Trademark on film icon Louise Brooks overturned - an update on what's been going on

Dear Friends and followers,

Imagine if someone tried to take something from you -- something important to you, something through which you found fulfillment, something through which you thought you were making a positive contribution, something in which you had invested years of your life. In doing so, they smeared your reputation, cut you off from friends, and reported you to the FBI. That's what happened to me and my Louise Brooks Society.

I am posting this to let everyone know what's been going on.... For the last three years, the Louise Brooks Society has been subject to some rather nasty online harassment. It has been a stressful, frustrating, costly, and sometimes discouraging experience.

In short, an individual tried to destroy all that the Louise Brooks Society has built up over the last 30 years. After things got really bad -- and after the Louise Brooks Society website was threatened with a take down notice, I was forced to seek legal help. I was desperate, and getting a lawyer to stop this harassment was my only remedy. After a two-and-a-half year legal battle, justice has prevailed.

At the heart of the matter was an I.P. (intellectual property) "dispute" / tug-of-war concerning Louise Brooks, the silent film star I have been researching, writing about, and promoting for three decades. Seven years ago, an individual wrongfully trademarked and later copyrighted Brooks' name, and then used their registered trademark as a means to harass not only the Louise Brooks Society, but as well others in the community of silent film fandom. If you think it's strange that someone would trademark and even copyright the name of a long-dead celebrity (someone to which they are unrelated -- no matter that one cannot copyright a proper name), and then try and prevent others from using that name -- you're right, it is strange, and IMHO kinda sad. It's also wrong on so many levels.

The attacks on me had little if anything to do with intellectual property. Rather, it was personal. The individual in question never took me to court or initiated any kind of legal action, rather, he simply filed complaint after complaint after complaint after complaint with various social media and e-commerce platforms -- and let them do his dirty work. As one lawyer told me, this person was using his trademark as a weapon. It was a means of trolling. To stop him, I initiated action with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) in October, 2023 to have his trademark cancelled, and thus "dis-arm" him. I was warned it would be a long and difficult process, and it was, but I had no other options. After numerous delays, this person's trademark has been cancelled thanks not only to my efforts but those of Vincent Lesh.

Among other things, the various Louise Brooks Society social media profiles -- including its longstanding Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts -- were permanently taken down following bogus claims of trademark infringement. (My original Facebook and Twitter accounts dated to 2009 / 2010 and each had accumulated more than 5000 followers.) Additionally, following yet more meritless complaints from this same individual, pages from the Louise Brooks Society website were removed from both Google and Bing; there were, as well, complaints filed against the my YouTube, LinkTree, Tumblr, Etsy, CafePress, Post and Patreon accounts -- with the result some were taken down. Others survived, though damaged. This individual even claimed the Louise Brooks Society LinkedIn account, which pre-dated his trademark by more than a decade, somehow violated his intellectual property rights. How utterly asinine! Thankfully, LinkedIn agreed.

[The worst platforms, in regards to their handling of this situation, were Etsy and LinkTree. Both were abysmal. I have blogged about my Etsy experience before; see my December 17, 2022 post "A COMPLAINT against Etsy's intellectual property policies". My experience with LinkTree was just as ludicrous, and just as frustrating. At one point, LinkTree would not let me link to the Louise Brooks Society website (its URL was banned because of a complaint by you know who), nor would they let me link to a workaround link, a Google search result for my site. The person I dealt with at LinkTree was unsympathetic, and rather petty.] 

For months on end, I would wake up wondering what he would attack next.... 

Not only were many of the LBS social media accounts deleted, so were MY PERSONAL social media accounts. Why? Merely because I mentioned something about Louise Brooks or posted a picture of myself wearing a vintage, store-bought Louise Brooks' t-shirt. (Seemingly, this person thought he had exclusive rights over all Louise Brooks merchandise -- even products made decades before he registered a trademark.) Sadly, as a result of the deletion of my social media accounts, I lost 15 years of friendships, followers, posts, messages, history, and pictures because of these bogus complaints. When it comes to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, there is seldom anyone home, and no effective way to appeal. I was judged guilty through mere accusation. And I was erased.

I knew I had to get a lawyer when the individual in question went after my longstanding website. He sent complaints to my ISP (internet service provider) demanding what he claimed was infringing material be removed from the Louise Brooks Society. In turn, my ISP sent me a notice that this materiel had to be removed within 72 hours or my entire website would be taken down. Among the infringing material was my Gift Shop page (recently restored), which was by-and-large composed of amazon.com links to Louise Brooks and silent film related books and DVDs. I will never understand how someone in the "compliance department" could think links to legit products from companies like Random House, Rizzoli, Kino Lorber, Fotofolio, etc... could infringe on a third-party trademark. Of course, they didn't -- and if they did, why didn't he go after amazon.com, or Random House?

