New book: Lulu in New York and Other Tales

A forthcoming book, Lulu in New York and Other Tales, has more than a little connection to Louise Brooks. The book, by Robert Power and featuring paintings by Max Ferguson, features an image of the actress on the cover.

From the publisher: "American Artist Max Ferguson’s paintings often feature solitary figures, brooding atmospheres, and urban landscapes whose narrative and cinematic qualities hint at hidden stories, secrets, and conversations waiting to happen. Writer Robert Power’s fiction of longing and resolution, alienation and loving, provide the perfect voice to give life to Ferguson’s mysterious paintings. Lulu in New York and Other Tales brings their work together in a unique collaboration.

Lulu in New York and Other Tales presents an exquisite and beautifully crafted volume of sixty stories from Power, inspired by paintings from throughout Ferguson’s career. Some of the pictures, like Chess Players and Interiors lend themselves to whimsical or heart-rending conversations. Others, such as Woman in Bath, Subway, and Billy’s Topless have violence and menace simmering at their core. Other paintings that inspire tales of reflection, reminiscing on love both lost and found.

Binding Ferguson’s paintings and Power’s storytelling together is a shared appreciation of the nuances, agonies and ecstasies, complexities and delicacies, of the human condition. The result is a lushly produced book that is at once powerful and beautiful, and will appeal to both art and short story lovers."

Max Ferguson is an American artist best known for his realistic paintings of vanishing urban scenes in and around New York City.  His work has been widely exhibited in such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. Robert Power lives in Melbourne. His other books include Meatloaf in Manhattan and Tidetown.

Lulu in New York and Other Tales is due out in July, though there will be an earlier release party in New York City in May at the famous Strand bookstore.

LULU IN NEW YORK AND OTHER TALES

Wednesday, May 24th  

6:30 - 9:30 pm

Strand Books

828 Broadway

New York

                                 

In conjunction with the book launch, 

there will be an exhibition of  Max Ferguson paintings.

SOLO EXHIBTION

May 4 - May 27

Bernarducci Meisel Gallery 

37 West 57th Street

New York

Louise Brooks related book launch in NYC today!

What happens when an Irish author living in Australia is so taken by an American painter's work that he writes 60 short stories inspired by his paintings? The result is 

LULU IN NEW YORK & OTHER TALES

Words by Robert Power  -  Paintings by Max Ferguson

Book Launch

Wednesday, May 24th

6:30-9:00 PM

Readings by the author and DJ Ken Dashow

Models dressed as they are in the paintings

Unveiling of a new painting

A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

STRAND BOOKSTORE

828 Broadway

New York

Books may be ordered from:

AMAZON   ||  STRAND Bookstore 

In conjunction with the book launch, 

there is an exhibition of Max Ferguson paintings.

MAX FERGUSON

SOLO EXHIBTION

Through May 27th

Bernarducci Meisel Gallery

37 West 57th Street

New York

Louise Brooks related book launch in NYC on May 24th

What happens when an Irish author 

living in Australia is so taken by an 

American painter's work that he writes 

60 short stories inspired by his paintings?

The result is 

LULU IN NEW YORK & OTHER TALES

Words by Robert Power  -  Paintings by Max Ferguson

UNICORN PUBLISHING GROUP

Book Launch

Wednesday, May 24th

6:30-9:00 PM

Readings by the author and DJ Ken Dashow

Models dressed as they are in the paintings

Unveiling of a new painting

A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

STRAND BOOKSTORE

828 Broadway

New York

Books may also be ordered from:

STRAND  |  

AMAZON

In conjunction with the book launch, 

there is an exhibition of Max Ferguson paintings.

MAX FERGUSON

SOLO EXHIBTION

Through May 27th

Bernarducci Meisel Gallery

37 West 57th Street

New York

Max Ferguson's Louise Brooks' painting "Lulu in New York"

On Thursday, I had the chance to meet artist New York Max Ferguson (see earlier entry) at a San Francisco gallery opening which featured his newest work. I was especially interested in seeing his new painting, "Lulu in New York." Though small, it measures only 12" by 12", the painting delivers a significant punch. It resonates, like a held musical chord. Here are a few snapshots from Thursday's opening. (I'm on the left, Max Ferguson is on the right)

 

Earlier, via email, the artist had sent me a statement as to what led him to painting Louise Brooks. "I was a film major at NYU Film School. I was doing primarily animation when it was all done in pre-computer days. At that time I would often go to the Museum of Modern Art to see films,  especially silent films. I always loved that they were accompanied by a live pianist.... Music has always been my other great passion and I am currently working on a series of paintings
incorporating music as subject matter. I recently had the idea to paint a silent film with a pianist at MoMA. I wanted a film on the screen that would not be too cliché, or too obscure. A friend of mine suggested Pandora's Box. I am most definitely a fan of Louise Brooks, as any sane person would be. It was fun painting her and studying her as a still image versus a passing moment on the screen."

