Louise Brooks as the bride of Tom Thumb, and other early performances

Many fans of Louise Brooks, at least those who have read Barry Paris' outstanding biography, will be familiar with the image of Louise Brooks as the bride of Tom Thumb. It was the first ever role for the pint-sized performer, who was just 3 years old.

What else do we know about the image and the circumstances behind its making? Very little, it turns out, until now. Recent research has revealed that . . . .

This photograph of little Louise Brooks was taken ahead of a September 2, 1910 production of Tom Thumb Wedding at the Christian Church in Cherryvale, Kansas. Admission to this Friday evening event, a benefit, was 15 and 25 cents.

Despite bad weather around the state, many turned out. The following day, a newspaper article stated there was “good attendance,” and that the “program pleased the audience, and netted the sum of $30 for the church.” Doing the math, that means the audience could have numbered around 100.

Here is a picture of the venue for Brooks' first performance, the Christian Church in Cherryvale. This postcard image dates to right around the time that Brooks' appeared as the bride of Tom Thumb.

Over the eight years, Brooks would dance and perform in public on a number of occasions in Cherryvale. For example, Brooks took piano lessons from a woman named Bertha Nusbaum, and on August 6, 1915 as one of Nusbaum’s piano students, an eight year old Brooks performed the “Little Fairy Waltz Op. 105, No. 1” by Ludovic Streabbog at the home of a neighbor. Below is a video recreation of the event :)

Another early documented performance took place on March 7, 1917 when a ten year old Brooks performed “Anitra’s Dance” (from the Peer Gynt ballet by Edvard Grieg) at the Cherryvale Arts Festival. Cherryvale resident Reba Randolph accompanied on piano.

On January 18, 1918 a then eleven year old Brooks, who was referred to as “Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary” in the local newspaper, lead a “Dance of the Flowers” with 12 other Flower Maidens in a Mother Goose Pageant at the local High School. This event, held while the war in Europe was still raging, was a benefit for the local Red Cross fund.

Below is a picture of the Cherryvale High School, where on May 9 and 10, 1918 Brooks performed as the Fairy Queen in “On Midsummer's Day,” a benefit to raise money to purchase Victrolas for the school.

Tomorrow's blog will highlight another of Brooks' early performances as well as the impact the First World War had on the future actress.

Kansas Silent Film Festival

Here is the line-up of films for the Kansas Silent Film Festival. More information may be found on their website.

Louise Brooks, Wichita Kansas girl scout

In the early 1920s, Louise Brooks was a member of the Girl Scouts. In fact, according to this 1921 article in the Wichita Eagle newspaper, she was a member of one of the first girl scout troops in Wichita, Kansas. Brooks is pictured in the article below, top row, fourth from the left.

Radio Review - The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Check out this review of The Chaperone on KMUW, a public radio station from Louise Brooks' hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone features a teenage Louise Brooks as a main character. The review starts this way, "One beautiful thing about reading is the travel it allows. Through books, you can visit other times, places, or even dimensions." 

Kansas coverage of Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone

Three articles about Laura Moriarty's superb new novel, The Chaperone, showed up in today's Kansas newspapers. The novel tells the story of the woman who accompanied 15 year old Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922, and the changes both experienced in each others company. It is a great read, and highly recommended.

The Lawrence Journal-World ran a piece titled "A cut above: Local author’s novel generates national buzz," by Terry Rombeck. And the Wichita Eagle ran a story titled "Author Laura Moriarty takes a step back in time," by Lisa McLendon. The Eagle also ran a book review of The Chaperone in today's paper, "Laura Moriarty’s ‘The Chaperone’ brings 1920s Wichita to life."

Image courtesy of Riverhead books

Additionally, today's New York Times also ran a review, "City of Dreams," which features a cartoon illustration of the future actress by Pete Gamlen. All of the above articles are worth checking out.

Buck's column - Cherryvale's movie star

The Coffeyville Journal ran an article about Louise Brooks in today's paper. "Buck's column - Cherryvale's movie star" discusses the actress from the next town over. Buck Walton's piece starts:

It must be admitted that I’ve only seen one film of Cherryvale’s Louise Brooks, and it was “Overland Stage Raiders” (1938, John Wayne), which was her last. Judging from this B-western, you’d never guess that she had been a sensation in the 1920s and has a cult following.

The article can be found in its entirety at www.cjournal.com/columns/local_story_267010823.html/

Article on Louise Brooks

An article on Louise Brooks appeared in today's Morning Sun, a newspaper from Pittsburg, Kansas. The article was titled "Do You Recall?"

Do You Recall? 

Louise Brooks: Silent Screen Star

Louise Brooks, a product of Cherryvale, became one of the most controversial actresses during the 1920s. Who would have ever known that the daughter of a small-town attorney and granddaughter of a country doctor would become one of America's most dazzling silent movie stars of the era.

Mary Louise Brooks, also known as "Brooksie" was born Nov. 14, 1906, to Leonard and Myra Brooks at 531 East 7th Street in Cherryvale. Four children were born of this marriage. Having been forced to care for her siblings due to a sickly mother, Myra told her husband that he was her escape to freedom and the arts. If there were any "squalling brats" born to them, they would have to take care of themselves. She was not the most loving mother.