The person in question (aka you know who) also objected to and complained about a statement on my homepage referring to the intellectual property protections which my website rightfully claimed. My statement originally read, "This website and the wordmark 'Louise Brooks Society' are under copyright and common law trademark protection." As a result, under threat of another takedown, my ISP required me to alter the statement. I did so, under protest, not because I admitted to having infringed the intellectual property rights of the dude who filed the complaint, but to get my ISP off my back. The altered statement  read: "This website and the wordmark “Louise Brooks Society” are under XXXXXXXXX and XXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX." 

There was more, lots more.... Through a series of disparaging blog posts, this same individual spread innuendo and falsehoods about myself and my LBS website -- including the suggestion that I didn't write my own books (I have a team of ghost writers, no less), that this blog promoted sexual material and sexualized Louise Brooks (it didn't), that I was single-handedly manipulating Brooks' reputation, and bizarrely, that the "Louise Brooks Society" website either doesn't really exist or if it does it is some kind of scam, etc.... I can assure everyone that it does exist, as is indicated by the historical & legal record additionally documented though hyperlinked newspaper clippings (USA Today, New York Times, etc...), mentions in books, the Wayback Machine, and more.

Thanks to mindless A.I., some of these disparaging slop posts found their way into internet search engines, with the result being my online reputation was tarnished....and the LBS was deemed "controversial". ("Oh my" as George Takei once said.) This person called me a grifter, fraud, charlatan, pseudo-intellectual, "boomer" and worse -- there was even mention of necrophilia; and would you believe, he reported me to an internet regulatory agency (ICANN) -- who thought his claims inappropriate, as well as to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes, even the F.B.I..... And, what's more, he used this meaningless report as "evidence" of my wrongdoing. Not surprisingly, they have never bothered to follow-up on his ridiculous claim that I was a cyberbully. Au contraire. 

For example, this is what Microsoft's Co-Pilot had to say when queried in 2024. The source of Co-Pilot's information was the previously mentioned slop blogs. Here is just one example. I have others. (Click to enlarge the image.)

All this was just the tip of the iceberg, as I would discover time and again. For example, through Microsoft's BING, this person filed 33 complaints of copyright infringement against 33 different pages on my longstanding website -- as if I would want to copy any of the banal material found on his now defunct site. The result was these 33 pages were removed from the BING search engine, no questions asked, and  my web traffic fell off. There were also complaints of copyright infringement filed against the Louise Brooks Society on Google, with the result being pages from my site were either removed or demoted on Google. I was never notified, and had to find this out on my own write appeals to these companies DMCA agents, which was another frustrating time suck.

I have come to see the Louise Brooks Society as my life's work. It's a passion project I have shared with the world since 1995, when I launched my site. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time and money on the LBS. What I found gratifying was connecting with other fans, finding some obscure article or image, helping to get films released, bringing attention to other's projects, writing an article, or simply sharing my enthusiasm for the actress, etc.... You can imagine how distressing it was when this individual attempted to destroy all that I had built up when he tried to have my website taken down. The actions taken against me are unforgivable.

As mentioned, the damage to my reputation has been considerable, as has been the expense incurred and the time wasted.... Hopefully, the worst is behind me, and I can go about cleaning up the mess created by this individual. And yes, I kept detailed records, including the various take down demands, site bans, and disparaging blogs. I have documented most everything, and am keeping my options open regarding future litigation. Through it all, I have come to realize life is too short to waste on such people, IMHO mere trolls who have nothing but negativity to contribute to the world. He may have set me back, but he did not stop me. I will go on.

While waiting for a judgement -- which was delayed by more than a year due to this individual's numerous objections and stalling tactics (as reflected in the USPTO record), I've kept busy working on the new Louise Brooks Blu-ray, Focus on Louise Brooks, as well as a handful of articles, a couple of books, and lots more. I have also continued blogging and launched a SubStack and rebuilt my Louise Brooks Society website: it is now bursting at the seams with nearly 300 pages of original research and rare content! Recently, my efforts have been recognized.... I am gratified to report that the Louise Brooks Society website was recently chosen to be part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Web Archive. More on that at a later date. 

And BTW: Louise Brooks' 1982 book, Lulu in Hollywood, has recently been released as an e-book for the very first time. I am likewise proud to report I had a hand in making that happen, just as I am proud to have helped bring it back into print back in 2000. (You know who complained about that as well.)