Also on display was a second image featuring Louise Brooks, this one a slightly larger watercolor. It is a little less taught that the first image, but still appeals.

Both works are for sale, and can be seen on the West Coast this month and next. Be sure and check them out at the following venues.

SAN FRANCISCO
September 18 - October 6
478 Jackson Street

BEVERLY HILLS
October 13 - November 3
Opening Reception October 14
9478 West Olympic

Max Ferguson painting features Louise Brooks

Max Ferguson is a contemporary artist of considerable talent. His realistic style, described as hyper-detailed and grounded in Old Master techniques, is both objective and poignant. It has great appeal.

Ferguson's work has been written up in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ARTnews, Art & Antiques and elsewhere, and is held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The British Museum in London, The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, and The Museum of the City of New York.

An exhibit of Ferguson's new work is touring three cities in the United States. And what's more, one of the artist's new, almost photo-realist paintings, depicts Louise Brooks. "Lulu in New York" (oil on panel, 2014) is shown below: it depicts pianist Ben Model at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during a screening of Pandora's Box. The painting measures 12 x 12 inches, and the artist told me he expects to paint a larger version. I like it. I like it a lot. Be sure and check out one of the shows listed below.

NEW YORK
September 2 - September 10
445 Park Avenue 15th floor

SAN FRANCISCO
September 18 - October 6
Opening Reception September 18
478 Jackson Street

BEVERLY HILLS
October 13 - November 3
Opening Reception October 14
9478 West Olympic

HERITAGE AUCTIONS

Max Ferguson's new watercolor of Louise Brooks

Max Ferguson's new watercolor of Louise Brooks is now viewable online. Check it out, along with the artists' other work, here. (The pianist is Ben Model.)

Closing Time: Paintings by Max Ferguson with Louise Brooks

Check out this nifty video tribute to the paintings of Max Ferguson (a fan of Louise Brooks). The actress is featured early on; and she is not the only movie legend spotted in this tribute. Can you spot the other. (Clue: he included an image of Brooks in one of his recent films.) Bonus points to those who can name the musical accompanist depicted in the painting which includes LB. And by-the-way, the music accompanying the video is "Closing Time" by Tom Waits.

Actors in uncredited bit parts in The Street of Forgotten Men, part 2 Lassie

On May 10th, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will screen its new restoration of Herbert Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men - Louise Brooks' little seen first film. More information about that special event can be found HERE. 

This month, and ahead of that special event, I am running a few excerpts from my forthcoming book, The Street of Forgotten Men, from Story to Screen and Beyond, which I expect will be published later this year. This excerpt is the second of four focusing on some of the actors who had uncredited bit parts in The Street of Forgotten Men. Here, I profile Lassie, the canine held in the arms of actor John Harrington.

 

 

 

In The Street of Forgotten Men, Harrington plays Bridgeport White-Eye, the unsavory criminal vamped by Louise Brooks. He is the film's principal antagonist, and a rival to Easy Money Charlie, played by Percy Marmont. Easy Money Charlie was a desent sort, and he cared for the dog. The still shown above is from the missing second reel, when Bridgeport White-Eye (spoiler alert) mortally injures the animal. It is a significant scene in the film, and it shocked viewers at the time.

After Lassie was (not) killed in The Street of Forgotten Men, Easy Money Charlie mourned her loss; he even kept a picture of her, adorned with a memorial ribbon, as shown in this screen grab from the film.

Canine actor Lassie (c. 1917-19??) was a long-haired cross between a bull-terrier and a cocker spaniel  which was guided by Emery B. Bronte. Though little known today, Lassie was a popular animal actor during the silent film era. A 1920 profile in National Humane Review even went so far as to state, “In filmdom, Lassie is something more than a dog. She is a personage.” By all accounts, Lassie was a charming animal, and a fine actor. She had screen presence.

Reportedly, Lassie made her screen debut at the age of eight months in Rosie O'Grady, also known as Her Brother’s Champion (1917), a John H. Collins-directed Edison film starring Viola Dana. Lassie's big break occurred by chance when a dog was needed for a scene, and Emery Bronte, who was also cast in the film, suggested his puppy.

