Louise Brooks commemorative bronze medal

A commemorative bronze medal depicting Louise Brooks is currently for sale on eBay. These burnished bronze medals, of European origin (?), don't show up all that often. I don't know much else about them. Does anyone?

Diary of a Lost Girl available on Scribd

My new "Louise Brooks" edition of Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl is now available through the website Scribd.

The Diary of a Lost Girl

Some books and DVDs

Radiosendung zu Louise Brooks

Apparently, a German radio station broadcast a program on Louise Brooks earlier this month, marking the 25th anniversary of her passing. The program, "Immortal Anti-Star," by Claudia Lenssen, was broadcast on August 5, 2010 on the RBB Kulturradio. Here is the description of the program in German:

Unsterblicher Anti-Star
Eine Hommage zum 25. Todestag von Louise Brooks
Von Claudia Lenssen

Sie war Tänzerin, Showgirl, leidenschaftliches Jazz-Baby und Trinkerin. Als "Mädchen mit dem schwarzen Helm" wurde die außergewöhnliche Schönheit Louise Brooks zu einer Ikone, die Bubikopf- Frisur ihr Markenzeichen als neuer unschuldig-sinnlicher Frauentyp. Zwei Stummfilme mit dem Regisseur G.W. Pabst, Lulu und Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, sichern ihr einen herausragenden Platz in der Filmgeschichte. Von Hollywood enttäuscht, entdeckte sie später ihr Schreibtalent und hinterließ der Nachwelt brillante Porträts des frühen Kinos.

This classical music / arts station broadcasts in Germany and also streams over the internet. Might anyone have a recording of the program?

Ebert Club Newsletter

Roger Ebert likes Louise Brooks. He's told me so, and he's also written about the actress and her films on more than a few occasions. Apparently, he also just wrote about the actress in the most recent issue of the "Ebert Club Newsletter."

Ebert wrote, "The Sounds of Silents: Science finds that silent movies trigger mental soundtracks in our minds. Oddly enough, this may explain why they create a reverie state in me. I usually listen to them with a musical sound track, but after reading this I tried a little of "The Show Off" on Netflix streaming, and I see what they mean. . . . So try a little of "The Show Off" yourself. Turn off the sound. Here's the complete movie via Google; though Netflix quality is better. Notice that whenever Louise Brooks is on screen, you simply can't focus on anyone else..."

The newsletter includes a link to a Google video of the 1926 Brooks film (as above), and then a paragraph on Louise Brooks "Looking for Lulu" (1998), the outstanding documentary on the actress by Hugh Munro Neely. Ebert goes on the mention The Cat and the Canary (1927) and highlight some of the other kinds of silent and other early films available over the internet. It's an interesting post. And well worth reading. I always enjoy Ebert's writing - he is one of our best critics.

Leonard Maltin writes up the new edition of DIARY

Film critic & film historian Leonard Maltin wrote up my new Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl on his syndicated column, Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy.

Maltin's article, "Silent Stars Still Mesmerize," is a round up of three self-published books, including the new illustrated edition of Margarete Bohme's book (which served as the basis for the 1929 Louise Brooks film). Maltin says, in part, "Gladysz provides an authoritative series of essays that tell us about the author, the notoriety of her work (which was first published in 1905), and its translation to the screen. Production stills,  advertisements, and other ephemera illustrate these introductory chapters. In today’s parlance this would be called a “movie tie-in edition,” but that seems a rather glib way to describe yet another privately published work that reveals an enormous amount of research — and passion."

The other two books covered by Maltin, Donna Hill's Rudolph Valentino, The Silent Idol: His Life in Photographs and Linda Wada's The Sea Gull: The Chaplin Studio’s Lost Film Starring Edna Purviance, are also highly recommended. (I've got copies of each.) Check out Leonard Maltin's article here. 

 
The new Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl can be purchased through Lulu.com