A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the acclaimed Louise Brooks Society™ website at www.pandorasbox.com
Louise Brooks is referenced twice in the new Thomas Pynchon novel, Shadow Ticket (Penguin Press). This latest novel from the bestselling author of Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice has been described by the Washington Post as “Bonkers and brilliant fun.” The Los Angeles Times called it “Late Pynchon at his finest. Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, Shadow Ticket capers
across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on
its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart
open.”
Set in 1932, the book follows the adventures of "Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, [who] thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a
routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin
cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it,
he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in
Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet,
and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no
sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time
Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with
Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians,
practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles
that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget
about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on
and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for
Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a
pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to
Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which
may no longer exist, is another question."
In chapter one, Hicks mentions what he likes in a woman, "A dame with some moxie instead of one more baby-talking lulu." And then a little later on, in chapter three, Hicks is talking with a woman named April who "has this habit of unexpectedly squeaking into a high-pitched flapper voice" -- something which Hicks doesn't care for. "Baby-vamp vocalizing" doesn't work on him, let alone appeal to him, and Hicks suggests a different approach. “Well, let’s see, you could do Louise Brooks, or Clara Bow—” (first reference)
April responds, “They’re from back before the talkies. Silent.”
To which Hicks humorously replies, “That’s the word I’m tryin to think of—”
Later on, Hicks is speaking with a woman named Daphne about her gentlemen friend. “Yes and while we’re on the subject, you’re sure, Daphne, now, about your—about, um, that Hop Wingdale? who could come strolling in here any minute—you’re sure he don’t mind that we…”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but we have a free and forgiving arrangement, yes many’s the time I’ve come upon him in the sweaty clutches of some Swing Girl barely into her teens, Louise Brooks hairdo, nighttime makeup in the daylight hours and all.....” (second reference)
Besides Louise Brooks and Clara Bow -- for those early film buffs keeping track -- there are also references to other late Twenties and early Thirties stars such as Harold Lloyd, Fred Astaire, Bela Lugosi, W.C. Fields, William Powell, James Cagney, Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and the wonderful Joan Blondell. And also Charlie Chaplin. Hicks is at dinner, and the subject of Adolph Hitler comes up... "footage that will make him look crazy or comical, funny little guy, funny walk, funny mustache, German Charlie Chaplin, how serious could he be?" This quip is prophetic, as Chaplin would use parody the Nazi leader.in his 1940 film The Great Dictator.
And there are references to musicians such as Cab Calloway and even Lud Gluskin, whose Detroit dance band was once stranded in Paris..
Louise Brooks admires a bust of Dante, circa 1931
For more on this sort of thing -- whether in fiction, poetry, art, music, etc..., be sure and check out "Homage to Lulu" on the Louise Brooks Society website.
Chances are you have never heard of Thomas Raverly. That's because he doesn't exist. In fact, Thomas Raverly is a fictional character and the creation of the Austrian writer Josef Robert Harrer (1896-1960), who -- chances are, you haven't heard of either. Neither had I. (Harrer was the author of magazine pieces and a handful of books, including a 1928 volume of erotic sonnets.)
Thomas Raverly and the reference to his "secret film crush" -- namely Louise Brooks -- appeared in a short story published in the November 1, 1939 issue of Die Muskete, an Austrian humor magazine which included popular fiction. According to it's German Wikipedia entry, "Like other humorous magazines founded at that time, Die Muskete combined the works of young Austrian artists and illustrators with the work of young Austrian writers. At the same time, the magazine placed great emphasis on artistic design and the high quality of its content." From what I can determine, at least some of the magazine's humor was satirical in nature.
What is interesting to me is the fact that this allusion to Brooks appeared at the end of the actress' film career, and 10 years after Brooks made her last film in Germany. Which suggests she wasn't as "forgotten" in Europe as some might think in the years leading up to the second World War. In actuality, this story appeared five years after Pandora's Box had been banned in Germany by the Nazi regime, a year and a half after the Anchluss (in which Nazi Germany annexed Austria), and two months after the beginning of WWII in which Germany invaded Poland. By the way, Die Muskete ceased publication in 1941.
The story, which is titled "Thomas Raverly," begins this way "Thomas Raverley, thirty years old, small, inconspicuous, with not quite straight legs, with a nose that would not have been too small even for a professional snooper, with ears whose only disadvantage was that they stood out at a right angle from his head, a church beadle by profession, unmarried, sits at a coffee house table and listens with his large ears, which would not have missed a word even with less attention, to the speech of his school friend Victor Sottle...."
Raverly, a minor church official, is a nebbish, a dweeb. There are two passages in the story which reference Brooks. The first occurs when Raverly is visiting an office and is taken aback by the attractive assistance who greats him. "'Whom can I announce? ' asks a delightful girl, almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks, his secret film crush. 'I am Thomas Raverley and wish to speak to Mr. Christopher Hodge; my old school friend Victor Sottle sends and recommends me.' He silently congratulates himself on the courage that allowed him to utter this sentence without any particular excitement, even though the girl was almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks. 'Just a moment!' she says, and with a smile enters a room on whose door one can read in gold letters: Management. Thomas thinks to himself: Surely a bank director, this Mr. Hodge. My friend has truly distinguished acquaintances. I am proud of him. The Brooks girl appears again and says: Mr. Hodge sends his regards!"
Later in the story, there is this passage: "You've heard everything and know that you're the woman he's looking for. The curtain slides aside, and the girl who resembles Louise Brooks approaches Thomas, smiling."
Here is the "Thomas Raverly" story, as published in Die Muskete. It is noticeable that Raverly's "secret film crush" does not resemble Brooks, but rather is a statuesque blonde -- with the couple's contrast adding to the humor. Perhaps the illustrator did not know what Louise Brooks looked like. Or perhaps she was little remembered at this time after all. [The pretty American actress who appeared of the cover of the November 1, 1939 issue was blonde Alice Faye.]
Scott R. Howe is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, and a longtime supporter of the Louise Brooks Society. His novel, The Haunting of Emily Pierson, has just been published. The book is a revised and retitled version of his 2022 Louise Brooks-inspired thriller Pandora's Box. Scott is a good writer, and I am looking forward to checking out this new edition of what promises to be a terrorific novel.
The Haunting of Emily Pierson marks Scott R. Howe’s
debut into the world of psychological horror. This gripping first novel
blends psychological tension with supernatural dread, while promising to keep
readers on the edge of their seats. And what's more, Louise Brooks is a central "character".