My proceedings against this individual are a matter of public record, and can be found online on the government's official USPTO  (United States Patent and Trademark Office) website. They make for "interesting" reading ... though that is NOT the word those who have read them use to describe them. Au contraire.

I won't say more about the person in question, who once described himself in a USPTO filing as the "keeper of the ethereal flame". I have never met him, do not know him, and wish to have nothing to do with him. I cannot think less of a person then I think of him. Contempt is defined as the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. It is a word whose meaning I have come to appreciate.

In my opinion, the overturning / cancellation of the Louise Brooks trademark (registration no. 5930349) represents a victory not only for the Louise Brooks Society, but also for the actress' fans, the silent film community, as well as other legacy estates.

I wish to thank my lawyers at the nation's leading IP law firm, Kilpatrick, Townsend, and Stockton, for their extraordinary help. Without them, literally, I WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY.  I also wish to thank my wife, Christy, as well as my online and real world friends for their support -- especially the late Donna Hill. I owe her so much. I also wish to thank the Estate of Louise Brooks, who has been an ally throughout.

In closing, let me add that my story is not so unique. I believe that what happened to me is part of a larger unreported narrative of how social media, e-commerce platforms, search engines, and internet service providers ignore, tolerate and even enable bad behavior. They FAILED. That's my informed opinion.

Just recently, I received an email from Peter Cowie, the distinguished film historian, biographer and author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. He is a friend, and he wrote to thank me for blogging about his recent memoir, Flashbacks: A Passion for Film. It is a book I recommend. His email came at a time I was feeling a bit discouraged, but what Cowie said lifted my spirits. He wrote, "I honestly believe that without your efforts across the past quarter century, Louise’s name would not be held in such high esteem." 

It's time to forge ahead.... Straight on till morning.

Thomas Gladysz
Founding Director, Louise Brooks Society

This old picture of me got me into trouble on CafePress, and I was banned from using it.
Why? Simply because Louise Brooks is pictured in the background — even though
it is MY picture of ME showing MY possessions. 

To learn more about the Louise Brooks Society, including its mission statement, history, accomplishments, ambitions, etc..., please check out the About the Louise Brooks Society page of the LBS 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 © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2026 line-up announced

The line-up for the 2026 San Francisco Silent Film Festival has been announced. This year, the festival returns to its "ancestral home" at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. (The historic venue has been closed  for a couple of years due to renovations.) The festival was begun at the Castro in 1996 and has grown from a one-day event to the largest and most prestigious festival devoted to silent cinema in all of the   Americas.

This year's festival (which takes place May 6 - 10) includes 26 films from six different countries featuring 22 musicians from far and wide. Altogether, there will be 22 programs over five days, all with live musical accompaniment—including the free "Amazing Tales From the Archives" show! Many of the films are recent restorations, including two that SFSFF has had a direct hand in, William de Mille's Miss Lulu Bett (a terrific film deserving greater recognition) and Lewis Milestone's The Caveman. Both titles were the restoration handiwork of our friends at Artcraft Pictures, James Mockoski and Robert Harris, in collaboration with Paramount Archives. (Hmmm, I wonder if they are working on any of Louie Brooks' Paramount silents?)

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival Award for commitment to the preservation and presentation of silent cinema will be presented to Elżbieta Wysocka of the Filmoteka Narodowa at the screening of the Polish masterpiece Janko the Musician on Saturday, May 9.

Among this year's highlights is the new restoration of Queen Kelly (1929). The film's star, Gloria Swanson, was one of Louise Brooks' favorite actresses since the time Brooks was a teen. Additionally, its director, Eric von Stroheim, whom Brooks once met, was someone the actress was greatly interested in later in life. As a devotee of von Stroheim, I have had the pleasure of seeing an earlier restoration of Queen Kelly. It is an intriguing if not flawed (and unfinished) film. 

Queen Kelly opens the festival. Closing the festival is one of the greatest films of the silent era, King Vidor's The Crowd (1928). Of note to fans of Louise Brooks is the fact that a few scenes from this film were shot on Coney Island, at Luna Park, just as scenes from Just Another Blonde (1926) had been. (To give you a taste, be sure and check out this page about Just Another Blonde location shooting.)

On a personal note, I can report that I was asked to write the program essay for two films at this year's festival. Both are well worth checking out. The first is Sensation in Wintergarten (1929) -- which features the intriguing Erna Morena (who has the distinction of having starred in the title roles of earlier versions of two later Louise Brooks films, Lulu (1917) and Diary of a Lost Woman (1918), later filmed under the title The Diary of a Lost Girl). The other is The White Trail (1932) -- a surprisingly engaging indie film made by a non-filmmaker from Poland. 

