Forever Lulu

Louise Brooks appears on the cover of August 7, 2005 issue of Film TV, a magazine from Italy. This issue also contains an article by Emanuela Martini (the editor) along with 7 images from Brook's films.

This week's library report

Three more inter-library loans were waiting for me at the San Francisco Public Library. I went through microfilm of the News-Sentinel (from Ft. Wayne, Indiana) where I got some Denishawn material regarding their March, 1924 appearance. Along with a review, which referenced Louise Brooks, I found a earlier article which featured a group photo of the Denishawn dancers, including Brooks! I also looked through some later issues of News-Sentinel, where I found a rather nice advertisement for a screening of Beggars of Life dating from March, 1929 (some six months after it was released). And I found reviews and ads forThe Street of Forgotten Men and The American Venus in the Hartford Daily Courant (from Hartford, Conneticut).

Another publication at I looked at was Germania, a daily newspaper from Berlin. Looking through microfilm of this publication was certainly the highlight of this week's trip, as the Berlin newspapers are dificult to get ahold of. I have been trying to find Germania for some time. My efforts paid off, as I found short reviews for Blaue jungens, blonde Madchen, Die Buchse der Pandora, and Tagebuch einer Verlorenen. These reviews got me to thinking. . . .

It is commonly reported that G.W. Pabst cast Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box after having seen her in Blaue jungens, blonde Madchen (aka A Girl in Every Port). Looking at Brooks' list of films, this assumption makes sense, as the release of the Howard Hawks' buddy film (in which Brooks play a kind of temptress, not unlike Lulu) preceded the start of production on Pandora's Box.A Girl in Every Port, was released in the United States on February 20, 1928. Pabst was attempting to cast Lulu in the Spring or Summer of that same year.

The claim that Pabst cast Brooks in Pandora's Box after having seen her in A Girl in Every Port was made by James Card in "Out of Pandora’s Box: Louise Brooks on G. W. Pabst," an article published in 1956. And it was repeated by Brooks herself in the 1970's in filmed interviews. Why? I wonder why? As newspaper reviews show, Blaue jungens, blonde Madchen didn't screen in Berlin until the first week of December in1928, after production work on Pandora's Box was finished!

Could Pabst - largely an independent filmmaker - have seen the Hawks' film at a private screening? Or could Pabst have noticed Brooks through her roles in earlier films such as Die Schonste Frau der Staaten (The American Venus), Die Braut am Scheidewege (Just Another Blonde), or Ein Frack Ein Claque Ein Madel (Evening Clothes) - each of which was shown in Berlin and received significant press coverage. It's a tidy assumption to believe Brooks' role in the Hawk's film struck Pabst's fancy. I wonder if it weren't another.

Tomorrow, I head over to the East Bay, where I will once again spend some time exploring the microfilm collection at the University of California, Berkeley. The microfilm collection at the Bancroft Library numbers in the thousands of rolls. Such riches! I've kept notes, and plan to pick-up where I left off last time. This trip, I plan to look at some more South American and European newspapers. It's slow, tedious work - but I occassionally uncover a gem or two. (Like the review of Pandora's Box I found in a Buenas Aires newspaper from 1929; and the movie ads I found in newspapers from Mexico City, also dating from the 1920's; and the other clippings I uncovered in French, German, Polish and Russians newspapers and magazines from the 1920's and 1930's.) This is one of three or possibly four trips to Berkeley I plan to take this month before the microfilm collections is closed. The library is set to undergoe a seismic retrofit. An article recently appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle about this historic library and the challenges it faces.

From Sao Paulo, Brazil

Yesterday's trip to Berkeley went well. I looked through four years (1926, 1927, 1928, 1929) of O Estado de S. Paulo, a daily newspaper from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I found two reviews - one for Venus Americana and one for Mendigos da vida - and advertisements for a bunch of others including and Desfrutando a alta sociedade, Dois Aguias No Ar and O Drama de Uma Noite. I made lots and lots of photocopies - about twenty dollars worth. 

Frank Martin exhibit in London

Received this flier in the mail today advertising an exhibit of work by Frank Martin to be held in London in November, 2005. Apparently, this exhibit of woodcuts, etchings and colour prints will include his portrait of Louise Brooks. For more on Frank Martin, see this webpage (includes a somewhat curious image of Clara Bow).

Poet August Kleinzahler

There is a large article in today's New York Times about poet August Kleinzahler. ( link to article ) He is a fine fellow, and a longtime friend of mine. Back in May, 2000 I published one of his poems as a signed, limited edition broadside. The poem, "Watching Young Couples with an Old Girlfriend On Sunday Morning," mentions Louise Brooks . . . "the women they escort in tight black leather, bangs and tattoos, cute little toughies, so Louise Brooks annealed." (Shades of the Sarah Azzara song!)

The poem appears in Green Sees Things in Waves, which was published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 1998. When I printed this rather plain looking broadside, I included - almost as a kind of watermark - the image of the face of a clock which reads 11:14 am. (clue) The clock face is hard to see on this scan, but is more apparent on the object itself. If you like contemporary poetry, I would recommend checking out Kleinzahler's work. He has a selected poems available for those wishing to dip in.

Forthcoming Alfred Cheney Johnston book !

At last! I just came across a listing for a forthcoming Alfred Cheney Johnston book. Jazz Age Beauties : The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston by Robert Hudovernik is set to be published in early 2006. Here is what the publisher, Rizzoli, says about this new title: "Despite Prohibition, the '20s was the decade of jazz, flappers and hip flasks. While some took their vote and joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement, others, well, took liberties. Compiled here for the first time are more than 200 publicity stills and photos of some of America's first 'It' girls - the silent film-era starlets who paved the way for the cacophony of Monroes and Madonnas to follow. Accompanying these iconic images are the stories behind them, including accounts from surviving Ziegfeld Girls, as well as ads featuring them that helped perpetuate the allure of It girl glamour. When rare and striking portraits of these women surfaced on the internet in 1995, author Robert Hudovernik began researching their source. What he discovered was the work of one of the first 'star makers' identified most with the Ziegfeld Follies, Alfred Cheney Johnston. Johnston, a member of New York's famous Algonquin Round Table who photographed such celebrities as Mary Pickford, Fanny Brice, the Gish Sisters, and Louise Brooks, fell out of the spotlight with the demise of the revue. A sumptuous snapshot of an era, this book is also a look at the work of this 'lost' photographer."



I  am an admirer of Alfred Cheney Johnston's work. He made beautiful images, not only of Louise Brooks, but of many others. I have at least two hundred of his pictures stored on my computer - pictures mostly harvested from eBay. I am glad that he is finally  getting some recognition. (Next should be Eugene Robert Richie.)