The book's description:
"Emily thought she was running toward a fresh start when she
left behind her job, her two-year relationship, and her old life,
settling in a quiet apartment in Rochester, New York. But what was
supposed to be a refuge quickly turns into something far more
unsettling. The previous tenant, an elderly recluse and once silent film
icon, died in this same apartment—and she hasn’t truly left.
Emily
finds ever more disturbing connections with the woman. They seem to
share a secret and she feels compelled to uncover it. The deeper she
digs, the more the apartment’s chilling presence tightens its grip,
making her question what is real and what lies hidden in the shadows.
In
order to regain her peace, Emily must confront the unsettling truth
that connects her to this haunting presence. However, there are certain
secrets that are better left buried, and facing them may not only harm
her and those she holds close, but also have far-reaching consequences.
A spine-tingling tale of psychological horror and the supernatural, The Haunting of Emily Pierson, will make you question what lingers in the spaces we call home."
An excerpt from the novel:
After a pause, Hazel said, “I’m so sorry, dear. I just realized that I haven’t told you who I’m talking about.”
Emily shook her head, smiling politely.
“Well, if you were as old as I am, you’d probably know her by name or at the very least by that hair style she had when she was young.”
Hazel paused again. “Can you believe I used to care for a world-famous Hollywood film actress?” Emily perked up a bit. Hazel’s reference to a once-famous person provided an intriguing twist to the mystery.
“Please tell me you’ve heard of Charlie Chaplin or Greta Garbo, dear,” Hazel teased.
“Yes, of course, I’ve heard of them.”
“Well, the woman I’m referring to had affairs with both of ’em!”
Emily grabbed her laptop and pulled it closer.
"Who was it that used to live here?” asked Emily, opening her browser with her fingers poised, ready to type.
“Louise Brooks,” responded Hazel as she watched Emily type the search terms into the search bar.
“Louise Brooks,” 1920s film actress…
Emily’s screen became filled with references and images, causing her to be transfixed. A black-and-white image of a woman from a bygone era stared back. She was incredibly beautiful, and her appearance seemed quite contemporary. The woman in the photos wore her jet-black hair in a bob, cut short, at her ears, with the dark pointed tips cutting into her alabaster cheeks, perfectly framing her dark, sultry eyes. The straight lines of her blunt bangs were the ideal accent to her stick-straight brows, and her perfect lips curved in just enough of a pout to seem sad yet inviting.
Emily had no clue that women in the 1920s could look like this. The flappers she had seen in photographs from that era looked nothing like this woman. They wore their hair in curls, and they looked almost comical — like Betty Boop.
For Emily, the woman’s appearance was completely hypnotic. One image struck Emily’s eye. The faded picture of a little girl standing outside, next to a chair. Emily focused her concentration even more and clicked on the image, enlarging it to fill her laptop screen. Emily’s mind swirled. The little girl in the photograph looked like the young girl she had seen on Halloween night. Emily’s eyes moved down to the caption below the photo.
Louise Brooks, age 9, on the front porch of her family’s home in Cherryvale, Kansas, 1915. “As I told you, dear, Louise Brooks hasn’t lived in this building for a very long time, and she died before you were even born.” Hazel surveyed the room, then added, “She lived here, in your apartment.”
# # #
Scott
R. Howe grew up in Sacramento, California, where he still resides. He
spent his formative years watching horror and Sci-fi movies which
eventually grew into a general interest in film history, early Hollywood
— and a life-long obsession with the silent film actress, Louise
Brooks. In addition, Scott has had an interest in the paranormal. Scott
is also a graphic artist, painter, filmmaker and musician. More about the author and his new book can be found on his website at https://scottrhowe.com/
Back in 2022, the Louise Brooks Society spoke with Howe about his original novel.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: When and how did you first come across Louise Brooks?
SCOTT HOWE:
My earliest recollection is that I had purchased a sort of coffee table
book on early, silent-era film making in Hollywood. It was filled with
images from the turn of the century, up through the 1920s. When I was
flipping through the pages, I stopped at a photo of this woman I had
never come across before. She was striking to me, initially, because her
look didn't seem to match anyone else in the entire photobook; in my
eyes, she was a complete anachronism. I was in my mid-twenties at the
time (this was like 1985 or '86) and she just really stood out as being
uniquely attractive, even by 1980s standards. That was enough to
intrigue me and I was off on a quest to find out as much as I could
about her. That was before the internet so I found myself driving to
Berkeley to make use of their libraries, etc. It became a fun side-hobby
to sort of try and sleuth out information about her throughout the
years.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: What is it about her that draws you?
SCOTT HOWE: I
sort of answered this in the first question. At first, it was that she
appeared out of place in her own time. She seemed completely modern to
me. The first book I found was her own book, the compilation of some of
her essays that had appeared previously in other journals, "Lulu In
Hollywood." Her writing felt as if I was reading the thoughts of a young
twenty-year-old girl. That made her even more attractive. It was almost
like I was falling in love with this "young" woman, and I guess I
ignored the fact that she had actually passed, perhaps only a year
earlier. (I hope this is making sense). Later, I found the Kenneth Tynan
article on her, "The Girl in the Black Helmet." It felt good to know
that I wasn't the only one who found himself falling in love with her.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: You have written a paranormal historical thriller. What are some of your favorite books or authors in that field?
SCOTT HOWE:One of the earliest books on the paranormal that I read as a teen was The Amityville Horror.
The idea that this series of events may have actually happened
completely fascinated me. I remember asking my mom to take me to the
library so I could look for news stories, on microfiche, from the time
of the original Defeo family murders; since the book mentioned that
George Lutz, who moved into the house shortly after the murders with his
family, held a striking resemblance to Ronald Defeo Jr., the one who
killed his entire family, I wanted to see, for myself, if they did have a
similar appearance — and they did. It was also around this time, in
the mid-seventies, that my older brother brought back a souvenir book
he'd bought for me, from his visit to Washington D.C.. It was called Ghosts: Washington's Most Famous Ghost Stories by John Alexander. Reading that book, as a kid, led to my love for history in general.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: Do other early film stars or early films interest you? Or the Jazz Age?
SCOTT HOWE: I
grew up on the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts and Laurel and Hardy.
They were a Saturday morning staple here in Sacramento when I was
growing up. I found myself strangely mesmerized by the music in those
Hal Roach comedies. For years, I tried to find information on that
music. Eventually, in the late eighties, while I was working as an
artist at Tower Records, I was able to discover the music of Beau Hunks
where they recreated all of that old music from the Hal Roach films. I
knew of Chaplin too, but did not grow to truly appreciate his genius
until I got into college and took some film history courses. It wasn't
until later that I discovered Chaplin's connection with Louise. I was
also excited to learn that Buster Keaton shot Steamboat Bill, Jr. here in Sacramento right along the river, near what is now West Sacramento.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: How was it that you had the idea to blend your two interests - gothic thrillers and a certain silent film star?
SCOTT HOWE:I'm
not sure if you can relate, but I've felt for a long time that I had an
itch that needed to be scratched when it came to Louise Brooks. In
college, I began my interest in film making and in film history. After
my daughter was grown, I took up film making again and had the
ridiculous idea to try and make a short film about Louise. I failed
miserably, of course. All the while, I kept hoping someone else would do
something. Anything. I still hope that someone, someday, will finally
produce a biopic about her. But I digress… Over the pandemic, I had to
have quadruple bypass surgery. While recovering from that, I started
thinking about coming up with an idea for a novel that might use Louise
as a framework. Initially, it felt too daunting a task. After all,
people way more qualified — people like you — have already written so
much about her; what could I possibly add to that? But my mind kept
coming back to something about Louise that had always affected me. It
was the fact that she was sexually abused as a child. I found it both
heart-wrenching and chilling that this had happened to her at all — and
that it was as common, then, as it is today — seemed unthinkable. One
could see how much it changed the trajectory of her life forever after
that experience. Barry Paris wrote in his famous biography on her that
Mr. Flowers was her "Rosebud." It finally hit me that one way I could
talk about all of that was to couch it within a ghost story. Good ghost
stories, after all, are just mysteries wrapped up in a nice, scary
package. Writing scary short films was always in my wheelhouse, so why
not try writing something longer-form and see if I could manage it. As
it turned out, this was the spark I needed to finally scratch that
Louise Brooks itch that I'd had ever since I first discovered her for
myself. I think it's natural for creative people to get inspiration from
their muses. Louise has been that for me. I've drawn her, painted her,
tried to make a short film about her... and now, I've finally found a
way to express some of my thoughts about something that truly hurt me
when I first learned of Louise’s sexual abuse as a child.
LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY: What might you want readers of your book to know?
SCOTT HOWE:I
hope people will understand that I wrote this book with a deep
admiration and affection for Louise Brooks. Those who have done their
own research on Louise will no doubt recognize some familiar
acknowledgements to her in the form of small factoids about her life
that I sprinkled throughout this book. Finally, I hope that by delving
deeper into the issue of sexual abuse, readers will gain a better
understanding of the strength of will required to survive such trauma.
I'm left to wonder how much more Louise would have achieved had she not
had to carry such a burden with her over her lifetime.
I have to apologize for my lengthy responses. Once I get going, I can't stop. :)
I realize this is last minute, but longtime Louise Brooks Society supporter Beth Ann Gallagher just alerted me to an incredible Kickstarter campaign to bring three Louise Brooks-inspired Dixie Dugan novels by J.P. McEvoy back into print. More about this Kickstarter campaign, which runs through January 18th, can be found HERE.
As Brooks' devotees may know, Show Girl was the first novel to feature a major character or
story-line inspired by the actress. First serialized in Liberty magazine in 1928 (and quickly published in book form by Simon & Schuster), Show Girl told of the life and adventures of a character named Dixie Dugan. That novel and its two follow-up books, Show Girl in Hollywood and Show Girl in Society,
proved especially popular. So much so that they spawned a long-running comic strip
which lasted into the 1960s, "Dixie Dugan," as well as a stage play, Show Girl, and two movies which unfortunately did not star Louise Brooks.
Here is a wonderful newspaper ad for the novel's serialization in Liberty magazine, when the visual identity of Dixie Dugan was closely aligned with the look of the actress. (A few of these illustrations, as well as some of the early comic strips, were based on films stills from Brooks' first films, such as The American Venus.)
Nevertheless, I pledged $29.00 toward this worthy campaign, for which I will receive a copy of the book and have my name listed on an acknowledgements page. I already own vintage copies of these books, including one signed by McEvoy, but am looking forward to receiving this omnibus edition. Yowza, yowza, yowza.
Here is some more information about this Kickstarter campaign from it's page.
"Between 1928 and 1932, J. P. McEvoy published six ingenious novels that
unfold solely by way of letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, ads,
telephone transcriptions, scripts, playbills, greeting card verses,
interoffice memos, legal documents, monologues, song lyrics, police
reports, and radio broadcasts. Three of them, collected here for the
first time, record the wild career of a jazz baby named Dixie Dugan
(modeled on actress Louise Brooks, whom McEvoy knew). The best-selling Show Girltracks Dixie's zigzagging path to success on Broadway; in Hollywood Girl, she heads out West for further risqué adventures, and impulsively marries a rich playboy; in Society, Dixie mingles with high society both in Europe and the U.S. before returning to Hollywood to resume her show-biz career."
"Beneath the novels' hellzapoppin' energy and jazzy lingo, however,
McEvoy exposes the dark underside of the times: sexual predation,
tabloid journalism, political corruption, the rise of religious
fundamentalism, and the fatuous lifestyles of the rich and famous. But
it's the blend of humor and bite, of success and failure, of ridicule
and irony—shaken and stirred with linguistic and formal ingenuity—that
makes The Dixie Dugan Trilogy "a
madcap, mordant masterpiece," as critic Steven Moore writes in his
informative introduction. Out of print since the 1930s, these
"avant-pop" novels deserve a revival."
Back in 2000, the Brazilian writer Alexandre Lobão published one of the earlier works of fiction to include Louise Brooks. His book was titled A Caixa de Pandora (Pandora's Box and other stories). I remember hearing about it sometime around then, and even obtaining a pdf copy of the Portuguese-language book. I never had the chance to really connect with the author until recently, when we "ran into one another" in Instagram. I sent Alexandre, who is now a successful author, a message asking if he might answer a few questions about A Caixa de Pandora, his first book. He agreed.
