The Louise Brooks Society, a statement, something to get off my chest

At one of my San Francisco Public Library exhibits

I launched the "Louise Brooks Society" website in 1995. I did so because I had recently "discovered" the actress and was enthused about connecting with others of like-mind, sharing not only information and images but also the small discoveries which came from my ongoing research into Brooks' life and career. For me, the Louise Brooks Society is a labor of love to which I have given a fair amount of my time.

Over the years, a handful of other Louise Brooks websites and fan pages have come and gone. With the launch of Facebook, even more groups have sprung up, including one similarly called the "Louise Brooks Appreciation Society." I figured the more interest in Brooks the better.... I would do my thing, and others could do their thing. Live and let live.... And that's the way it was for a good number of years. I never felt I had "ownership" over Louise Brooks, and never tried to control how others expressed their interest or passion in the actress. "It's all good," as they say. I have, as well, on numerous occasions, supported and promoted other's projects, be it another fan's art, video, article, novel, documentary, or webpage. There was plenty of Louise Brooks to go around.

However, not everyone feels the way I do. The petty internet trolls who have attacked the Louise Brooks Society and its social media accounts are a nuisance who are, in effect, trying to control Louise Brooks. Just today, they had Etsy remove a 25 year-old t-shirt I had for sale by claiming this vintage piece of clothing, lawfully manufactured by a third party decades ago, somehow infringed upon their intellectual property rights. Bull, shit. They have also managed to get the Louise Brooks Society Instagram account suspended, and now, its 5300 followers no longer get their daily dose of our Miss Brooks via the LBS. My apologies to those 5300 Louise Brooks-loving Instagramers, but my appeals have gone nowhere. The same thing happened to the Louise Brooks Society fan page on Facebook, which had gained a similar number of followers and has also disappeared. [For the record, the LBS LinkedIn, Patreon, CafePress, POST and LinkTree accounts have also been attacked on the grounds of alleged infringement of intellectual property.]

Admittedly, these attacks have left me feeling a bit discouraged, but not undaunted. I still have my Louise Brooks Society website and blog, and I still have pride in the fact that the Louise Brooks Society helped bring both the Barry Paris biography and Louise Brooks' own Lulu in Hollywood back into print. I am also proud of the considerable research I have done, of the many articles I have written, the four books I have published, the various events I put on or participated in, the exhibits I curated, the books and documentary films I have helped inspire, and the films I have helped restore. I did all this, and more, for one simple reason -- to bring greater awareness to the life and films of someone I find endlessly fascinating.

One thing that I am proud of is the acknowledgement given me by the estate of Louise Brooks, with whom I have worked on a project (the retrieval of some rare material from an archive). They thanked me for placing that material in their hands, and for all that I had done.

Someone once said, "living well is the best revenge." The Louise Brooks Society will go on. At present I am working on a new book, with another in the works. (To get the latest news from the Louise Brooks Society, please subscribe to this blog or the LBS Twitter account.)

Also, a BIG THANK YOU to those who made a donation to my GoFundMe campaign towards the publication of my forthcoming book about Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. It is full of rare images, including a handful of Louise Brooks. Find out more HERE.

The Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering silent film website. And, I think it has made its mark. Not more than a few years after I started the site, I met the much loved film critic Roger Ebert, who told me he had used the LBS to research the actress and her films. I was thrilled. I also felt I was doing something right.

A few years after that, Ebert tweeted about an article I had written for the Huffington Post about the 1928 film, Beggars of Life. In his tweet, Ebert encouraged Kino Lorber to release the film on DVD, and they did, a few years later. (You can hear my audio commentary on the DVD/Blu-Ray!)

I would love to see this nearly-lost Louise Brooks film! Kino! Get on the case! http://t.co/nbPqdQdI

— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 20, 2012

Others, like Louise Brooks fan (and 8th Doctor Who) Paul McGann have praised my website, as have others both in and outside the world of silent film and film history. What follows is some of the press and praise the site has received in magazines and newspapers from around the world. This first clipping shown here, from May 23, 1996, came as a big surprise. It also reveals the ugly old URL of the site before I secured www.pandorasbox.com (Otherwise, here is the earliest Wayback Machine capture of the site at pandorasbox.com, from April 11, 1997.) If you are out there Sam Vincent Meddis, "thank you."

 

PRESS & PRAISE FOR THE LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY

Meddis, Sam Vincent. "Net: New and notable." USA Today, May 23, 1996.
-- "Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interview, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience."

