Louise Brooks bibliographies

One of the most valuable assets of the Louise Brooks Society are the many annotated bibliographies which help document the life and career of the actress. Most importantly, these bibliographies help organize the vast amount of written material about the actress, including vintage reviews of her films. The bibliographies contain not only numerous citations, but also links to select articles. Additionally, many of the citations are annotated with a brief quote or passage which in themselves make for interesting reading. These web pages - all of which are a work in progress - can be accessed at www.pandorasbox.com/louisebrooks/bibliographies.html
So far, material has been gathered from the places most important to the story of Louise Brooks - Cherryvale and Wichita, Kansas, New York City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Germany and Rochester, New York.

Articles and film reviews are also being gathered from newspapers in nearly two dozen of the largest American cities of the 1920's - as well as select metropolitan areas in the then less populated South, Southwest and Far West. Taken together, these many articles offer a perspective on the actress in the words of her contemporaries. Additionally, many fascinating and previously unknown articles and bits of information have been uncovered. Work on the bibliographies has been going on for nearly four years, with another twelve months of effort already mapped out.

Arrived in the mail . . .

A bunch of nifty stuff arrived in the mail during the last few days. . . . Amanda sent photocopies of a dozen clipping - some vintage and some contemporary - and some I had never seen before. Thank you very much, Amanda!

I also recieved a copy of London Magazine (more a literary journal than a traditional magazine) which I had purchased over the internet from an English book dealer. This issue from 1966 contains a rather interesting article, "Daisy and Lulu," which compares and contrasts the heroines of Inside Daisy Clover and Pandora's Box. Very interesting, and an early example of contemporary writing about Brooks. There really isn't much from the 1960's that I have found. (One of the other fascinating pieces in this issue is an essay on Bob Dylan by Angela Carter - very smart stuff indeed. The juxtaposition of the two articles lead me to wonder . . . if "Daisy and Lulu," which Carter might well have read having an article of her own in the same issue, might have served as a kind of introduction to Louise Brooks for the novelist. Or perhaps, Carter had seen one of the screenings of Pandora's Box in London in the mid-1960's, which this article references. Whatever the case, Angela Carter - one of the seminal British fiction writers of the post-war era, went on to idolize Louise Brooks and write about the actress in various works. Perhaps this article or those screenings were the genesis of Carter's interest.)

Also arriving in the mail was the newly released three DVD set of  Brooks' movies from Carlotta Films. Nice packaging, and lots of extras are included on the discs. I have to reprogram my DVD player (the discs are region 2), and will relay my impressions on this important new French release sometime soon.

After a long wait and considerable expense, I also acquired the screenplays to two early Brooks' films, The American Venus and Love 'Em and Leave 'Em. They arrived in the mail today after a wait of nearly two months! The screenplay for The American Venus is especially interesting, as this is a lost film. So far, by hook and by crook, I have acquired the screenplays, scripts, or continuity for six other Brooks films - mostly later efforts. Among them are The Canary Muder Case, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood and God's Gift to Women. I wonder how many still exist.

Billboard magazine

Weekly trip to the San Francisco Public Library: There was no inter-library loan material waiting for me, so I took the opportunity to look through Billboard (the SFPL has a long run this trade journal on microfilm). I had previously gone through Billboard for reviews of Brooks' appearances with the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as reviews of her films.

I spent time looking through the years 1934 and 1935 in hope of finding anything on Brooks' appearances as a night club dancer. I was hopeful because Billboardcovered nite clubs and the nite club scene in Chicago, New York, Detroit, and Miami - all cities in which Brooks danced. I spent about an hour and a half scrolling through months and months of microfilm. I didn't find anything, and was about to give up, until I came across a review of Brooks and Dario's April 12, 1935 performance at the Capitol Theater in New York. They were part of the stage show supporting the MGM film Vanessa, staring Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery.

"Louise Brooks and Dario, doubling from the Central Park Casino, are a new combination around and impressed as a class team. The girl is a smart looking brunet, while her male partner is a smooth teammate. Do two numbers, a modern ballroom waltz and a lighter flirtation dance. Their work holds interest, altho it's not outstanding."

Original Pandora's Box 1-sheet up for auction

A beautiful German 1-sheet poster, for Pandora's Box, is up for auction through eBay. This lithograph, which dates from 1928 and measures 55.9 x 37.4 inches, features artwork by Josef Bottlik (1897 - 1984). The poster printer is R. Spiegel of Berlin.

The auction, which begins November 6th, can be viewed here. Bidding starts at $15,000 and is estimated to sell for between $22,000 and $30,000.

