ILL windfall

A whole bunch of inter-library loans arrived this week . . . . I found a bunch of Louise Brooks-era Denishawn material in the Houston Chronicle (from Houston, Texas), Lynchburg News (from Lynchburg, Virginia), and Daily Graphic (from Pine Bluff, Arkansas). A Denishawn visit to these towns was big news in the early 1920's, and each local newspaper ran a series of articles or captioned pictures prior to the performance - as well as a substantial review afterword. I copied as much as I could (some of the pictures were too dark to be of much good), and have added citations to the Denishawn bibliography.

(Recently, prior to my visit to NYC, I printed out my Denishawn bibliography in order to have it handy in case I needed to refer to it while researching the dance company. And much to my surprise, the bibliography came to more than 40 pages! It is the largest of the bibliographies on the LBS website. I estimate that in total, the various Louise Brooks-related bibliographies on the LBS site would come to more than 400 pages if printed out.)

At the library, I also found a bunch of film reviews, some articles, and a whole lot of rather nifty advertisements related to the films of Louise Brooks. I went through a couple of Hearst-owned newspapers - the Baltimore Post (from Baltimore, Maryland) and Albany Times-Union (from Albany, New York). The Hearst-owned papers were usually not very substantional publications, though they did have a modest amount of coverage devoted to motion pictures (with lots of Marion Davies news, naturally). I came across material on American Venus, Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, The Canary Murder Case and other films. Additionally, I went through some more microfilm of the Nashville Tennessean and the weekly London Observer (from London, England). This was my second round of microfilm loans for each paper. I only found one brief write-up in the London Observer (for A Girl in Every Port), though the Nashville paper yielded a few reviews.

One of the more curious items I found was this November, 1927 advertisement for the Belmont theater in Nashville. The Belmont, seemingly, was a second-run theater which, as this ad shows, featured three films over the course of a week. What was interesting about the week's line-up is that it featured two films with Louise Brooks. Now We're in the Air had been screened in Nashville in mid-October (in what local ads then billed as it's premiere in the South), while Rolled Stockings had been in circulation for some five months. I wonder how many Nashville residents in 1927 started and ended their week watching Louise Brooks on the silver screen ? How lucky they were - as each of these films are now lost.



Yesterday's trip to the San Francisco Public Library was my last this month, as the inter-library loan system is off-line for the time being. (It seems to be down for all libraries which subscribe to the Millenium system.) I shall return in July, and hopefully some of my outstanding loan requests may have arrived by then.

Press release for Lulupalooza

Here is the May 19, 2005 press release for Lulupalooza:

Lulupalooza 2005: A celebration of the cinematic life of Louise Brooks  --   She was a rocker before there was  rock – July 23-24, 2005 at the Firehouse Theater, Richmond, Viriginia – lulupalooza.org

The Firehouse Theatre Project and Yellow House  of Rich-mond, Virginia, are in collaboration presenting Lulupalooza 2005, July 23-24, with nine films and other events, celebrating the cinematic life of 1920s film star, memoirist and cultural icon, Louise Brooks (1906-1985).

A highlight of the Saturday, July 23-Sunday, July 24, 2005 festival is the presentation on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., of her best known film, Pandora’s Box, at the Byrd Theater movie palace, 2908 W. Cary St. (http://members.tripod.com/~g_cowardin/byrd/), accompanied live by Richmond’s own Los10Space (los10space.com). 

Saturday night at 7 p.m. features a staged reading of Janet Munsil’s Smoking With Lulu, presented in association with Michael White and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd. (UK).

Many people know Brooks now not necessarily by name or even her movies but as an emblem of the Jazz Age and an Art Deco symbol. A familiar image of her turned in profile, holding a string of pearls, is sold on postcards today.

She is notable for her characteristic black bobbed hair, expressive dark eyes and a natural quality in front of the camera that wasn’t seen again for decades. Brooks was from Cherryvale and Wichita, Kansas, and as a teenager left home as a member of the modern Denishawn dance troupe with Martha Graham. This led to the Ziegfield Follies and a wandering into movies.  She made only 24 films between 1925 and 1938 before quitting Hollywood, disgusted by its assembly line approach and Hollywood, for its part, was fed up with Brooks and her headstrong notions of independence.