The 2000 edition The Author - Alexandre Lobão The 2015 edition
Louise Brooks Society: Your first book, A Caixa de Pandora (Pandora's Box and other stories), is a collection of stories; it was first published in Brazil in 2000, and has been described as a work of "fantastic reality." What would you like readers to know about it? Alexandre Lobão:This book has ten short stories, and it’s still being published nowadays, 22 years later - which is unusual, at least in Brazil. Most of the stories have some kind of fantastic or magical element. The main (and longest) story, “Pandora’s Box,” is about a writer who is researching Louise Brooks in order to write a book, and every new piece of information he gets about her, he finds her more and more appealing, until the point that he realizes he is in love with her. Knowing that there is little more information about her, after all the research he did, he becomes more and more uneasy, lonely and abandoned, until he goes one last time to the local university library to see if he can uncover anything else. At the library he experiences a strange moment, a dream that leads him to a small recess he never saw in the library, an old video cassette library where he finds some tapes about Louise. To his surprise, he discovers that the tapes are not movies, but instead they allow him, for a limited time, to talk with Louise Brooks using his TV. It’s a blessing, but also a curse, because he has only a few hours to talk to her. In the end (which was a surprise even for me, when I first wrote) he manages to help Louise and help himself to go on with their lives, leaving the past behind and knowing that each other are fine.
Louise Brooks Society:When and how did you first discover Louise Brooks? Alexandre Lobão:I first saw Louise in the video clip of the O.M.D. (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) song “Pandora’s Box.” I was in my twenties, in a train station during my first trip around Europe, and was mesmerized by her appearances in the video.
Louise Brooks Society:In the title story, you appear as a character in love with Louise Brooks. The narrator details your encounters with the actress. What lead you to write this story? Were you inspired by any other story or writer?
Alexandre Lobão: After 25 published books, “Pandora’s Box” is still the story that most resonates with me. When I returned to Brazil after my trip, I started to look for information about her (which was rather difficult, because there are no internet back in 1991) out of curiosity. I started then to hunt around in libraries, and discover that Louise was also inspiration for the Dixie Dugan comic strip (1929, by J. P. McEvoy) and other works beyond the movies, and after some research the idea of writing a book about a writer that researches & searches for her came to me. By then, I was only published in magazines and short story collections; “Pandora’s box” was my first short novel (60 pages). The inspiration of it was only Louise and my own journey in discovering how amazing she was.
Louise Brooks Society: Is Louise Brooks very well known in Brazil?
Alexandre Lobão: Not really. I found some people that know her, some that love her, but she’s not a pop culture icon here – although many people would recognize her bob hair style. Louise Brooks Society: What does she mean to you as an actress, or as a person?
Alexandre Lobão: Tough question! When I first found out about her, I fall in love as we usually do, loving not the real person, but the idealized person we have in our minds. After a while, I knew her flaws, her problems, the details that are not so lovable; but I still love her as a person. Nowadays my feelings for her are more like an old passion that, after the right time, became more like an ember that never fades away than a huge fire that burns bright and ends fast. I love seeing her movies, of course; I believe she was the greatest artist of her time, although she unfortunately hasn’t followed the evolution of the movies industry and language. Louise Brooks Society: You have written fiction, as well as books for young readers, comics, and screenplays. You have written in may genre's. How can someone find out more?
Alexandre Lobão:All my books and movie scripts and comics are on my web site, www.AlexandreLobao.com. I have some works published in English and Chinese, but only technical stuff – the rights for publishing my fiction works on other countries are currently available. 😉
* * * * *
Pandora's Box and other stories is a book of short stories with varied themes, mostly containing fantastic elements. The tales present stories that take place in different times and places, in Brazil and abroad, from the past to the future, and have a common point in a personal, intimate view of each story, making the reader feel as if they were listening to a friend's story, the kind friends share around a campfire, when the lack of television increases interaction between people. The last story, “Plain”, subtly creates a link between all the stories, where the character has visions about situations that happen in several other stories in the book. More about Caixa de Pandora (Pandora's Box and other stories) can be found on the authors website.
Louise Brooks is having a moment.... Just recently, the New Yorker magazine reprinted Kenneth Tynan's 1979 profile of the actress, "Louise Brooks Tells All," in its August 29, 2022 issue. That recent issue celebrated great magazine profiles from the past. Tynan's rightly celebrated piece certainly fits the bill. (Also included in the August 29th issue was a piece by Hilton Als, who profiled Missy Eliot. Als, I should note, wrote about Brooks in his 2013 book, White Girls.)
Louise Brooks is also included in the most recent issue of FICTION magazine, a literary journal issued by the City College of New York. Issue number 65 includes an excerpt from Jerome Charyn's new novel, Lulu in Love. I have read the entire work manuscript, and am looking forward to the day when it is published. In the meantime, Charyn's new piece is, as of now, only available in print.
Adjunct to Charyn's piece, I was asked to write a piece noting some of the other instances in which Louise Brooks shows up in fiction, the genre, not the journal. I contributed "Louise Brooks: Silent Muse," which can be read online. It explores how Charyn, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Willem Frederik Hermans, Ali Smith and other authors have employed the actress in their fiction. I hope everyone takes a few minutes to read my piece. And while you are at it, because I know you will want to, be sure and read Tynan's and Charyn's pieces, if you haven't already done so. Be included in the smart set.
French writer Daniel Bernard emailed me to let me know about his new novel, Un dernier Charleston, Louise (One last Charleston, Louise), which has just been published in France Switzerland by Editions Lemart. Here is the front and back cover.
And here is something the author sent me about the book:
"The novel begins in 1957 at Idlewild Airport in New-York. Two women meet as they have accompanied someone to the plane going to Europe. Suddenly, they begin to talk to one another. “I’m Louise, says a brunette, the Louise Brooks!” Angela, the other woman answers: “I’m Angela, please to meet you!”
Then begins this imaginary story about the well-known star, Louise Brooks, and diverse characters: Angela, who is a German immigrant, Helmut, a former assistant to Pabst, the director of Pandora’s Box, and perhaps a lover, and a few others.
Through chapters that are written a bit like film scripts, with a lot of dialogues, we go back to 1928, as Louise was in Berlin, for the shooting of her famous one and only masterpiece, Pandora’s Box, by Pabst, to 1937, as Angela meets Leni Riefenstahl in Minister Speer’s office, in the 50’s in Paris, when Henri Langlois calls Louise back to Europe discovering the fallen and forgotten star, and many other situations.
The plot mixes true events and fully delusive moments that attempt to depict Louise’s personality, if she ever would act that way, with a tender and gentle look. Illusion, images, life, sexuality and the German period of the late 20’s, that Louise had just seen in Berlin are the background, and New York.