If not for Louise's talent for dance, Mrs. Brooks would not have helped enhance and promote her career. Louise made her debut at age 4, when she portrayed the bride in a church-benefit production of "Tom Thumb's Wedding". Venus Jones and her little sister, Vivian Jones (Vance) of "I LOVE LUCY" fame, were childhood friends and lived across the street from each other for about a year. They often made mud-pies together and romped outside the local monument company among the tombstones. How odd that these two beauties would both become professional actresses later in life.

By age 10, Louise became known as a professional dancer, performing at men's and women's clubs, fairs, theaters, and dance halls throughout southeast Kansas. Although her father highly objected, her mother, in the interest of improving Louise's image, had a barber chop off her long black braids and shape what remained of her hair in a straight Dutch bob with bangs. Later, she would become known for this Buster-Brown/Page Boy type cut. Thousands of women were attracted to that style, and adopted it as their own, in a way that has been repeated many times since then.

At age 15, she was discovered by Ted Shawn and began touring nationwide with Denishawn Company. These locations also included Wichita and Pittsburg, Kansas as well. Often she had what we would call "temper tantrums", but her mother, Myra, usually came to her rescue. However, at age 17, she was fired from Denishawn as a "bad influence", but went on to the George White "Scandals Review" and later to the 1925 Ziegfeld Follies (which also included an affair with Charlie Chaplin). In 1922, she realized that she had to get rid of her Kansas accent and to learn etiquette of the socially elite. Since she could not afford speech lessons, she found a soda jerk who was working his way through Columbia University and within a month, her accent was eliminated.

Because of her dark-haired look and being the beautiful, modern woman that she was, she was not popular in the Hollywood crowd. She was ahead of her time. At age 19, she signed a 10-year contract with Paramount Studios and became the flapper symbol. An icon of the age, women all over America copied her look, but they could never copy her style.

Louse came into her own when she left Hollywood for Europe.

She appeared in a few German productions which were very well made and further proved that she was an actress with an enduring talent. German director, G.W. Pabst, cast her as Lulu in the movie Pandora's Box (1929). It has been hailed as a masterpiece of silent cinema. He also directed her in Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) which further proved her talent.

In 1930, she returned to Hollywood which was the first step of her decline. After appearing in several B movies, she permanently abandoned the film industry in 1938. He last film was a western with John Wayne, the Overland Stage Raiders. She only made 25 movies in her career, but after that, she spent most of her time reading and painting. She also became an accomplished writer, authoring a number of books, including her own autobiography. On Aug. 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in Rochester, N.Y. at the age of 78. Although she was never "accepted" by Hollywood, her influences continue on as another southeast Kansas native proves her talent.

Leatherock undergoes huge renovation

The Parsons Sun newspaper (from Parsons, Kansas), reports that the Leatherock Hotel in Cherryvale is to undergo a huge renovation. Built in 1912, the two-story brick hotel is across the street from the former Frisco and Santa Fe railroad depots in Cherryvale.

Hallowell began work on the project several years ago. The bed and breakfast now has three rooms available for rent and an apartment.

One small room, Bertha's Room, is named for Bertha Leatherock, the wife of Fred Leatherock who was influential in the hotel being built to serve as a place for railroad workers and passengers to get a bite to eat or spend the night. The room is decorated in early 1900s motif. Other rooms will honor Cherryvale residents and actresses Louise Brooks, a very famous silent screen artist, and Vivian Vance, who played Ethel on "I Love Lucy."

Hallowell said the bed and breakfast's hallway will someday be a museum, with Cherryvale history on one side and U.S. and world history on the opposite wall. "It's a little bit of a different concept for a museum," Hallowell said.

For more on this hotel, check out www.leatherockhotel.com The hotel website even has a page on Louise Brooks and other local celebrities.

Thanks to Amanda

Amanda Howard - a longtime LBS member from Wichita, Kansas - has done it again!

Amanda took some time out of her busy schedule to hunt down Denishawn material from two Kansas newspapers - theWellington Daily News and the Lawrence Daily Journal-World. Amanda found an amazing assortment of newspaper advertisements, related articles, and reviews of each performance. One of the local-interest articles spoke of a pre-Denishawn dance recital by Louise Brooks at the Wellington Home Coming and Golden Jubilee in which she "used a large number of vari-colored balloons" in an "especially attractive" routine. Wow! What a find! The other material was also quite interesting . . . one local article spoke of a reception for the dance company, and one of the reviews praised Brooks by name. [ Citations for this new material have been added to the appropriate LBS bibliographies. ]

During her research, Amanda also came across a photograph (circa 1890) of the building which Brooks and her family would later call home starting in the late teens. What a wonderfull structure.



Thank you Amanda for your excellent efforts.

Brick collectors

Did you know that there are people out there who collect old bricks for their decorative or historic value? And I am now one of them. . . .  How could I pass up this vintage sidewalk brick from Cherryvale, Kansas - Louise Brooks' hometown.



I found this item on eBay, of course. The seller has another brick for sale, a nifty one with a double sunflower design. (Kansas is the sunflower state.)