Silberman, Steve. "Fan Site Sparks Biopic." Wired News, April 10, 1998.
-- "The Louise Brooks Society is an exemplary fan site."

Evenson, Laura. "Lovely Lulu Lives Again." San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 1998.
-- "Hugh Munro Neely, director of "Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu," credits Gladysz's site with helping to sell the idea for the documentary." (alternative archive link)

Garner, Jack. "Movie buffs can find trivia, reviews online." Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, September 12, 2000.
-- "A fine example of a fan page, a thoughtful, artful site devoted to the life and times of a fabled silent movie legend." 

Anderson, Jeffrey M. "Thirteen great film sites." San Francisco Examiner, November 29, 2001.
-- "This San Francisco-run site pays tribute to one of the greatest and most under-appreciated stars of all time."

Pattenden, Mike. "An era of glamour." London Sunday Times, April 27, 2003.
-- "With her sculpted dark bob and rebellious lifestyle, Louise Brooks was perhaps the ultimate flapper icon. A screen star to rank with Bacall and Hepburn, Brooks' career straddled the silent era and early talkies. She bucked the system to make movies in Europe, notably Pandora's Box, which lends its name to www.pandorasbox.com, dedicated to her remarkable life and including some of her more risque poses - a reminder that the 1920s were as much about sex and style as any era since."

Maltin, Leonard. "Links We Like: Louise Brooks Society." Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy, August 1, 2005.
-- "Not many sites of any kind can claim to be celebrating a tenth anniversary online, but that’s true of the Louise Brooks Society, devoted to the life and times of the magnetic silent-film star and latter-day memoirist. Thomas Gladysz has assembled a formidable amount of material on the actress and her era; there’s not only a lot to read and enjoy, but there’s a gift shop and even a 'Radio Lulu' function that allows you to listen to music of the 1920s. Wow!"

Matheson, Whitney. "Happy birthday, Louise!" USA Today, November 14, 2006.
-- "My favorite Louise Brooks site belongs to the Louise Brooks Society, a devoted group of fans that even keeps a blog." 

SiouxWire. "Interview: THOMAS GLADYSZ, founder of the LOUISE BROOKS Society." SiouxWire, April 5, 2007.
 
Garner, Jack. "Get hard-to-find films on custom DVD's." Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, September 10, 2010.
-- "But it's not everyday that a 1929 film generates a reissue of a book, yet that's the case with Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl, which was originally published in 1905. The surprising reissue in 2010 is the brainchild of Thomas Gladysz, a San Francisco journalist and director of the Louise Brooks Society."  

Blackburn, Gavin. "Forgotten book by Margarete Boehme to be revived in US." Deutsche Welle, November 3, 2010.

LaSalle, Mick. "Diary of a Lost Girl to be screened at main library." San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2010.

Toole, Michael T. "Reopening Pandora’s Box in San Francisco." Film International, August 22, 2012.

Marcus, Greil. "Where the Song Leaves You." BarnesandNobleReview, January 19, 2015.
-- a 2012 LBS blog about Bruce Conner and Louise Brooks is singled out by the well known critic 

Brady, Tara. "Louise Brooks: ‘I was always late, but just too damn stunning for them to fire me’." Irish Times, June 2, 2018.
-- "She has super-fans. An online tribute site, the Louise Brooks Society, contains an extraordinary day-by-day chronology of her life."

(Above) With Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris in the year 2000. The publisher was appreciative of my efforts in helping bring the acclaimed biography back into print, so-much-so they arranged for an exclusive event at the San Francisco bookstore where I once worked, flying Barry Paris from his home in Pennsylvania to the West Coast. The book has remained in print ever since, and, I am told, it was among the publisher's best selling back-list titles for a few years running. Pictured below, my copy of an original edition of the biography, which reads, "For Thomas - who resurrected me & LB, the way Tynan did in the New Yorker!"

This blog is a middle finger to the internet trolls trying to damage the Louise Brooks Society. The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Louise Brooks Society now on Post (a new messaging app)

I launched the Louise Brooks Society website way back in the summer of 1995. I was a pioneer. The LBS was one of the first websites devoted to silent film and/or a silent film actor. Today, my website is certainly one of the longest lasting. 

Along the way, I branched out. There was a Louise Brooks Society MySpace page at one point, as well as a TribeNet page, and a streaming music channel (RadioLulu) on Live365. Things come and go. This blog dates back to 2002, when I first started writing about Louise Brooks on LiveJournal. In 2009, I transitioned the LBS blog to Blogger, where it has been ever since. (Some of the other Louise Brooks Society social media accounts can be found in the right hand column. Or, check out the LBS on LinkTree.)