The novel contains a great quantity of dialogue, concerning a star of the silent movies, which is stunning. You read it as if you were a witness, hidden somewhere in the scenes surrounding the actors of he novel. At times, hints on the story of cinema art, that has changed the world until now, tells you details and/or facts that a few are aware of. In the background, a drama, well described, in a parallel montage effect, which is a justification if not an explanation of the whole plot: there is no witness of this story written by a true connoisseur."
I just became aware of a new book, Louise Brooks. Due vite Parallele (Louise Brooks: Two Parallel Lives) by Laura Scaramozzino. From what I can tell, it's an Italian noir fantasy novel in which features a character named Louise Brooks.
The publisher's description reads: "Louise Brooks è una
giovane attrice. Vive a Hollywood ed è un'esponente del Nuovo Cinema
Impulsoriale: un'elaborazione moderna del cinema muto del passato. Dopo
una notte trascorsa in compagnia della collega Greta, riceve sul
cellulare un messaggio inquietante: Edmond J. Lermann è morto. La
ragazza non conosce nessuno con quel nome e quando prova a risalire al
mittente del messaggio fallisce nell'intento. Grazie a Internet, Louise
scopre che l'uomo esiste ed è morto davvero, ucciso con un colpo di
pistola a Torino, in Italia, e che era originario della sua cittadina
natale: Cherryvalle nel Kansas. Inizia così un'avventura in cui la
giovane attrice si trova costretta a fare i conti con il proprio
passato. C'è una voce che la perseguita da quando aveva otto anni. Una
minaccia che non l'ha mai abbandonata e recita: 'Questa bambina è mia'."
Which in rough translation reads: "Louise Brooks is a young actress. She lives in Hollywood and is an exponent of the New Impulsive Cinema: a modern elaboration of the silent cinema of the past. After a night spent in the company of her colleague Greta, she receives a disturbing message on his cell phone: Edmond J. Lermann is dead. The girl does not know anyone with that name and when she tries to trace the sender of the message she fails. Thanks to the Internet, Louise discovers that the man exists and really died, killed with a gunshot in Turin, Italy, and that he was originally from his hometown: Cherryvalle, Kansas. Thus began an adventure in which the young actress is forced to deal with her past. There is a rumor that has haunted her since she was eight years old. A threat that has never left her and says: 'This girl is mine'."
Apparently, the novel - which is something of a genre bender - has a contemporary setting, and in it silent films are still being made, though with contemporary methods. The book is being described as a noir thriller with elements of science fiction and fantasy. However, the fact that the novel's character is an actress named Louise Brooks, and she has a connection to Cherryvale (including an incident of sexual abuse), links the book to the historic silent film star.
image via Facebook
I don't know much about the author, Laura Scaramozzino. As best as I can figure, she has two other Italian books to her credit, including Screaming Dora (2019), which was published by Watson, the same publisher as Louise Brooks: Two Parallel Lives. I sent her an email with a few questions, but have yet to hear back.... I hope the book gets translated into English, as I would like to read it. There is an air of mystery about it that seems intriguing. An Italian-language review of the book, by Fabio Orrico, can be found HERE. Orrico concludes his review by stating, "Laura Scaramozzino, in a span of just over a hundred pages, links stories and history, realism and fantasy, elaboration of mourning and revenge." (This might make for a good Quentin Tarantino film.)
A recently published historical crime thriller has come to my attention. It is titled Babylon Berlin, and its by Volker Kutscher. (The book was published in May by Sandstone Press.) And, it features Louise Brooks on the cover. I haven't had a chance to get a hold of a copy, and don't know if Brooks figures in the story, but here's a little about the book. From what I gather, the series is to be filmed for television in England, Germany and possibly elsewhere.
From the publisher: "Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath, was a successful career officer
in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he
inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the Vice Squad in
Berlin, a job he detests, even though he finds a new friend in his
boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city and
the Commissioner of Police has ordered the Vice Squad to ruthlessly
enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations. The result is catastrophic
with many dead and injured, and a state of emergency is declared in the
Communist strongholds of the city. When a car is hauled out of Berlin's
Landwehr Canal with a mutilated corpse inside the Commissioner decides
to use this mystery to divert the attention of press and public from the
casualties of the demonstrations. The biggest problem is that the
corpse cannot be identified."
About the author: "Volker Kutscher was born in 1962. He studied German, Philosophy and History, and worked as a newspaper editor prior to writing his first detective novel. Babylon Berlin, the start of an award-winning series of novels to feature Gereon Rath and his exploits in late Weimar Republic Berlin, was an instant hit in Germany. Since then, a further four titles have appeared, most recently Märzgefallene in 2014. The series was awarded the Berlin Krimi-Fuchs Crime Writers Prize in 2011 and has sold over one million copies worldwide. Volker Kutscher works as a full-time author and lives in Cologne. " Read an interview with the author HERE.
"Babylon Berlin is a stunning novel that superbly evokes Twenties
Germany in its seedy splendor. An impressive new crime series." - Sarah
Ward, author of In Bitter Chill
"Kutscher successfully conjures up
the dangerous decadence of the Weimar years, with blood on the Berlin
streets and the Nazis lurking menacingly in the wings." - Sunday Times
"Gripping evocative thriller set in Berlin's seedy underworld during the
roaring Twenties. A massive hit in its native Germany, Volker
Kutscher's series, centered on Detective Inspector Gereon Rath, is
currently being filmed for television." - Mail on Sunday
"The best German
crime novel of the year!' - Bucher
"Kutscher's undertaking to portray
the downfall of the Weimar Republic through the medium of detective
fiction is both ambitious and utterly convincing. Let's hope it receives
the attention it deserves." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"With his
detective novel Babylon Berlin, Volker Kutscher has succeeded in
creating an opulent portrait of manners." - Der Spiegel
"Has all the
allure of an addictive drug: you won't be able to put it down until
you've read to the end." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"A highly
readable piece of crime fiction set against a politico-historical
background." - Osterreichischer Rundfunk
Another novel which features the iconic image of a dreaming Louise Brooks sitting in a chair with books scattered on the floor about her is William Boyd's The New Confessions. First published in 1987, the edition pictured here was issued by Penguin in the UK in 2010.
According to the publisher, "In this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of
John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most
unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence
Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred
percent William Boyd.
From his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed.
