Movie Made America

Recently finished reading Movie Made America, by Robert Sklar. Its a "cultural history of American movies." Its also one of the best, and most interesting histories of film I have ever read. Highly recommended!

More in Film of the Golden Age

The previous issue of Films of the Golden Age contained an illustrated article on Louise Brooks (by the acclaimed children's book author Jan Wahl). I hope everyone got a copy. It's a swell article.

The current issue, dated Summer 2006, contains three references to the actress, or her films. The first is a letter to the editor by author Dan Navarro commenting on Wahl's piece. The second is an article on Hollywood's Geraghty family. Thomas Geraghty co-wrote the screenplay for the 1926 Brooks' film It's the Old Army Game, and Brooks was acquianted with his wife, actress Carmelita (though that is not mentioned). The third reference comes in an interview with author Richard Lamparski, author of the well known Whatever Became of . . . ? series of books. In the interview, Lamparski comments, "I couldn't have used any of them in the old series. People didn't want to know the things in these stories about their stars. Louise Brooks told me that people don't want the truth about the stars." Lamparski had profiled Brooks in the third book in the series.

[ The magazine also contains an advertisement for a new book on Ford Sterling, who appeared in two films with Brooks. I am looking forward to that book. ]

Incomparable song styles of Louise Brooks

The incomparable song styles of Louise Brooks - cocktail lounge singer in the Chicago area circa 1968. Distinctly different. Who knew?

Bibliographic notes

A few inter-library loans have come in recently - though just as many were "declined" as there were no libraries or archives who had the material I requested. The publications I looked at included two small-town newspapers from Missouri, the St. Joseph News-Press and the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian - each of which yielded Denishawn articles and reviews. The Cape Girardeau was especially rich in material - there was even a large front page article on the Denishawn dancers on the day of their performance, and an even larger front page review the day after. I also got some Denishawn articles and reviews from the Niagra Falls Gazette. I also found reviews for a few films in this New York newspaper. I also looked through Nyugat, a publication from Budapest, Hungary - but found nothing. And, my request for the Ottumwa Daily Courier was declined. Does anyone who read this blog live near that Iowa town?

Lately, I have spent a bit of time adding to and updating the bibliographies for The Street of Forgotten Men and Just Another Blonde, as I have acquired a number of scattered articles, reviews and advertisements from other sources.

Anti-Chaplin cartoon

And here's yet another interesting item I ran across at the library last week, and anti-Chaplin cartoon from 1927.

Pandoras Box at the SFSFF

I've finally recovered from an exhausting and exhilirating weekend at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It was great fun, and it was great to meet or say hello to some of you. . . . My friend lullaberry took this picture of the Castro Theater marquee. Thanx Kasia!

Pandora's Box sold out before the Festival began. It was my great pleasure to introduce the film before a packed house - more than 1400 people. And there was only one heckler! I was also honored to introduce artist / filmmaker / Louise Brooks admirer Bruce Conner, who spoke before the film. (I came across a blog about his introduction which contains a very brief video clip.) A couple of days later, a local columnist ran this bit in theSan Francisco Chronicle.

A sellout crowd at Saturday night's screening of "Pandora's Box'' at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival was tantalized and seduced by Louise Brooks, whose sexiness 77 years ago makes Jennifer Lopez look like Marge Simpson. Artist Bruce Conner, who hails from Brooks' hometown, Wichita, Kan., talked before the showing about how after Brooks' short movie career, she'd returned to Kansas, where she not only turned down his father's invitation to dance but later on took a swing at him and "walloped him hard.'' (Don't feel so smug about the exciting nightlife here; hot times in Wichita, too.)
Organist Clark Wilson's music was meticulously cued to dramatic highlights, in keeping with the emotions, historically respectful and tuneful all at once. He also shared a principle of his craft that could be useful in all sorts of situations: When in doubt, trill. 

Besides a number of Brooks fans, I had the chance to meet  the head of the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York - who was on hand to introduce a couple of movies and speak about film preservation. We spoke about the Eastman House's Louise Brooks plans. I also met Sam Gill, the legendary archivist. And Hugh Munro Neely, director of the outstanding Louise Brooks documentary, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, was also on hand. We had not seen each other in a number of years. Hugh's latest project is a documentary about Theda Bara.

I should mention that the Festival published a rather nice program with Louise Brooks on the cover. There was also a poster which featured the actress, as well as a really nifty t-shirt. The image on both the poster and the black t-shirt can be found on the festival homepage. I understand that the t-shirts were very popular. I bought two! For those wanting to read more about the Festival, a local news website, the San Francisco Sentinel , ran a long review. Check it out.

Updates

The Louise Brooks Centenary page - listing Louise Brooks events happening around the world - has been updated. I've added a a few new happenings, as well as dates and details regarding other events which I have just learned.

I will be at San Francisco Silent Film Festival (one of the very few ALL SILENT film festivals in the world!) pretty much all weekend, and thus may not have time to post any entries to this live journal. Hope to see some of you there.