Love Em and Leave Em tonight

Louise Brooks is the girl who vamps em and pets em.

Evelyn Brent is the girl who love’s em and leaves ‘em.

Lawrence Gray is the boy who can’t choose between ‘em.

Is it really the best policy to get, pet, love, leave and forget?

Find out tonight, when I'll be introducing a rare 16mm screening of Love Em and Leave Em in the Edison Theater at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. Showtime is 7:30 pm

Before the film, I'll be signing copies of my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl in the Niles Essanay gift shop. And, I be giving away a free mini LB pinback button to everyone who purchases a book. Hope to see some of you there. 

More info at examiner.com and Artsopolis or at SFGate and Facebook.

Jack Garner discusses working with Louise Brooks

Jack Garner discusses working with Louise Brooks in a new article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101008/LIVING0107/10080301/1052/ENT (see end of article).

Louise Brooks on the cover of the Police Gazette

Louise Brooks appeared on the cover of the Police Gazette, a large format tabloid, on April 4, 1925. This is in all likely-hood her first magazine cover appearance. A copy of this publication is currently for sale on eBay.

The text beneath Brooks' image reads, "A charming young dancer in a big Broadway musical show." The show the caption refers to is "Louie the Fourteenth," which was then playing at the Cosmopolitan Theater in New York City. The caption also predicts a bright future for the dancer.

Louise Brooks private journals to be unveiled

It's been a quarter of a century years since Louise Brooks passed away. Before her death, she bequeathed her private journals to the George Eastman House with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years.

Today, Variety reports that her journals have been unsealed and "Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public." Read more at http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118024992.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

I wonder if Brooks diaries and letters will also made public? We can only hope, as we all know the actress was a gifted writer and something of a braniac. Stay tuned.

Chin up

She is everywhere, and she is "fearless"

This collage image featuring the one and only Louise Brooks seems to be showing up everywhere. 

Last week, a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon sent me snapshot of it taken in a local store window. And yesterday, my wife brought me home a postcard with the image which she bought in a store in Petaluma, California. 

Earlier, I also noticed it on a handbag or some such item in a store window not far from where I live in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.

The image, which is copyrighted 2010, is the work of a design collective known as Papayaart. And in fact, if you visit their stylish website at www.papayaart.com you will see that they use a variant of this image on their homepage. It's an effective image - and one easily applied to various products. According to their website, their designs and products are distributed all around the world.

I like the image. I also noticed a collaged image of Ruth St. Denis on their website.

Kevin Brownlow: "My Life in Archives"

Back in May, the eminent and now Academy Award winning British film historian Kevin Brownlow gave a talk at the London Television Centre. His talk, part of series called the Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture, was titled "My Life in Archives."

As fans of Louise Brooks are likely aware, Brownlow has been a longtime champion of the actress. He befriended her in the late 1960’s, they corresponded for many years (reportedly some 200 letters), and she was included (a bit prominently) in three of Brownlow’s most significant works - the groundbreaking book The Parade’s Gone By (1968), the seminal 13 part filmed history of the American silent cinema, Hollywood (1979), and the also remarkable 3 part history of European silent film, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (TV series, 1996).

The Parade’s Gone By is widely considered the single most import history of silent film. And thus, it’s a bit notable that the book contains a note of thanks by Brownlow which reads, “I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book’s publication.”

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 1 from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

During Brownlow’s talk, the British film historian speaks about the actress on two occasions. He claims at one point that his actions led to the destruction of the last remaining print of the James Cruze gangster film, The City Gone Wild (1927), which featured Brooks.

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 2 from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

And, at a later point, he talks about the time he slept in Brooks’ bed. Watch the clips of this truly fascinating lecture to find out exactly what Brownlow meant by each claim.  

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 3 Q&A from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

And, if you haven't already done so, go out and get yourself a copy of The Parade's Gone By, which is available either through amazon.com or through independent booksellers. I can't recommend either Hollywood or Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, as each is out-of-print and sells for hundreds of dollars. (Each also includes brief clips of Louise Brooks.)

A little more on Kevin Brownlow and his many activities as an author, documentary filmmaker, and archivist can be found on his production company website, Photoplay Productions. There is also a Wikipedia page for the film historian which contains links to other online biographies, articles and links. [ A bit more at examiner.com ]

The World Encyclopedia of the Film

I love old reference books, for they have a tale to tell.. . . .

This past weekend, I went to the BIG book sale sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. I go every year, and always make a point of hitting the last day of the sale when every book is $1.00. I always find something - especially on the table of film books. One of the books I found this year was The World Encyclopedia of the Film by Tim Cawkwell and John M. Smith. This over-sized 444 page tome was published in 1972 by the A & W Visual Library. Seeminlgy, this book originated in Great Britian.

I hadn't ever seen this book before, which I guess was why it caught my eye among the numerous celebrity biographies and old works of "film history" published by Barnes, Citadel, Castle, etc.... So, at one dollar, I figured I would take a chance. Text on the back cover claimed it was by far the "most-complete" work of its kind.

What interests me about old reference works is the way in which they reflect the accepted facts and opinions of the time. Take, for example, this brief entry on Louise Brooks. 

Brooks was born in 1906, not 1900. Three of her films from 1927 are not listed, as isn't Empty Saddles from 1936. An emphasis is given to her work as a writer - which is interesting, as the emphasis would shift to her European films within the next decade. And Brooks' German films are listed with their German names, not the more familiar English-language titles. Within the context of this book, Brooks' entry is brief - but at least she is included. Most every film reference work from earlier decades did not include her.

The entry on G.W. Pabst is interesting in a similar way. Now-a-days, most every piece on Pabst begins with his work with Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Here, those two films - which would soon under-go a revival - are only listed. 

What old reference works tell us is the ever developing history of a thing. I also picked up an early 1980's encyclopedia  of rock music. I noticed right off a near full page entry on Rick Springfield, a performer now not as big as he once was. (I did see him in concert while in college!) Lesson learned: times change, and so do reference works.