Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks, 20th century icon

Polish film mag cover

For sale on eBay is this 1993 Polish film magazine featuring Louise Brooks on the cover. And according to the seller description, there is also a 2 page article inside on the actress. The name of the magazine is ILUZJON. As someone of Polish descent, I enjoy coming across stuff like this.

There is also an article on Harrison Ford - not the silent film star Harrison Ford, but rather the contemporary film star of the same name. (If Harrison Ford were to appear in a bio-pic about the first Harrison Ford, would he then be playing himself?)

OK, enough kidding around. There are also articles on Federico Fellini and Jack Nicholson and others. The seller emphasizes these latter stars - but I would be willing to wager that it is the lovely picture of Louise Brooks on the cover which causes it to sell. Here is a scan of the back and front covers: the exotic and the erotic look across at one another through time.

Action Christine Cinema

On January 13th, the Action Christine Cinema in Paris (France) will screen the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. Here is the theater page listing for the event. And below is the press release announcing the event. [please note: The 8:30 event at the Action Christine will be preceded by a 7:00 author talk at the nearby Village Voice bookshop.]

Cinémathèque Française article

France Today ran an article on the Cinémathèque Française which mentions Louise Brooks. The famous French film museum, founded by Henri Langlois, has at least a few items related to the actress on display, including " Louise Brooks's spangled silver flapper dress."

The article can be found at http://francetoday.com/articles/2011/01/01/the-cinematheque-francaise.html

I plan on visiting the Cinémathèque Française when I visit Paris in the coming weeks, in conjunction with an author event for The Diary of a Lost Girl at the Village Voice Bookshop / Action Christine Cinema on January 13.

A Girl in Every Port: a review of reviews

As part of its month long tribute to director Howard Hawks, the British Film Institute will twice screen the 1928 Louise Brooks film, A Girl in Every Port. The film, by consensus the best of Hawks' early efforts, is set to play on January 2 and January 7, 2011.

Following its February 18, 1928 world premiere at the Roxy Theater in New York City (where on February 22 of that year it set a record for the highest ever single day gross), the Fox film received glowing reviews in New York's many daily newspapers. Read more on this story on examiner.com

The film also received positive reviews in newspapers elsewhere around the country. 

Mae Tinee, writing in the Chicago Tribune, stated "A Girl in Every Port is a good little yarn that suits Mr. McLaglen better than other things he has had since What Price Glory? . . . Various damsels rage through the action, but to Louise Brooks falls, as should, the plum feminine characterization. She pulls it off in her customary deft fashion - and the enchanting bob in which she first appeared before the movie camera."

Arthur Sheekman, in the cross-town Chicago Daily Journal, echoed those sentiments.  “Your correspondent, partial to all the McLaglen performances, had a grand time watching A Girl in Every Port, in which so much loveliness is contributed by that dark young venus, Miss Brooks.”

The critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, “The picture fairly overflows with feminine near-stars. The outstanding feminine role is played very well, indeed, by Louise Brooks.”

The most extravagant praise Brooks received came from the critic for the Washington Times, who went so far as to state, “The girl is Louise Brooks, who could supply half the so-called stars of Hollywood with ‘IT’ and still have enough left to outclass Clara Bow.”

Canary Murder Case author featured in new book

The 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Canary Murder Case, is based on bestselling book of the same name by S.S. Van Dine, a once-popular and critically esteemed author of detective fiction. Though little read today, Van Dine is considered an important figure in the development of the modern detective story. 

Van Dine is one of three writers featured in a new book, Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930 (McFarland), by J.K. Van Dover. This 221 page study also examines the fiction of  Earl Derr Biggers and Dashiell Hammett during a crucial five year period when these three authors helped transform the detective story into the genre we know today.

Making the Detective Story American is well written, thoroughly researched, and a good read! Further consideration of this recommended new book can be found on examiner.com, along with some vintage newspaper advertisements for the film. Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930 is available through online retailers and Indiebound.

