Pepi Lederer

A charming portrait of Pepi Lederer by Ruth Harriet Louise is for sale on eBay. Lederer was Louise Brooks' friend and Marion Davies niece - and the subject of an essay in Brooks' Lulu in Hollywood.

I've been meaning to write

I've just started watching Old San Francisco (1927) on TCM. The film features the creepy Warner Oland (who would go on to fame as Charlie Chan), the lovely Dolores Costello (Drew Barrymore's grandmother and undoubtably the source of her good looks), and ever so briefly, the exceptional Anna May Wong (wearing bangs and a bob!). It was interesting to see, at the beginning of the film, actual location shots of San Francisco (where I live) . . . .

I've been meaning to write about my last couple of trips to the San Francisco Public Library. I looked at a bunch of inter-library loans requests and came home with a bunch of good material. I got Denishawn articles, reviews and advertisements from theManchester Union (from Manchester, New Hampshire), Indianapolis Star (from Indianapolis, Indiana), Clinton Herald (from Clinton, Iowa), andColorado Springs Gazette (from Colorado Springs, Colorado). I also got some articles, film reviews and rather nice advertisements out of The Standard (from Montreal, Canada), Pittsburgh Press (from Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania), and Duluth News Tribune (from Duluth, Minnesota). I also came across an appealing captioned photo titled "Gold Coast Pets" in the Chicago Herald and Examiner. The caption read, " Dario and Louise (Louise Brooks of the silent films) comprise the new dance combination proving popular in the current floor show at the Chez Paree."

Here is a neat advertisement I came across. Notice that next to the advertisement for a screening of the1927 Louise Brooks films The City Gone Wild is an ad for a personal appearance by Roscoe Arbuckle!



. . . And no, I have never been to the Poodle Dog Cafe, though I wish I had.

Louise Brooks exhibit

CORRECTED: The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York has announced that an exhibit devoted to Louise Brooks will take place next year. The exhibit, which will include photographs and artifacts that document the actress' career is being jointly curated with the International Museum of Photography in New York City. It opens there first in April and at Eastman House in August. More details will be provided as they become known.

F.B.I. files on Louise Brooks' friends and colleagues

I suppose it is well known by now that in the past the Federal Bureau of Investigation kept files on thousands of American citizens, including many celebrities. Among those they spied on / investigated / trailed were a few of Louise Brooks' friends and fellow actors. Recently, the F.B.I. released the files on "famous persons" and posted them on the bureau's website. There are files on everyone from Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Wayne to Mary Pickford and Marlene Dietrich. (Apparently, there are no files on Louise Brooks.) These files can make for interesting reading. Here are your tax dollars at work.

Zadie Smith on Greta Garbo

"She was an overweight, big-footed girl from Sweden who became an icon of female beauty. But why was she never happy?" Novelist Zadie Smith (Booker-Prize nominee and author of White Teeth and On Beauty) wrote about "the enigma of Greta Garbo" for the The Guardian (UK). Louise Brooks is quoted in this article.

Google blog search

Today, Google launched a blog search engine. Now, you can search out and find what other bloggers have to say about Louise Brooks - and other topics of interest. There are other blog search engines out there, and I have blogged about them in the past. Google's may be the best yet. Google's blog search engine can be found at http://blogsearch.google.com/   Happy hunting!

Golden images

Lately, I've been reading Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars by Eve Golden. The book features short profiles of actors and actresses - some well known (Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Rudolph Valentino) and some not so well known (Gladys Brockwell, May Irwin, Ormer Locklear). I read about film stars I really didn't know much about - like Jeanne Eagels, Marie Prevost, Nita Naldi, Esther Ralston, and Olive Thomas. Eve Golden has a graceful writing style. I liked the book. (Some time earlier, I had read Golden's excellent Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara, and enjoyed that as well.)

Arabic-language newspaper article

My friend Gianluca also sent me a link to a recent Arabic-language newspaper article which mentions Louise Brooks. It can be found at www.sharghnewspaper.com/840516/html/cinema.htm  Does anyone know enough Arabic to read this and relay a sense of what it discusses?

Japanese Anime

Today, my Italian friend Gianluca sent me an email about a Japanese Anime artist. According to this page on the Anime News Network, "Rumiko Takahashi's design for Nabiki Tendo is patterned after silent film actress Louise Brooks (1906-1985)." It is amazing how many comics, cartoons, graphic novels and anime Louise Brooks has inspired. Thank you Gianluca.