Return of the weekly research report

Yesterday, I returned home from my trip to Michigan and Ohio, where I had spent the last six days driving from library to library in search of Louise Brooks material. Research-wise, it was a very successfull trip! I unearthed at least two hundred clippings - all sorts of articles, reviews and advertisements related to Brooks' career and films as well as her time with Denishawn. I returned home with a three-inch stack of photocopies. Now, I'm in the middle of processing this new material. I will write detailed reports about what I found in the coming days.

(As I write this journal entry I am listening to Stare Kino, a CD I picked up while visiting a Detroit area gift shop which features Polish products. The compact disc, an import, features songs from Polish films of the 1930's. It's pretty good, though it does not feature my favorite Polish singer of the interwar period, Ordonka, aka Hanka Ordonowna.)

Today, not having to go into work, I ventured over to the San Francisco Public Library, where a few inter-library loans awaited me. I found a long Denishawn review which referenced Louise Brooks in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (from Fort Wayne, Indiana), as well as an article and some advertisements in the Greensboro Daily News (from Greensboro, North Carolina). I also dug through a couple of months of the Peoria Transcript (from Peoria, Illinois), where I found a bunch of advertisements, short articles and reviews for the two Denishawn performances in that mid-west town.

Off to the Midwest

I'm off to the midwest for six days, where I will be driving from library to library, from city to city, in search of yet more Louise Brooks material. Probably won't be able to post from the road. So, I will record the results when I return. In the meantime, Happy Holidays.

Louise Brooks gift items

Looking for that special holiday gift for that special Louise Brooks fan? Might we recommend the merchandise pages of the Louise Brooks Society, where you can find an amazing assortment of Louise Brooks DVD's, videos, and books (including hard-to-find foreign editions).

Also, be sure and check out the LBS gift shop at Cafepress.com, where you can find an equally amazing assortment of LBS merchandise including shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, postcards, tote bags and more. This unique shop features a "Diary of a Lost Girl" blank book (perfect for keeping notes or a journal), as well as a "Pandora's Box" wooden keepsake box with tile lid.

                                  

Other popular items include the LBS tote bag and sticker.

                                  

There is lots to be found at the Louise Brooks Society Gift shop. There are travel mugs, tile coasters, messenger bags, mouse pads, sweatshirts and other unique items. And what's more, use coupon "CPFESTIVE" to receive $10.00 off orders of $50.00 or more. (Offer expires December 20, 2004.)

Denishawn bibliography updated

I've updated the Denishawn bibliography. Citations were added - mostly from the New York Times and Washington Post - for a bunch of brief articles. Among the material added was a small article mentioning a previously unrecorded Denishawn performance in New York City. The performance (which was not part of their 1922-1923 tour) was a benefit, and took place in May, 1923. The article did not mention Louise Brooks by name, only that Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and the Densiahwn dancers would be present.

In world news . . .

The Belfast Telegraph reported on December 3rd that Neve Campbell is still hoping to make a film about Louise Brooks. In an article about Campbell's recent activity, the Irish newspaper stated "Campbell produced as well as starred in The Company, and this is an experience she's keen to repeat. She plans to make a film about the silent-film icon Louise Brooks, and is keeping her fingers crossed over a project entitled The Mermaids Singing."

And in yesterday's Cape Times (from South Africa), film critic David Thomson wrote, "this is clearly Natalie Portman's breakthrough film - she is enchanting and lethal, childlike and eternal, in ways that made me think of Louise Brooks." While a day earlier in an article about the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the New York Times also evoked the actress: "Olivia Bowman wears a Louise Brooks-style wig and is the loner."

As did numerous other publications across the United States which carried a recent Associated Press review of Eve Ensler's new theatre piece, The Good Body. "The actress, sporting a Louise Brooks bob and a billowy, sleeveless pants suit, takes the audience on a 90-minute journey through her own and other women's observations about their bodies."  This sentiment was echoed by Newsday back in November, which stated in an article about Ensler, "She still has her shiny Louise Brooks hair . . . ."

(Louise Brooks trivia: Back on November 11, 2000 - both Eve Ensler and Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris were guests on West Coast Live, a syndicated radio program from San Francisco. For a while, audio of the show was archived on the net, but no longer appears to be.)

Weekly research report (warning: dull redux)

Received a call from Ron at the SFPL, who telephoned to tell me there were problems with some of my just-arrived inter-library loan requests. Four ILL requests arrived today, but three of them were either missing reels or contained the wrong reels. These sorts of mix-ups are not uncommon. And in the case of the requests which were missing reals, the lending institutions offered no explanation.

Sometimes, I request too many reels of microfilm. Every lending library or historical society has a different ILL policy. Some will only lend two reels at a time. Others will lend as many as six or nine reels. I try to keep track of where things come from, who are the likely lenders, and what their policies are so as to make my search as efficient as possible. (I have quite an extensive log detailing my hundreds of requests.) Sometimes, things go wrong. In these instances, I will have to request the missing microfilm at a later date.

Despite these hurdles, I did find a couple of brief reviews and advertisement for The American Venus (1926) in the Cleveland Press and Trenton Times (from Trenton, New Jersey). I also came across this curious February, 1927 advertisement for A Social Celebrity (1926) in the Green Bay Press Gazette. Notice that this second run screening of the Adolph Menjou-Louise Brooks film is part of a bill that includes vaudeville acts as well as Marjah & Co., "The Mental Marvels of India Exponents Yogi Philosophy and Occult Sciences.

                    

The Green Bay Press Gazette turned-out to be a gold mine of all kinds of clipping - including more than two dozen articles, captioned photographs, advertisements and reviews of the two performances Denishawn gave in that Wisconsin city during the two years Brooks was a member of that pioneering dance company. In the week leading up to a performance, this newspaper ran one or two (and sometimes three) items about Denishawn per day. That is remarkable coverage. I even came across this rather sexy front page photograph of Ruth St. Denis, which is titled "Will Do Her Famous Dances For Green Bay Folk Tonight."

In addition to the Green Bay material, I also found a score of Denishawn articles and reviews in the Trenton Times and Cleveland Press, as well as the Waterbury Republican (from Waterbury, Connecticut). It was a good day for Denishawn research!