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
Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
Friday, December 24, 2004
Referenced in Le Temps
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Divine Dancer
Finished reading Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis by Suzanne Shelton. I really liked this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in Denishawn or early 20th century cultural history. Shelton's book is certainly is one of the most enjoyable biographies I have read in some time. It is well written, well researched, and full of interesting information.
St. Denis had an incredible life, and was acquianted with, or knew, many of the leading personalities of her day. St. Denis once performed on the same bill as W.C. Fields, danced for the painter John Singer Sargeant, and was friendly with the Nobel Prize winning Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Rodin once sketched her, and she danced for King Edward VII. St. Denis had "special relationships" with the architect Stanford White (famous for his own special relationship with Evelyn Nesbit), the showman David Belasco, and the German writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was also rumored she had an affair with the painter Egon Schiele. In 1906 (the year Louise Brooks was born), St. Denis toured Germany, where she met the dramatist Frank Wedekind, author of the Lulu plays!
All of that is background to her incredible achievements as a dancer. She was a contemporary of (and personally knew) Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavolva, Maud Allan, and Loie Fuller. Both as a solo artist and as a founding member of the Denishawn dance company, St. Denis - perhaps more than anyone else - helped introduce modern dance to America. Hers was a truly singular life.
A footnote: my copy of Divine Dancer once belonged to the composer Lou Harrison. Like St. Denis, Harrison had a great interest in Asian culture. Whereas St. Denis was drawn to Indian dance (her nautch dance was well known), Harrison was drawn to the music of the Indonesian gamelan. I do not know that St. Denis and Harrison ever met, but I would not be surprised if they had, as their circles of friends may well have overlapped. Besides his considerable accomplishments as a composer, Harrison was also a music critic and calligrapher. My copy ofDivine Dancer bears Harrison's calligraphic ownership signature.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
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.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Monday, December 13, 2004
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.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Sunday, December 12, 2004
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.)
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Saturday, December 11, 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.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Friday, December 10, 2004
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.)
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Thursday, December 9, 2004
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!
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
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