When two dollars is worth four-hundred, or more

Here's a real curio. On eBay, someone is selling a two dollar bill apparently signed by Louise Brooks. The bill dates from 1976, and the signature looks right. However, there is no story of how this piece of American currency came to be autographed by Brooks.

Yuna Yang fashion designs Louise Brooks

Yuna Yang is a New York City based fashion designer who also happens to love Louise Brooks. I've been in touch with Yang, and in our email exchanges, she has said so. Yang also made mention of her interest in the Brooks' look in her most recent blog post. Yesterday, Yang wrote

Yuna Yang FW 2010 was inspired by the provocative style of the 1920’s

silent movie starlet Mary Louise Brooks. Also known as ‘Lulu,’

Brooks traveled across the world, performing as a dancer and actress

in both Europe and America. With her forward

thinking fashion sense; her clothes became an external representation

of her innovative and liberal spirit. Lulu’s fashion heralded the

emergent role of women in society, part of the twentieth century’s

momentum that would give rise to feminism, women’s liberation and its

corollary, ready-to-wear fashion.

Yuna Yang FW2010 collection, manufactured right here in Manhattan, is

unique in providing couture quality ready to wear designs. 

There is a bit more about Yuna Yang at my Louise Brooks column on examiner.com. Also, check out Yang's blog at http://yuna-yang.blogspot.com/ or her website at http://www.yunayang.com/

More This and That

More good news: another library has acquired the Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl for their collection. The Thousand Oaks Library (the "Grant R. Brimhall Library") in southern California now lists the book as part of their collection.

And today, Book Passage in Corte Madera, California also took copies for their store. Book Passage is a well known independent bookstore located in Marin County.

Also, the small exhibit of material related to the book on display at the San Francisco Public Library has been extended and will remain on display through December 14th. The display - pictured below - is on the fourth floor.

If you haven't already done so, please check out this guest blog I wrote about the book in anticipation of the November 14th event at the SFPL. This guest blog is hosted on the San Francisco Public Library Art, Music & Recreation Center blog at http://sfplamr.blogspot.com/2010/11/diary-of-lost-girl.html

This and that, The Diary of a Lost Girl & Louise Brooks

I just received the most recent email newsletter from the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. They announced their December line-up of films, and also included a few pictures from their gift shop and film vault. There always seems to be a lot going on at the Fremont, California film museum. On Christmas night, they are screening Ella Cinders, starring that other bobbed-haired wonder from the Jazz Age - Colleen Moore.

I was especially pleased to see Louise Brooks front and center in a snapshot of one of their gift shop displays.

My recent Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl is doing well. A friend emailed me to say they saw it on display at the Neue Gallerie in New York City. And this past weekend, I visited Petaluma, California (a little more than an hour north of San Francisco) where I saw the book on display at Copperfields. According to the clerk at the cashier, this large stire has already sold 3 of the 5 copies they ordered! That's a pretty good sell-through. Here's an in situ snapshot of the book at Copperfields, right next to a George Clooney cover in the fiction section. Oh, and that's me.

The other good news is that another library has acquired the book for their collection. The Dakota County Library in Eagan, Minnesota go a copy last week. God bless em - as they are the second Minnesota library to acquire the book - the other being the Hennepin County Library. And here at my local San Francisco Public Library, their are 16 holds on the 4 copies they have in their collection! Wowza.

On January 13th of next year, I will be speaking about The Diary of a Lost Girl at the Village Voice Bookshop in Paris - with a screening of the film to follow at the nearby Action Cinema. While in France, I also plan on visiting the Cinémathèque Française and other Parisian sights connected with the actress's time there. More about the book can be found at http://www.pandorasbox.com/diary.html.

King of Gamblers star subject of new book

(adapted from my article on examiner.com)

King of Gamblers was one of the last films in which Louise Brooks had a role. Unfortunately, her small part – as the fiancé to a character played by Lloyd Nolan - was cut at the time of the film’s release. Nevertheless, this 1937 Paramount drama - an underworld crime story about a slot-machine racket and the crusading reporter who uncovers it – is a terrific “B” movie given “A” treatment at the hands of director Robert Florey. Should you ever have a chance to see it, you won’t be disappointed. [Duped copies of the film sometimes show up on eBay. it has never been officially released on either VHS or DVD.]

The film stars Akim Tamiroff as a syndicate boss. However, it’s the crusading reporter in King of Gamblers, played by Nolan, who steals the show.

Nolan, a venerable character actor whose career spanned 50 years, is the subject of a new book by broadcaster Joel Blumberg and writer Sandra Grabman. The 294-page Lloyd Nolan: An Actor's Life With Meaning has just been published by BearManor Media. The book is a good read, contains a few bits about King of Gamblers, and is worth checking out.

Joel Blumberg and writer Sandra Grabman’s Lloyd Nolan: An Actors Life With Meaning (BearManor Media) is available through amazon.com and Indiebound.

A Girl in Every Port to screen at BFI in January

A Girl in Every Port, the 1928 Howard Hawks film starring Louise Brooks, Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong, will screen at the British Film Institute on January 2 and January 7. The film will be shown with live piano accompaniment, and is part of a Hawks retrospective taking place at the BFI. The film is being described as "Perhaps the most significant of Howard Hawks' silent films."

The BFI website notes, "History ranks this as the most significant of Hawks' silent films, because it seemingly persuaded GW Pabst to ask for Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box.

The Hawks film casts Brooks as a circus artiste, 'Mlle Godiva', who dives from a height into a small pool of water. She has Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong offering a towel, and she handles that with Lulu's aplomb, enjoying them both at the same time. So Brooks stands as the first Hawksian woman."

Further details can be found on the BFI website at http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/january_seasons/howard_hawks/a_girl_in_every_port

CyberMonday 15% off on The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition)

Here's the perfect gift for the Louise Brooks / silent film fan on your holiday shopping list. Purchase The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) at Lulu.com and receive 15% off with coupon code STOCKING305

Use coupon code STOCKING305 at checkout and receive 15% off The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition). This offer good only on Lulu.com. Maximum savings with this promotion is $10. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. 

This great CyberMonday offer ends on December 15, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST. (Link to purchase.) This offer good only on Lulu.com, the recommended site on which to purchase this new book.

"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." - Leonard Maltin

"Read today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling." - Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

"An important contribution to film history. . . . a volume of uncommon merit." - Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran

"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, back from obscurity." - Lon Davis, author of Silent Lives 

15% off The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition)