New book with Louise Brooks on the cover

There is a new book forthcoming which features Louise Brooks on the cover. It's called Art Deco Hair: Hairstyles from the 1920s & 1930s. It is by Daniela Turudich, and is due in May from Streamline Press. (If you love vintage fashion and style, be sure and explore this website.)

2004 edition

Turudich is an expert on re-creating period beauty styles and techniques. She is the author of the Vintage Living series, which has been relied upon as source books by film and television costume designers, professional stylists, academics, and historians. She lives in Long Beach, California. This book may or may not be related to the now rare, similarly titled book by Turudich from 2004, which also featured Brooks on the cover. (See image right).

According to the publisher: "Art deco has long been associated with uncompromising style and sophistication, and this guide to re-creating the sassy, controversial styles of the 1920s and 1930s offers a glimpse back at the hairstyles of this era. The instructions needed to replicate these fashions on the modern woman—from the controversial bob of the Roaring Twenties flapper to the luxurious finger waves of Hollywood’s early screen stars—are provided, and the techniques behind Marcel and water waves, the simple bob, Eton and shingle cuts, and many more are also included. Hundreds of vintage illustrations, photographs, step-by-step instructions, and diagrams illuminate the history of the hairstyles that laid the groundwork of style for the modern American woman." Here is the new cover for the 2013 edition.

What the Pennsylvania Farmer says

The Pennsylvania Farmer says "A Theater is Known by the Pictures it Shows." We agree, especially when those theaters show films featuring Louise Brooks. This Paramount advertisement dates from 1926.

Louise Brooks postcard

Wowza, what a lovely vintage Louise Brooks postcard, from Italy. The portrait is by M.I. Boris.

Louise Brooks mentioned in Nazi era publication

I recently came across this short piece in a German magazine. It caught my attention because it referenced Louise Brooks and G.W. Pabst and Pandora's Box. I ran it through a couple of translation programs (see the results below), but its meaning escapes me. I am guessing that it is meant to be a joke, or perhaps to ridicule the Pabst film. I think the meaning of this brief piece is found between the lines.

Der Jagdfilm (original text)
Lange bevor man beschloss, Wedekinds "Buchse der Pandora", mit Louise Brooks zu drehen, kam ein Schriftsteller zu einem Munchner Filmproduzenten und sagte: "Herr Direktor, ich habe eine ausgezeichnete  Idee. Konnte man nicht mal "Buchse der Pandora" verfilmen?"
Des grosse Filmmann sah ihn an, wiegte den Kopf hin und her, dann meinte er: "Buchse der Pandora? Gar nicht schlecht. Jagdfilme gehen bei uns in Baiern immer!"

The Film Search (approximate translation)
Long before it was decided to shoot Wedekind's "Pandora's Box" with Louise Brooks, a writer came to a Munich film producer and said, "Sir, I have an excellent idea. Could you not make a movie of Pandora's Box?"
The great movie man looked at him, shook his head back and forth, then said: "Pandora's Box? Not bad at all. Hunting movies are always welcome in Bavaria!"

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What's interesting about this otherwise ephemeral piece of filler is that it is from 1943. That's during the second World War, and at a time when Wedekind's and Pabst's works were viewed with a suspect eye and Brooks herself had fallen far into obscurity both in Germany and in America.

"Der Jagdfilm," attributed to S.S., was published in Kladderadatsch, a satirical humor publication begun in 1848. With the rise of the Nazi Party, it's politics turned conservative. It was a favorite of Berlin, and supported the Nazi ideology. For something like this to run in a German periodical in 1943 suggests to me that Pandora's Box, with Louise Brooks, was still a familiar work in Nazi Germany.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who could shed some light or parse the meaning of this bit of text. Please post your comments or translation in the comments field to this post. Thank you!

Louise Brooks artwork featured in UK exhibit

Louise Brooks and other silent film and stage stars are included in a just opened exhibit in England. The exhibit features the work of Ian Beck, the popular author and illustrator. The exhibit, "Limelight Pictures," includes new images by Beck created specially for the Nightingale Project, a charitable project which seeks to brighten up the environment in mental health services through art and music. The exhibition opened on February 27 at the South Kensington and Chelsea Mental Health Centre in London, and remains on display until May 31, 2013.

Beck is well known as a children’s writer and illustrator. He got his start in the 1970's doing commercial work, including drawings for the recording industry. He designed and illustrated album covers, most notably the triple gate-fold album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, for Elton John. In the 1980's, he began illustrating and writing books for young readers. Beck wrote his first novel for children, The Secret History of Tom Trueheart, Boy Adventurer, which was published in June 2006 and went on to be translated into more than twenty foreign languages. His novels include other works in the Tom Trueheart series, as well as Pastworld, and The Haunting of Charity Delafield.

The "Limelight Pictures" exhibit comprises portraits of stars of music hall and early cinema. They include Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Max Miller, Josephine Baker, Little Tich, Anna May Wong, Jean-Louis Barrault, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and others. Purchases of signed prints from the show will support the Nightingale Project’s work.

Via email to the Louise Brooks Society, Beck wrote, "I am an ENORMOUS fan of Miss Brooks and have been since I saw Pandora’s Box on a 16mm print while at Art School back in the 1960s. My own wife is forced to have her hair cut in the preferred Brooks Bob style. To me Louise is the epitome of grace glamour charm and the frankly erotic, I feel as helpless as any of her movie ‘victims’ when confronted by any image of her moving or still. I have drawn a number of other silent stars for the exhibition."

