From Santiago, Chile

Returned to Berkeley today, where I went through more microfilm. This visit, I scanned two years (all of 1926 and 1927) of El Mercurio, a daily newspaper from Santiago, Chile. Things started slow. I went through six months and found nothing. My eyelids were growing heavy. I was fidgitting. I didn't feel well. And I thought about giving up when I came across a slew of material onLa Venus Americana. Wow. I was saved. El Mercurio ran illustrated articles (with incredibly long titles), like the one pictured above, three days in a row. A couple of other brief articles followed. As with the material I found in O Estado de S. Paulo ( link to earlier entry ), Brooks' second film seemed to be hot stuff in South America. I also found some typical theater advertisements, like this one.



From what I gathered, the Victoria was one of the main movie theaters in Santiago. This July 23, 1926 ad features La Venus Americana as the main attraction. The supporting film is La Calle del Olvido, better known to American audiences as The Street of Forgotten Men. I wonder if any patrons noticed the spunky, bobbed brunette who appeared in both films? (Who knows, perhaps Pablo Neruda was in the audience. I came across an article about the poet in my search through this Chilean newspaper.) My look through 1926 and 1927 also turned up a little material on two films featuring Adolph Menjou and Louise Brooks, Figaro en Sociedad (1926) and Las que no aman (1927). Can you guess the titles?

I plan to return to Berkeley once, perhaps twice more this month. Parts of the library are either moving or closing while the library building undergoes earthquake repairs.

Here is another interesting item I happened to spot. It's from El Mercurio from June, 1927. The name "Lulu" caught my eye. I have tried to figure out what film this might be, as Willy Fristch and Lucy Doraine were both European actors. (Is it a film, or a stage performance?) Does anyone have any idea what this is? I'm curious.

Bristol Silents

Silent film buffs will want to check out Bristol Silents, a film festival (and website) in Bristol, England. Their next series of films will be shown this September. Anyone who love the movies and lives in England may well want to check out their website for more information. I mention this organization because they are big fans of Louise Brooks! Bristol Silents was begun when local silent film enthusiasts Chris Daniels and Norman Taylor formed Bristol Silents in August 2000. Their goal was to promote and celebrate the art of the silent cinema. Initially, their series began with a short season of Louise Brooks films at Arnolfini in October 2000. Since then, they have presented many films. Among their Patrons are Kevin Brownlow, David Robinson, Diana Serra Carey, and Richard Attenborough.

Bristol Silents = http://www.bristolsilents.org.uk/

Louise Brooks Society Celebrates 10 Years Online

The Louise Brooks Society, the largest and most popular website in the world devoted to any silent film star, celebrates 10 years on the internet. Since its launch in August 1995, nearly two million people have visited this pioneering site. The New York Times said, "The Louise Brooks Society is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars."

The LBS was founded as a fan-site, and over the years has evolved into a comprehensive on-line archive and center for "all things Lulu." This 250-page site features an array of information about the actress including a filmography, commentary, links, bibliographies, vintage articles and memorabilia, portrait galleries, a message board, and contributions from fans from around the world. The LBS has a long-running blog, as well as its own Louise Brooks themed radio station, aptly named RadioLulu.

The mission of the Louise Brooks Society is to honor the actress by stimulating interest in her life and films; by fostering and coordinating research on her life, films and writings; by serving as a repository for related material; and by advocating for the preservation and restoration of Brooks' films. To date, the LBS has co-sponsored events (including one with Barry Paris), mounted exhibits, "inspired" a documentary, and generated wide spread media interest in the actress.

In its first ten years, the LBS has been widely praised, having been written-up in publications from around the world including the Sunday Times (London, England), Stuttgarter Zeitung (Stuttgart, Germany), Le Temps (Paris, France), and Melbourne Age (Melbourne, Australia). The LBS has also received coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, Grand Rapids Press, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and USA Today.

The site serves as home to the Louise Brooks Society - an internet-based fan club and the "first virtual fan club" in cyberspace. Most all club activities - including its newsletter, membership meetings, correspondence, and the participation of individuals - take place over the internet. At last count, its 1000+ members hail from 46 countries on six continents. Such a joining together by like-minded fans was only made possible by the advent of the world wide web.

