On this day in 1926

On this day in 1926, Louise Brooks looms large on movie screens in the San Francisco Bay Area. The recently released comedy, The Show-Off, is being shown in San Jose and Oakland, while The American Venus (released some seven months earlier) plays in revival in nearby Berkeley. We've always liked her here!

Diary of a Lost Girl

I am currently reading Margarete Bohme's 1905 novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl (in English translation). I am enjoying it. It is very different from the film, but also interesting as a period piece.

Speaking of which, I just came across a related video clip on YouTube. It features the clips from the 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Diary of a Lost Girl, set to music by the Dresden Dolls. (The song is "Neccessary Evil.")

Just added Louise Brooks events

Just added - more Louise Brooks events in 2006:

October 13 and 15, 2006: The Music Box Theatre in Chicago will screen Pandora's Box, with live musical accompaniment, as part of Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" series.  (more info)

November 6, 2006: The seldom shown 1926 comedy, Love 'em and Leave 'em, will be screened at Museum of the City of New York. This special event is sponsored by the Silent Clowns Film Series. The film will be preceded by the 1926 Hal Roach comedy short Love 'em and Weep starring Stan Laurel and Tyler Brooke.  Live piano accompaniment by Ben Model.  ( more info )

November 8, 9, 10, 2006: The Slovenska kinoteka - the film archive located in Ljubljana, Slovenia - celebrates the centenary of Louise Brooks with a series of screenings.   ( details to come )

November 20, 2006: A new 35mm print of Pandora's Box will be shown in the student union at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The film starts at 7 pm.   ( more info )

December 8 - 10, 2006: The Detroit Institute of the Arts will screen Pandora's Box in the Detroit Film Theater. ( more info )

These and many other Louise Brooks Centenary events can be found at www.pandorasbox.com/features/centenary.html

Diary of a Lost Girl ?

Did anyone attend the screening of Diary of a Lost Girl at the Colorado Chautauqua Association in Boulder, Colorado last night? If so, how was it?

Satellite sites

A few satellite sites have been set up for the LBS. The one at MySpace can be found at www.myspace.com/louisebrookssociety   and the one at Vox can be found at louisebrookssociety.vox.com/   And there's one at www.xanga.com/Louise_Brooks_Society  

Sacramento trip

Returned from Sacramento, where I spent most of yesterday at the California State Library. (This may well be one of my last trips to this library, as I think I have pretty much looked through everything I need to at that institution.) I went through microfilm of Los Angeles phone books dating from the late 1920's and 1930's. I wasn't able to find any white pages listing for Louise Brooks from the 1930's. . . . I also looked at microfilm of various California newspapers - including the Santa Rosa Press Democrat,Venice Beach Vanguard, Pasadena Post, Riverside Daily News, Glendale Press, and Daily News Tribune (from Fullerton) - and found a smattering of film reviews, film related articles, and advertisements for local screenings of Brooks' films. An ok haul of material - I spent about $14.00 for photocopies.

John Canemaker

It was a real treat to see Winsor McCay on the big screen last night. The PFA exhibited 35 mm prints of four of his films, and John Canemaker - who was very  informative - gave a running commentary. There was also live piano accompaniment. And at long last, I got Canemeker (who won an Academy Award for one of his own recent animated films) to sign my copy of his book on Winsor McCay. I then proceeded to spend even mor emoney by purchasing a DVD of McCay films which was put together by Canemaker. A splendid time was had in Berkeley.

Jen Anderson

I am excitied to find out that Jen Anderson, the gifted Australian composer and performer of the lovely "Lulu - The Song" (as heard on RadioLulu and elsewhere), as well as the composer of a soundtrack to Pandora's Box (which was released in Australia on CD with Louise Brooks on the cover in 1993), will be coming to the San Francisco Bay Aea. Anderson will be performing her score to The Sentimental Bloke on Sunday, September 17 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California. Apparently, Anderson will be touring the country with this film. Here is the descriptive text from the PFA website.

The Sentimental Bloke Raymond Longford (Australia, 1919) 
Musical Accompaniment by Jen Anderson and the Larrikins 

The Sentimental Bloke is considered the jewel of Australia's surviving silent cinema. Of the thirty films directed by Raymond Longford, this delightful work, based on a popular book of verse entitled The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, is the only one that now exists intact. Its charming depiction of a romance between commoners Bill (Arthur Tauchert) and Doreen (Lottie Lyell) and its colorful use of colloquial language appealed to audiences of its day; the film achieved record box-office returns and screened widely in Australia, New Zealand, and Britain. Plans for a theatrical release in the States, in a shortened, re-edited version, never panned out; however, the original 35mm camera negative ended up at George Eastman House and was used in this recent restoration. We are pleased to present this classic with a score composed and performed by Jen Anderson and the Larrikins (Dave Evans and Dan Warner), written for instruments that would have been available to working-class Australians in 1919: piano, accordion, guitar, mandolin, violin, tin whistle, and vocals. — Susan Oxtoby 

• Written by Raymond Longford, Lottie Lyell, from The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. Photographed by Arthur Higgins. With Arthur Tauchert, Lottie Lyell, Gilbert Emery, Stanley Robinson. (109 mins, Silent, B&W, tinted and toned, 35mm, From George Eastman House, permission National Film and Sound Archive, Australia). PFA acknowledges the Australian Film Commission for sponsoring the North American tour of this restored film with trio accompaniment.

Tonight, at the PFA, I am going to see John Canemaker, author of a book about the comic strip artist Winsor McCay. Canemaker will be speaking prior to a screening of animated short silent films by McCay.

Lulu in Japan

Louise Brooks adorns the cover of a 1929 Japanese magazine, which is for sale on eBay.