 From the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website, here is the 2026 line-up:

Wednesday May 6 | 7:00 pm | $30 general / $25 member

QUEEN KELLY

Directed by Erich von Stroheim | US, 1929 |105 m

With Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, Serena Owen, Tully Marshall

The late silent-era masterpiece that never was and the last major production entrusted to Erich von Stroheim has been reconstructed from surviving footage by Milestone Films. Bearing all the Stroheim hallmarks—lush visuals, meticulous attention to every detail, and rank corruption at every level of society—it’s also a showcase for Gloria Swanson who runs an emotional gamut from innocent convent girl to hardened brothel keeper. Musical accompaniment by composer Eli Denson conducting the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra

 

from Queen Kelly

Thursday May 7 | 11:00 am | Free

AMAZING TALES FROM THE ARCHIVES

Our Amazing Tales program began in 2006 as a way to highlight the importance of film preservation and to provide insight into the remarkable work done by film archives around the world. Since then it has become one of the most highly anticipated programs in the festival. And it's free! This year's presenters:

KYLE WESTPHAL of the Chicago Film Society presents the case of comedian Jimmy Aubrey and A Musical Mixup produced at Weiss Bros. studio in Los Angeles.

Danish Film Institute’s THOMAS CHRISTENSEN shares the marvels of silent cinema’s inventive on-screen gadgetry.

ANDREAS THEIN of Filmmuseum Düsseldorf stretches our notions of Weimar cinema with the “Sensationsfilm” genre starring Germany’s first action heroes.

CARLO CHATRIAN of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin digs into the archeology of cinema and how it shaped the movies as we know them.

Thursday May 7 | 3:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

THE ABYSS

Original Language Title: AFGRUNDEN

Directed by Urban Gad | Denmark, 1910 | 38 m.

With Asta Nielsen, Poul Reumert, Robert Dinesen

THE CLOWN Original Language Title: KLOVNEN

Directed by A.W. Sandberg | Denmark, 1917 | 62 m. (100 m. total program)

With Valdemar Psilander, Peter Fjelstrup, Amanda Lund

Two Danish sensations, one at the beginning of her career, the other at his end. First, Asta Nielsen’s prim piano teacher in The Abyss is driven by lust to the circus stage faster than her gyrating Spider Dance from this film made her a star. Next, matinee idol Valdemar Psilander’s sad circus performer in The Clown hits the big time only for success to lead to his ruin in what turned out to be the actor’s last production before his sudden death at age 32. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne and Mas Koga

 

Thursday May 7 | 5:30 pm | $20 general / $18 member

SENSATION IM WINTERGARTEN

Directed by Gennaro Righelli | Germany, 1929 | 102 m.

With Paul Richter, Claire Rommer, Erna Morena, Gaston Jacquet

When celebrated trapeze artist Frattani returns home on his triumphant world tour, he must finally face his gold-digging stepfather who deprived him of his rightful title, his inheritance, and the love of his own mother years before. Dramatic set-pieces and colorful backstage atmosphere are partly filmed at Berlin’s storied Wintergarten. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

 

from Sensation in Wintergarten

 Thursday May 7 | 8:00 pm | $25 general / $23 member

MISS LULU BETT

Directed by William de Mille | US, 1921 | 80 m.

With Lois Wilson, Milton Sills, Theodore Roberts, Helen Ferguson

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by women’s rights champion Zona Gale about an acquiescent young woman callously exploited by her own family, Miss Lulu Bett was called “one of the finest adaptations in the history of the photoplay” by Motion Picture News. Restored from a nitrate print, this marks the first in a dedicated run of collaborations between director William de Mille and scriptwriter Clara Beranger. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

 

Friday May 8 | 11:00 am | $20 general / $18 member

HIGH TREASON

Directed by Maurice Elvey | UK, 1929 | 75 m.

With Benita Hume, Jameson Thomas, Basil Gill, Humberston Wright

The future brings aerocopters, videochat boxes, and apparently the same headgear across genders, but all the gadgetry in the world cannot save humankind from its destructive self as it teeters on the brink of war after a terrorist act. High Treason simultaneously looks back to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and forward to Michael Radford’s 1984 but what this prescient piece of science fiction grasps on its own is that the fate of nations can pivot on the act of a single person. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius

 

Friday May 8 |1:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

THE WHITE TRAIL

Original Language Title: BIAŁY ŚLAD

Directed by Adam Krzeptowski | Poland, 1932 | 74 m. 