Emerging from his angst-filled childhood, he rushes into the throes of
the twentieth century on the Western Front during the Great War, and
quickly changes his role on the battlefield from cannon fodder to
cameraman. When he becomes a prisoner of war, he discovers Rousseau's Confessions,
and dedicates his life to bringing the memoir to the silver screen.
Plagued by bad luck and blind ambition, Todd becomes a celebrated London
upstart, a Weimar luminary, and finally a disgruntled director of
cowboy movies and the eleventh member of the Hollywood Ten. Ambitious
and entertaining, Boyd has invented a most irresistible hero."
I haven't yet read this book, but according to a friend as well as various reviewers, a Louise Brooks-like character also figures in the story. Have you read this book?
William Boyd is the author of ten novels, including A Good Man in
Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An
Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted
for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and
Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year.
Brooks’ appearance on the cover of this popular
2003 edition of The Invention of Morel was inspired
by this webpage, which dates to the late 1990s.
Before
publication, the publisher contacted the
LBS regarding the actress and
the use of an image.
After publication, a stream of articles noting
the connection between the novel and
the film star began to
appear.
Back in 1997 or so, I ran across a tantalizing review of Adolfo Bioy Casares’ memoirs, Memorias: Infancia, adolescencia y como se hace un escrito. In a short write-up,
a scholar mentioned the Argentine author’s affection for Louise Brooks.
This excited me, as I had been aware of Bioy Casares and his work
through his friendship with Jorge Luis Borges, a favorite author. Always
on the look-out for references to Brooks, my favorite film star, I set
to find out more; I couldn’t imagine how these two interests could be
linked.
What I found, remarkably, is that Louise Brooks stands at the heart
of one of the most important works of 20th century literature. The Invention of Morel
is not only an oblique homage to the actress, a small town girl, but also a means to
preserve, in writing, the memory of a writer’s desire for an elusive
star.
Today, Adolpho Bioy Casares
(1914 – 1999) is considered one of the great authors of the 20th
century. In fact, he is thought by some to be a near equal of his great
friend and sometime collaborator Jorge Luis Borges. Bioy Casares authored short stories as well as novels, including A Plan for Escape (1945), The Dream of Heroes (1954), Diary of the War of the Pig (1969), and Asleep in the Sun (1978), each of which have been translated and published in English. Bioy Casares also collaborated with Borges on the seminal Anthology of Fantastic Literature,
as well as a series of satirical sketches and detective stories written
under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq. Late in his career, Bioy won
several important awards including the Gran Premio de Honor of SADE
(awarded in 1975 by the Argentine Society of Writers), the French Legion
of Honor (awarded in 1981), and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize (awarded
in 1991).
Bioy Casares is best known for his 1940 novella, La invención de Morel (The Invention of Morel).
It has been described variously, as both a stoic love story and a
metaphysical mystery. It tells of a man who, evading justice, escapes to
a mysterious island. A group of travelers arrive, and the fugitive’s
fear of being discovered means he must keep his distance from one of the
travelers, a woman named Faustine, with whom he falls in love. The
fugitive desires to tell her his feelings, but an anomalous phenomenon
makes their meeting impossible. Struggling to understand why everything
seems to repeat, the fugitive realizes that the people he sees on the
island are nothing more than recordings made with a special machine
invented by a scientific genius named Morel; this machine is able to
project not only three-dimensional images, but also voices and scents,
making everything indistinguishable from reality. In fact, the fugitive
is the only real person on the island.
The Invention of Morel has been adopted by reading groups
and in college classrooms.
One recent review noted, “Though it was published in 1940, the book’s
continuing relevance was recently proven when it was featured on Lost — a cameo many viewers perceive as a key to that TV show’s plot. Just know that Morel
is a poetic evocation of the experience of love, an inquiry into how we
know one another, and a still-relevant examination of how technology
has changed our relationship with reality.”
The Invention of Morel mixes realism and metaphysical fantasy
with elements of science fiction and the Gothic to create what is widely
considered the first work of “magical realism.” It prefigured the boom
in Latin American literature, and proved to be Bioy Casares’
breakthrough effort when it won the First Municipal Prize for Literature
of the City of Buenos Aires in 1941. Despite it being his seventh book,
Bioy Casares considered The Invention of Morel to mark the beginning of his career as a writer.
Borges wrote a prologue to the The Invention of Morel in which he placed the book alongside Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and Franz Kafka’s The Trial
as examples of works with “admirable plots.” Borges also termed it a
work of “reasoned imagination,” linking it to the philosophical romances
of H. G. Wells, notably through its title, which alludes to The Island of Doctor Moreau.
In his prologue, Borges also stated “I have discussed with the author
the details of his plot; I have reread it; it seems to me neither
imprecise nor hyperbolic to classify it as perfect.” The Mexican Nobel
Prize winning poet Octavio Paz echoed Borges’ assessment, “The Invention of Morel
may be described, without exaggeration, as a perfect novel.” Other well
known Latin American writers also expressed their admiration for the
book, among them the Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García
Márquez, the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, the Cuban writer Alejo
Carpentier, and Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti.
The first edition of La invención de Morel featured cover art
and interior illustrations by Norah Borges de Torre, sister of Jorge.
Call me crazy, but I think it significant that Faustine is depicted with
short bobbed hair not unlike the trademark style worn by Louise Brooks.
In
his memoirs, Bioy Casares wrote of his disillusionment over the decline
of the screen career of one of his favorite actresses, Louise Brooks.
After Memorias was published, the book and the passage on Brooks was called to the attention the Argentinian magazine Film.
In their July, 1995 issue, Fernando Martin Peña and Sergio Wolf
published an interview with Bioy Casares in which he expanded upon some
of the points he made in his memoirs. What follows is an excerpt (in
translation) from the 1995 interview.
QUESTION: You said that the inspiration for La invención de Morel came to you, at least partially, from the vanishing of Louise Brooks from the movies. What happened with you and Louise Brooks?
ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: I was deeply
in love with her. I didn’t have any luck, because she disappeared
quickly. She went to Europe, she made a film with Pabst, and then I
didn’t like her so much as when she was in Hollywood. And then, she
vanished too early from the movies.
QUESTION: Could she be seen as one of the characters in La invención de Morel?
ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: Yes, she would be Faustine.
QUESTION: It’s funny, because everybody falls in love with Louise Brooks through her German films.
ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: Well, I didn’t.