RadioLulu reminder

Just a reminder to be sure and check out RadioLulu - Louise Brooks inspired, silent film themed radio featuring music of the Twenties, Thirties and today - includes Brooks' related film music, early jazz, dance bands, songs sung by silent film stars, and contemporary pop music about the silent film star.

This unique station features music from six of the Brooks' films - including the haunting themes from Beggars of Life (1928) and Prix de Beaute (1930), as well as musical snippets from The Canary Murder Case (1929) and Empty Saddles (1936). Other vintage tracks associated with the actress on RadioLulu include Maurice Chevalier's much-loved 1929 recording of "Louise," and rare recordings by co-stars Adolphe Menjou, Noah Beery, Blanche Ring, Grace Moore, and Cary Grant. RadioLulu also plays contemporary musical tributes to the actress by the likes of Twiggy, Rufus Wainwright, Soul Coughing, OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark), Marillion, The Green Pajamas, Ron Hawkins, Sarah Azzara, Paul Hayes, and Clan of Xymox, among others.

Rare recording by Brooks' Hollywood contemporaries are also featured. Among the film world personalities heard on the station are Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Pola Negri, Ramon Novarro, Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, Bebe Daniels, Marlene Dietrich, Buddy Rogers, Jean Harlow, and Tallulah Bankhead. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell can also be heard singing the charming "If I Had A Talking Picture Of You."

On RadioLulu, you'll also hear Jazz Age crooners, torch singers, dance bands, hotel orchestras, show tunes, standards, and some real sweet jazz! There are vintage recordings from England, France, Germany, and even Czechoslovakia. There are also tracks featuring the celebrated 1930's Polish chanteuse Hanka Ordonówna, the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht (singing "Mack the Knife" in 1929!), and the contemporary cartoonist Robert Crumb (playing on "Chanson por Louise Brooks"). And what's more, you'd be hard-pressed to find a station that plays more tracks with "Lulu" in the title than the always eclectic and always entertaining RadioLulu!

Who else can be heard on RadioLulu? How about the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Abe Lyman, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Gertrude Lawrence, Annette Hanshaw, Rudy Vallee, Helen Kane, Paul Whiteman, Ted Weems, George Gershwin, Russ Colombo, Harry Richman, Libby Holman and Xavier Cugart - as well as Camilla Horn, Lillian Harvey, Anny Ondra, Josephine Baker, Lucienne Boyer, Mistinguett, and even Kiki of Montparnase.

RadioLulu plays great music, including numerous rare recordings of movie stars from the silent film and early sound era. Check it out !

Let's nominate Louise Brooks to the National Film Registry

The Library of Congress today announced which 25 films will be included in the National Film Registry for 2010.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress annually names 25 films to the National Film Registry. The films are deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The films are not selected as the “best” American films, but rather, works of enduring significance to American culture. To date, more than 500 films have been honored.

Annual selections to the registry are finalized by the Librarian after reviewing hundreds of titles nominated by the public and having extensive discussions with the distinguished members of the National Film Preservation Board, as well as the Library’s motion-picture staff. This year 2,112 films were nominated.

So far, no Louise Brooks film is included in the National Film Registry. It's time that change. The Librarian urges the public to make nominations for next year’s registry at the Film Board’s website (www.loc.gov/film/vote.html). I would like to suggest the nomination of The Show Off  (1926) or Love Em and Leave Em (1926) or Beggars of Life (1928). I think they are the best American films in which Brooks appeared. 

It's the Old Army Game (1926), Love Em and Leave Em (1926), and Beggars of Life (1928) are each on the National Film Registry "shortlist" at http://www.loc.gov/film/NFRposs.html

[ More on this news story at www.examiner.com/silent-movie-in-san-francisco/early-films-selected-for-national-film-registry ]

Thomas Jefferson on silent film

Today's New York Times has a fascinating article on crowd sourcing scholarly projects. The article, "Scholars Recruit Public for Project," can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/books/28transcribe.html

The article ends with a quotation from a letter by Thomas Jefferson, who was commenting on national documents destroyed during the Revolutioniary War. I think his thoughts might well apply to silent film and silent film history. "The lost cannot be recovered; let us save what remains not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.”