Lassie was featured in two Dell Henderson films with George Walsh, The Shark (1920) and The Dead Line (1920), three films starring Richard Barthlemess, Tol'able David (1921), Sonny (1922), and The Beautiful City (1925), D.W. Griffith's Sorrows of Satan (1926), as well as Knockout Reilly (1927), a Malcolm St. Clair film starring Richard Dix and Mary Brian. The dog was also in Broadway Broke (1923), which featured Street star Percy Marmont. Her last known appearances in film include D.W. Griffith's Sorrows of Satan (1926), and Malcolm St. Clair's Knockout Reilly (1927). According to various articles from the time, among the other stars in whose films she appeared were Marion Davies, Mabel Normand, Irene Castle, Olive Thomas, Alma Rubens, Elsie Ferguson, June Caprice, Glenn Hunter, and Tom Moore. 

More often than not, Lassie received no screen credit, but when she did - typically in a review, she was credited as "Lassie" or "Lassie Bronte." Her greatest successes came in Tol'able David (1921), and The Street of Forgotten Men (1925). Her death scene in the latter was so impressive that some were convinced that she must have been killed, or cruelly beaten. Animal lovers and Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals complained, and newspapers printed a signed affidavit from Bronte stating the dog had not been harmed in any way.

Lassie was also starred in her own film, the Bronte-directed “scenic” Fish for Two (1925), a three minute short which featured the dog, a boy, and a fish. Exhibitor's Trade Review called it an "interesting little picture featuring a very intelligent dog and his boy pal." Film Daily also found it "interesting and pretty." Moving Picture World stated the film received more than 4000 bookings after it debuted at New York's Capitol theater. (It can be seen below or on YouTube.) 

 

In 1926, it was announced that Max Fleischer’s Red Seal Pictures would distribute 13 Bronte shorts featuring Lassie and Jean, Emery Bronte’s other dog. (See the picture below.) In reporting on the deal, Moving Picture World described the two canines as "internationally famous dog actors." Among the 13 shorts are When Do We Eat? (1926), Another Kick Coming (1926), and Good Riddance (1926). 

During her career, Jean Bronte appeared in two Elsie Ferguson films, as well as Cappy Ricks (1921), Herbert Brenon's Moonshine Valley (1922), Mighty Lak' a Rose (1923), Ramona (1928) and other. The only feature film both dogs were known to have appeared in was Sonny (1922), directed by Henry King.

 

 

 

But back to Lassie. According to a 1927 New York Times article – which described Lassie as a “Clever screen actress,” the then 10 year old animal was earning a remarkable $15,000 a year. That was a considerable sum. After 1927, Lassie seems to have left film.

  * * * *

An addendum: After this foray into film, Emory Bronte (1902–1982) became well-known as a pioneering aviation navigator. In 1927, he and pilot Ernest Smith made news when they became the first civilians to fly non-stop from the American mainland to Hawaii. (The duo flew from the San Francisco Bay Area in a plane named "The City of Oakland" and crash-landed on the island of Molokai, near a leper colony.) Later, Bronte was a commander in the US Navy during World War II.

 NEXT IN THE SERIES: WHITNEY BOLTON

San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2007

The line-up for this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival has just been announced. And I am very excited, because this year, the festival will be debuting a brand new 35mm print of Beggars of Life (1928), starring Louise Brooks. I hope all Brooks fans can attend this screening of a rarely shown Brooks' film. It's a good one!

"Where can you see a duck wreck havoc in a movie theater, a prince fall in love with a barmaid AND a high school atheist swear allegiance on a monkey?" At this year's festival ! Here's the line-up.

Friday, July 13

7:00 pm THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG (1927, Ernst Lubitsch) with Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Philipe de Lacy
With short 28MM to 35MM BEAUTY SPOTS IN AMERICA: CASTLE HOT SPRINGS, ARIZONA (1916)
Co-Presented by Goethe-Institut
Live accompaniment on the Mighty Wurlitzer by Dennis James

Saturday, July 14

10:30am HAL ROACH: KING OF COMEDY
FAST COMPANY (1924) Directed by Robert F. McGowan with Our Gang
JUST A GOOD GUY (1924) Directed by Hampton Del Ruth with Arthur Stone
THE BOY FRIEND (1928) Directed by Fred Guiol with Max Davidson
MOVIE NIGHT (1929) Directed by Lewis R. Foster with Charley Chase
Special guests: Rob Stone of the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Leonard Maltin
Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin

Sponsored by Wells Fargo
1:15 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS (1927, Charles Brabin) with Milton Sills, Doris Kenyon, Arthur Stone, George Fawcett, Paul Hurst, Phil Brady
With short 28MM to 35MM HOW THE COWBOY MAKES HS LARIAT (1917)
Live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne

3:30 MACISTE (1915, Luigi Romano Borgnetto) with Bartolomeo Pagano, Ada Marangoni, Arline Costello, Louise Farnsworth, Robert Ormand
With short 28MM to 35MM HIS WIFES HERO (1917)
Co-Presented by Center for the Art of Translation
With the generous assistance of Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin
(in Italian with live reading of translation)

Special Tribute to Turner Classic Movies!5:45 CAMILLE (1921, Ray C. Smallwood) with Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Patsy Ruth Miller, Rex Cherryman, Arthur Hoyt, Consuelo Flowerton
Special guests: Charles Tabesh and Robert Osborn of Turner Classic Movies
With short 28MM to 35MM HER OBSESSION (1917)
Sponsored by McRoskey Mattress Company
Live accompaniment on the Mighty Wurlitzer by Clark Wilson

8:45 BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928, William Wellman) with Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks, Edgar Blue Washington
Special guests: Patrick Loughney of George Eastman House and William Wellman, Jr.!With short 28MM to 35MM HOODWINKING THE POLICE (1917)
Live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Sunday, July 15 

10:30am MORE AMAZING TALES FROM THE ARCHIVESWith Rob Stone of UCLA Film and Television Archive and
Patrick Loughney of George Eastman House
Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin

12:45 RETOUR DE FLAMME (Saved from the Flames)French rarities by George Melies, Gaston Velle, Ferdinand Zecca and more from 1900-1928 presented by Serge Bromberg.
Co-Presented by Alliance Fran硩se
With the generous assistance of Consulate General of France in San Francisco
Live piano accompaniment by Serge Bromberg

3:35 MISS LULU BETT (1921, William DeMille) with Lois Wilson, Milton Sills, Theodore Roberts, Helen Ferguson, Clarence Burton
With short 28MM to 35MM IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS (1915)
Live acompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

6:00 A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR (1929, Anthony Asquith) with Uno Henning, Norah Baring, Hans Schlettow, Judd Green, Anthony Asquith
Introduced by Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation
With short 28MM to 35MM LONESOME LUKES LIVELY LIFE (1917)
Co-Presented by Film Noir Foundation
Live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne

8:45 THE GODLESS GIRL (1929, Cecil B. DeMille) with Lina Basquette, Marie Prevost, James Duryea, Noah Beery, Eddie Quillan
Introduced by Scott Simmon of the National Film Preservation Foundation
With short 28MM to 35MM MUSHROOM GROWING (1915)
Live accompaniment on the Mighty Wurlitzer by Dennis James

_____________________________________________________________
HERE IS TICKET INFO:

ADVANCE TICKETSMAY 21- JULY 12
ONLINE/MAIL/ FAX
JUNE 18 - JULY 12
PHONE 925-866-9530
Mon-Fri 9 AM-5 PM

JUNE 14 - JULY 12
IN PERSONFestival Box Office
Thurs-Fri 11:30 AM- 5:30 PM
833 Market Street Suite 811 (between 4th and 5th Streets) in San Francisco

Louise Brooks art #1

This is the first installment of what should end up becoming an irregular, ongoing series of posts highlighting "Louise Brooks art" - paintings, drawings, photographs, collages, cartoons, sculpture, etc . . . . all featuring the silent film star Louise Brooks, or at least in some way inspired by the actress. I have been meaning to start this series for some time now, as work is occasionally sent to me. And I also come across a lot it on sites like eBay and Etsy. So here goes.

James Ferguson is a British "dark artist" (and self-described former goth) who goes by the name of Byron Black. And just today, he sent me a couple of his portraits of Louise Brooks. Here is one of them, which I like.

More of his work, including a bunch of images and portraits of various silent film and early sound actors and actresses, can be found on the deviatART website at http://darkinc1.deviantart.com

Click on his gallery page, and you'll see other images of other film stars like Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Bela Lugosi, Max Shreck as Nosferatu, and Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of Frankenstein. [Trivia connection: it's known that director James Whale had considered Louise Brooks for the role of the Bride in the Bride of Frankenstein. Somehow, however, I can't imagine Brooks' black bob with a shock of white hair a la Lanchester. But who knows.]

Here is another image of Louise Brooks, this time not wearing her signature bob. It's another effective rendering. I also like the artist's use of a black and white and shades of grey palate.

If you have created a piece of Louise Brooks visual art and would like to have it considered for future inclusion in this informal series, please email me. My contact info is off on the left hand side of this blog.