Tuesday, October 12, 2004

More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894-1931


Have heard that the recently released DVD, More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894-1931, contains a trailer from the now lost 1926 Louise Brooks film,The American Venus. I have not yet seen this for myself. Here is the description of the DVD.
"Like the first Treasures from the American Film Archives produced by the National Film Preservation Foundation, More Treasures takes as its starting point the preservation work of our nation's film archives. More Treasures covers the years from 1894 through 1931, when the motion pictures from a peepshow curio to the nation's fourth largest industry. This is the period from which fewest American Films survive. Five film archives have made it their mission to save what remains of these first decades of American film: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, The Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. More Treasures (made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities) reproduces their superb preservation work-fifty films follwed by six previews for lost features and serials."

Monday, October 11, 2004

Somewhere in Time

Christopher Reeve has died. And as I write this entry I am watching, for perhaps the tenth time, his 1980 film Somewhere in Time. I know this film is sentimental, and some of the acting in it akward. And I know that some will balk at the notion that Reeve's character can, literally, will himself back into the past. But how I love this film. It has long been one of my favorites. I feel that if time travel ever does become feasible, it will be achieved not through some mechanical device, but as a result of sheer will power. Wishful thinking . . . .

Sunday, October 10, 2004

New play about Kenneth Tynan


Amanda sent word about a new play based on the life of the acclaimed British critic Kenneth Tynan. (Tynan had interviewed Louise Brooks, and wrote the famousNew Yorker essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet.") An article appeared in Guardian newspaper.
"Kenneth Tynan has inspired one play in Smoking With Lulu. Now he is the subject of a one-man show, adapted from his diaries by Richard Nelson and Colin Chambers, and immaculately performed by Corin Redgrave. Presented as part of the RSC's New Work Festival, it reminds us that, even when overcome by ennui, melancholy, and emphysema, Tynan wrote with a precision and grace that most journalists would give their eye-teeth for."
There was a review in the Guardian a few days later. As well as this article in the Telegraph. Thank you Amanda.

Saturday, October 9, 2004

Le regard de Buster Keaton

The other day on eBay, I won a copy of Le regard de Buster Keaton by Robert Benayoun. I already own a copy of this book in English, but was pleased to acquire this inexpensive softcover French edition because it contains Louise Brooks' brief piece on Keaton translated into French.

Friday, October 8, 2004

Blog search


Came across a few different 'meta" weblog / blog search engines, including Bloogz and Technorati and BlogPulse . A search for "Louise Brooks" turned up a handful of results on each search engine, though some of the results turned out to be broken links.
I wonder how extensively blogs (LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, etc...) are indexed? And how long lasting are the entries? Will someone be able to read this entry in ten or twenty years?
(Two other blog search engines worth checking out are are Blogdex and Popdex.)

Thursday, October 7, 2004

More Jewish Daily Forward


While looking at microfilm of vintage newspapers and magazines, it's not unusual to run across nifty material about other film stars. (Though I try to stay focussed on Louise Brooks, I have somehow managed to acquire thousands of photocopies of interesting articles, interviews, clippings, magazine covers, etc...... relating to other actors and actresses. What I will do with all this stuff, I do not know.)
Here are a couple of interesting things I copied from December, 1929 issues of the Jewish Daily Forward. The one on the left pictures a captioned photo of Clara Bow on the front page (top fold) of the Forward ! The one on the right is a feature photo of Anna May Wong, with its caption in both Yiddish and English. The English text reads "CHINESE ACTRESS CANNOT KISS ENGLISHMAN IN FILM  -  Anna May Wong, the charming Chinese motion picture star, who must not kiss John Longden, English actor, co-starring with her in a British talkie, according to a ruling by the English film censor."

Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Jewish Daily Forward


My weekly trip to the San Francisco Public Library yielded some rather interesting and unusual results. I visit the library once a week to place inter-library loan requests, and to go through what ever material has arrived from earlier requests.
This week I went through microfilm of the Buffalo Evening News and New Orleans Item-Tribune dating from the 1920's. I found a few more reviews, articles and advertisements in those publications for films featuring Louise Brooks.
The rather interesting and unusual items I found were advertisements, an image of Brooks, and what might also be an article about Pandora's Box dating from 1929 - all of which came from the Jewish Daily Forward, the Yiddish language newspaper from New York City. That metropolis was alive with non-English language newspapers in the 1920's and 1930's. And the Jewish Daily Forward, like the New York Times, Daily News, etc.... ran material on movies showing in town. Pandora's Box had its American debut in New York City in December, 1929.
Now, I can add this bit of Yiddish perspective to similar material I have already excavated from other New York-based German and Russian language newspapers of the period. (I have also looked at Italian and Polish language newspapers from NYC, but without finding anything regarding Pandora's Box.)
Does anyone read Yiddish? I don't, so I may well have missed some articles. However, I made photocopies from the microfilm of what seemed like relevant material. Here is the advertisement for the film's showing at the 55th Street Playhouse.

Saturday, October 2, 2004

"Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart"


Just came across a book entitled The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart: The Early Years (1899 - 1931), by Darwin Porter. (The book was published in 2003 by Georgia Literary Association.) This book is an account of Bogart's early life, especially his years as a Broadway and Hollywood actor. Porter claims to base much of the book on the papers of Bogart's friend, actor Kenneth MacKenna (who had a part in The American Venus), as well as interviews with various Hollywood actors of the twenties and thirties.  Despite these claims, the book has no footnotes, no noted sources, and no bibliography - just acknowledgements.
I haven't read the entire book, but only skimmed it for material on Louise Brooks, of which there is more than a few pages. The author claims to have interviewed Louise Brooks, but does not say when. (The back of the book depicts a number of actresses, including Brooks, and next to an apparent quote by Brooks, it reads "as told to the author in Rochester, NY.")
Personally, I have a hard time believing this book. It just doesn't seem to ring true. For me, the best thing about this book was its selection of images, including this portrait of Brooks.

Friday, October 1, 2004

Ohio / Michigan research trip


Finalized my travels plans for mid-December. I will be travelling to Ohio and Michigan where I will be visiting family and doing some research.
While in Ohio, I plan to visit the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Ohio Historical Society. At these two Columbus-based institutions I hope to gather reviews, articles and advertisements for the numerous Denishawn performances throughout Ohio for the two years Brooks was a member of that dance company. I also plan to gather vintage newspaper reviews of Brooks' films from major Ohio cities, such as Cleveland, Cinncinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Akron. Until now, I have had a hard time borrowing material from libraries and archives in Ohio. This two day venture should fill in many gaps in my research. (Time permitting, I may also poke around the library at Ohio State University.)
From Ohio, I will travel north to the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. That institution has a handfull of otherwise scarce German and French periodicials in which I will search for reviews and articles concerning Brooks' European films. The University of Michigan Library also has a weekly publication called Detroit Saturday Night which was published throughout the twenties and thirties. I don't know much about this very hard-to-find serial, but I am hoping that it may include coverage of Brooks' two week stint as a ballroom dancer in Detroit in 1934.
I plan to spend half a day in Ann Arbor. From there I drive to Lansing, where I return to the Library of Michigan. There, I plan to finish my survey of major Michigan newspapers in search of vintage film reviews. Still on the to-do list are newspapers from Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Kalamazoo and Port Huron. I figure I may spend up to eight hours at the Library of Michigan.
From there, I return to the Detroit area. I will be visiting with family, but hope to make a quick visit to the Royal Oak Public Library where I will be looking at microfilm of the Royal Oak Tribune. I'll be scanning this surburban newspaper in the slim hope of catching an article or advertisement from the period of the mid- to late 1920's.
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