A Girl in Every Port

On this day in 1928, A Girl in Every Port, starring Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong and featuring Louise Brooks, premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York City. It was a big hit in the big apple. It would also prove popular in France.

Mick LaSalle's Prix review

Today, Mick LaSalle, the well known film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, reviewed the recent Kino DVD release, Prix de Beaute. Mick is a fine newspaper critic, and the author of two worthwhile books on pre-code film, Complicated Women, and Dangerous Men. However, he has never much liked Louise Brooks.

A 1995 article by LaSalle, titled "Pandora's Box is Steeped in Critical Hysteria," began by stating "Pandora's Box, which opens today for a four-day run at the Castro, is one of those revered classics, so steeped in critical hysteria that it's almost heresy to question its greatness." He goes on to suggest that Brooks (who he refers to as "a minor star best known for her Moe-in-the-Three-Stooges haircut") is today known only because of her friendships with a number of film critics. LaSalle also refers to Kenneth Tynan's long 1979 article in the New Yorker as "critical lunacy." LaSalle's review of Prix de Beaute echoes his earlier sentiments. Today's piece begins "More nonsense has been written about Louise Brooks than any other silent-era figure. A minor American actress . . . ." I would suggest that some of that nonsense about Brooks is LaSalle's own.

The bob as mask

Yesterday, at the library, I ran across this striking 1924 photo of a stage actress sporting a rather exaggerated bob. I have never seen such stylized cut - especially in the way the points of the bob reach across Jean Bodine's face. And look at her eyebrows, extended to touch the hairline. The effect quite nearly looks like a kind of disquise, or mask. I thought "a haircut performing as a mask." Or is this image a kind of masque?

I think he was right

On this day in 1925, Florenz Ziegfeld is quoted in the Baltimore News as saying, "Louise Brooks, is going to eclipse a lot of the present stars in a very few short years."

Here is what I what I looked at and here is what I found

I went ot the library yesterday to check out some of my just arrived interlibrary loans. Here is what I what I looked at and here is what I found. . . .  Following up on an earlier post, I requested some college newspapers in hopes of finding reviews of Denishawn performances. I asked for the Ohio State Lantern, but my request was rejected as the microfilm for this Ohio State University student newspaper was "not on the shelf." I shall ask for it again at a later date. I also requested the Cornell Daily Sun and the Reveille (from Louisiana State University), but neither newspaper contained any editorial coverage. The Cornell Daily Sun did run a couple of advertisements for the Denishawn performance in nearby Ithaca, New York.

I also looked at various issues of the Whig Journal (from Quincy, Illinois) and the Omaha Bee (from Omaha, Nebraska), and in each I did find articles and reviews of the Denishawn performances in those two cities. Citations for the material I found have been added to the various LBS bibliographies.

Think about it

Louise Brooks appears on the cover of the previous issue of Think magazine, which comes from Prague. Check it out here.

ABOUT THE COVER: 
Jeffree Benet "I photoshopped in the cover of the previous issue into the hands of 20's film darling Louise Brooks, from an old publicity still. The cover conspiratorally warns 'Look Normal. They must suspect nothing'."

Louise Brooks by Rick Geary

A caricature of Louise Brooks by Rick Geary shows up on eBay ocassionally as a rubber stamp. There is one for sale now. I have one of these rubber stamps. And I remember that Barry Paris stamped a copy of his biography that he signed for me some years ago. They are nifty.

Library of Congress follow-up

I have heard back from the Library of Congress regarding The Street of Forgotten Men. Here is what they wrote.

The Moving Image Section of the Library of Congress has an incomplete 16mm reference print of THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN (1925), which is available for viewing in our Motion Picture and Television Reading Room by researchers with an advance appointment.

THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN
6 reels (r1, 3-7); 2000 ft., si., b&w, 16mm reference print

I am excitied. I shall attempt to make an appointment to view this film while I am in Washington D.C.