The LBS has been on Twitter since 2009. (See https://twitter.com/LB_Society) To date, I have tweeted more than 6,150 times and gained some 5,200 followers. Not bad considering Louise Brooks and silent film is something of a niche interest.

With all the changes and uncertainty around Twitter these days (I think you know what I mean, as some are predicting its demise), I figure it is best to have a back-up, twitter-like account - an alternative app. I plan to stay with Twitter for the time being, but have recently set up an account on POST. That account can be found at https://post.news/@louisebrookssoc

I would encourage anyone interested in exploring the brave new world of Post to check it out. The Louise Brooks Society already has a few followers, and a few posts! Come on and join the smart set.

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.

 

The Street of Forgotten Men Restoration Credits - Thanks Tim Moore

In just a bit, I will be heading out the door on my way to San Francisco and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (about a two hour drive), where I will attend the premiere of the new restoration of Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men, on the BIG screen of the historic Castro Theatre. I am  looking forward to it. 

I have seen the film before, but never on the big screen. The first time was some twenty ago at the Library of Congress where I hand-cranked a projector inside a cubicle. I had made an appointment, and a staffer  brought me a print of the film. What a unique, intimate experience - me in my own "little theater," acting as projectionist, and sole audience member. At the time, it was thrilling to have seen something relatively few film buffs had seen. I recall I watched the film twice. Once, the first time, was for pleasure. The second time I stopped and started the film a number of times in order to take notes and study different frames & scenes - not knowing if I would ever have the chance to see the film again.

Fast forward a number of years. Back in 2017,  I helped film preservationist Robert Byrne with the preservation of the surviving fragment of the once lost Louise Brooks film, Now We're in the Air (1927). After that project wrapped-up, I mentioned to Rob what I thought was another worthwhile project, The Street of Forgotten Men. Though not lost, the film was little seen, and deserving. The film was also still under copyright. A few years had to pass before it fell into the public domain, which was in 2022. 

Sometime late last year, Rob Byrne asked if I wanted to help with the restoration of The Street of Forgotten Men. I said YES. My screen credit on the restoration print reads "Research" (see below) - but what I did was a little bit of everything which included helping acquire the scenario of the film (thanks to longtime Louise Brooks Society member Tim Moore), providing stills and bits of information, a few suggestions, and more. I also watched the film at least another six times on my desktop computer (an experience not dissimilar to my first viewing in a cubicle) during the months long restoration process.

As some may know, the Library of Congress holds the only known surviving print of the 7 reel film. But what they have are 6 of the 7 reels. What is missing is reel two. From the scenario (thank you again Tim Moore) we know what happens in the story (which includes the deaths of two significant characters). However, we don't know what it looks like. Rob was able to reconstruct the missing reel based on and utilizing descriptive passages and dialogue from the scenario which were matched up with whatever stills  could be acquired from collectors and archives all around the world. The results are impressive.

Though I have mentioned him twice already, I want to again thank Tim Moore for his assistance in helping secure scans of the film's scenario. Your help was crucial. Tim, as well as the Louise Brooks Society, are also thanked in the restoration credits. As are longtime friends Nancy Kaufman and Kay Shackleton.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival screening will be introduced by Jennifer Miko, who did the image restoration. The new print looks great on my computer, and should look just as swell on the big screen. I expect to be posting more on today's screening in the next few days.

For those interested, I wrote the essay on The Street of Forgotten Men which can be found in the program book distributed at the Festival. And here is an earlier piece, "Restored Silent Film ‘The Street of Forgotten Men’ Debuts Louise Brooks," which I penned for Pop Matters. 

And here is another piece I wrote for SF Patch on the film's 1925 reception in San Francisco. On to The Street of Forgotten Men !

Louise Brooks Society marks 25th anniversary

Earlier, at the beginning of this year, I was looking forward to this summer. I was looking forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society. But now, with all that has happened in 2020 — things I could not have imagined in January or February, I am resigned to merely marking the occasion. [The pandemic, and Trump's failure to help the nation get through it, has certainly sucked the air out of the room. Who feels like celebrating when one is only trying to get by....]

In the summer of 1995, I posted my first webpages about Louise Brooks and proclaimed the formation of a society dedicated to the silent film star. That was 25 years ago, at the beginning of the internet. The Louise Brooks Society was a pioneering website. It was the first site devoted to Brooks, one of the very first about silent film, and one of the earliest related to the movies. I am proud that I have kept it going to this day, making the LBS one of the older websites around.

