Thursday, February 10, 2005

An email from Canada

Last week, I received an email from Mario Bergeron, a novelist and historian who lives in Quebec. To date, Bergeron has had six novels published in Canada - each of them was written and published in French. Bergeron wrote to tell me that his 1999 novel, Perles et Chapelet, contains a mention of Louise Brooks! (Here are links to the chapters.indigo or amazon.ca pages on this book.)

Perles et Chapelet is Bergeron's second novel. In his email, the author described the book this way. "My novel Perles & Chapelet is about the every day lives of two young women of the 1920's, in my home town of  Trois-Rivieres (Quebec, Canada). Jeanne is a French Canadian and a painter. Sweetie is from New York and works as a pianist in a movie theatre. The two girls loves the flapper life: rolled stockings, smoking in public, drinking, jazz music and the young female stars of the screen. They really admire Colleen Moore and decided to adopt her hair style (which is the same as Louise Brooks). As the years go by, Jeanne slowly falls in love with Sweetie. These feelings trouble her, and she begins to drink. Sweetie has noticed the feelings of Jeanne for her, though she prefers men. Sweetie returns to the USA, and Jeanne has troubles with alcohol and sadness.... In 1930, Jeanne gets a letter from Sweetie, who plays piano in a movie theatre in Paris, saying she regrets what she has done. She invites her to come to Paris, where artists live more freely than in North America, and perhaps there, she can accept her love."


                           

In Perles et Chapelet, Louise Brooks is mentioned in a scene where a young man is flirting with Jeanne, saying things he hopes may attract her to him. The young man talks about his favorite movie stars, and mentions Joan Crawford, Nancy Carroll and Louise Brooks by name. According to the author, the book sold nicely when it was first released, and was well-received by women readers.

Has anybody out there in LBS land read this book?

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

1) Miami Herald, 2) Cleveland Press, 3) Atlanta Constitution

Went through March, 1926 of the Miami Herald in search of a film review, but found nothing. (Ever so slowly, I have been making my way through this Florida newspaper. It's a slow process because the lending institution will only loan two reels at a time, and is somewhat slow to fill loans - not that I'm complaining, mind you . . . . ) Also went through a month of the Cleveland Press, where I excavated a few articles and advertisements for the Denishawn performance there in November, 1923. (Curiously, this is one Ohio newspaper that the Ohio Historical Society - which I visited - does not have on microfilm, and so, I must request it via inter-library loan from an Ohio university.)  I also had the opportunity, last night, to go through a couple years of the Atlanta Constitution, where I uncovered a few articles and advertisements regarding the Denishawn performance there in January, 1923. All together, this week's collecting may not have been a down pour, but rather a gentle spring rain.

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Beautiful you are

This beautiful colorized portrait of Louise Brooks is for sale on eBay. What is more lovely, the subject or the painting?

Monday, February 7, 2005

RadioLulu

Every month, I receive statistics for RadioLulu - the Louise Brooks-themed radio station I set-up on Live365.com  Here are this month's stats for the station (located at www.live365.com/stations/298896 )

Total Listening Hours
Last Month: 146
This Month: 142

Total Station Launches (the number of times individuals clicked on the listen button)
Last Month: 485
This Month: 361

Station Presets (the number of individuals who chose to bookmark RadioLulu)
Last Month: 389
This Month: 403

Favorite Station Designations
Last Month: 15
This Month: 15

Sunday, February 6, 2005

All Hail Gianluca !!!

Gianluca Chiovelli, a longtime correspondent, a devoted Louise Brooks researcher, and the author/editor of a superb Italian website devoted to the actress, has done a great thing! Gianluca sent me photocopies of what are among the scarcest Louise Brooks-related item I have ever come across.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, Gianluca managed to convince an European library to make photocopies of two books - novelizations of the Louise Brooks films, La Vie d'une Fille perdue (Trois Pages d'un Journal), and Prix de Beaute. The first book, based on the Pabst film The Diary of a Lost Girl, was written by Rene Wild and published in France in 1930. The second book, based on the French film of the same name, was written by Boisyvon and published in 1932. [ I haven't been able to find out anything about Rene Wild, except that he may have contributed the scenario to a 1932 French film, Le Triangle de feu. Boisyvon, I believe, went on to write a number of books on film in later decades.]