With Andrzej Krzeptowski, Janina Fischer, Stanislaw Gasienica-Sieczka

A handheld camera puts you breathtakingly close to the action on the snowy slopes of the Polish Tatras in this feature film debut from photographer and native highlander Adam Krzeptowski. Real-life ski champions populate the cast and its script was contributed by local artist Rafał Malczewski, who was well-acquainted with the beauty and hazards of these landscapes having served as part of the Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue during World War I. The film represented Poland at the first Venice Film Festival. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald

 

from The White Trail

Friday May 8 | 3:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

HULA

Directed by Victor Fleming| US, 1927 | 65 m.

With Clara Bow, Clive Brook, Arlette Marchal

Growing up tomboy on her family’s Hawaiian ranch, wild child Hula Calhoun is as comfortable eating with her hands as she is on horseback. Then she falls head over heels—with a married man. In her second collaboration with director Victor Fleming Clara Bow lights up every frame she’s in, demonstrating again that, yes, she’s a natural but also a real pro. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

 

from Hula

Friday May 8 | 5:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

JAPANESE PAPER FILM PROJECT

Japan, 1930s | 65 m.

Animal Olympics, a train excursion through the countryside, a brawl with an octopus, and belly-drumming raccoon-dogs are just a few of the delights of these recently preserved kami firumu. Faced with the influx of ever slicker imported animation in the 1930s Japan went low-tech, printing films on paper strips then gluing them together by hand. The Japanese Paper Film Project worked with Japanese museums, film archives, and individual collectors to digitize and preserve more than 200 surviving films from which this selection was taken.Musical accompaniment by Duo Yumeno

 

Friday May 8 | 7:00 pm | $25 general / $23 member

THE CAVEMAN

Directed by Lewis Milestone | US, 1926 | 76 m.

With Marie Prevost, Matt Moore, Phyllis Haver, Myrna Loy, Hedda Hopper

Myra the heiress is bored. What else to do but grab a he-man from the tenements and pass him off as a professor? This gender-reversed Pygmalion is one of three comedies made by Marie Prevost with director Lewis Milestone who knew that sometimes all you need to get a laugh is the right camera position—and the devil’s favorite coquette in a starring role. With Matt Moore as a hilarious fish-out-of-water coalheaver and Myrna Loy as the wary maid. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

 

Friday May 8 | 8:45 pm | $20 general / $18 member

TABU: A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS

Directed by F.W. Murnau | US, 1931 | 85 m.

With Matahi, Reri, Hitu, Jean, Jules, Kong Ah 

At the top of his artistic game, the director who had perfected the artifice of cinematic atmospheres abandoned the studio and its harrying producers to make a movie en plein air. Working with nonprofessional actors and a skeleton crew that included documentarian Robert Flaherty, F.W. Murnau spent more than a year and all his money in the South Sea islands for what turned out to be his last film.

Musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker and Mas Koga

 

Saturday May 9 | 10:00 am | $20 general / $18 member

LAUREL AND HARDY: THEIR SILENT BEST

US, 1927–1929

Whether it’s a truckful of pies, a suburban home, a motorcar, or their pants, there’s only one possible outcome when these two virtuosos focus their powers of destruction on a prop: audiences destroyed by laughter. With The Battle of the Century, The Finishing Touch, Liberty, and Big Business. Musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker and Frank Bockius

 

Saturday May 9 | 12:00 noon | $20 general / $18 member

THE HUMMING BIRD

Directed by Sidney Olcott | US, 1924 | 60 m.

With Gloria Swanson, Edmund Burns, William Ricciardi, Cesare Gravina, 

(Mostly) shedding her clotheshorse image, Gloria Swanson is convincing as the head of a gang of Parisian toughs who sets out to stymie an American reporter’s investigation into a spate of neighborhood robberies. First love, then duty intervenes. Veteran director Sidney Olcott leads a team that kits out Paramount’s Astoria studio into a convincing Montmartre. Musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker

 

Saturday May 9 | 2:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

JANKO THE MUSICIAN

Original Language Title: JANKO MUZYKANT

Directed by Ryszard Ordynski | Poland, 1930 | 105 m

With Stefan Rogulski, Witold Conti, Maria Malika, Aleksander Zabczynski

In the original story, a classic of Polish literature, a musical prodigy born into poverty meets only tragedy. In this screen adaptation from the late silent era, he’s allowed to thrive. Beautifully photographed by Zbigniew Gniazdowski, the film’s resulting lyricism spurred one critic to write: “The visual symphony Janko the Musician resonates with poetry.” Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald, Mas Koga, and Frank Bockius