Why did I do it? Since first becoming interested / fascinated / obsessed with Louise Brooks, I have always appreciated meeting others who shared my enthusiasm for this singular silent film star. Early on, I searched for some kind of fan club — but found none. Over time, it occurred to me that I might form my own group. The idea of starting the Louise Brooks Society coincided with my growing interest in computing. That was in the early to mid-1990s. And that’s when I realized there would be no better way of forming a fan club than over the internet. A fan club (in the traditional sense) would be a way to share information and “meet” other like-minded individuals. Thus, enabled by the world wide web, by email, by bulletin boards and listserves, and by all the mechanisms of the internet, the Louise Brooks Society was born.

The Louise Brooks Society website (which was just a few pages at first) was launched in the summer of 1995. Since then, the LBS has become one of the leading websites devoted to any film star — silent or sound. It has also received a fair amount of media attention. Just a year after I launched my website, In May of 1996, USA Today named the LBS a “Hot Site,” noting “Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience.”

I remember how excited I was when I received an email from a fan telling me they noticed something about my website in the paper! That sent me to my local library library to get a look at a back issue of USA Today, and hopefully photocopy the mention. (The USA Today piece was syndicated to various newspapers, including Florida Today, which is pictured below. Thank you Sam Vincent Meddis, where ever you are.)

More press followed. In the summer of 1996, the LBS was named one of five best sites devoted to actresses in a UK computing magazine, Net Directory. In March of 1997, there was a passing mention of the LBS in another British publication, the Times Literary Supplement (TLS)! And in September of 1997, the society was profiled in the Noe Valley Voice, a neighborhood newspaper located in San Francisco, California, where I then lived. That profile, by Fontaine Roberson, was titled "Flapper Has 'Virtual' Fan Club in Noe Valley."

Something was in the air, and the following year, 1998, was a big year for both Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. That was the year Hugh Munro Neely directed Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, the Emmy nominated documentary which debuted on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in May. My Louise Brooks Society website helped "inspire" its production. That's according to an article in Wired by Steve Silberman. In his April 10th piece, "Fan Site Sparks Biopic," Silberman wrote, "TCM spokesman Justin Pettigrew says the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society, the most in-depth Web site devoted to the once nearly forgotten star, convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and a mini-festival of Brooks' work.... 'The Web presence for Louise Brooks was overwhelming. It was definitely a driving force in convincing the network to produce this documentary," Pettigrew went on to add.

Other pieces followed. In 1998, there were mentions of the Louise Brooks Society in an Italian magazine, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and in the Melbourne Age, a newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. I appeared on cable TV on the Louise Brooks episode of "E! Mysteries and Scandals," along with Roger Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Barry Paris and others. And there was a big write up, "Lovely Lulu Lives Again," in the San Francisco Chronicle which discussed the documentaty and my website. In 1999, when Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu aired in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post wrote "The voiceless Internet has been the perfect medium for reviving the image of one of the greatest icons of the silent movie era. Louise Brooks, with her trademark raven 'helmet' hair style, adorns many a Web site. The renewed interest in her, fueled by the cyberspace Louise Brooks Society, prompted Turner Classic Movies to fund the television profile Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (World, 10 pm)."

Over the next few years, other mentions and praise would follow in San Francisco Examiner and, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, as well as the Stuttgarter Zeitung and London Sunday Times. In 2002, the New York Times noted, "The Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars." And in 2005, when the Louise Brooks Society was turning ten years old, Leonard Maltin wrote "Not many sites of any kind can claim to be celebrating a tenth anniversary online, but that’s true of the Louise Brooks Society, devoted to the life and times of the magnetic silent-film star and latter-day memoirist. Thomas Gladysz has assembled a formidable amount of material on the actress and her era; there’s not only a lot to read and enjoy, but there’s a gift shop and even a 'Radio Lulu' function that allows you to listen to music of the 1920s. Wow!"

The Louise Brooks Society has come along way since then — since those early days.

Louise Brooks Society books now at Larry Edmunds bookshop in Hollywood

During my recent trip to Los Angeles, I had the chance to visit Larry Edmunds. I've visited the historic bookshop (located at 6644 Hollywood Blvd) many times in the past, but always as a customer. This time, I dropped off copies of three of my books, each of which are now for sale at the famous Hollywood bookshop. The current owner of the shop and I also discussed the possibility of doing an event sometime next year to mark the publication of my forthcoming publication, Around the World with Louise Brooks, as well as to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society.