Up until now, I knew very little about these ephemeral items. But from what I can deduce, each of these titles were inexpensive, softcover books (hence their ephemeral nature), and each were part of a series of novelizations published by Editions Jules Tallandier. (The series featured mostly French titles, though it did include a few German and American releases.) Each book features Louise Brooks on their pictorial cover, and each contains numerous scene stills scattered throughout the book. (In this regard, they remind me of the the early American photoplay editions.) Each also contains an advertisement in the back of the book listing other titles in the series.

Gianluca and I have long sought after Prix de Beaute. He and I searched the catalogs and records of libraries and bookdealers worldwide. I listed it on the LBS Help Wanted page, and sent queries to knowledgeable individuals. Nothing happened. We both thought we might be chasing a phantom reference. Until one day, I received an anonymous email stating that a certain library held this rare book. Gianluca, an Italian devotee of Brooks, wrote to the library and asked for a loan or copy. The library declined. Some time passed, and he wrote again. This time, the library said yes.

Gianluca received the prize, and emailed me with the good news. However, when scanning the advertisement of earlier books in the series printed in the back, he realized that another novelization of a Louise Brooks' film also existed! Gianluca wrote to the library, and acquired a photocopy of La Vie d'une Fille perdue.  And now, generously, he has provided photocopies of these items to the LBS. Thank you Gianluca Chiovelli.

Saturday, February 5, 2005

Photoplay Edition (a review)

Recently, I wrote and posted online this review of Photoplay Edition, by Emil Petaja. My review follows.

"A pioneering guidebook for lovers of old movies and books"
by thomas gladysz

Throughout his life, the acclaimed fantasy & science fiction author Emil Petaja (1915 - 2000) was an avid film buff and collector of movie memorabilia. As a writer, he was especially interested in the literature of film. Petaja had a large collection of books about the movies, as well as an even larger collection of so-called photoplay books - movie tie-in editions dating from the silent film and early sound era. (Then, like now, novels that served as the basis for a film were republished with a scene or film star on the cover. Many also had stills from the film interspersed within the book. Film buffs, collectors, and bibliophiles have long sought out these variant editions - especially if they involved a particular actor, like Rudolph Valentino or Louise Brooks.)

Published in 1975, Photoplay Edition was the first ever book on the subject. Petaja based the book on his personal collection of photoplays, which at the time of publication, numbered more than eight hundred! (Petaja owned many rare examples, including a few autographed by film stars.) Photoplay Edition is composed of a checklist of books, with each entry detailing the book's movie title (which sometimes differed from the title of the novel), as well as it's author, publisher, date of release, the motion picture company which produced the film, it's leading actors, and the number of illustrations included within the book. Illustrating Petaja's guide are dozens of dustjackets and scene stills, each of which graced the original editions. Petaja also offers a short prologue, as well as a longer history of photoplay books. Another delightful, anecdotal chapter tells the story of the author's involvement in collecting these books.

Photoplay Edition has been surpassed by later guides. Nevertheless, this pioneering bibliographical study is a valuable testament to a by-gone era. Anyone interested in old movies or old books will want to own a copy.

Friday, February 4, 2005

When it rains it pours . . . .

When it rains it pours . . . . Five inter-library loans were waiting for me at the library this week! I found articles, reviews and advertisements for Love Em and Leave Em (1926) and Just Another Blonde (1926) in the Bridgeport Post (from Bridgeport, Connecticut). I also found a whole bunch of Denishawn material in the Baltimore American (Baltimore, Maryland), as well as in the Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), Pine Bluff Commercial (Pine Bluff, Arkansas), and Kewanee Star Journal (Kewanee, Illinois). Citations for all of this material have been added to the LBS bibliographies.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Ayn Rand

According to an article about Ayn Rand in today's New York Times, today is the centennial of her birth. I don't own or haven't read any of her books, except for Russian Writings on Hollywood, which was published by the Ayn Rand Institute Press in 1999. 

Rand was born in czarist Russia in 1905, witnessed the revolutions of 1917 from her St. Petersburg apartment, and managed to make her way to the United States in 1926. Early on, she was something of a film buff, and at one time, Rand aspired to work in the film industry. (A couple of her novels would later be made into films.) The above mentioned book brings together early articles on the movies, along with other miscellaneous writings. Of note is the fact that Rand records having seen American Venus (1926) after her departure from the Soviet Union. According to her movie diary, Rand saw the film in Chicago on March 2 at the Terminal theatre. She had been in the United States less than one month. The American Venus was the eighth film she saw in America. She gave the film a 4-, or B- grade.
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