Thursday, April 28, 2005

European Libraries Fight Google-ization

Here is an interesting article on an European project which will be an alternative to Google's online library. I am excited about this project, and Google's project, because they may uncover new material (depending on the cut-off date of the material scanned) on early film, expressionism, Frank Wedekind, Ruth St. Denis and other interesting topics. You never know what you will find . . . .

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Went through three scattered months / At the library today / This week

Went through three scattered months of the World-Herald (from Omaha, Nebraska), and found some miscellaneous clippings (articles, pics of Brooks, and some advertisements) relating toThe Canary Murder Case (1929). Depicted below is one of the items I uncovered,  a typical newspaper display ad for the film. Notice that the film was paired with live entertainment (headlined by Jay Mills), which was also typical of the time in larger cities and towns.



At the library today, I also went through microfilm of the Greensboro Daily News (from Greensboro, North Carolina) and found a bunch of material on the 1923 Denishawn performance in that town. One advertisement for the engagement read "At Milwaukee hundreds turned away. Return date March 12th. At Kansas City, November 15th. Theatre full. Firemen closed the doors. At Atlanta, January 25. Audience of 4,000 biggest event of the year." (Though the Denishawn Dance Company performed in many smaller towns, they just as often performed before audiences numbering in hundreds and even thousands!) The most interesting item was an article, "Orchestra Lost and Audience was Frozen," which appeared the day after their engagement. Subtitled, "St. Denis Glow and Shawn's Fire Failed to Overcome The Handicap," the article related how the dance company's orchestra failed to show up for the first half of the program, and as a result, the audience never really warmed up to the performances. 

This week, I also came across a recently published book, Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Completing the Twentieth Century (Harvard University Press, 2004). The book has a striking image on ex-Denishawn Dancer Martha Graham on the cover, as well as a one-and-one-half page entry on Louise Brooks. The entry was written by Amelie Hastie, a scholar who has written on Brooks in the past.

Monday, April 25, 2005

1920's Berlin & Vienna

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.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Local treasure troves

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.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Utah Digital Newspapers project

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.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Some new citations

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.

Monday, April 18, 2005

The Women Men Yearn For (Germany, 1929)

Just came across this interesting article on European film. It begins, "Something about 1929 in Europe stimulated a half-dozen masterworks of erotic cinema . . . ."
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