Bioy Casares loved film, and once wrote, “I want to wait for the end
of the world on the seat of a movie theater.” Bioy Casares also loved
the stars of his youth, and named names. In the above mentioned
interview, Bioy Casares goes on to say that when he was young he went to
the movies all the time, and also had a liking for Marion Davies and
Anna May Wong. He also liked Garbo, though only in the light-hearted Ninotchka. Bioy Casares didn’t care for horror films, though he mentions in the interview that Borges was a big fan of The Bride of Frankenstein.
I wonder if Bioy Casares would have liked that film more had director
James Whale cast Brooks, his first choice, in the role of the bride,
instead of Elsa Lanchester.
Here is the passage from Bioy Casares memoirs in which he discusses Brooks and his love of early film.
Progresivamente me aficioné a las
películas, me convertí en espectador asiduo y ahora pienso que la sala
de un cinematógrafo es el lugar que yo elegiría para esperar el fin del
mundo.
Me enamoré, simultánea o sucesivamente,
de las actrices de cine Louise Brooks, Marie Prévost, Dorothy Mackay,
Marion Davis, Evelyn Brent y Anna May Wong.
De estos amores imposibles, el que tuve
por Louise Brooks fue el más v ivo, el mas desdichado. ¡Me disgustaba
tanto creer que nunca la conoscería! Peor aún, que nunca volvería a
verla. Esto, precisamente, fue lo que sucedió. Despuesde tres o cuatros
películas, en que la vi embeselado, Louise Brooks desapareció de las
pantallas de Buenos Aires. Sentí esa desaparición, primero, como un
desgarriamento; después, como una derrota personal. Debía admitir que si
Louise Brooks hubiera gustado al público, no hubiera desaparecido. La
verdad (o lo que yo sentía) es que no sólo pasó inadvertida por el gran
público, sino también por las personas que yo conocía. Si concedían que
era linda – más bien ‘bonitilla’ – , lamentaban que fuera mala actriz;
si encontraban que era una actriz inteligente, lamentaban que no fuera
más bella. Como ante la derrota de Firpo, comprobé que la realidad y yo
no estábamos de acuerdo.
Muchos años despés, en París, vi una película (creo que de Jessua) en que el héroe, como yo (cuando estaba por escribir Corazón de payaso,
uno de mis primeros intentos literarios), inconteniblemente echaba todo
a la broma y, de ese modo, se hacía odiar por la mujer querida. El
personaje tenía otro parecido conmigo: admiraba a Louise Brooks. Desde
entonces, en mi país y en otros, encuentro continuas pruebas de esa
admiración, y también pruebas que la actriz la merecía. En el New Yorker y en los Cahiers du cinéma leí articulos sobre ella, admirativos e inteligentes. Leí, asimismo, Lulú en Hollywood, un divertido libro de recuerdos, escrito por Louise Brooks.
En el 73 o en el 75, mi amigo Edgardo
Cozarinsky me cito una tarde en un cafe de la Place de L’Alma, en Paris,
para que conociera a una muchacha que haria el papel de Louise Brooks
en un filme en preparacion. Yo era el experto que debia decirle si la
muchacha era aceptable o no para el papel. Le dije que si, no solamente
para ayudar a la posible actriz. Es claro que si me huberian hecho la
pregunta en tiempos de mi angustiosa pasion, quiza la respuesta hubiera
sido distinta. Para me, entonces, nadie se parecia a Louise Brooks.
With the help of the web and an Argentine friend, I have attempted a
translation of the above passage and have come up with something
inelegant, but still interesting. If you are able to provide a better
translation, please contact the Louise Brooks Society.
Over time, I fell in love with movies, I
became a regular viewer and now I think I want to wait for the end of
the world on the seat of a movie theater..
I fell in love, simultaneously or
successively, with the film actresses Louise Brooks, Marie Prevost,
Dorothy Mackaill, Marion Davies, Evelyn Brent and Anna May Wong.
Of these impossible loves, I was most
passionate about Louise Brooks, and it made me miserable. I hated that I
could never know her! Worse, one never saw her again. This is exactly
what happened. After three or four movies, I was spellbound, and Louise
Brooks disappeared from the screens of Buenos Aires. I felt that
disappearance, first, as a tearful break; then as a personal loss. Had
she been better liked by the public, I feel Louise Brooks would not have
disappeared. The truth (or what I felt) is that she was little known to
the public, and also to people I knew. Granted she was cute – rather
‘pretty’ – though others complained she was a bad actress; if they found
her a clever actress, they regretted that she was not more beautiful.
Just like before the defeat of Firpo [the Argentine boxer who lost to
Jack Dempsey], I proved that reality and me disagreed.
Many years later in Paris, I saw a movie (I think by [Alain] Jessua) in which the hero, like me (when I was wrote Heart of a Clown,
one of my first literary attempts), took everything as a joke and
consequently was hated by the woman he loved. That character, like me,
admired Louise Brooks. Lately, here in Argentina and elsewhere, there is
a renewed assessment and growing admiration for the actress, which is
deserved. I read admiring and intelligent articles about her in the New Yorker and the Cahiers du Cinéma. I also read Lulu in Hollywood, a diverting memoir, written by Louise Brooks.
In 73 or 75, my friend Edgardo Cozarinsky
asked me one afternoon in a cafe in the Place de l’Alma in Paris if I
know a girl who would play Louise Brooks in a film which was in
preparation. I was the expert who was to say if the girl was acceptable
or not for the role. I said yes, not only to help the possible actress.
Clearly, if I had been asked the question during my anguished passion,
perhaps the answer would have been different. To me, no one seemed to be
Louise Brooks.
In the passage above, Bioy Casares seems to suggest that he tried to write a short story called, “Heart of a Clown,” featuring a character like himself similarly in love with Brooks. However, I am told it is not so. Reportedly, Bioy Casares tried
to write such a story to impress someone when he was young, but only
got as far as an idea and a title. . . . I don’t know what became of the
proposed film featuring a Brooks-like character mentioned in the last
paragraph. Bioy Casares’ friend, Edgardo Cozarinsky, is no doubt a
kindred soul. In 1994 he completed the documentary, Citizen Langlois, about the famous film archivist and key figure in Brooks’ life.
Boiy Casares’ book was made into a French movie called L’invention de Morel (1967), and an Italian movie called L’invenzione di Morel
(1974). Faustine was played by Anna Karina in the latter. Sometime in
the late 1980s or early 1990’s, the Quay Brothers also hoped to turn
Boiy Casares’ book into a film, but were unsuccessful in their pursuit
of the rights.
