dancer & dance instructor in Wichita had fizzled. In August of 1942, Brooks was hired as a sales girl at Garfields, a department store in Wichita. Brooks works the accessories counter. By the middle of September, Brooks employment at Garfields had come to an end. That Fall, there was also a press report that Brooks helped students at Wichita University stage a skit for their forthcoming Spring Celebration. Brooks was once again at loose ends. 

In January of 1943, wealthy New York investment banker Albert Archer calls Brooks in Wichita, and she asks him to wire her the money to get to New York. Some four days later, Brooks departs Wichita by train, with a stop in Chicago. On January 15, she arrived in New York City. Her Wichita interlude had come to an end.

Little known 1931 interview with Louise Brooks uncovered

It's rare these days when a truly "new" (meaning little seen) image or magazine clipping about Louise Brooks comes to light. Many of the images which circulate online are "recycled" from past posts on eBay or Facebook or Pinterest or a blog or website, including this. But still, new material occasionally comes to light.

Just recently, additional years of the two main Wichita newspapers have come online. I have been systematically plowing through them, gleaming bits of new information, some of which I have been adding to my extensive three part chronology on the Louise Brooks Society website beginning at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 part 1. 

I was a bit gobsmacked when I came across a new-to-me May 1931 interview with Louise Brooks which appeared in the Wichita Eagle and which contains a new-to-me portrait of the star. The occasion for the piece, "Pajamas the Latest Thing in Hollywood, Wichita Star Says," was Brooks return to Wichita for a brief, three day visit. A reporter caught wind or her arrival, and spoke with the star at her parent's home.

 

 

Aside from a factual error, i.e., the fact that Brooks was a Paramount actress and not a First National star, what I find remarkable about this piece is Brooks' candor. The anonymous reporter asked about Hollywood trends and hairstyles, and after asking about pajamas, Brooks referenced Marlene Dietrich, her supposed rival for the role of Lulu. I wish she had said more.

Brooks seemingly refused to comment ("was non-committal") when asked to dish further Hollywood gossip, but she did let slip on hot Hollywood couple of the moment Estelle Taylor and Jack Dempsey, who she apparently said where having difficulty over money matters. And regarding Clara Bow, for whom Brooks had a genuine affection, she said the "titian-haired star" had suffered a nervous breakdown and was recovering in a sanatorium and "hiding away from blackmailers." To be sure, the marriage difficulties experienced by Taylor and Dempsey were reported on in the press, as was Bow's emotional distress and trouble with those who sought to exploit her. But that fact that Brooks mentioned them specifically suggests to me a personal awareness of those star's public difficulties.

At the time Brooks gave this interview, she was only 25 years old, yet she speaks like an old-timer pointing out the behavior of the young whipper snappers nipping at her heals. "Really life among the stars who are really big in their profession is as matter-of-fact as that of any prosperous and highly respected business man," Brooks declared. "Take a party in Hollywood, for instance," Brooks continued. "The kids and newcomers to the screen. who don't really amount to much, throw wild parties and get their names over the front pages, but the really worthwhile people there have dinner, play bridge and go home early so that they can be fit for the next day's work in the studios." Either Brooks or the reporter who transcribed this interview really liked the word "really."

The newspaper reporter was likely tasked with asking Brooks about something more than just Hollywood gossip. That newsworthy something was a concern shared by everyone everywhere in the country. In 1931, the one thing on everyone's mind was the depression then ransacking the nation. Brooks seems to have had a real awareness of the hurt everyday people were suffering, including those in the bubble known as Hollywood. The article notes, "The depression which has slowed down business over the United States the past year is just now being felt in the film colonies, Miss Brooks said. Several hundred workmen have been laid off in the various studios and the production of pictures has slowed down considerably in the last few weeks." The pieces continues, and Brooks exaggerates a bit to make a point. "Actors and actresses are also taking the depression more seriously than many suspect. Instead of rushing out and buying a couple of Rolls Royces out of one pay check, they save their money and invest it in something that will pay good dividends, she declared." Unfortunately, Brooks didn't act as cautiously as she said others did. She was something of a live-for-today spendthrift. In 1932, she declared bankruptcy.

By the time Brooks gave this interview, she had completed work on three films, each of which were released in 1931. It is interesting that Brooks said at the end of the piece that she would be out of pictures for a year, as she hoped to act on the stage. Her stage work, in a NYC production of Norma Krasna’s comedy, Louder, Please, came to naught. Brooks did not return to pictures for five years, when she appeared in the Buck Jones western, Empty Saddles.

By the way, Louise's pretty younger sister, June, who is pictured in the clipping above, never had the Hollywood career she had once hoped for and is mention at the end of the article. She ended up going to college at Wichita State University before eventually relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Louise Brooks and the Coronavirus of 1918 (an addendum)

Ace Louise Brooks researcher Philip Vorwald provided some additional information about Louise Brooks' mystery illness, as referenced in the previous LBS blog, "Louise Brooks and the Coronavirus of 1918." (See update below.)