Brooks could be a regular Kansas twister; tempestuous and exasperating at one turn, adorable and witty at another, though always smart, and often smart alecky. She hung out with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and George Gerswhin, played tennis at William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon estate, engaged in a passionate dalliance with Charlie Chaplin (among others), and she brought The Charleston dance to London. She did most of this, and much more, before the age of 21.

Her best films, ones in which the director knew what to do with her, are foreign and silent, though Prix de Beauté was dubbed into French. She walked away from what could’ve been a promising  career to spend almost 50 years in self-exile, drinking too much gin, smoking too many cigarettes and learning to write. Her essays were ultimately collected as Lulu In Hollywood, a classic account of Hollywood’s early days. She was “found” by theater critic Kenneth Tynan whose New Yorker profile “The Girl in the Black Helmet” returned her to the popular imagination. And she never really left.

A recent Vogue Magazine portrait series of actress Natalie Portman featured the actress dressed and styled resembling similar photographs of Brooks. The titular character of the 2001 film Amélie bore physical affinity to Brooks and her alluring on-screen impishness (though little of Brooksie’s sometime off-screen spitefulness).

Lulupalooza ’05 is presenting nine Brooks films and excerpts from several others primarily using DVD projection, although Pandora’s Box, through arrangement with Kino International, will be shown in 35 mm on the big movie palace screen of the Byrd Theater. The festival’s primary location is the Firehouse Theater, an alternative performance space housed in a century-old fire station.

Seating is limited and reservations are required. Tickets for the entire festival are $37.50 and may be purchased online through PayPal.

For further information about the festival, see lulupalooza.org and about Brooks, go to the Louise Brooks Society site, pandorasbox.com, the absolute go-to source on the Internet. For other questions, call the Firehouse Theater at (804) 355-2001. Both the Firehouse Theatre Project and Yellow House are non-profit, 501 (c) (3) organizations. See also firehousetheatre.org and yellowhouseva.org.

What I did in NYC

Recently back from a very hot and humid New York City, where I spent three days searching for yet more material on Louise Brooks. Despite the expense, this trip was worthwhile. I acquired nearly two inches of photocopies, which included many new articles, images and clippings!

The bulk of my time, about two-and-a-half days, was spent at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (which is located at Lincoln Center). I looked through an amazing range of material including clipping files, scrapbooks, bound volumes of old periodicals, collections of movie stills, pressbooks, programs and even some microfilm. I found reviews and articles in magazines I had never before had the opportunity to examine, such as Film Progress, Canadian Moving Picture Digest, The Exhibitor, Pictures, and Cinelandia (a Spanish-language film magazine published in Hollywood). These publications are exceedingly hard to find - and this library / archive holds some of the few remaining copies.

I also went through some bound issues of Filmkunstler und Filmkunst, a German film periodical. In it, I found an article on Brooks and the making of Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) which included a small drawing by Louise of her friend Lothar Wolff - "Woofie", who served as G. W. Pabst's publicist. Very rare indeed! Another unusual publication I looked through was Mensajero Paramount, a Spanish-language "house organ" published by Paramount. (I would guess it was meant for Spanish speakers in the United States, or perhaps Mexico and Latin America.) In it I found four-page illustrated articles on four of Brooks' films, including La Ciudad del Mal, Reclutas por los Aires, Mendigos de Vida, and El Crimen de la Canaria. (Can you guess their English-language titles?)

I also went through two scrapbooks, each filled with clippings, devoted to the actors Neil Hamilton and William "Buster" Collier, Jr. Hamilton, who went on to fame as Commisioner Gordon in the Batman TV series, had a important role in The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), Brooks' first film. The Hamilton scrapbook contained many articles, reviews, advertisements and other clipping related to that film. The Collier scrapbook was not a fruitfull, but I did acquire a few clippings related to Just Another Blonde (1926).

