Bestselling books of the 1920s and 1930s

Some historical data, from Publisher's Weekly

Bestselling books (fiction and non-fiction), covering the years 1920 - 1929:  http://www.caderbooks.com/best20.html

Bestselling books (fiction and non-fiction), covering the years 1930 - 1939:    http://www.caderbooks.com/best30.html

Ain't 'IT' a Shame

A long article about Clara Bow ran on today's PopMatters website. In her debut column, the site's classic film columnist argues for the It Girls's place in the pantheon of legendary leading ladies. Within this consideration of Clara Bow,  there is this paragraph. "You can still buy postcards of her acting contemporary, Louise Brooks, at a local 'lifestyle store', but most people, even movie buffs, wouldn't be able to recognize Bow, let alone name one of her films. (I'll help you out; she was the leading lady in Wings (1927), winner of the first Oscar for Best Picture.) Why is Brooks a still-immortalized cult figure and Bow not? Maybe there's something about Brooks' persona as cool, amoral, gender-ambiguous jazz baby with a keen intelligence shining behind her dark eyes that's got more staying power than Bow, the little Brooklyn spitfire full of terrier enthusiasm and effortless charm."

Weekly call for help

No inter-library loans had arrived at the SFPL, thus nothing to report. . . . The times they are a changing: the San Francisco Public Library is switching its ILL requests from paper forms (which I had dutifully filled out every week) to web-based forms. The new library system is called Millenium. However, the system does not have a specific web-form for microfilm requests. There are only forms for books and articles. What to do ?

Does anyone live near Findlay, Ohio or Bowling Green University? There are Denishawn articles I would like to get ahold of which appeared in the Findlay Morning Republican and Findlay Daily Courier. The Findlay public library likely has these publications on microfilm, and I know that Bowling Green does. If you live nearby and can spare an afternoon in the cause of Louise Brooks scholarship, please contact the Louise Brooks Society.

The LBS would also like to acquire a copy of a paper presented at the 1996 German Studies Association conference in Seattle, Washington. The paper, by Richard W. McCormick, was entitled "New Women in Crisis: Commodification and Downward Mobility in G.W. Pabst's Büchse der Pandora and Irmgard Kenn's Das kunstseidene Mädchen."

The LBS is also interested in obtaining a recording and / or transcript of a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) radio program called Tuesday Night,which aired on November 30, 1971. The program, which was prepared by George Pratley, featured a documentary on Charlie Chaplin which supposedly contains an interview with, or comments by, Louise Brooks. If so, this would be the only known "radio interview" with Brooks.

A few more Denishawn articles and film reviews

Today's trip to my local library - my first in a few weeks - was productive. Three inter-library loans were waiting for me. I went through the New Haven Union(from New Haven, Connecticut), where I uncovered some articles on the Denishawn performance there in April, 1923. I also found a few later articles and some nifty advertisements relating to the local screenings of The American Venus and A Social Celebrtity.
As well, I went through the Evening Reporter (from Lebanon, Pennsylvania), and found some articles on the Denishawn performance there in November, 1923. As with a number of their performances during Louise Brooks two years with the company, this Denishawn performance was a benefit. Their recital at the Academy of Music benefitted the local V.F.W. - and was writen-up in the local paper.

I also went through the Independence Daily Reporter (from Independence, Kansas). Louise Brooks and her family lived in Independence for about three or four months in 1919, after having left Cherryvale and before relocating to Wichita. The Denishawn tour stop there in January, 1924 - and received a front page review! Louise Brooks participation in the company received a full paragraph of praise, and her connection to Independence was noted.

Today, I also received a splendid email from Mario Gladu, who lives in Quebec. A French speaker, Mario wrote (in graceful English) to say that he found a few articles about the Denishawn performance in Montreal, Canada in March, 1923. Responding to my call for help, Mario took it upon himself to check for material in a French language newspaper based in Montreal, La  Patrie. As it turns out, Brooks was mentioned in one article - program notes reproduced in advance of the performance. There was also a picture of the Denishawn dancers - but it is hard to tell if Louise is among them. Mario has promised to check the other French-language papers in Montreal and Quebec for similar material. Thank you Mario! A citation - the first one from a French-language Canadian newspaper - was added to the bibliography. [Interestingly, Mario wrote that the theatre where the Denishawn company performed in Montreal, the historic St Denis, still stands. It is there that the well known "Just for Laughs" festival and many other events are held every year.  Here is a picture as it looks today.]