It is thought, by some, that Bioy Casares’ book inspired Alain Resnais’ sur-real film Last Year At Marienbad
(1961), which was adopted for the screen by the French novelist Alain
Robbe-Grillet. The case for lineage is loosely made by Thomas Beltzer in
his essay, “Last Year at Marienbad: An Intertextual Meditation.” Beltzer’s argument largely hinges on information found on a later-day dust jacket for Boiy Casares’ A Plan for Escape. Beltzer’s case is called into question (though not entirely refuted) by Dan DeWeese in his essay, “The Invention of Marienbad.” Both pieces are worth reading.
What is known is that Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel echoes through the television series Lost
(2004 – 2010). The popular and critically acclaimed show follows the
survivors of a passenger jet crash on a mysterious tropical island
somewhere in the South Pacific. Like The Invention of Morel, the
show contains science fiction and supernatural elements while messing
with perceived reality. During season four, one of the show’s main
characters is seen reading the 2003 NYRB edition of The Invention of Morel (shown below).
Things get meta: Sawyer reads The Invention of Morel on an episode
of the TV series Lost.
Thanks to Argentians Diego Curubeto and Erica Füsstinn for supplying and translating some of the information found on this page.
“Interview with the Brothers Quay.” Electric Sheep. March 4, 2007.
— Quay Brothers discuss their 2005 film The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes and it’s relationship to The Invention of Morel
“The Invention of Morel,” in The Facts on File Companion to the World Novel: 1900 to the Present, by Michael Sollars. Facts on File, 2008.
— analysis of the Bioy Casares novel
“The Invention of Marienbad,” by Dan DeWeese. Propeller Magazine, February, 2014.
— calls into question the linking of The Invention of Morel and Last Year at Marienbad
“Time and the Image: The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes,” by Arturo Silva. Bright Lights Film Journal, January 28, 2016.
— analysis of the Quay Brothers’ The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, with a look at it’s relationship to The Invention of Morel
How I missed this I don't know, but one year ago today a work of historical fiction was published which featured Louise Brooks on the cover. The book is Diamond, by Cynthia L. Jordan. It is from Emerald Eagle Publishing (self-published?). The book seems to be a follow up, as it were, to Jordan's earlier work, Pearl, from 2013.
Here is the book's description from amazon.com: "Corsets are out. Freedom is in. The 20's are ROARING! Movies are silent
and Hollywood is shaping American culture. From coast to coast young
girls like Heather Smith dream of becoming a movie star. One day two men
shooting a western film near San ANgelo, Texas come to Pearl's Parlor
for some fun. Is this Heather's big chance? Wyatt Earp, Mae West, John
Wayne, Charlie Chaplin, Louise Brooks, Barbara Stanwyck...their stories
will astound you. DIAMOND reminds us that when we remove the glitzy
glamour, smoke and mirrors it is our human nature and the need to be
loved that makes us all the same. PROLOGUE Ever since she was a little
girl, Heather had dreamed of being an actress. While growing up in
Illinois, the porch of the farmhouse had served as her stage, and her
younger siblings, dolls and pets were her audience. Heather had spent
all morning preparing for this interview. After examining herself
carefully in the mirror, and after trying on seven different outfits,
she had finally decided the royal blue was best. Simple and elegant, the
dress showed off Heather’s trim waistline, as well as the fact that
this homegrown farm girl was a lady with class. “I believe there must be
some mistake. I was told this was an interview to set up a screen test
for a part in the new western movie, Rio Concho. I am an actress and I
also sing.” “Listen, Sweetheart…if you wanna play in the big leagues,
you gotta play by the rules! Now take your clothes off!” Leaning
forward, the man rested his elbows on the large oak desk standing
between him and his newest conquest. He knew she wanted to be a star.
They all did. His eyes glared at Heather’s breasts with appreciation and
desire as he chewed on his smelly, unlit cigar. “Oh…I see,” Heather
affirmed. “May
I please sit down for a minute, Mister Stein?” “Ok, but
just for a minute. I am a very busy man.” Heather had heard the
Hollywood stories of casting couches and girls being put in compromising
situations. She had rehearsed this scene for months. Looking down at
her soft white hands gently folded on her lap, Heather slowly bit her
bottom lip. After a moment, she dramatically looked straight into the
eyes of a man who had the power to make her dreams come true. With full
confidence in her ability to charm, Heather smiled. Locking the man into
her hypnotic gaze, she spoke slowly and deliberately. “So this is
business? What are your terms? What do I get when I take off my
clothes?” The man folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “It
depends on how friendly you want to be,” he smirked, licking his fat
lips. The man’s lines had been predictable and Heather was more than
ready to perform her part. Heather made her eyes big. “Don’t you want
me to read for you or sing you a song?” she asked with profound
innocence. “Take your clothes off, Missy. We’ll start there.” “Will you
guarantee I get a part? If this is business…” “I can make you a star,
Sweetheart!” For a long moment Heather stared at the man behind the
desk. A woman with experience, she was a master at reading a man and
knowing his deepest desires. Coyly, Heather grinned and began speaking
seductively in a slow, sultry voice. “All right then, Mr. Stein. Today
is your lucky day. I brought a girlfriend with me. Ginger wants to be in
the movies too. Can I ask her to join us? Ginger can be extremely
friendly. In fact together we can give you quite a show! She is waiting
for me just outside the door.” The man quickly laid down his slimy
cigar. “Yes in-deedy! Invite her in!” “I’ll be right back,” Heather
smiled."
About the author (also via amazon.com): Cynthia believes every woman is like a precious pearl that deserves to
be respected, appreciated and loved. Growing up in Redondo Beach,
California the ocean was her playground and playing music was her
passion. A classically trained pianist, Cynthia wrote the 1983 country
song of the year, JOSE CUERVO and went on to compose beautiful piano CDs
for Page Music in Nashville. BUTTERFLY MOMENTS is her autobiography. In
doing research for her new musical PEARL, Cynthia uncovered astounding
facts about women in history and found a new passion in writing
historical novels to tell their stories. Ada and Minna Everleigh, Mae
West, Suzy Poontang, Emily Morgan, Pearl DeVere, and Louise Brooks are
just some of the characters in her historical fictions she calls the GEM
SERIES. Her books are "real page turners" full of history, humor and
deep sentiment. "In understanding our human nature we learn that each
one of us is equally the same with the potential to live their life in
bliss."
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