The Louise Brooks Society - Highlights of 10 Years Online

1995 - The earliest pages of the Louise Brooks Society appear on the world wide web. The LBS is the first site devoted to the actress, one of the earliest devoted to any silent film star, and one of the earlier "fan sites" on the internet.

1996 - The LBS receives its first reviews. "USA Today" notes "Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience." Later in the year, a British computing magazine, "Net Directory," names the LBS one of the five best sites in the world devoted to actresses.

1997 - Among its many web honors, the LBS is named a Hollywood Site of the Week and Celebrity Site of the Day. The LBS made Yahoo's Desert Island List and is named part of the Microsoft Network's One Click Away program.

1998 - Impressed by the popularity of the LBS, the television station Turner Classic Movies (TCM) gives the go ahead to a documentary on the actress. "Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu" plays to great acclaim and is nominated for an Emmy Award.

1998 - Pages from the LBS are referenced in a book on G.W. Pabst (Brooks' director in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl) published by the Austrian Film Archive.

1999 - Numerous schools (from the junior high to university level) adopt pages from the LBS as suggested reading. The LBS is named a recommended site by the online version of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

2000 - The University of Minnesota Press publishes Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks, and Louise Brooks by Barry Paris. Each book is brought back into print following a petition campaign organized by the LBS.

2001 - The San Francisco Examiner includes the LBS in an article "Thirteen great film sites."

2002 - The LBS launches RadioLulu, a Louise Brooks-themed radio station. This internet-based station features theme songs from the films of Louise Brooks, vintage jazz, recordings by the actresses' contemporaries and co-stars, as well as recent pop and rock music about the silent film star (by Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark, Soul Coughing, etc.).

2002 - Pages from the LBS are referenced in three books, German Expressionist Films (Pocket Essentials); Sex in the City (Universe); and Photoplay Editions (McFarland).

2003 - Site traffic continues to grow. Visitor logs show that individuals have visited the LBS from more than 60 different countries including every nation in Europe as well as countries scattered across Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

2004 - The bibliographies found on the website surpass 400 pages of printed material, making them one of the largest such collections of documentation so far assembled.

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

http://www.pandorasbox.com/biblio/obit-biblio.html

Merian C. Cooper

This Tuesday, I will be hosting an event with Mark Cotta Vaz, author of Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong. (This event - an author talk and booksigning - will take place at The Booksmith in San Francisco. Start time is 7:00 pm.) If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, please attend. It should be interesting and fun.

Vaz's new book is a biography of filmmaker, adventurer and aviator Merian C. Cooper, who not only made the Oscar-nominatedChang (1927), but was also the producer-director of the original King-Kong (1933). This Fall, TCM will debut a new documentary about Cooper by Kevin Brownlow. And in December, LOTR director Peter Jackson, author of the forward to this new biography, is set to release his own version of King Kong.



More about the book: "Explorer, war hero, filmmaker, and cinema pioneer Merian C. Cooper – the adventurer who created King Kong  – was truly larger than life . . . . Cooper's place in history is assured, thanks not only to the monstrous gorilla from Skull Island but because the story of Kong's creator is even bigger and bolder than the beast he made into a cultural icon. Spellbound since boyhood by tales of life-threatening adventure and exotic locales, Cooper plunged again and again into harrowing expeditions that took him to places not yet civilized by modern man. Cooper was one of the first bomber pilots in World War I. After the war, he helped form the famous Kosciuszko Squadron in battle-torn Poland. He then turned his attention to producing documentary films that chronicled his hair-raising encounters with savage warriors, man-eating tigers, nomadic tribes, and elephant stampedes."

"In addition to producing King Kong, he was the first to team Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers, arranged Katharine Hepburn's screen test, collaborated with John Ford on Hollywood's greatest Westerns, and then changed the face of film forever with Cinerama, the original 'virtual reality.' He returned to military service during World War II, serving with General Claire Chennault in China, flying missions into the heart of enemy territory. This book is a stunning tribute to a two-fisted visionary who packed a multitude of lifetimes into eighty remarkable years. The first comprehensive biography of this unique man and his amazing time, it's the tale of someone whose greatest desire was always to be living dangerously."

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).