 

from Janko the Musician

Saturday May 9 | 4:45 pm | $20 general / $18 member

BED AND SOFA

Original Language Title: TRETYA MESCHANSKAYA

Directed by Abram Room | USSR | 91 m

With Nikolai Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Vladimir Fogel

The housing shortages plaguing the ten-year-old Communist government instigate the plot in this thoroughly modern Soviet silent classic about a married couple who must find a new design for living after the husband’s former Red Army buddy comes to stay. Among the Bolsheviks’ early promises of land, peace, and bread was also the promise of a new social order that would make comrades of all Russians, including its women. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

 

Saturday May 9 | 7:00 pm | $25 general / $23 member

HIS GREATEST BLUFF

Original Language Title: SEIN GRÖßTER BLUFF

Directed by Harry Piel | Germany, 1927 | 108 m

With Harry Piel, Albert Paulig, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Greiner

More than seventy movies later and Harry Piel knew well how to entertain an audience without the chiaroscuro lighting and skewed perspectives we expect of Weimar cinema. Jewels worth a million, a shady dame (and her very sus child), a pair of maharajahs, slick-haired crooks with colorful names, and a self-assured action hero do the trick. That Marlene Dietrich is the dame is just icing for this heist picture from one of Germany’s most consistent box-office draws. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

 

Saturday May 9 | 9:30 pm | $20 general / $18 member

Á PROPOS DE NICE

Directed by Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman | France, 1930 | 25 m

RIEN QUE LES HEURES

Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti | France, 1926 | 46 m (Total program; 71 m)

Two debuts announce the arrival of two fresh voices of the motion picture avant-garde. While dazzling with daring compositions and inventive editing, first-time directors Jean Vigo (working with Dziga Vertov’s brother Boris Kaufman) and Alberto Cavalcanti reveal what can get obscured behind polished photographic surfaces in these city symphony films from Nice and Paris. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius

 

Sunday May10 | 11:00 am | $20 general / $18 member

BLAZING DAYS

Directed by William Wyler | US, 1927 | 60 m

With Fred Humes, Ena Gregory, Churchill Ross, Bruce Gordon, Eva Thatcher

This William Wyler-directed western displays the young director’s burgeoning talent, with camera flourishes and character touches that elevate an otherwise familiar story about a payroll box gone missing in the hinterlands. Cowboy star Fred Humes’s beaming smile and humbleswagger on horseback only add to its pleasures. Musical accompaniment by Wayne Barker

 

Sunday May10 | 1:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

BOOKKEEPER KREMKE

Original Language Title: LOHNBUCHHALTER KREMKE

Directed by Marie M. Harder | Germany, 1930 | 60 m

With Hermann Vallentin, Anna Sten, Ivan Koval-Samborski

“Problems of our time come alive shaking us to our core,” wrote the reviewer for Lichtbild-Bühne who was deeply impressed with the only fiction feature completed by director Marie Harder, head of the Social Democrat Party’s film service. Ukrainian-born Anna Sten makes her German cinema debut as a daughter coming into her own despite the fury of her tradition-bound father suddenly downsized from middle-class respectability. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

 

Sunday May10 | 3:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

SO THIS IS PARIS

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch | US, 1926 | 68 m

With Monte Blue, Patsy Ruth Miller, André Beranger, Lilyan Tashman

Paris and its Jazz Age temptations provide the saucy backdrop of this confection about the near infidelities of two married couples. A tonic for any age Lubitsch’s last film for the Warners bears no visible marks of the contentious behind-the-scenes relationship the director had with the Bros. who were apparently immune to his charms. We guarantee you won’t be. “Lubitsch,” raved the New York American, “has done it again.” Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius

 

Sunday May10 | 5:00 pm | $20 general / $18 member

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Original Language Title: DIE GEZEICHNETEN

Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer | Germany, 1922 | 99 m

With Vladimir Gajdarov, Polina Piekowskaja, Richard Boleslawski

A cynical tsarist agent sews suspicion among peasants about Jews trying to replace them in order to weaken the revolutionary fervor gaining strength in the cities. Meanwhile one young woman from the shtetl just wants a say in her fate. Carl Dreyer’s moving depiction of anti-Semitism’s sinister harms, both macro and micro, is a silent-era rarity, yet typical in the care the director takes to attain a harrowing authenticity. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald, Mas Koga, and Sascha Jacobsen

 

Sunday May10 | 7:30 pm | $25 general / $23 member

THE CROWD

Directed by King Vidor | US, 1928 | 102 m

With James Murray, Eleanor Boardman, Bert Roach

In the film that influenced everyone from Orson Welles and Vittorio de Sica to Yasujiro Ozu and the makers of Mad Men, John Sims struggles to reconcile the greatness he expects from his life with the pedestrian way it turns out. Deftly combining documentary style shooting with the kind of artifice only possible with the latest studio technology, King Vidor dissects the American dream in this incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

 

from The Crowd

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.  