As well, I was able to examine original programs from the NYC screenings of Brooks' films. Back in the 1920's, motion pictures were usually shown along with a live stage show which might include music and a variety act. The program for The American Venus (1926) at the Rivoli Theater, for example, contained a fashion show and appearances by some of the original 1925 Miss America contestants. The program for Rolled Stockings (1927) at the Paramount Theater contained an appearance by the great stage singer Gertrude Lawrence (who can be heard on RadioLulu). I was also able to look at the press books for A Girl in Every Book (1928), It Pays to Advertise (1931), God's Gift to Women (1931), Windy Reilly Goes Hollywood (1931) and Empty Saddles (1937). Press books, sometimes called campaign books, were the studio-issued press packets sent to theaters and newspapers to promote a film.

I didn't find as much Denishawn material as I had hoped at Lincoln Center. The Denishawn clippings and programs - dating to the time Louise Brooks was a member of that dance company - were not very numerous, but I did acquire photocopies of a few items. 
I had hoped to spend a full day at the New York Public Library (located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street), but because I had mixed up its hours with the mid-town Manhattan branch across the street, I was only able to spend about four hours over two days at that research branch. (My priority was Lincoln Center.)

Nevertheless, I found some interesting material. I went through the Brooklyn Daily Times, one of the leading NYC newspapers. In it, I found articles and reviews for each of Brooks' American silent films. This was my second trip to that library, and on this trip I had intended to look for Denishawn reviews in the various New York papers. In a rush, I was able to get about a dozen more - but I just didn't have the time to make a thorough search for reviews of each performance in each newspaper. (The library itself was just a couple of blocks away from Town Hall, where Brooks and Denishawn performed on a couple of occassions.)

I left New York feeling I got a lot done, but also knowing there is still more to be found. One day, I will have to return . . . .

Composer David Diamond (1915 - 2005)

Composer David Diamond, "one of the most gifted and prolific American composers of the 20th century," died on Monday at his home near Rochester, New York. He was 89. There are a couple of notable passages about the friendship between Diamond and Louise Brooks in the Barry Paris biography. Diamond also appeared in the documentary, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. In that film, he spoke of Brooks' affection for The Journal of Eugenie de Guerin. He also relayed Charlie Chaplin's unforgettable comment about Brooks' "breasts like little pears."

Here is a link to a rather interesting Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article on the composer. Diamond's life was really quite remarkable, and this particular piece is worth checking out. Also, here is the obituary from the New York Times. The NPR website has a couple of audio pieces on this significant artist.

Quick notes

Quick trip to the library, where a couple of inter-library loans where waiting. I dug out some nice Denishawn material from the Sentinel (from Lewiston, Pennslyvannia) and the American-Press (from Lake Charles, Louisiana). The Denishawn performance in Lewiston was the very first with Louise Brooks as a member of the company. And the review in the October 3rd issue of the Sentinel, which ran on the front page of the paper, referenced Louise Brooks - making it one of the very earliest instances of Brooks' name appearing in any publication. I wonder if she knew - I wonder if she was a bit pleased with herself?.

And yesterday, I recieved a couple of packages in the mail; each were proxy research requests. From them, I got some hard-to-get-at 1924 Denishawn reviews from the Syracuse Herald (from Syracuse, New York) and the Springfield Union (from Springfield, Massachusetts). Each of the papers referenced Louise Brooks, while the Springfield Union singled out the future actress for praise when it noted "All of them charmed, particularly the Siamese interpretation, and the Japanese lantern dance by Louise Brooks."

Cinema of Josef von Sternberg

I've finished reading The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg by John Baxter. I liked it, and would like to read more about this fascinating director. It is one of the few books on this gifted and somewhat tragic figure. Sternberg is, of course, best known for his cinematic collaborations with Marlene Dietrich. Besides the Blue Angel, he also directed such noted films as Shanghai Express (with Dietrich and Anna May Wong), Morroco, Underworld (an early gangster film), and The Last Command.