The three titles now available at Larry Edmunds are Louise Brooks: the Persistent Star, Beggars of Life: a Companion to the 1928 Film, and Now We're in the Air: a Companion to the Once Lost Film. If you live in or around Los Angeles, this is the place to go to check out these Louise Brooks Society publications (and a whole lot more).

Larry Edmunds Bookshop has been in business for over 70 years. As such, it is one of the last surviving cinema and theatre book and memorabilia stores in North America. It features an inventory of 500,000 movie photographs, 6,000 original movie posters and 20,009 motion picture and theater books. This is the place where film buffs come to shop.

Larry Edmunds Bookshop (photo by Gary Leonard via onlyinhollywood.org)

Larry Edmunds Bookshop opened in 1938, during the last couple years of Louise Brooks residency in Los Angeles. So who knows, perhaps she shopped there at one time or another.

Larry Edmunds Bookshop in 1965 (photo courtesy of Larry Edmunds Bookshop)

p.s. Larry Edmunds is located on Hollywood Blvd, where many stars from the Hollywood Walk of Fame are located. And fittingly, the star located just in front of the bookshop is that of Ray Bradbury, the great writer and lover of old movies.

A Refurbished Louise Brooks Society blog - check it out!

The 17-year old Louise Brooks Society blog -- located at http://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.com/ -- has been recently refurbished, brought up-to-date, and made spick-and-span. Notably, new functionality has been added to the right-hand column, including links to other silent film sites, additional blog subscription options, a "recent visitors" widget, a Patron button, and more.

This LBS blog has more than 240 followers, while dozens of others subscribe to posts through  BLOGLOVIN and other services. Which one do you use?

Scroll down the right-hand side of the blog and you'll find comprehensive hyperlinked lists to other blogs devoted to early film, as well as early film podcasts & message boards, film festivals & venues, and silent film websites. (The "silent film links" tab at the top of the page contains even more links, to websites devoted to early film actors and actresses, as well as a set of links to Jazz Age sites.) There is also a "In the News" link list  and a tab devoted to the media the Louise Brooks Society has received over the years IF YOU KNOW OF ANY DESERVING SITES NOT ALREADY INCLUDED ON THESE LISTS WHICH YOU THINK SHOULD BE LISTED, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL AND WE'LL TAKE A LOOK.

One new addition is a PATRON button for those who would like to support the Louise Brooks Society and it's many activities. I started the Louise Brooks Society website back in 1995, and have been running it as a labor of love ever since. But heck, I could sure use your support. If you don't wish to support the LBS at even a dollar a month, how about treating yourself and showing your support by buying a one of the books issued by the Louise Brooks Society. They are pictured in the right-hand column; there is also a "Books for Sale" tab with even more goodies.

I appreciate all the web traffic this blog receives. Each post receives visitors numbering in triple, and since I installed a blogger hit counter ever so long ago, this blog has received more than 1,300,000 visitors. One of the most fascinating new items in the right-hand column is the "recent visitors / flag counter" widget.

What I love about it is how it shows that individuals from around the world have visited this blog, including many from Australia and Great Britain. There are also numerous visitors from Italy, France, and Canada, as well as a few from India, Ireland, Korea, Greece, and Norway. If you are reading this blog, I expect your country is represented.

I've also tinkered with other bits and pieces of this blog, including tidying up the various tabs.  Please explore all that this blog has to offer. It is one point of entry into the 'swonderful world of silent film which exists both on the internet and in the world itself.

I would also like to encourage everyone to follow the Louise Brooks Society on Twitter. To date, more than 4,900 individuals have done so. The LBS Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/LB_Society, and there are follow buttons in the right-hand column.

More True Confessions: Pics from the Louise Brooks Society (part 1)

Here are some more images from the 20 year history of the Louise Brooks Society. Launched in 1995, the LBS was one of the first websites devoted to silent film or a silent film star. Only a few pages at first, the LBS has grown, and so has its acclaim as a resource for fans of Louise Brooks as well as early cinema. Check it out at www.pandorasbox.com

With Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star author Roland Jaccard (left)
in Paris in 2009. LBS Director Thomas Gladysz is center. On the right
is Aline Weill, who translated the Barry Paris biography into French.

In 1999, with 99 year old screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, who penned the
story behind the 1927 Louise Brooks' film Rolled Stockings. The event
the LBS co-presented with Maas for her book The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
was only the second she had done.

With author Barry Paris in 2000, at the LBS co-sponsored event
celebrating the new edition of the Barry Paris biography of the actress
(which the LBS helped bring back into print).

Introducing Pandora's Box at the Detroit Institute of the Arts in 2006,
the year which marked the Louise Brooks centennial.