I like Ian Beck's work, and encourage you to check out his exhibit (if you are lucky enough to live in London) or his webpage at http://ianbeck.wordpress.com/the-limelight-pictures-2/

LOST COMET: New Louise Brooks Film in Development

Might there be a film about Louise Brooks? Let's hope so....

BASICMAGIC Reveals LOST COMET: New Louise Brooks Film in Development
BUFFALO, March 1, 2013

BASICMAGIC announced today the development of LOST COMET, a new feature film about acclaimed actress and author Louise Brooks. The announcement was made by BASICMAGIC principal Vincent Lesh.

"I was lucky to discover Louise Brooks' story years ago," said Lesh. He described LOST COMET as an incredible opportunity to portray Ms. Brooks' own brief but brilliant film career.

In his words, "It has been a dream of mine to invite the world to see the art and passion of a woman who was a star at the height of the Roaring Twenties but who chose to live life on her own terms."

BASICMAGIC recently launched LostComet.com to allow the public to preview a glimpse of the story and screenplay for LOST COMET- including a graphic treatment and selected scenes.

BASICMAGIC has also acquired an exclusive film rights option agreement for the internationally acclaimed "Louise Brooks: A Biography" by Barry Paris.

"I'm excited about this movie," said Lesh, "and look forward to filming in Toronto, the ideal location for Louise Brooks' milieu throughout LOST COMET: New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Paris."


SYNOPSIS
LOST COMET tells the story of the silent film star Louise Brooks, who rebels against Hollywood in the 1920s but makes a few great films in Europe before disappearing forever.

SOURCE BASICMAGIC

A Balboa Birthday Bash!

Back in the 1920s, movies were the popular form of entertainment. Radio was only just beginning, and television didn't really exist. Just about everybody went to the movies on a regular, almost weekly basis. To meet demand, movie theaters were springing up everywhere.

Everywhere included San Francisco (and just about every big and small town across America), where first run movie palaces lined the major thoroughfares and smaller neighborhood houses of varying size dotted the city's outlying districts. Drive down Market Street, Mission Street or Geary Blvd. in San Francisco and you'll see the facades of a number of The City's once grand though now shuttered movie theaters.

Today, the Balboa is one of the last neighborhood theaters still operating in San Francisco. To celebrate its opening in February of 1926, the Richmond District theater is marking the occasion with the screening of a classic silent film along and other festive goings-on.

The Balboa's 87th birthday celebration -- presented in association with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival -- takes place on Sunday, March 3. The evening's entertainment kicks-off at 7:00 pm. Doors open at 6:45 pm. (A special family matinee will also take place earlier in the day at 4:00 pm.)

But first a little history. The Balboa Theater (located at 3630 Balboa Street near 38th Avenue) originally opened as the New Balboa Theater in order to distinguish it from the already open Balboa Theater then on Ocean Avenue. The New Balboa, part of a local chain owned by Samuel Levin, was designed by James and Merritt Reid, renowned architects who also designed the Cliff House, Fairmount Hotel, Spreckels Temple of Music in Golden Gate Park and numerous other theaters including the Alexandria theater on Geary. In the 1920's, a handful of films featuring Louise Brooks' were shown at the New Balboa. Those screenings include Love Em and Leave Em on June 12, 1927, Evening Clothes on July 11-12, 1927, Just Another Blonde on July 20-21, 1927, A Girl in Every Port on July 29, 1928 as part of a double-bill with When the Wife’s Away, and Canary Murder Case on September 18-19, 1929.

In 2006, as part of the Louise Brooks centenary, The Show-Off (1926) was screened with introductions by Peter Cowie and Thomas Gladysz. Also shown that night was a 16mm trailer for Overland Stage Raiders (1938).

On Sunday, the Balboa will screen Peter Pan (1924), Herbert Brenon's classic film adaption of the story of a boy who never grew up. Released by Paramount Pictures, this silent-era telling of Peter Pan was the first film adaptation of the famous J. M. Barrie play. The film has an "all-star" cast which includes Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, Esther Ralston as Mrs. Darling, Philippe De Lacy as Michael Darling and Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell. Anna May Wong, a groundbreaking Chinese-American actress, plays an Indian princess named Tiger Lily. Brenon, as is well known, went on to direct Mary Brian and Louise Brooks the following year in The Street of Forgotten Men. That film, Brooks' first, include a visual nod to Peter Pan in a scene where Brian sits down at the piano to play a song and sheet music on the instrument can clearly be seen to be Peter Pan.

At the time of its release, the film was celebrated for its innovative special effects -- notably the illuminated fairy Tinker Bell and showing Peter Pan fly. The legendary James Wong Howe served as cinematographer. In 2000, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The Balboa will screen a 35mm print of the film from the George Eastman House (former "home" to Louise Brooks), where the film was restored in the 1990s. Peter Pan will be accompanied by pianist Frederick Hodges, who will perform an original score, and preceded by a program of short subjects.

Also on the bill for this special birthday occasion will be a live vaudeville show featuring magician James Hamilton and songstress Linda Kosut. Audience members are encouraged to dress in their best period clothing had they attended a night at the movies in 1926. Vintage cars will be parked out front.

More info: The Balboa Theater is located at 3630 Balboa Street in San Francisco. Advance tickets are on sale at the Balboa and online at www.CinemaSF.com/balboa. Admission is $10.