A Wedekind revival ?

Might there be a Frank Wedekind revival brewing? There is an article which speculates as much on Broadwayworld.com The article, "Mark Lamos Directs Wedekind's LULU at Yale Rep," notes the forthcoming production in New Haven. Not Surprisingly, the article mentions Louise Brooks, the most famous Lulu (and the most famous Wedekind character) of them all.

According to Lamos, “When James Bundy suggested Wedekind's Lulu as a possibility for my return to Yale Rep, I hadn’t read it for many years. What struck me most was how different the play was from G.W. Pabst’s silkily sensual silent film starring the legendary Louise Brooks. It also bore only passing resemblance to Alban Berg’s operatic incarnation. Wedekind worked from a tradition of cabaret, vaudeville, and the political club scene of his time. The original Lulu is much more absurdist, more knockabout than the famous film and the lushly atonal operatic masterpiece. His work inspired artists in all mediums, including Bert Brecht, whose experimental mixing of styles and tones became a staple of the 20th century avant-garde.”

The article then goes on to note, "With the recent Criterion DVD release of Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1929) and the hit Broadway musical adaptation of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, now is the time to rediscover this highly influential playwright." [ And not to forget the Silent Theater production of Lulu which played in Chicago, NYC and San Francisco.]

p.s. I wonder why the producers chose Carl R. Mueller translation of Wedekind's play, and not one of the many others by Stephen Spender, Eric Bently, Samuel Eliot, etc....

Would you whisper ?

A reproduction of this nifty magazine cover is for sale on eBay. It is the a tabloid of the time, the Police Gazette - dating from  December 13, 1924. The photo on the cover is by Alfred Cheney Johnston. The title below the picture (as best I can tell) reads "If you met her on a farm would you whisper, 'chick, chick.'"

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.

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  

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).

 

At home

Another nice image of Louise Brooks for sale on eBay.