Libby Holman's word game

This item appeared in a Walter Winchell column back in the early 1930's. Louise Brooks makes an appearance . . . . Brooks Atkinson was a famous critic of the time.

Anna May Wong article

There is an interesting article about Anna May Wong reproduced onto the alt.movies.silent newsgroup. Check it out here.

Inspiration

According to the item description on eBay, the image of Louise Brooks shown below inspired the color study for the cover of Leanta Books edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars, also shown below. THe artist is named Burton. Check it out for yourself here.

Care to subscribe?

This recent subscription card for the New York Review of Books features a caricature of Louise Brooks by David Levine. Thanx to Dwight Cocke for passing this along.

Newspapers reject Lulu ad

According to a report in today's Hartford Courant, two newspapers have rejected a newspaper advertisement for an upcoming production of "Lulu." The Courant article stated "An advertisement promoting the upcoming play "Lulu" at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven was rejected last week by The New York Times and the New Haven Register as not meeting advertising standards." This LiveJournal had blogged about the production a few days ago. Here is a copy of the offending advertisement.



The article went on to note, "Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' plays were banned when they published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries," says Jacques Lemarre, associate marketing director for Yale Rep. "As a result, we knew that the image created for our upcoming production needed to be provocative. Director Mark Lamos has said that his production will contain nudity and sexual situations, and Yale Rep's advertisements reflect that content. While we are disappointed that some newspapers are rejecting our ads, we believe they are tasteful, yet indicative of the mature content of the Yale Rep production. . . ."

The Courant article also added, "Lulu" centers on a charismatic yet innocent temptress who seduces men, causing their doom. Wedekind's two plays -- titled "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" -- collectively make up "Lulu" and were made into a celebrated German silent film calledPandora's Box starring Louise Brooks. It was also the basis of an Alban Berg opera of the same name."

I think the ad is tasteful. And I wish I lived nearby and could attend the production. I hope all Lulu / Louise Brooks fans in the New Haven area turn out to show their support. More about the production can be found at  www.yalerep.org/lulu.html

Web pages about Louise

Here is an informational page about Louise Brooks in French. The page is part of a larger site - Encinematheque - about early movie stars. And if you haven't already come across this illustrated blog entry about Louise, be sure and check it out. It is part of the Greenbriar Pictures Show, "a site dedicated to the great days of movie exhibition."

Amy Crehore

Amy Crehore is a remarkable artist working in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in various galleries, and reporduced in various magazines. For me, she paints in a style which brings the singular work of Mark Ryden to mind. (Check out her art and website here.) This past week, Crehore blogged about Louise Brooks. . . . "Why is Louise Brooks so much more amazing than ANY woman in cinema today?" I emailed the artist, and asked if she had ever painted Brooks' portrait. She hadn't, but thinks "she is a wonderful subject."

Louise Brooks and the New Woman in Weimar Cinema

I have blogged recently about the exhibit "Louise Brooks and the New Woman in Weimar Cinema," which is currently on display at the International Center for Photography in New York City (through April 29th). In today's Boston Globe, there is a small write-upabout the exhibit by Mark Feeney.

A few years before Cartier-Bresson picked up a camera, and while Munkacsi was still in Berlin, German film witnessed a collision (or should that be interlocking?) of female sexuality and assertion such as the screen has not seen since. Louise Brooks , with that crown of black hair befitting a monarch of the Eternal Feminine , exploded forth in "Pandora's Box" and "Diary of a Lost Girl ." Marlene Dietrich became a star in "The Blue Angel. " "Madchen in Uniform " portrayed lesbianism with an unprecedented sympathy. "Metropolis " took the virgin-whore dialectic far into the future and well over the top with the saintly Maria and her lewd robot impersonator.
"Louise Brooks and the the 'New Woman' in Weimar Cinema" (it, too, runs through April 29) includes stills from each of those films, two dozen in all. A small show, it seems all the smaller after the expansiveness of the Munkacsi and Cartier-Bresson exhibitions. But one look into the eyes of Louise Brooks is reminder enough that small need not mean insubstantial.

Apparently, there is also a nice looking brochure which goes along with the show. One of them recently has shown up on eBay.

Link

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.

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. 

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?

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."

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. ]

A 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

Another uncommon image

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

Uncommon and unflattering

This uncommon image of Louise Brooks is for sale on eBay. In her youth, Brooks was one of the most photogenic of stars. It was difficult to take a bad picture of the actress. However, I think this image is one of the least flattering portraits of Brooks I have ever seen. What do you think?

Lulu on Long Island

Pandora's Box will be screened on March 21st at 7:30 pm at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island. (The event is noted under "Special Events" on the organizations website.) The screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Ben Model, who has composed an original score. I would love to hear from anyone who attends this event.

p.s. It seems there are almost as many screenings of Pandora's Box and other Brooks films this year as there were last year, when the Louise Brooks centenary took place. Certainly, the number of screenings in 2007 surpasses those in 2005.

Pandora's Box in San Jose

Do you know the way . . . . Pandora's Box will be shown March 9th in San Jose, California. The screening is part of the Cinequest festival. From the festival website:
Pandora's Box (1929)

Directed by G.W. Pabst; Starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Gustav Diessl.
Friday, March 9th @ 7:00pm California Theatre • $10 Ticket includes organ accompaniment by Dennis James at the Mighty Wurlitzer.

The incandescent, iconic Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a flower girl turned cabaret dancer, who entices and destroys the lives of the men who love her. Upon it’s initial release, Pandora’s Box was considered a failure in both Germany and the United States, but the film is now recognized as a timeless classic (like Brooks herself).

"There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks!"
– Henri Langlois, Founder of the Cinématheque Française.

While 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Louise Brooks, it also served as a rebirth of sorts, as new audiences were introduced to the timeless beauty and appeal of “the girl in the black helmet”. Brooks was the ultimate Hollywood rebel, defiantly quitting her contract with Paramount in 1928 in order to go to Berlin to work with director G.W. Pabst. She made Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl for Pabst, (as well as a third film, Prix de Beaute, in France), before returning to the Hollywood. But having burnt her bridges with Paramount, she found herself blackballed by the studios. She landed a few small parts in low budget films and ended her career in a western B-movie, supporting John Wayne, in 1938. What “might have been” had been destroyed by her keen intelligence, capricious nature, and deep disdain for the industry and most of its denizens.

For years Brooks languished in anonymity, working various jobs from dance instructor to sales clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue. In the mid-fifties, she was “rediscovered” by film historians and critics. She was encouraged to write about her experiences, and the resulting published essays proved to be clever, insightful and devastatingly honest. Her book Lulu in Hollywood was published in 1982 and is still in print. Louise Brooks died in 1985 at the age of 78.

Fashion decrees

Here is a clipping I ran across while looking through old newspapers on microfilm. As can be seen, Louise Brooks is one of the models included in this syndicated fashion column.

Inter-library loan finds

A bunch of inter-library loans have come in recently! I went through four more months of the North China Daily News, and came across advertisements and brief write-ups for The American Venus and A Girl in Every Port. Both films played in Shanghai in the fall of 1928. Remarkably, one of the advertisements for A Girl in Every Port took up nearly three-quarters of a page! I also went through some reels of the Arkansas Gazette (from Little Rock, Arkansas), Knoxville News-Sentinal (from Knoxville, Tennessee), and Illinois State Journal (from Springfield, Illinois) - and found a few film reviews in each. Citations for each of these finds have been added to the LBS bibliographies.

I  went through a few months of the Long Island Daily Press and Daily Long Island Farmer. I was hoping to find material on Louise Brooks' Ziegfeld Follies appearances or on later screenings of her films in the Big Apple. However, this New York City area newspaper didn't cover Manhattan goings-on - and thus I turned up nothing of interest. (Previously, I had lots of luck uncovering Brooks' material in the two Brooklyn newspapers. I have yet to look at the Staten Island newspaper.) Similarly, my look-through the Daily Clarion-Ledger (from Jackson, Mississippi) also turned up nothing. And, my request for the Denver Times was declined - as no lending institution could be found in Colorado or elsewhere. Fortunately, I have in the past gotten access to a couple of other Denver papers.

I also went through some microfilm of the Trenton Evening Times. I had requested the month of September 1925, as this month sometimes turns up material on The Street of Forgotten Men (which opened a couple of months earlier and was still in circulation around the country)  as well as the 1925 Miss America contest. The contest - which served as the backdrop to Louise Brooks' second film, The American Venus - was held in the second week of September in nearby Atlantic City, New Jersey. In my searching, I managed to uncover a couple of articles about the contest, as well as a comic strip called "Petey Dink." For about two weeks, it focussed on the Miss America contest. Here is a typical strip.



The search goes on. I put in some more ILL requests. And we shall see what turns up next time.