 

With William Wellman Jr., whose Father directed the 1928
Louise Brooks' film Beggars of Life. Wellman Jr. told me his
Father adored Louise Brooks.

One view of the 2006 LBS sponsored Louise Brooks exhibit at the
San Francisco Public Library marking the actress centennial.

 

Another view of the 2006 LBS sponsored Louise Brooks exhibit at the
San Francisco Public Library.

A long time ago with the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert,
who told me he used the Louise Brooks Society website to
research Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.

In 2006, with film critic Peter Cowie,
author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever.

Thank you for reading this blog. Check back for tomorrow's post and more groovy pics from the 20 year history of the Louise Brooks Society.

True Confession: I've Been Stalking Louise Brooks for 20 years

An early VHS copy of Pandora's Box
from a time when this was the only
way to see a Louise Brooks' film

It all started more than 20 years ago on a Friday night at Video Wave in San Francisco. Not having anything in particular to do, I walked over to the local video store to rent a movie. There weren't any new releases that especially interested me. I had already seen most of what was then current. So, I spent a few minutes browsing the classics section. I am a film buff, and had seen much of what was on the shelves. One title, however, caught my eye, Pandora's Box, a German silent film from 1929. I thought the actress on the cover was kind of hot.

I hadn't heard of the film -- nor its star. What peaked my interest was the text on the back of the VHS, "censored because of its explicit sexuality." With it being a Friday night, and with me having nothing in particular to do, an erotic film -- even though it was from more than sixty years old -- seemed ok to me.

I watched that film that night as if in a dream. Who was this Louise Brooks? And how had I never heard of her? The questions ricocheted through me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How could such an actress -- such a woman even, be possible? I went to bed that night confused, in a daze. And I got up the next morning and watched Pandora's Box all over again. I had to. The rental tape was due later that day, and, I really, really, really wanted to watch it again. Anyways, I simply had to come to grips with what I had experienced the night before. Like her victims in Pandora's Box, I was in the thrall of Lulu.

Excited by the movie and this actress "I had discovered" -- that was how I felt, I asked everyone I could about Louise Brooks. "She is beautiful. She has short dark hair, like a helmet. She was in this silent film called Pandora's Box. She played Lulu. . . ." Friends, family, people I knew who were into film -- no one really seemed to know much about her until a co-worker recalled there had been a biography. A book. A place to start! 

A first edition copy of the Barry Paris
biography of Louise Brooks

Long before the internet put a world of knowledge at our fingertips, I went to the library in search of information. Looking through the card catalog, I turned up a 1989 title, Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris. I hadn't heard of the book, but it looked substantial, and there was an especially alluring portrait on the cover, and even more tantalizing images inside. I devoured every page of that biography. It is the perfect book -- the perfect match of subject and author. Its intelligence and especially its empathy, as well as its many citations and footnotes, fed my fascination with Louise Brooks. It became my Bible.

Aren't we all smitten with an actor or actress sometime in our life? Don't we all have a secret crush on some cute starlet or some handsome hunk? Don't we want to see every film starring our favorite? Haven't film buffs all saved a picture or magazine clipping for no particular reason known only to ourselves? I figured there must be others out there who appreciated Louise Brooks like I did. I was eager to talk with others about her. But who might they be? How could I find them? Was there a group?

I went back to the library and asked at the reference desk if there was a directory of fan clubs, and much to my surprise, there was. I scoured its many pages of small type. There were thousands of fan clubs: there were groups for Laurel and Hardy, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and for dozens of other contemporary stars and entertainers I couldn't believe anyone cared about. Disappointed, I didn't find any for Louise Brooks.

All this -- renting Pandora's Box, asking everyone I knew about Louise Brooks, finding the biography of the actress -- was back when the world wide web was just getting started. Up until then, the internet was largely text and made up of places like Prodigy, The Well, UseNet groups, BBS and AOL. I had been online for a few years, and explored each. I even once telnet into the Berkeley Public Library. But now -- around 1994 and 1995, the web was going graphical, and anyone who could figure out HTML could make their own website.

That's when I had an idea. Why not make a webpage about Louise Brooks? Or better yet, why not make a multi-page website, and post some of the material about the actress I had started to gather. I might even "meet" others who shared my interest. That's when I decided to form the Louise Brooks Society, what I called a "virtual fan club in cyberspace." Eventually, I secured the domain pandorasbox.com.

Thanks to my brother, who was a computer engineer and who helped me figure out Hypertext Markup Language, I posted my first web pages. This was in the summer and fall of 1995. The Louise Brooks Society had begun.