While reading Baxter's book, I was struck by a passage which noted the similarities between the Blue Angel (1930) and the earlier Pabst production, Pandora's Box (1929). "Sternberg's concept for Lola was, as one might expect, an eclectic one, combining elements from other artists with aspects of his own life. Ignoring contemporary Germany, of which he knew little, he returned to the period of [Heinrich] Mann's book, the late Nineteenth century, and to another writer whose influence on German thought had been explosive, the playwright Frank Wedekind. To replace Mann's name for the heroine, Rosa Frohlich, Sternberg adapted 'Lola' from 'Lulu" of Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box (1905), but he also borrowed so heavily from Wedekind that in many ways The Blue Angel is a fantasy on the playwright's themes. Lulu, like Lola, is a dancer exercising a cold fascination over an older man, who sacrifices his reputation for her. She is surrounded by her past and future lovers . . . ."

Wow! Such similarities have occurred to me in the past, but I have not really seen them spelled out so succintly. And so early on - Baxter's book was published in 1971. Has anyone else ever seen an articles or books linking the films?

Sacramento

Just back from Sacramento, and my research trip to the California State Library . . . . I went through a few more reels of the Daily Bruin, the student newspaper at UCLA. Impressively, this college newspaper ran signed reviews of then new films by student-journalists. These pieces were pretty good - extensive and thoughtful, and the equal of reviews found in many other big city newspapers. I scavenged three reviews, as well as a smattering of articles on other films. About Louise Brooks, UCLA student Louise Kreisman declared "she excells in flippancy and heartlessness" in her write-up of the Menjou vehicle, Evening Clothes.While Doris G. Taylor described the actress as sleek and graceful - but only adequate in her role of the Canary in the murder mystery based on the van Dine novel. And interestingly, the piece on Now We're in the Air has a bit of an interview with Wallace Beery about the role he plays in that film! Another curiousity I noticed was a May, 1931 advertisement for the nearby Beverly theater, which on a particular Saturday was running an odd double bill of It Pays to Advertise and White Hell of Pitz Palu (the German mountain film directed by G.W. Pabst and featuring Leni Riefenstahl). And yet another curiousity was the fact that the great Jazz pianist Art Tatum was one of the opening stage acts for When You're in Love, the 1937 Grace Moore musical in which Louise Brooks had a bit part.

I also looked as the Venice Evening Vanguard (from Venice Beach), which proved to be a goldmine of articles, reviews and advertisements. I found something on every American Brooks' film from The American Venus (1926) to It Pays to Advertise (1931). There was a nifty caricature of the actress from Love Em and Leave Em, an article about director Alfred Santell which noted the recognition he received for his work on Just Another Blonde, an unusual staged portrait of Brooks, James Hall and Richard Arlen from Rolled Stockings, and an article about Beggars of Life which mentioned that live election results (for the 1928 Presidential race) would be announced during the screening. One other article I found was a ridiculous puff piece, "Miss Brooks Almost Inspiration for Popular Song," which tried to associate the actress with the song with the refrain "five foot two, eyes of blue, and oh, what those eyes can't do . . . ." The author of the article, however, admitted that Brooks' eyes were in fact dark brown.

Besides the Daily Bruin and Venice Evening Vanguard, I also continued my day-by-day look though the film and society columns of the Hollywood Daily Citizen. I managed to get through a few months, but didn't find anything mentioning Brooks - this time. I will continue my survey on my next visit to Sacramento, July 1st. (Then, I also plan to tackle the Bakersfield newspaper and perhaps the Riverside newspaper.)

Clara Bow beats eggs with anticipation dreaming of a rarebit fiend

As I have written before, I often come across interesting articles while looking through microfilm for Louise Brooks material. I came across a couple of such items today, while looking through the Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin. One of them was an Associated Press piece entitled "Lita May Drag 5 Stars Into Chaplin Case." The January, 1927 article noted that Lita Grey Chaplin, who was divorcing Charlie Chaplin, was threatening to reveal the names of "five prominent motion picture actresses" who "publically and privately" associated with the comedian. The actresses were not named - but I wondered if one of them would have been Brooks. (I once came across a 1925 article in which Chaplin denied having an affair with Brooks - which they in fact did, during the Summer of 1925 . . . . )

Another delicious piece I came across featured my other favorite flapper in the kitchen, "Clara Bow Is Happiest When Playing Host." As I adore Clara Bow (and have a strong interest in Winsor McCay), I was very amused by her recipe for Rarebit!