The LOUISE BROOKS event not to miss!

"Celebrating Louise Brooks: An Evening of Rare Films"
with PETER COWIE
a talk, film screening & book signing for "Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever"
Sunday, November 12 at 7:30 pm
at the Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street) in San Francisco

On Sunday November 12th, world renown film critic and biographer Peter Cowie, author of the just published "Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever," will give a talk as part of "Celebrating Louise Brooks: An Evening of Rare Films" at the Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street) in San Francisco. Rare Louise Brooks films, special guests, door prizes, Louise Brooks give-aways and more will round out the program, which starts at 7:30. A book signing will follow.

With her distinctive haircut and classically drawn features, Louise Brooks is, without question, one of the great icons of world cinema. Her role as Lulu in "Pandora's Box" has gained her film immortality. This month, the world celebrates her centennial with the publication of Peter Cowie's much-anticipated new book, "Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever," an insightful and lavishly illustrated portrait of the actress and the legend.

Peter Cowie is a world famous film historian and the author of some thirty books including "The Cinema of Orson Welles," "John Ford and the American West," and "Revolution!: The Explosion Of World Cinema In The Sixties," as well as acclaimed biographies of Ingmar Bergman and Francis Ford Coppola. Cowie will be joining us from his home in Switzerland.

This special event, co-sponsored by The Booksmith ( www.booksmith.com) and the Louise Brooks Society ( www.pandorasbox.com), will take place at the historic Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa) in San Francisco. Tickets are $8.50 and can be purchased in advance onwww.BrownPaperTickets.com  

 BUY YOUR TICKETS SOON, AS THIS SPECIAL EVENT IS EXPECTED TO SELL OUT.

Interview article

There is a full page article about Louise Brooks (and her bob) in the current issue of Interview magazine.

Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever

Today, I received my copy of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever by Peter Cowie. (Copies are not due in stores for about a week.) It is absolutely gorgeous! It is a book every Brooks fan will want to own . . . .  I had written my review for Publisher's Weeklybased on page proofs (an early version of the book which was sent to me by the publisher). This finished copy is so much more appealing. The images look really stunning. Wow!

G-Swing

A recently released French compact disc with Louise Brooks on the cover, Swing for Modern Clubbing, has been called to my attention. (Thank you Pascal.) Is anyone familiar with this CD or the music? More info here. (Brooks also appears on an interior illustration.)

Philippe Boussemart

A French artist by the name of Philippe Boussemart has painted a handful of works featuring Louise Brooks - and Charlie Chaplin. I am not sure what it all means - but you can check out his website at http://philippe.boussemart.com/peinture/creations/

This being detail

Another swell image of Louise Brooks - this being detail from a film still from Love Em and Leave Em (1926), which is for sale on eBay. The seller is located in Portugal, where the film was shown under the title Amá-las e deixá-las.

Modish coiffure

Here is a nifty advertisement I came across while looking through microfilm at the library this week. It dates from 1925.

Another Lulu review

"Thankfully, Chicago-based Silent Theatre Company understands the appeal of classic celluloid, which they ape to sublime ends in their piece "Lulu", an adaptation of German playwright Frank Wedekind’s 1894 Lulu cycle, comprising "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora’s Box", but bearing more of a resemblance to G.W. Pabst’s 1928 film revision starring über-vamp Louise Brooks. "      Another review of the stage play of Lulu can be found at www.sfstation.com/lulu-at-victoria-theater-a2239

Research jottings

Back at the library, I continue my search for even more Louise Brooks clippings. I went through the Columbus Ledger (from Columbus, Georgia), Ripon Weekly Press (from Ripon, Wisconsin),  and Arkansas City Daily Traveler (from Arkansas City, Kansas) - and in each found articles and advertisements relating to Brooks' two seasons with Denishawn. The company performed in each of thee towns. I also went through a few other newspapers looking for material relating to Brooks' films. I went through the Arkansas Gazette (from Little Rock, Arkansas), Deseret News (from Salt Lake City, Utah), and Hartford Times(from Hartford, Connecticut). And I found a few reviews and ads. The most interesting item was a Little Rock ad for the Capitol Theater promoting the screening of Love Em and Leave Em during the first half of the week, and Just Another Blonde during the second half. That's unusual, especially considering that the two films were made by different studios.

I also went through the North China Daily News, an English-language newspaper from Shanghai. I looked through the first four months of 1929, and found material - including one review - for three of Brooks' 1927 films! Wow - what a cosmpolitan city and what a worthwhile newspaper! There were numerous movie theaters in Shanghai at this time, and all of the major American films seemed to have been shown. And the theaters ran big advertisements in the newspaper. The review I found marks my first Chinese citation! Eventually, I plan to look through every month of theNorth China Daily News from the late 1920's and early 1930's that I can get my hands on.