LBS director Thomas Gladysz and
Academy Award honoree Kevin Brownlow

I would meet others -- others just as passionate about the actress. Lots of others. They included distant relations of the actress, individuals who worked with her, a couple of rock stars, an Academy Award honoree, a Doctor Who, film historians, artists, poets, novelists, and others from all walks of life. There is a fellow from Rome who is about as devoted to Louise Brooks as me and has his own website. We have exchanged countless emails. There are also new friends -- some I have met, some not -- in Wichita, Kansas and Rochester, New York and elsewhere. Some emailed me. Others I found by exchanging links on film websites, especially those devoted to silent film. It seems individuals interested in the silent era were among the first to colonize the web. There weren't many of us, I guess, and we wanted to find community.

Soon enough, the Louise Brooks Society started to take off. I remember being excited when my hit counter read triple digits. Quickly, visitors were counted in the thousands and then tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. In 1996, USA Today named the Louise Brooks Society a "Hot Site," noting "Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience." A few years later, the New York Times described it as an "excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars."

In 1998, the popularity of my virtual fan club in cyberspace got noticed by Turner Classic Movies. The cable station devoted to classic films decided to commission a documentary about Louise Brooks. An article on the Wired website, "FanSite Sparks Biopic", quoted a TCM spokesman who said the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and an evening of the actress' films. "The Web presence for Louise Brooks was overwhelming. It was definitely a driving force in convincing the network to produce this documentary."

At the San Francisco Public Library exhibit

I have always been the scholarly type, and always thought that I wanted the Louise Brooks Society to be more than just a fan club. I wanted to do something. I see the mission of the society as one of honoring the actress by stimulating interest in her life and films. To that end, I have compiled bibliographies on the actress and her films which if printed out would run hundreds of pages. I have also written a couple of hundred articles and a couple of thousand blogs about Louise Brooks. In 2010, I wrote the introduction and edited the of Diary of a Lost Girl, the once controversial novel that was the basis for the 1929 film. Co-published by the Louise Brooks Society, it was this significant book's first English publication in more than 100 years. Recently, I provided the audio commentary for the new Kino Lorber DVD & Blu-ray of Diary of a Lost Girl.

The Louise Brooks Society also has its own online radio station, RadioLulu, which streams Louise Brooks and silent-film related music of the 1920's, 1930's and today. Musical purists have complained, but I can't help but include some of the contemporary rock and pop songs about the actress by the likes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Soul Coughing, Rufus Wainwright, NatalieMerchant, and others. 

Something that the website does is track and promote the many homage to the actress not only in music but in movies, fiction, comic books, the visual arts and popular culture. Did you know there was a street named after Louise Brooks in Paris, as well as a French perfume? The actress shows up in books by Neil Gaiman and Paul Auster and Salman Rushdie, has been mentioned on The Simpsons, and pops up in movies ranging from Hugo to Blue is the Warmest Color. The current staging of Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, at the Met in New York City owes a littlesomething to Louise Brooks.

With bestselling author and Louise Brooks fan Neil Gaiman (center)

Over the years, the Louise Brooks Society has mounted exhibits and sponsored author talks and screenings. One of the group's great accomplishments took place in the year 2000. At the time, both Louise Brooks' own book, Lulu in Hollywood, as well as the Barry Paris biography which I loved had fallen out of print. The LBS mounted a grass roots campaign to bring them back. And it worked. The University of Minnesota Press reissued both books, and acknowledged the LBS in each. At one point, the press told me those two books were among their bestselling titles.

I didn't do it all by myself. The members of the Louise Brooks Society -- which I number at about 1500 from 50 countries on six countries -- have contributed in all manner of ways. Individuals from around the world have sent pictures and clippings and rare pieces of memorabilia, provided translations of non-English materials, and helped in other ways. 

With English fan Meredith Lawrence (left)

Looking back, that chance encounter some 20 years ago with an old film started me off on a kind of journey into the heart of the Jazz Age. These days, I am interested in not only Louise Brooks but also silent film, Weimar Germany, Denishawn, Twenties Jazz, and more. Those interests all started with Louise Brooks. One thing would lead to another.

Louise Brooks was a pretty big star in the late 1920s. She was world famous for about five years. But then it all ended. She went to Europe to make films, including Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, the two for which she is best known today. When she returned, Hollywood didn't want her anymore. Sound came in, and her Jazz Age impertinence and sleek black bob seemed out of place in Depression-era America. She tried to make a comeback, but ended up quitting films, twice. Louise Brooks and her 24 films would be largely forgotten.