Homage to John Bengtson

I am saddened to learn of the passing of John Bengtson, a business lawyer, film historian, author and longtime friend. John was also a friend to the Louise Brooks Society. Here is a piece I wrote about John back in 2011. It first appeared on SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and then was rerun on examiner.com. (Neither piece is accessible, as both websites have shut down.) 

Bay Area author John Bengtson digs deep into film 
by Thomas Gladysz
August 20, 2011 | San Francisco Examiner (CA)

By day, John Bengtson is a business lawyer who practices in the East Bay. By night, he is a film historian and the author of three widely acclaimed books like few others.

For this Bay Area native, it al started some years back when he noticed familiar looking buildings in the background of an old Buster Keaton film. The buildings and streets looked like those he had noticed in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.

Armed with photographs of scenes taken off his television set (this was in the earliest days of the internet, and when laser discs still ruled), Bengtson walked the streets of San Francisco in the hopes of locating where Keaton filmed a chase sequence in Daydreams (1922); it turned out to be not far from where the film buff lived.

Soon enough, Bengtson established every other San Francisco location from Daydreams. Encouraged by his first small success, Bengtson undertook to find other Keaton locations in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Southern California, Oregon and elsewhere.

It's not as easy as one would think. Regrettably, the production histories of many early films are lost, or fragmentary, or were not thoroughly recorded in the first place. Chase scenes were occasionally improvised, and street filming was sometimes done on the sly. It's anyone's guess were some location shots were actually filmed in some well known works.

Bengtson's efforts - the result of numerous trips and the detailed examination of scene stills, photographs, old maps, and city directories - first came together into a 1999 book, Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton. It is a brilliant work of cinematic archeology, and quite unlike any other work of film history.

In 2006, Bengtson followed that first book with Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood
Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin. And just a couple of months ago, his "trilogy" was completed with the publication of Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd. Each features a forward by the Academy Award winning film historian Kevin Brownlow.

It's no stretch to describe Bengtson as something of an archeologist of early cinema. He digs deep into his subject. His digs involve not trowels or shovels, but DVD screen captures, outdated maps, newspaper archives, vintage aerial photographs and dusty city records. And yes, now Google maps too.

"History is hidden in the background of films" is the way Bengtson put it in a recent radio interview. And indeed, half the fascination is in the record they offer of our changing urban landscapes.

Bengtson's books remind us that these early films are not just comedic masterpieces but also remarkable time capsules of early 20th century America. Each book is filed with hundreds of then and now photographs. And often, the telling detail - the business name or advertisement painted on a building wall, the entrance arch or odd architectural detail, the shape of a hill in the distance, are highlighted to show where a scene was filmed.

Last month, Bengtson presented his findings on Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd to a packed house at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. Joining him on-stage were Brownlow and one of the last surviving silent film stars, Diana Serra Cary, who in the 1920's was known as Baby Peggy.

Bengtson, an amateur film historian, was thrilled to be on stage in such illustrious company. "I don't know what I did to deserve that," Bengtson stated recently. What he's done, over a 15 year period, is to research and write three groundbreaking works which have been applauded around the world.

On August 20th, Bengtson will present a program exploring the locations of two classic Harold Lloyd films at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum (37417 Niles Boulevard) in Fremont. Drawing on material from his latest book, Silent Visions, Bengtson will speak about Girl Shy (1924) - a feature and one of Lloyd's great works, and Never Weaken (1921) - a significant short film. Following Bengtson's presentation, both films will be screened. Jon Mirsalis will accompany on piano, with the Saturday night program set to start at 7:30 in the museum's Edison Theater.

To get a taste of Bengtson's singular approach to movie history, be sure and check out his excellent blog at http://silentlocations.wordpress.com/. Its many extensive entries - which include material uncovered only after his earlier books were published - remind one of the bonus material found on DVDs.

A statement on Bengtson's blog puts it al into perspective. "Having lived with this material for so long, in my mind's eye I can stroll around the Keaton Studio block, or from the Bradbury Mansion to the balustrade overlooking the Hill Street Tunnel, and picture every step of the way. It is the closest thing to time travel I will likely ever experience.

For more info: The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is located at 37417 Niles Blvd. in Fremont, California. For further information, ca l (510) 494-1411 or visit the Museum’s website at www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/. 

