Louise Brooks blog theme

Looking for a Louise Brooks blog theme? Look no further than here. It's nice!            

Stuart Oderman

There is a wonderful article about Stuart Oderman in the April 20th issue of Newark Star-Ledger. The article, "Silents Are Golden Pianist carves a career out of the era before the talkies," can be accessed here. 

Who is Stuart Oderman? Not only is he one of the great silent film accompanists, as well as an author of books of interest to silent film buffs - but he is also the performer of my very, very, very favorite score / musical accompaniment to Pandora's Box. That score can be found on 2000 VHS release by Homevisions. That was the first Louise Brooks film I ever saw - and the first version of Pabst's Pandora's Box I ever saw. Not only did I fall in love with Louise Brooks, but I also came under the spell of the musical atmosphere created by Oderman. So much so, that I recorded the score on my tape recorder so I could listen to it whenever ever I wanted. I still have that tape.



Oderman's score led me to discover Debussy, Satie, Chopin, and others. And late 19th century and early 20th century piano music is a favorite. (Brooks was fond of Debussy, was she not?)

I once spoke to Oderman on the phone. He was a gracious man, and was patient with my questions. [He did meet Louise Brooks.] He is one of last living links to the films and stars of the silent film era. Read the article about him to find out more.

Louise Brooks in London exhibit

A portrait of Louise Brooks is included in the Edward Steichen exhibit currently on display at the National Portrait gallery in London, England.  For more about the exhibit, see http://www.npg.org.uk/vanityfair/index.htm

French radioprogram on Louise Brooks

Thank you Pascal, who pointed me to this webpage for a radiofrance program on Louise Brooks. The program, "Louise Brooks, l'insoumise d'Hollywood par Véra Feyder," can be accessed by the headphone link on the top right of the page. (The RealMedia program, which aired on April 13th, starts with a pop song.) The program is in French, of course, and seems to be some sort of dramatization. The cast includes

LOUISE BROOKS : Béatrice Agénin

UN REPORTER : Stéphane Valensi

MARION DAVIES : Véra Feyder

MARY BROOKS : Evelyne Guimmara

PABST : Georges Claise

JAMES CARD : Patrice Bornan

GENINA : Lucciano Travaglino

Présentation : Stéphanie Duncan

Prise de son et mixage : Olivier Dupré

Montage : Adrien Roch

Assistante : Virginie Mourthé

REALISATION : Jacques Taroni

Can any of the many French speaking fans of Louise Brooks give a sense of what this program is all about?

Midnight Palace

The Midnight Palace website has a long new article about Louise Brooks. Read it here.

Mike Doughty, Musician

Mike Doughty should be familiar to fans of Louise Brooks. The alt-rock singer-songwriter fronted the great alt-rock ("deep slacker jazz") group Soul Coughing in the 1990's. In 1998, they released El Oso, which contained "St. Louise is Listening," a musical homage to Louise Brooks. It's also well known that Doughty sports a tattoo of the actress on his arm. 

Doughty is now a solo musician, and as I understand it, on tour promoting his new album, Golden Delicious. There was an interview with the musician on the Gothamist website. In the interview, the musician is asked

On the album El Oso, there’s a song called "St. Louise is Listening." Who is St. Louise?

Louise Brooks, the silent film star. 'The Eskimo' mentioned in the second verse is a real character from her life, a Parisian faux-aristocrat.

If you have a chance, check him out on tour. Or check out his website at www.mikedoughty.com/  [I have never met the musician, though I did communicate with him via email a number of years ago while Soul Coughing was around. He seems like a fine fellow. And I like his music. The Louise Brooks Society was even one of his top friends on his Myspace page.]