Atlantic City Pageant march

I just got a CD of John Philip Sousa's music for wind bands. The disc contains a track of some interest, The Atlantic City Pageant March (1927). According to the linear notes, "During Sousa's final years, beginning in 1926, the band often played summer engagements at Atlantic City's Steel Pier. The Atlantic City Pageant March was written at the request of the city's mayor, and honoured the famous Atlantic City Beauty Pageant." That's a little less then two years after Louise Brooks and Famous Players-Lasky were in Atlantic City filming The American Venus, whose story centered on the Pageant.



Curiously, this is not the first time I have come across an instance of Sousa "shadowing" Brooks . . . . I recently noticed - while looking in the Independence Daily Reporter - that Sousa and his band performed in Independence, Kansas just a week or so after Brooks and Denishawn had danced there in January, 1924. (The paper reported that the band concert was the next big happening in town after the dance recital.) Another time, I came across a screening ofEvening Clothes in Chicago. At that 1927 event, Sousa's band performed onstage prior to the film being shown.

Lulu in Berlin

A mini website devoted to Louise Brooks' work in Germany can be found at www.louisebrooks.de.vu/   There is some nifty stuff to be found there. Check it out.

LA Time article on bizarre pre-Kong movie

The Los Angeles Times has a long, interesting story about a bizarre gorilla movie that pre-dates King Kong by three years, called Ingagi. This earlier film has many scenes similar to those in King Kong, but it contains even more racist and lurid human-ape sexual innuendo than the more famous movie that followed. Click here to read the article.

Paramount Pictures cardboard fan

This nifty Paramount Pictures cardboard fan (the handle is not pictured) dates from the late 1920s, and measures  8" x 9". It likely was given away at a theater, as few were air conditioned back then. This promotional fan pictures Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, Pola Negri, Florence Vidor, Bebe Daniels, Esther Ralston and Lois Moran. [For sale on eBay - at a premium.] Cool.

Ron Goulart's Comics History Magazine

Help! I am looking for issues #1 (winter 1996), #2 (Spring 1997), and #3 (Summer 1997) of Ron Goulart's Comics History Magazine. This little known periodical features a three part article on Dixie Dugan which I would like to read. ( Inspired by Louise Brooks, Dixie Dugan was a popular comic strip which began in the late 1920's.) I am having a bit a trouble trying to track down copies of Comics History Magazine. The only library in the country which seemingly owns this publication is Michigan State University, but these copies reside in their special collections. And thus, cannot be loaned. I would happily accept photocopies of the articles. Does anyone have copies of the magazine?

Collegeville fifth-graders present 20th Century showcase

Louise Brooks as an historical figure . . . . An article in the today's Benton Courier (from Benton, Arkansas) reports that local fifth graders recently dressed-up to celebrate the 20th century. "Students dressed in costumes representing celebrities of the decade or in costumes reflecting the popular dress, jewelry and hairstyles of their decade. Celebrities included Wilbur and Orville Wright, Woodrow Wilson, Charlie Chaplin, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks (a flapper), Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Little Orphan Annie, Andrew J. Moyer, Uncle Sam, General Mark W. Clark from World War II, Audrey Hepburn, Rosa Parks, Amy Carter, Richard Nixon, Coretta Scott King, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton."

The Damned and the Beautiful

For a change of pace, I thought I would take a break from reading film biographies. Instead, I thought I might read up on the Jazz Age - one of my favorite periods in history. I've had a copy of The Damned and the Beautiful, by Paula Fass, sitting around for sometime. Originally published by Oxford University Press in 1977, this almost 500 page book is a sociological study of American youth in the 1920's. After the first few chapters, I decided I really couldn't finish this book. I found it somewhat dry, though interesting at times. I skimmed over the remaining chapters.



The author did her homework. She quotes from a number of books, magazine articles, and even student newspapers from the time. (Thus, I found the footnotes especially interesting! Fass cited a bunch of university newspapers, some of which I hope to eventually explore for Louise Brooks / Denishawn reviews.) One thing I especially liked about the book were the quotes which prefaced each chapter. Chapter 7 begins with these.

"To me the Jazz Age signifies an age of freedom in thought and action. The average young person of today is not bound by the strict conventions which governed the actions of previous generations." - University of Denver coed

"The word flapper to us means not a female atrocity who smokes, swears, delights in pictures like The Shiek and kisses her gentlemen friends goodnight, although there is no particular harm in any of the foregoing. We always think of the flapper as the independent, 'pally' young woman, a typical American product. Frivolity . . . . is not a crime, and flappers, being young, are naturally frivolous.

Any real girl . . . who has the vitality of young womanhood, who feels pugilistically inclined when called the 'weaker sex,' who resents being put on a pedestal and worshipped from afar, who wants to get into things herself, is a flapper . . . . The flapper is the girl who is responsible for the advancement of woman's condition in the world. The weak, retiring, 'clinging' variety of woman really does nothing in the world but cling." - Letter to the editor, Daily Illini, April 20, 1922

I will probably go back to this book sometimes, at least to pick through the footnotes. I've starting reading another, less academic, book - That Jazz, by Ethan Mordden. Originally published in 1978, this 300-plus page book is subtitled "An Idiosyncratic Social History of the American Twenties." I first notice this title in the bibliography of Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris. I am about thirty pages into it - and am liking it.

p.s. Mordden is best known as the author of well-received books on opera, film, and theater. He is also a novelist. In 1988, he published a novel entitled Everybody Loves You: Further Adventures in Gay Manhattan, in which he drops the name of a certain silent film star. . . ."When we gather at the board, I babble, dispersing the attacks. I am like a bag lady in the scattered energy of my references. I speak of Louise Brooks, of The Egoist, of Schubert's song cycles. They nod. They ask intelligent questions."

Considered the "Jennifer Aniston" of her days

I noticed a handmade jewelry box for sale on eBay. A couple of Louise Brooks images adorn the lid. However, what stood out was the description provided by the seller identifying the silent film star - "She was considered the 'Jennifer Aniston' of her days. Everyone had her haircut." That's a new one!

LB on YouTube

YouTube is a website where individuals can watch, upload and share fast streaming videos. A search of the site will reveal four Louise Brooks clips. There are brief two minutes clips from The Show Off and Diary of a Lost Girl, as well as a longer, seven minute clip from Pandora's Box (with music by Marcella Detroit - To Die For). Also on the site is a complete one-hour, twenty minute version of The Show Off. I haven't watched it yet, thus I can't speak to quality. A search of the site also turns up clips featuring Clara Bow, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova and others.