 

CITATION (AGLC STYLE) CITATION (AGLC STYLE) 'Bay Area author John Bengtson digs deep into film history', San Francisco Examiner (online), 20 Aug 2011 ‹https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/apps/news/document-view? p=AMNEWS&docref=news/13942D67AF34C338› 

Source: Examiner.com. Copyright held by author. 2011 All Rights Reserved 

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.  

Louise Brooks Society celebrates 30 years online

The Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) celebrates 30 years on the world wide web!

Launched in 1995 (the same year as Amazon and eBay), this pioneering fan site was the first devoted to the silent film star, and one of the very first devoted to any aspect of film history. Today, it continues to attract a loyal following and is one of the largest, more popular, and longest lasting websites devoted to any early movie star -- silent or sound.

Since its inception, the Louise Brooks Society has served as a resource for fans, scholars, creatives, and cinephiles from around the world. The site's online archive contains a treasure trove of information, including vintage articles, little seen photographs, rare ephemera, and more. Its filmography, which surpasses both IMDb and the AFI in detail, presents an in-depth look at each of Brooks' films including Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, and Beggars of Life. 

There are pages devoted to other aspects of Brooks' life including her early days as a Denishawn dancer (the basis for the PBS film, The Chaperone), her little documented time in London, her brief affair with Charlie Chaplin, and later years as the author of Lulu in Hollywood.

Also featured on the site is an extensive day-by-day chronology of the actress' life which the Irish Times called "extraordinary". Another unique section on the site -- "Homage to Lulu" -- surveys the many movie characters, comix, rock music, fiction, fashion, street graffiti, tattoo art and even perfume which celebrates the actress. At more than 260 pages, the site has become the go-to destination for anyone interested in the life and work of this singular star. 

In 1998, the popularity of the Louise Brooks Society website helped inspire the Emmy-nominated TCM documentary, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. Since then, the site led a grass-roots campaign to bring Lulu in Hollywood, as well as the Barry Paris biography of the actress, back into print. It has also involved itself in the preservation of Brooks' films, curated exhibits, sponsored author talks and screenings, and conducted research which has led to a number of significant discoveries -- most notably rare audio recordings of Brooks' radio work in the early 1960s. 

The Louise Brooks Society maintains a long-running blog -- since 2002, and recently, it established a Substack account featuring long-form pieces. In 2010, the LBS published the Louise Brooks edition of Margarete Bohme’s bestselling book, "The Diary of a Lost Girl," which served as the basis for the 1929  film. Notably, it was the book’s first English-language publication in more than 100 years. The Louise Brooks Society has published four other books on the actress and her films, with more in the works. 

Over the years, the Louise Brooks Society has been acclaimed by all manner of print and online media, including USA Today and Wired magazine, who described the site as "exemplary." Similarly, the New York Times stated, “The Louise Brooks Society is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars.”

The Louise Brooks Society continues to attract a loyal following who share a passion for early cinema. On a personal note, I would like to express my gratitude to the dedicated community that has supported the site over the past three decades. The internet has changed a lot in the last 30 years. It hasn't always been easy to maintain a site and attract new visitors. Nevertheless, I am proud of how far the Louise Brooks Society has come since its began ever so long ago. This 30-year journey is a testament to the legacy of Louise Brooks and the enduring appeal of classic cinema.

As the Louise Brooks Society begins its fourth decade online, it remains committed to its mission of preserving the memory of one of the most iconic figures in film history. With a renewed focus on education and outreach, the website aims to introduce a new generation of film enthusiasts to Louise Brooks and the timeless allure of silent movies. Among the forthcoming projects with which it is currently involved is a disc of Brooks' "lost" films (in conjunction with the San Francisco Film Preserve) and a first ever e-book edition of Brooks' Lulu in Hollywood (in conjunction with the Estate of Louise Brooks). 

For more information about the Louise Brooks Society, including a detailed history and mission statement, visit its About page. Or, check out this online scrapbook of images from the history of the LBS.

Thomas Gladysz, founding Director of the Louise Brooks Society, is open to interviews and media / blogger / podcaster inquiries. Let's talk Lulu!

“Nobody knows more about Louise Brooks than Thomas Gladysz. Having founded the Louise Brooks Society in 1995, he has spent more than two decades researching her life and work, curating memorabilia and writing about this most fascinating of silent era actresses.” -- Pamela Hutchinson, Silent London

 

"...  if there exists a No. 1 fan and a No. 1 chronicler of Brooks, it’s Thomas Gladysz, the founder and longtime champion of the Louise Brooks Society.” -- Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

 

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.