Saturday, June 30, 2007

Another "Louise"

Here's another vintage version of "Louise," this one by Bob Haring and His Orchestra.

 

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Starr, by Patrick Conrad



This book - which features Louise Brooks on the cover - showed up on eBay recently. I haven't been able to find out anything about it. Though I think it may be fiction - perhaps a crime novel or mystery. Does anyone know anything? Help!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Amy Crehore Paints Louise Brooks

John Brownlee's blog at Wired.com features a painting by artist Amy Crehore based on a photograph of Louise Brooks. (I have blogged about Crehore and her interest in Brooks in the past.) Check out the blog and images here

Brownlee likes Crehore's art a great deal, while describing Louise Brooks as "my own silver and silent heart's desire." [ Here is a link to Crehore's original blog about the painting.]

Monday, June 25, 2007

June 26th - RadioLulu - Day of Silence

RadioLulu and Live365, along with the SaveNetRadio coalition and Internet radio stations throughout the U.S., will be participating in a Day of Silence on Tuesday, June 26th. This is a call to action around a proposed ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board. See my earlier LJ post for details.


On June 26th, from 3 a.m. Pacific to midnight, all 10,000 Live365 stations - including RadioLulu - will go silent. Free listeners who tune into Live365.com stations will be redirected to a Day of Silence stream that offers an explanation, broadcaster testimonials and a call to action. VIP listeners will receive a Day of Silence PSA before being connected to the station's regular programming (if available).

Sunday, June 24, 2007

"Pandora's Box" to screen in NYC

Pandora's Box (1929), starring the one and only Louise Brooks, will be shown in New York City on July 3rd. The screening will take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The film will be accompanied by Ben Model on the mighty Miditzer virtual theater organ. For more information, see www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/kino07/pandora_sbox.html

Pandora’s Box
Series: 30 Years of Kino International [June 29 – July 12, 2007]
Director: G.W. Pabst,, Country: Germany, Release: 1929, Runtime: 100

G.W. Pabst’s immortal film version of the Wedekind play gave us one of the most enduring presences in cinema: Louise Brooks’ Lulu. She was a “new kind of femme fatale,” wrote J. Hoberman in The Village Voice, “generous, manipulative, heedless, blank, democratic in her affections, ambiguous in her sexuality.” As Brooks herself put it to Kenneth Tynan, “It was clever of Pabst to know even before he met me that I possessed the tramp essence of Lulu." She has inspired countless bob-haired imitators, but Brooks still reigns supreme. With Fritz Kortner and Franz Lederer.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

"Louise," by Irving Kaufmann

There have been many versions of "Louise." Here is another.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Louise Brooks first film appearance?

Was Louise Brooks'  first film appearance in a minor 1923 film called Cause for Divorce ?


I came across this intriguiging May, 1924 clipping while going through Denishawn scrapbooks during my recent visit to New York City. Frankly, I had almost missed it, as it was one of hundreds of similar small articles of no particular interest. (I am still slowly going through the nearly 600 photocopies I made on that trip - the most material I have ever uncovered during one of my research expeditions.)

The article refers to a minor 1923 film directed by Hugh Dierker (perhaps the only one he made - though he did write the screenplay for another). The film was released by Hugh Dierker Productions, and distributed by the Selznick Distributing Corporation. According to the article, the manager of a New Brunswick, New Jersey theater claimed that members of the Denishawn Dance Company appear in the film. The company had recently performed in New Brunswick, and seemingly there was still a bit of a buzz about the dancers around town. Enough so, at least, for the manager of a movie theater to make a claim that "Ted Shawn and most of the girls will positively appear in the picture." How he would know they were in the picture, I can't say.

I haven't been able to find out much of anything about Cause for Divorce except that it was released in 1923. Brooks was a member of Denishawn in 1922 and 1923. However, the Denishawn Dancers are not credited in the IMDb entry on the film. Until some further proof emerges - like stills, production history of Cause for Divorce, or even the film itself - the possibility of Brooks' first film appearance will have to remain a mystery.

[ Does any reader of this blog know anything about Cause for Divorce ? ]
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