                                             

Brooks mention in David Thomson article

David Thomson is an especially good film critic. He is also the author of the magnificent New Biographical Dictionary of Film (a book that belongs in every home), as well as many other worthwhile books and articles. Today's Independent newspaper from the U.K. carried an interesting article by Thomson which referenced Louise Brooks.

"But as the feeling dawned so pretty girls were named and hired and put on our screens week after week. In that process, the female soul was radically divided: there were the virgins, the very good girls - as typified by Lillian Gish, and to a rather cheekier degree by Mary Pickford. These women were models for human behaviour, even if they were already a little antiquated. For instance, D W Griffith was still honouring Gish's saintly woman as the First World War and its aftermath introduced the "jazz baby", the flapper, the "wild kid" - the kind of woman best celebrated by the fabulous Clara Bow and the young Gloria Swanson. And then there was the bad girl, the femme fatale, the temptress. That is a tradition that includes Theda Bara - the enchantress women in Cecil B De Mille films - and even Louise Brooks - though Brooks was too candid and carnal for American tastes and only found full expression in Germany, in G W Pabst's Pandora's Box."

Thanx to Christy, a regular reader of British newspapers, for pointing this out.

Thomas Dixon biography

Finished reading American Racist, by Anthony Slide, a recently published biography of the novelist and film-maker Thomas Dixon. I was surprised at how interesting I found this book - a testament, no doubt, to Anthony Slide's talents as a film historian.

Thomas Dixon has a notorious reputation as the author of The Klansman, the book which served as the basis for D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation (1915). Dixon has been, rightly so, branded an arch-conservative obsessed with what he viewed as "the Negro problem." However, as American Racist shows, Dixon was also a complex and talented individual who, as well as writing a few of the more popular novels of the early twentieth century, was involved in the production of some eighteen films. (Dixon had a knack for leveraging the stories found in his books into stageplays and films.)

Thomas Dixon used the motion picture as a propaganda tool for his opinions on race, communism, socialism, and feminism. His most spectacular cinematic production, The Fall of a Nation (1916), argues for American preparedness and boasts a musical score by Victor Herbert, making it the first American feature film to have an original score by a major composer. (Like the majority of Dixon's films, The Fall of a Nation is now lost.)

Anthony Slide examines each of the author's films and discusses the novels from which they were adapted. Slide chronicles the Dixonr's transformation from a supporter of the original Ku Klux Klan in his early novels to an ardent critic of the modern Klan in his last film, Nation Aflame. Slide's book is the first work to discuss Dixon's work as a film-maker. Especially interesting was the book's final chapter, "Raymond Rohauer and the Dixon Legacy," which details the modern-day fight over the rights to The Birth of a Nation.

Harold Lloyd event

Though they were both associated with Paramount in the late 1920's, I am not aware that Louise Brooks and Harold Lloyd were acquainted. Nevertheless, silent film fans may want to attend this event.

Suzanne Lloyd
talk, slideshow & booksigning for "Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!"
Friday, November 19 at 7 pm

Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of silent film great Harold Lloyd, will speak about Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!, the sensational new book of 3D photographs by the late comedic actor. (Each book comes with a pair of 3D glasses.)

Devotees of Hollywood glamour, collectors of movie memorabilia, lovers of photography, and fans of comic icon Harold Lloyd are all in for a surprise with the release of this newly published book. Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D! is retro chic at its best. From the late forties to the early sixties, Lloyd snapped close to a hundred thousand photographs of  women, many of them in 3D. These gorgeous models and starlets all posed for the camera in various states of undress. Lloyd's granddaughter and manager of his estate, Suzanne Lloyd, has collected 200 of Harold's best photographs in this delightful collection.

Some of the notable starlets who are featured include Bettie Page, Dixie Evans - who became the proprietor of the Exotic World Burlesque Museum, and Tura Satana, the exotic beauty of such film classics as Russ Meyer's  Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! In addition to the nudes, Lloyd took some exquisite photos of Marilyn Monroe, which also appear in the book.

This new book is edited by Suzanne Lloyd, and features a foreword by Robert J. Wagner. Suzanne Lloyd will present a slide show and talk. A booksigning will follow. This event will take place at The Booksmith, which is located at 1644 Haight Street in San Francisco. For further information, please call 415-863-8688. If you can't attend an event and would like to purchase an autographed book, please telephone or email the Booksmith.

American Venus trailer on TCM

A coming attractions trailer for The American Venus (1926) will be shown on Turner Classic Movies during the evening of Sunday, November 21st. Consult your local listings or the TCM website for the exact time.

This trailer is included on the recently released DVD, More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894-1931. TCM will be showing parts of this new release on the first three Sunday evenings in November.