Some more about Diary of a Lost Girl

As the few readers of this blog know, I recently completed a long thought about project, the republication of Margarete Böhme's 1905 novel, Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, or The Diary of a Lost Girl. I first read the book a few years back, after having tracked down and purchasing for $80.00 a vintage hardback copy of the 1908 American edition.

I also collected photoplay editions, the movie tie-in books from the silent and early sound era. And somewhere along the line, it occurred to me to try and create a photoplay edition of Böhme's book. I ended up not doing that - but instead created an illustrated edition of the controversial and bestselling book. My The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) contains more than 3 dozen illustrations. Perhaps about half feature Brooks, while the other half relate to Böhme's best known book.

After giving it a lot of thought, I decided I really wanted to emphasize Böhme and her book. Why? Because, the more I looked into things and the more research I did, the more fascinated I became with this forgotten author, her little known book, and its relation to the 1929 G.W. Pabst film. I think its story is really interesting. My The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) contains a 20 page introduction, along with nearly as many pages of related material.

I hope readers will think this project is worthwhile as well. I've created a few informational pages at http://www.pandorasbox.com/diary.html and http://www.pandorasbox.com/diary-more.html Or, if you're interested, a bit more info and sample pages can be found at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-diary-of-a-lost-girl-%28louise-brooks-edition%29/11256621

The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) is a 336-page softcover book priced at $24.95. It is pictured above. I am also creating a limited edition which will be available later in the summer. The limited edition will be hardback with a different dust-jacket and an accompanying free CD-Rom featuring all kinds of bonus material. (It's stuff I just couldn't fit into the book for one reason or another.) The limited edition will also be autographed by me. It is pictured at left.

I have also set up a couple of events for the book. The first is a booksigning on July 17th at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The signing follows a screening of the 1929 G.W. Pabst film. Here is the Facebook page for the signing, and its listing on the San Francisco Chronicle website. A second event, which will include a presentation and screening, will take place on Louise Brooks' birthday, November 14th, in the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library. A third event, at a San Francisco Bay Area bookstore, is in the works.

At each of these events, I will be giving away a free mini-pinback button  with ever purchase of the book featuring either an vintage depiction of Thymian, or an image of Louise Brooks at Thymain. The image of Thymian (pictured at right) is taken from the 1908 American edition which I bought some years back.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The brochure for this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival is hot off the press, and look who's on the cover. 

The Festival takes place July 15-18th at the historic Castro Theater. And what's more, the 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown as this year's centerpiece film. It's the Founders Presentation film.

Along with a great line up of films and special guests,  these beautifully designed keepsake brochures are just one more reason to attend this year's Festival . . . . 

And heck, I'll be there too.

Louise Brooks in the lobby

Last night, my wife and I went to see The Prisoner of Zenda (1936), starring Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The film was being shown at the Rafael Theater in San Rafael. On hand were members of the Fairbanks' family, as well as a couple of Academy Award winning special effects guys who spoke about the making of the film. They even showed behind-the-scenes footage shot by Fairbanks Jr.

The theater is home to the California Film Institute. As I entered the theater lobby I was surprised to come across a large poster promoting membership in the Film Institute. The poster featured a big portrait of Louise Brooks. I was very tempted to steal it. But somehow, I resisted temptation. Instead, I had my picture taken next to it. I guess that is the next best thing. (For those seeking less of me and more of thee, a close-up of the poster is shown below. Sorry about the glare.)

The California Film Institute restored the Rafael Theatre, which is now officially called the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. The art moderne Rafael was itself a 1938 renovation of the earlier, fire-damaged Orpheus Theatre. Today, it houses three screens specializing in independent and foreign films. 

According to its entry on the CinemaTreasures.org website, "The Rafael was built in 1920 as the first run movie house Orpheus. It was enlarged and a new screen was added in 1926. After a 1937 fire gutted the victorian style auditorium it was remodeled in the art deco style and reopened as a second run movie house. It even served time in the 1960s as a Disney Family Theater. It was heavily damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and was closed. In 1998 the majority of it was gutted with half of the building being demolished. It was rebuilt as a triplex in 1999 and shows art and foreign films."

Most all of Louise Brooks' American silent films were shown at the Orpheus in the Twenties. (Most of Brooks' sound films from the Thirties were shown at the El Camino, which was located nearby but today no longer stands.)  Among the Brooks' films screened there were The Street of Forgotten Men on September 12, 1925, Just Another Blonde on April 14-15, 1927, and Beggars of Life from November 19-21, 1928.

 

This is not the first time I've been to the Rafael. I met Peter Cowie, author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever, there in 2006 when the theater screened Pandora's Box and Cowie introduced the film and spoke about his book.

The Rafael is a charming theater. If you have chance, it is worth visiting.

A favorite image

This vintage postcard depicts Louise Brooks in the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box (1929). It is a favorite of mine. I thought you might like it too.

A bit more about Diary of a Lost Girl

Yesterday, I received finished copies of my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl, by Margarete Böhme. I think it looks great. I am pleased. Should anyone care to purchase a copy, the book is for sale at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-diary-of-a-lost-girl-%28louise-brooks-edition%29/11263780 There, you can even check out some sample pages.

I also recently received my first blurb! It's from film biographer and silent film historian Lon Davis, the author of Silent Lives and King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman. Davis said:

"Thomas Gladysz is the leading authority on all matters pertaining to the legendary Louise Brooks. We owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing the groundbreaking novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl - the basis of Miss Brooks's classic 1929 film - back from obscurity. It remains a fascinating work."

A movie herald: what it tells us

On eBay, there is an American Venus movie herald for sale. Just about any movie herald from the silent era is uncommon. Some are rare. What makes this particular herald a bit unusual are its hand written annotations. They have a story to tell.

The American Venus was released in early 1926. This herald is dated 1927, apparently by someone who saw the film. That suggests that the two theaters which showed the film in May of that year, one in Petersburg and one in Blissfield (located less than 9 miles apart in Monroe County in Michigan), showed it late in the exhibition life of the film. That was not usual for small towns, which usually but not always got major films later than the bigger cities and towns.

The film’s plot revolved around a beauty contest, and as I have found out, many theaters sponsored their own beauty contests or fashion shows in connection with the showing of the film. Such was the case with the Petersburg and Blissfield Theaters.

Beauty contests, and to a lesser degree this film, helped “define” the notion of beauty. The film’s star, Fay Lanphier, was named Miss America in 1925, and as press coverage at the time indicates, she was considered an ideal beauty. I have found many newspapers advertisements which detailed Lanphier’s physical attributes, including her measurements. She is shown, arms outstretched, in the interior of the herald. Esther Ralston, another renown beauty, is pictured on the cover of the herald.

On the back of the herald is a custom message from the sponsoring theaters which reads “The lady turning in measurements nearest to the AMERICAN VENUS will be given—ten tickets to this theatre. Measurements must be turned in on playing date—at box office.”

What’s interesting are the handwritten notations. They record someone’s measurements in comparison to Lanphier’s. On the back, that same someone recorded their weight throughout the 1930’s. That someone, who weighed 169 pounds in 1939, held onto this herald for more than 12 years. The American Venus made an impression. This battered herald, this scrap of paper, tells their story.