Here is a useful page of links on the 1920s, the Weimar Republic, and Berlin. Does anyone know of any others ?Also, for those who read German, here is a website which has scans of Austrian newspapers. The site is a little hard to navigate and the papers a little hard to read, but the diligent might be able to dig out some G. W. Pabst (he was Austrian) or Louise Brooks material.
A number of city libraries around the country have begun to put parts of their unique collections on-line. These digitized collections include photographs, sheet music, and other documents (usually) related to some aspect of local history. One such library is the San Francisco Public Library, which now has a large treasure trove of historical photographs on the web. While browsing the collection, I came across 43 images related to Roscoe Arbuckle and his infamous San Francisco trial! Some of these fascinating images picture the comedian, while others depict individuals related to the trial, as well as photographs of evidence. (Arbuckle would go on to direct Louise Brooks in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood.)
Along with the Arbuckle pics, I also came across images of dancer Sally Rand (who had appeared with Brooks in A Girl in Every Port), other personalities from the 1920's, and architectural images of local movie theaters - some of which no longer exist. The San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection is well worth exploring. Perhaps your local library website has a similar collection.
I recently came across the Utah Digital Newspapers project, an on-line collection of digitized newspapers. So far, the project has scanned a bunch of mostly small town Utah newspapers dating from before and around the turn-of-the-century. There are also a handful of digitized papers dating from the 1920's and 1930's. I did a search under "Louise Brooks" and found a dozen ads for different films. These simple text advertisements, which are akin to listings, are typical of small town ads I have seen in newspapers from other states. In themselves, they are not very interesting, except as a record of which film showed where and when.The most interesting was an 1929 ad for Just Another Blonde, which ran in the Murray Eagle. The film was being screened, for one day only, on Sunday, May 19th at the Gem Theatre. (The ad described the film as "a thrill packed story of a Romance that was made in heaven - and remade on Earth!") Just Another Blonde, a silent film, was first released in December of 1926. It's intertesting that it was still being screened some two-and-one-half years later, and once talkies had come arrived.Along with the Utah Digital Newspapers project, I have also looked through similar efforts, including the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection and the Missouri Newspaper Archive.
A few interlibrary loans arrived this week. Each were for newspapers I had not yet begun to explore. I dug some Louise Brooks / Denishawn material out of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk(from Alexandria, Louisiana) and the Joplin News Herald (from Mark Twain's boyhood home of Joplin, Missouri). Also found a few film reviews and advertisements in the Oregon State Journal(from Portland, Oregon) and the Green Bay Press Gazette (from Green Bay, Wisconsin). All together, a scattered but good haul.Also, via Google Scholar, I recently came across this academic paper which may be of interest. It is titled "The Overcoming of Desire: Prostitution and Contract in Pandora's Box (1929)" by Helen Miller. The link to this paper in .pdf format can be found here.
Just came across this interesting article on European film. It begins, "Something about 1929 in Europe stimulated a half-dozen masterworks of erotic cinema . . . ."
There is a wire service story ( "At 101, Former Ziegfeld Girl Plans Return" ) circulating about Doris Eaton Travis, a dancer and showgirl and contemporary of Louise Brooks who is making an appearance on Broadway.
"Part of a show business family, she began performing with her brothers and sisters at age 5. She was hired by the legendary showman Florenz Ziegfeld in 1918 and danced with the troupe for several years before heading to Hollywood, where she appeared in a number of films. In 1926, she was back on Broadway, starring with Jolson in Big Boy. In 1929, she was a featured dancer at the Music Box Review Theater on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, where she first introduced the song Singin' in the Rain."Travis also published a memoir a couple of years ago, which is still available. "With memories that span almost a century, Doris recalls the state of the American theater during World War I, the "roaring twenties," the Great Depression - as well as the legendary names of the rich and famous celebrities with whom the Eatons worked and played."