Eventually, she returned to New York City where her showbiz career had begun. She lived there anonymously, broke, drinking, living the life of a barfly, a once famous movie star working behind the counter at a department store; and, while she still had her looks, she may or may have not escorted gentlemen on dates. Can you image what they must have thought had they realized who they were with?

All the while, Louise Brooks had begun to write -- observations, memories, articles, essays. Once derided as a brainy showgirl, she emerged late in life as an articulate and acerbic writer and memoirist. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whom she once met, wrote something about there being no second acts in American lives. Brooks proves the exception. After decades of obscurity, she emerged late in life as an acclaimed author and thoughtful commentator on film.

Signing books at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum

Though she left her mark on her time, Brooks always thought of herself as a failure. In his biography, Barry Paris quotes a letter the actress wrote to her brother, "I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita in 1922 at the age of 15 to become a dancer with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything—spelling, arithmetic, riding, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying.' I tried with all my heart." 

There is a mystery at the heart of Louise Brooks and her story that goes a long-way toward explaining why she thought herself a failure and why others find her so fascinating. 

I have wondered, and others have asked me, why I am so obsessed with Louise Brooks. I don't know. I think it is because I want others to know she wasn't a failure. Deep down, I suspect I somehow want to save her, to rescue her. But to save her from what I am not sure. Perhaps it is from being forgotten. She often played imperiled women, and that can bring out the rescue impulse in fans and admirers. If that is the case with me, all I can do is try. 

Barry Paris inscribed this copy of his biography: "For Thomas --
who resurrected me & LB the way Tynan did in The New Yorker!"

Louise Brooks Society director Thomas Gladysz on NPR affiliate WXXI in Rochester, NY

Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society, will be talking about the actress and silent film star on NPR affiliate WXXI (Rochester, NY) at 1:00 pm (EST). The program can be heard on the radio in the greater Finger Lakes area of New York State. It also streams over the internet. Follow this link for more information and to tune in - http://interactive.wxxi.org/

Follow the Louise Brooks Society on Social Media

The Louise Brooks Society website was launched in 1995. That makes it something of an internet pioneer. The LBS was the first Louise Brooks website, and one of the earliest sites devoted to any actor or actress. With a goal of stimulating interest in her life and films, the LBS has always sought new ways of getting the word out.

One of its earliest efforts at reaching fans was through posting messages on bulletin board systems (BBS), listserves, newsgroups (Usenet), and on AOL and Prodigy, back when they were dominant. The earliest archived 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. These posts, which can still be read, are now part of the Usenet Archive.

The LBS was an early adopter of social media, even before the term existed. In the past, it has had its own message board, Yahoo Group, Tribe.net page, email newsletter, and still lingering MySpace account. The LBS started blogging in 2002, first on LiveJournal and then on Blogger. Between them, there are thousands of blog posts, most of which now reside on the LBS blog at louisebrookssociety.blogspot.com. The LBS blog is a member of various blogger affiliations, including the Classic Movie Blog Association and LAMB (Large Ass Movie Blogs).

The same year that the LBS began blogging, it also jumped on the internet music bandwagon and launched its own online radio station on Live365. Since 2002, RadioLulu has been streaming Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film themed music of the 1920s, 1930s, and today. Thousands have tuned-in and “liked” its broadcast.

The LBS joined Twitter in January 2009, and has tweeted thousands of time. The LBS Facebook page goes back to 2010. It has been “liked” thousands of times as well, and there are many postings. The LBS joined YouTube in 2013. Check it out to see what videos can be found there.

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Louise Brooks Society event in San Francisco on November 14

A special event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society and the release of the new KINO DVD and Blu-ray of The Diary of a Lost Girl will take place in San Francisco at 2:00 pm on Saturday, November 14th. (Which also happens to be Louise Brooks birthday.) The event will take place at Video Wave, a video rental business of special significance to the history of the LBS.

Video Wave is now located at 4027 24th Street in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle featured the business. Read the article HERE.

Mark your calendars. This a meet and greet event. There will be NO screening, as reported in an article in the Noe Valley Voice. Thomas Gladysz, Founding Director of the LBS will be present signing copies of the new Diary of a Lost Girl DVD / Blu-ray (which features Gladysz's audio commentary) along with copies of his earlier book, the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl. Each will be for sale.

Here is a listing for the event which ran in the UK on the Brenton Film website: http://www.brentonfilm.com/event/louise-brooks-society-20th-anniversary-celebration