Currently reading . . .

A few days I ago I watched, once more, Tim Burton's wonderful film Ed Wood. I enjoyed it quite a bit, not having seen it since it first came out . . . . And being in between books, Burton's film inspired me to pick up Arthur Lennig's 2003 biography, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. I have been meaning to read this book for a long time, for I had enjoyed Lennig's earlier film bio, Stroheim. I am only 25 pages into The Immortal Count, but am enjoying this book a great deal. It appears very well researched, very detailed, and gracefully written. Just the way I like 'em. I will report back one I have finished this 548 page "monster."

[ Some trivia: Prior to his role in Dracula, Lugosi appeared in a number of silent films in his native Hungary, as well as in Germany and the United States. He also had an affair with Clara Bow, and at one time possessed a painting of a nude Bow which he hung in his home in Los Angeles. Where is that painting now? A busy actor, Lugosi later worked with many of Louise Brooks' one-time co-stars and directors, including W.C. Fields, Richard Arlen, William Collier, Jr., Margaret Livingstone, Claire McDowell, William Gaxton, and El Brendel, as well as directors Eddie Sutherland and Michael Curtiz. Small world, wasn't it? ]

Recently, thanx to the good people at the University of Kentucky Press, I got a copy of The Bennetts: An Acting Family, by Brian Kellow. Another juicy read . . . . which I haven't yet delved into. Anyone who has read Barry Paris' biography of Louise Brooks is aware that the actress was friendly with Barbara Bennett. Kellow's new book details Louise and Barbara's friendship, as well as Brooks' observations on Barbara's more famous sisters, Constance and Joan. Brooks' name appears six times in the index, and pages 84 through 87 details the young women's budding friendship at Denishawn summer camp. Has anyone had a chance to read this new book?

100 Largest Urban Places in the 1920s and 1930s

Some historical data, based on U.S. Census Bureau information:

Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places:  1920
http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab15.txt

Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places:  1930
http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab16.txt

Happy new year

 Happy new year from the Louise Brooks Society.

Lulu and Spike (BTVS)

I'm a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so much so that I own the entire series on DVD and even attended a Buffy convention earlier this year. Thus, I was amused to come across a piece of "fan-fic" which contains a lengthy passage referencing Louise Brooks.

Written in the form of an academic study of William the Bloody (a.k.a. the character known as Spike), author Lydia Chambers (herself the name of the minor character) has fashioned a "thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Watcher's Diploma." If you are familar with the Buffy-verse, you shouldn't have any trouble following this story-line.

Chapter seven of this cleverly written work, devoted to the sexual idiosyncrasies of the romantic vampire, suggests that Spike (then going under the name of Wicked Wills) and Brooks met at least once over the years. Why didn't Spike - then a rather merciless vampire - turn the actress? You will have to read this faux thesis to find out.

On a not unrelated note, here is an image of a bob-haired Buffy (actress Sarah Michelle Geller) taken from the season four, Twin Peaks flavored episode, "Restless."

Anyone know of any other overlap between the worlds of Lulu and Buffy?

Research trip notes (part two - Ohio)

I have finally had time to sort through all of the material I brought back from my research trip, and am now ready to write a few notes about what I accomplished in Ohio. I have already entered annotated citations in the various LBS bibliographies for all of the reviews and significant articles I found in the Buckeye state.

I spent three days in Columbus, Ohio. One day - about seven plus hours - was spent at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, where I went through microfilm of the three major Columbus newspapers. I searched the Columbus Dispatch, Columbus Citizen, and Ohio State Journal, and managed to find at least 15 or more articles / film reviews in each paper. I also found some Denishawn material, and a few nice movie advertisements. There was an index - incomplete, as it turned out - to the early years of the Ohio State Journal, and this lead me to about half-a-dozen film reviews. (See "Motion Pictures - Reviews.") Otherwise, I was searching blind, but managed to come up with a bunch of good stuff.

