Monday, March 12, 2007

Blog on Blog

Larry Doe, who recently was involved with the transcription of vintage Denishawn instruction piano rolls, has blogged about the the LBS. Check out Larry's earlier blog entries. Imagine being able to hear music recorded for Denishawn way back in the 1920's.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Silent Film Still Archive

Bruce Calvert has moved his Silent Film Still Archive to a new URL. Check it out at www.silentfilmstillarchive.com  

Also worth checking out is an online article on Christianity and the origins of the film industry. It makes for somewhat interesting reading. Check it out at www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article7228  

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Inter-library loans: Intrigue and Comedy Abound

Some of the inter-library loan material I have looked at lately includes microfilm of the Salina Evening Journal (from Kansas) andPottsville Republican (from Pennsylvannia), from which I gathered material on Louise Brooks' 1922 Denishawn performances in each of those locales. I found a few articles and advertisements, as well as a review. I also looked at a number of months of theOregon Statesman (from Salem, Oregon) and Tacoma Daily Ledger (from Washington), but only found a couple of film related articles.

One of the curious items I ran across were a couple of incorrectly captioned photographs. This one - pictured below - confuses Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore and their respective co-stars. As it happened, films starring each actress were playing at the same time in Tacoma, Washington.

This is not the first time I have come across a Louise Brooks-Colleen Moore mix-up: I think, because the two actresses wore their hair in a similar fashion (and perhaps resembled one another slightly), and because at times they played the same sorts of roles, newspapers editors and the public sometimes mistook one actress for the other. Or was it that they thought of them in similar terms?


Here are the adjoining advertisements for the Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore films which appeared in the Tacoma paper (on the same page as the previously mentioned miscaptioned photographs).

 

Friday, March 9, 2007

At home



Another nice image of Louise Brooks for sale on eBay.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Viewpoint: Modern Drama

A rather interesting article on the work of Frank Wedekind is in the March, 2007 issue of Opera News. F. Paul Driscoll 's piece begins
The characters and situations created by German-born playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918) have lost none of their power to shock and disturb audiences. The feral, heartless temptress at the heart of Wedekind's Lulu plays is familiar to opera aficionados as the femme fatale of Alban Berg's Lulu; for film buffs, the personification of Wedekind's cunning mantrap is Louise Brooks, in G. W. Pabst's classic silent film Pandora's Box. Brooks's keen intelligence and highly individual "look" — sharp, shining eyes, immaculately trim legs and a glossy helmet of bobbed black hair — conspired to create one of cinema's enduring erotic icons. But what makes Pandora's Box, first released in 1929, still feel freshly-minted is the character of Lulu, the amoral, unapologetic adventuress that Wedekind put on paper more than a decade before Brooks was born. Alban Berg'sLulu is still thought of as a "modern" opera, although the composer has been dead for more than seventy years; it will always seem so, because its leading character refuses to age. Lulu's fascination lies in her ability to simulate freshness; she attracts men because her possibilities seem endless. Her life, for as long as it lasts, is lived in the future tense. 

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

China nixes LBS at LJ

According to a post on BoingBoing (which references a news item on Wired News), "China has added the whole of LiveJournal to its list of banned websites."

Sadly, thus, the billions of people of China won't be able to keep up with what's new in the world of Louise Brooks. . . . what new picture of the actress has popped up on eBay, where one of her films is screening around the world, what new articles or reviews have been uncovered, or even what news songs have been added to RadioLulu. What is the world coming to?

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Ford Sterling

There is a new book out on Ford Sterling, the one time Keystone Kop and comedic actor who appeared in two Louise Brooks films, The American Venus and The Show-Off (both 1926). Wendy Warwick White's Ford Sterling: The Life and Films is the first ever book on this talented and fascinating personality. "The main focus of the work is Sterling's career, from 1911 to 1937, which is unfortunately largely forgotten today. With an emphasis on correcting inaccuracies and restoring Sterling's legacy, this volume examines his on-screen work, his production ventures, his reputation as a world renowned photographer and his final debilitating illness. A detailed filmography provides all known production, cast and crew information as well as a synopsis for each film when available."

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Silent film revivalism


There is an article on the Wired website about a revival of interest in silent film which has been getting alot of attention lately. The article, "Filmmakers Seek Future in Past," can be found at www.wired.com/news/culture/0,72766-0.html?tw=wn_index_16 [ This is not the first time Wired News has written about renewed interest in silent film. Back in 1998, journalist Steve Silberman wrote a piece about Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. ]

post about the article on the popular website BoingBoing notes: "The piece explores modern scoring of silent films and the future of silent films on the ubiquitous video displays of major cities (as well as all silent, black and white plays based on Louise Brooks films... )" Among other things, the article discusses the recent Silent Theatre Company of Chicago production of Lulu, which was written up on this blog last year. Additionally, the author of the article, John Brownlee, has posted his extensive interview with Tonika Todorova, director of the Silent Theatre company. The interview is presented in three parts):

        Part 1: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/02/interview_lulu_.html
        Part 2: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/02/interview_lulu__1.html
        Part 3: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/03/interview_lulu_.html

Friday, March 2, 2007

Another uncommon image

Another uncommon image of Louise Brooks is for sale on eBay.

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