Louise Brooks postcard

This nice old postcard of Louise Brooks is currently for sale on eBay. Check it out. It's a Ross Verlag 4608/1.

From Jim Tully to Colleen moore

As mentioned in yesterday blog, here is one of my copies of Jim Tully's Beggars of Life, inscribed to actress Colleen Moore. I found it in a used bookstore here in California. The store owner gave me a discount, because it had sat on the shelves for so long. And they were happy to sell.

 

Tully's inscription to Colleen Moore reads "With the admiration of a Irish rover to a whimsical girl who knew him when." The book is signed, Hollywood, California 1926.

Beggars of Life returns to print

Speaking of Beggars of Life . . . the 1924 bestselling book by Jim Tully which served as the basis for the 1928 William Wellman film of the same name starring Louise Brooks, is due to be republished. The book will be republished in June by Kent State University Press, with a new cover and new introductions by Tully scholars Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak.

This from the publisher: "Jim Tully takes us across the seamy underbelly of pre-WWI America on freight trains, and inside hobo jungles and brothels while narrowly averting railroad bulls (cops) and wardens of order. 

Written with unflinching honesty and insight, Beggars of Life follows Tully from his first ride at age thirteen, choosing life on the road over a deadening job, through his teenage years of learning the ropes of the rails and living one meal to the next. 

Tully’s direct, confrontational approach helped shape the hard-boiled school of writing, and later immeasurably influenced the noir genre. Beggars of Life was the first in Tully’s five-volume memoir, dubbed the "Underworld Edition," recalling his transformation from road-kid to novelist, journalist, Hollywood columnist, chain maker, boxer, circus handyman, and tree surgeon.

Jim Tully (1891–1947) was a best-selling novelist and popular Hollywood journalist in the 1920s and ’30s. Known as "Cincinnati Red" during his years as a road-kid, he counted prizefighter and publicist of Charlie Chaplin among his many jobs. He is considered (with Dashiel Hammett) one of the inventors of the hard-boiled style of American writing."

The reprint of Beggars of Life is part of larger effort by Kent State University press to bring other Tully books back into print. So far, two other Tully novels have been reissued. They are Circus Parade, with a foreword by Harvey Pekar, and Shanty Irish, with a foreword by John Sayles. No word yet on who might be writing the foreword to Beggars of Life.

I do plan on getting a copy of this new edition, though I already own two other copies of the book! One of them is an old photoplay edition which once belonged, reportedly, to the son or grandson of Ambrose Bierce. The other is a first edition copy which once belonged to Colleen Moore. It has her decorative bookplate inside, and the book is inscribed by Tully to the actress with an appropriate Irish sentiment. It is one of my treasures.

Once it is released, the book should be available for purchase online and at better independent bookstores.

Secret hobo code

When the William Wellman film, Beggars of Life, was released in 1928, some of the publicity materials focused on hobo culture. The film was based on a book of the same name by Jim Tully, which tells of his days as a hobo among the wandering down-and-out of America. In the film, Brooks plays a young women who dresses as a young man and goes on the run. And for a time, she hangs out in what was then termed a "hobo jungle."

Articles about the film at the time contained mini-dictionaries of hobo terms and slang. This publicity photo, which is currently for sale on eBay, depicts the actress in character holding a coded message - the snipe (or descriptive text) on the back of the picture states the sign  notes the approaching town has a police force hostile towards vagrants.

New examiner.com column about Louise Brooks

Tori Amos and Tori Spelling have one, as does John Lennon and the Jonas Brothers. So does Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, and Miley Cyrus. That's why I've started a new examiner.com column focusing on Louise Brooks. It's a national column, which means I'll be covering all things Louise Brooks from a national perspective. That will include screenings, events, happenings, new books, new DVDs, new CDs and all kinds of other stuff. I will also throw in a few interviews from time to time - and who knows what else. Yesterday, I posted my first column.

At the national level, I will be joining other illustrious examiners such as Robin Leach (I kid thee not) and many others. Got a news tip? Send it along.

The new Louise Brooks Examiner column can be found at http://www.examiner.com/x-48577-Louise-Brooks-Examiner

Please check it out. You can even sign up for email alerts whener ever a new piece is posted.

Last Ziegfeld Follies Girl dies at 106

Doris Eaton Travis, one of the last living Ziegfeld Follies Girls and a contemporary of Louise Brooks, has died. She was 106 years old.

In her long career, Travis appeared in silent and talking pictures, performed for presidents and princesses, bantered with Babe Ruth, offended Henry Ford, outlived her six siblings (who were also performers), wrote a newspaper column, hosted a Detroit television show, and earned a degree in history at age 88.

Her film roles include small roles in Taking the Count  (1928) and Street Girl (1929). The former was written by Rube Goldberg. The latter starred Bettty Compson.

Travis continued to work late in life, with annual appearances on Broadway, a small role in a Jim Carrey movie, and a recently published memoir, The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family From Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond. That book was published in 2003.

In 2006, a visual biography about Travis was also published. It was called Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies. More about Doris Eaton Travis at Wikipedia, and here at her AP obituary. Here is a short video made a few years ago.

Pandora's Box screens in Pasadena, CA

Pandora's Box, the 1929 G.W. Pabst silent film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Pasadena, California on Friday, May 28th.

The screening, with live music by jazz bassist Tom Peters, is set for 8 pm at Boston Court (70 North Mentor Avenue, one block north of Colorado Blvd and one block east of Lake Avenue, four blocks from the Metro Gold Line Lake Ave station). Apparently, Peters will be performing his own score to the film.

More info and ticket availability here.

I would love to hear from anyone who attends - I am especially interested to know their impressions of the score.