Regarding It's the Old Army Game, the Columbus Dispatch critic stated, "Louise Brooks, a dainty little brunette, with cute girlish ways, a way of flirting, a way of kissing and with a figure that formerly earned Ziegfeld or Carroll honors, looks like a good screen personality. If properly handled, she will be a real comer."

And not unlike other newspaper critics of the 1920's, the reviewer for the Columbus Citizen seems to have been rather fond of Brooks. In reviewing The Show-Off, John McNulty wrote, "Louise Brooks (the bold thing) is as luscious as can be." And in reviewing Rolled Stockings, he noted ". . . the provoking presence of Louise Brooks." About Now We're in the Air, he stated "Louise Brooks, a pretty thing, has little to do but walk around and show her legs, which are pretty and [the] only amusing things in the picture." A year later, while writing about Beggars of Life, the same critic commented, "Miss Brooks only needs remain as warm to look upon, and she can have any role she wants as far as we're concerned."

The next two days - eight hours each, from open to close - I spent at the Ohio Historical Society. For me, Ohio has been a somewhat problematic state from which to borrow materials, so I was really glad to be able to visit this midwest archival motherlode.

At the OHS, I was searching for articles, reviews and advertisements for the many Denishawn performances in the state. I looked through microfilm of newspapers for Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Youngstown, Canton, Sandusky, Steubenville, Ashland, Alliance and Springfield - and managed to find articles or reviews in each one. Some mentioned, or even pictured, a very youthful Louise Brooks. What a delight.

When microfilm was lacking, I requested massive bound volumes of the Cincinnati Times-Star, Canton News, Akron Times, and Cleveland News. (These crumbling bound volumes - containing a month or more of a newspaper - were about 8 to 10 inches thick and weighed 20 or 30 pounds.) Since photocopies could not be made from these oversized volumes, I took notes when I found material. I also looked at loose issues of the Hamilton Daily News (which were wrapped in butcher paper and tied with string), and found a rather interesting review of which I was able to obtain a photocopy.

Seemingly, the OHS doesn't have microfilm or bound volumes of newspapers from Aurora, Findlay, Uniontown or Newark. Each were Ohio towns in which Denishawn performed. I will have to search for those papers elsewhere.

Along with Denishawn material, I was eager to obtain film reviews and other articles. To that end, I looked at microfilm of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland Press (representing the sixth largest city in the United States in the 1920's), as well as the Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer (representing the seventeenth largest city in the United States in the 1920's). I also made a comprehensive sweep through the three Toledo newspapers (the Toledo Blade, Toledo Times, and Toledo News Bee), the two Youngstown papers (the Youngstown Telegram and Youngstown Vindicator), the Akron Beacon Journal, and Dayton Journal. I also went through a few months of Canton Repository and Sandusky Star Journal. And then I ran out of time.

Here are two rather nifty caricatures of Louise Brooks which I came across while searching for film material. The one on the left was tied in with Now We're in the Air. The one on the right was part of a three panel comic strip featuring Brooks, Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen in Beggars of Life. The text on the right-hand caricature reads "Louise Brooks was the heroine and she caused most of the trouble."

                                  

Before I left the OHS - an impressive, modern facility with clean microfilm and working microfilm readers - I took a few minutes to look at the records of the Ohio Division of Censorship. I examined the handwritten records (a so-called Book of Rejections) of this state organization, looking at their list of censored films for the 1920's and 1930's. These records contained "Daily lists from the time period when film censorship was done by the Industrial Commission, and later, 'Certificates of Censorship- Rejected' from the Department of Education. The reports list state, film number, title, a brief description of eliminations, class, action, number of feet, fee, and filmmaker." I noticed Birth of a Nation, and films by Buster Keaton and Eric von Stroheim, but alas, not any featuring Louise Brooks. I was a bit surprised, as I know that some of Brooks' films were subject to censorship in both Kansas and New York state.

Despite the hundreds of dollars I spent on airfare, hotels and a rental car - I feel that my trip to Ohio and Michigan was well worth the expense. I obtained a massive amount of new material. I am a geek, and I love the challenge and experience of doing research.