What Becomes of the "Follies" Girls

I found this clipping the other day while doing some research. It certainly speaks to the times - especially the public interest in the lives of show girls. Today, I suppose there is equal interest in the lives of actors and actresses, and musicians.

I don't know how accurate are its figures - even in general terms. Nevertheless, I found it quite interesting. At the time it was published, 1926, Louise Brooks would have fallen under the categories of "Married" and "In the movies."

A new blog for the Louise Brooks Society

After more than 6 years and some 1,327 entries, I've decided to move the Louise Brooks Society blog from LiveJournal to Blogger. The old LBS blog is located at http://louisebrooks.livejournal.com

There is still a lot of work to be done in preparation of the move. I am still messing around with Blogger settings. And, I still need to redirect numerous links to the old blog and post notices of the change. Hopefully, the handful of readers the old blog attracted won't mind the change.

This is not a decision I came to quickly. I have been thinking about it a lot. I love LiveJournal, and it has been the home to the LBS blog for a long time. Actually, since I started blogging in 2003. However, Blogger's many features make it hard to resist.

This entry is something of a test. This new blog is a work in progress.

Beggars of Life (1928)

Cliff Aliperti, who writes about classic film for examiner.com, just published a long piece on Beggars of Life (1928). Check it out at http://www.examiner.com/x-8826-NY-Classic-Movies-Examiner~y2009m6d22-Louise-Brooks-stars-in-William-Wellmans-Beggars-of-Life-1928

From Silents to Sound

A recent article for examiner.com briefly discusses Louise Brooks and some of the actors and actresses who worked both in silent and sound films. The article, a review of Roy Liebman's From Silents to Sound: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Performers Who Made the Transition to Talking Pictures (McFarland), can be found at www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Film-Examiner~y2009m6d16-From-silents-to-sound--book-details-tipping-point-in-Hollywood-history  Check it out!

Love Em and Leave Em to screen in Australia

Love Em and Leave Em, the delightful Louise Brooks film from 1926, will be shown on Sunday June 21at the Australian Cinémathèque, which is part of the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, one of the largest public art museums in Australia. For more information on the 11:00 am screening, visit http://qag.qld.gov.au/?a=71135

According to the email I received from Australian Cinémathèque, "The Cinémathèque is currently screening a film program titled ‘Hollywood on the Hudson’ accompanying the ‘American Impressionism and Realism, A Landmark Exhibition from The Met’, The Metropolitan Museum of the Arts, New York at the Queensland Art Gallery.

‘Hollywood on the Hudson’ film program features classic films from the 1920s and 1930s which encapsulate a rich, vibrant and culturally aware New York City at a time of great economic and social change. As part of this program we will be screening Love 'em and Leave 'em 1926 / Dir: Frank Tuttle starring Louise Brooks on 21 June. All films in the ‘Hollywood on the Hudson’ program are screened with free admission and no bookings are required. Silent films in the program, including Love 'em and Leave 'em 1926 are accompanied live by the Wurlitzer Organ."

Louise Brooks Beauty Shop

While scrolling through microfilm, I came across these old advertisements. One is for the Louise Beauty Shop in New York City. I wonder if Louise Brooks knew of it?

The other advertisement is is for a novel called Kinks, a "sensational novel about show business." I found a few copies available online for as little as $10.00. The one seller of a copy available in dustjacket reports that it featured ilustrations by Vargas.

A vintage Russian Lulu - at last

Following up on my May 9th posting, I put in a request for microfilm issues of the Moscow Daily News from 1932. My interlibrary loan request arrived, and today I spent the afternoon scrolling through three months of that English-language paper published in the fledgling Soviet Union. 

Fortunately, I found a number of advertisement for the showing of Lulu (aka Pandora's Box) at the Hermitage Garden Movie Theatre in June of 1932. Here is the sort of thing I uncovered. 




Unfortunately, I didn't find much else. The film ran for two weeks. I wasn't able to find any editorial comments about Lulu - beyond a listing under "Cinema Program." After it closed, Lulu was replaced by Aelita: Queen of Mars. A quick Google search of the venue - the Hermitage Garden Movie Theatre (at Karetni Ryad 3) - reveals that Anton Chekov mentioned a similarly named place in one of his earlier stories. As did the 20th century Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky. (The venue may still be in use today, as an opera house?)

Interestingly, the advertisements - which ran every day during the film's two week run - mention neither Pandora's Box nor G.W. Pabst - only that it was a "German Art Film" "Featuring Louise Brooks." Each ad featured the same drawing of the actress, along with the notice that there was a "Continual showing from 12 noon. Last performance at 11:45. All tickets for last show at 1 ruble." 

Can anyone tell me anything more about this showing of Lulu ? Or the venue? Do any Russians read this blog?

Next, now that I have a date, I plan to put in some requests for Russian language newspapers from Moscow from the time. (This 1932 screening of Pandora's Box was not the first Louise Brooks film to be shown in the Soviet Union. The writer Ayn Rand reported having seen the 1926 film American Venus in the Soviet capital before she left the country.)

[Other interesting tidbits I came across in by scroll through the Moscow Daily News included an article on Richard Barthelmess, advertisements for a couple of Harold Lloyd films, one for Buster Keaton's The General, lots for various Soviet films unknown to me, and a report on a visit to Moscow by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who criticized a German film then playing in the Soviet city, Kuhle Vampe.)

Of related interest

Of related interest to my previous post is this article about silent film accompanist Dennis James athttp://www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Film-Examiner~y2009m5d25-Reviving-the-art-of-silent-film-one-note-at-a-time

The Silent Cinema in Song

There is a new book out on the many songs of the silent film era which were inspired by, or are about, either movies or movie stars. 

As it turns out, there are so many that author Ken Wlaschin has easily filled a 388 page book documenting the sheet music, films and recordings through which these songs found their way into the world. The book is The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896 - 1929. It was recently released by McFarland.

And of course, the one and only Louise Brooks is including in this recommended new book. To find out more, check out my own just published article on The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896 - 1929 at examiner.com. I write on silent film topics for the website. The book itself is available on-line and at better bookstores.