In that blog, I described the Spanish Flu which ravaged the United States at the end of WWI, adding "Wherever this strain of influenza came from, it effected everyday life and must have been on everyone's mind, even little Louise Brooks, who was born in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1906. By all accounts, she was a healthy child, but on November 29, 1917 the Cherryvale Republican newspaper reported that Brooks had been out of school for more than a month due to illness. The nature of her illness is not known, though given the historical context, one might suspect a serious case of the flu."

Garfield school building in 1913

In the previous blog, I also supplied the clipping from the Cherryvale newspaper, which actually ran twice, the first time on November 23, and the second time on November 29. The wording on each news bit was the same, even down to Louise's expected "return next Monday." The November 23rd clipping is shown below.

Philip Vorwald emailed with some additional details, including scans of Louise's report card from the time. Of course, they don't tell us from what the 11 year old suffered - scarlet fever has also been suggested - but they do show just how long Louise was out of school.

Philip wrote, "After I read your blog today, I went back to her report cards from elementary school in Cherryvale, and found the absent days in sixth grade, 1917-1918....

There are six "six week" periods of the 1917-1918 school year. Louise's report card shows her completely missing the "2nd" six week school period; no grades at all. Curiously, no absent days are recorded either though. If the "1st" six week period began at the beginning of September, then this missing "2nd" period would have begun in the third week of October, 1917, and run through November, which now matches the November 29 description of five weeks, and back to school."

Whatever caused Louise to be out of school for so long is uncertain, but it must have been worrisome for her parents. The Brooks family left Cherryvale for Independence in the summer of 1918. The Independence newspaper reported that Louise enrolled in school on September 8, 1918. (For more on LB's daily life at the time, see "Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 part 1" on the Louise Brooks Society website.)

Despite a sense of normalcy, the flu effected daily life throughout much of 1918 and into 1919. Articles like this appeared in the local newspaper.

UPDATE: Documentary filmmaker Charlotte Siller has identified the illness which led to Louise Brooks missing school as typhoid fever.

Want to know how the Spanish Flu effected your hometown in 1918? If you have access to newspapers.com or newspaperarchive.com, or if your local library has digital access to the later, or a run of your local newspaper from the time - try doing a search using the year 1918 and the keyword "influenza."

An Early Glimpse at Louise Brooks' Wichita, Kansas

On May 1, 1924 Louise Brooks was in New Brunswick, New Jersey -- performing at the Rivoli Theatre as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company. Some five days later, she was dismissed from the company by Ruth St. Denis, bringing an end to a glorious beginning to her professional life as a dancer and actress.

Had she not left her home to join Denishawn in the summer of 1922, the 17 year old Brooks might have been among the crowds lining the streets to watch the Boys Loyalty Parade as it marched down Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita on May 1, 1924.

A few days ago, the Wichita Eagle broke the news about a rare five minute film documenting that very parade, offering rare glimpses of the very streets a teenage Brooks knew as home. According to the Wichita eagle, the recently discovered "five-minute clip, now posted on the [Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum's] YouTube Channel, shows a snapshot of life in Wichita 95 years ago. In it, hundreds of people in dresses, suits and hats fashionable in the day are lined up along the 100 block and 200 blocks of East Douglas watching as men and boys in suit jacks, ties and page boy caps proceed down the street representing various groups, including schools like Hamilton, Allison and Horace Mann and groups like the Lions Club and Boy Scouts."

Something that jumps out to me are the handful of young women wearing bobbed hair and bangs, similar to the style Brooks wore while attending high school in Wichita. One young women in particular is readily apparent in the lower left hand corner of the frame through out the beginning of this appropriately silent film.

The description of the film on Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum's YouTube page reads: "Parade on the 100 block of East Douglas looking west towards the Broadview Hotel (view of the Holland Theater, 118 E. Douglas and the Rothenberg at 128) and looking East to the Eaton Hotel and beyond (including the Kress at 224 and Innes at 300). Officials view the parade from a viewing platform in front of the Kansas Theater (221) the Walk-Over boot Shop (219) and Taylor's Cafeteria (217 E Douglas). Groups in the parade include the American Indian Institute, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs, YMCA, Boy Scouts, Allison, Roosevelt, Hamilton, Harry Street, Ingalls, Horace Mann, and Cathedral schools, unidentified group of African American young men, and an unidentified girls and boys band. Most are on foot, but some ride bicycles. Street cars are in some scenes. Later footage shows the group swearing allegiance to the flag in what looks like a park.Boys' Loyalty Parade was sponsored by the Wichita Rotary Club."

I don't know that Brooks ever saw a movie at the Holland or Kansas theaters (mentioned above), or got a bite to eat at Taylor's Cafeteria  -- but she did go to Horace Mann school and was a member of the local girl scouts. This bit of film brings us that much closer to experiencing and understanding her early life. Here is a rare image of Louise Brooks, taken from her sophomore high school yearbook., followed by another rare image.

To learn more about the silent film star's early days, visit Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 part 1 on the Louise Brooks Society website.