Book signing for the Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl

I will be signing copies of my "Louise Brooks edition" of Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press) on Saturday, March 23 from 2 to 5 pm at the first annual Noe Valley Authors Festival. Please join me an other local authors at this special event.

The event takes place at St. Philip the Apostle Parish Hall, 725 Diamond Street, between 24th and Elizabeth Streets, in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. A bit more about the event can be found on the San Francisco Chronicle website at http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/315357843-thomas-gladysz-book-signing

I will be happy to speak about the book and my continuing research into the amazing life of this lost classic. Feel free to ask me about the book being banned from coming into Canada, about it being written about in Sigmund Freud's journal of psychoanalysis, or about what I think is its very earliest American newspaper review - in a San Francisco newspaper! Here, for example, is one of my other new finds - a newspaper article about a lawsuit filed by Bohme in the wake of the torrents of negative publicity she received as a result of having published this controversial and contested bestseller. Variations of this article ran in newspapers around the world. This particular clipping is from a newspaper in Perth, Australia. 

Silent film star bookplates

Buzzfeed ran a rather swell piece featuring the bookplates of a number of famous individuals, including authors and a few early film stars. Be sure and check it out.

Included are the bookplates of H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, Sigmund Freud, Lewis Carroll and others, including silent film stars such as Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin and a joint bookplate belonging to Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. There is also a Paulette Goddard bookplate seemingly designed by Chaplin.

Above are a couple of examples from the Buzzfeed piece. Below is Louise Brooks' bookplate, which was not included in the Buzzfeed piece.

Another Brooks related street name

A while back, this blog ran a post about a street in the suburbs of Paris named after actress Louise Brooks. More recently, we have also noticed that a street in the German town of Husum was named after Margarete Böhme, the German author who penned The Diary of a Lost Girl. Louise Brooks starred in the 1929 film made from the book.

Böhme was born and raised in Husum, a small town in Northern Germany dubbed “the grey town by the grey sea” by its best known resident, the novelist and poet Theodor Storm. The house in which she was raised in Husum bears a commemorative plaque. And in 2009, a street in a new housing development in the north of the city was named after the author. More about Böhme and her connections with Husum can be found here in a local article from January 2013. (I wasn't able to use Google maps / street view to acquire an image of the street sign, as I had with the Paris sign.)

But what's more, earlier this month a stage play adaption of The Diary of a Lost Girl was once again put on in Husum by a group of women who have been regularly staging the work. Read more about that in another local article from Nordfriesen. Pictured below, the theater group 5plus1, performing Diary.

Actress Louise Brooks & Admiral Richard E. Byrd

Here is something you don't see everyday, a picture of silent film actress Louise Brooks & and famed explorer Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957). The picture was found on eBay. It was most likely taken in January 1927, while Brooks was making Evening Clothes and was sporting a hairstyle different from her usual bob with bangs.

Diary of a Lost Girl, the research continues

Lately, I have been working on a revised 2nd edition of my Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl, by Margarete Bohme. (Bohme's book was the basis for the 1929 film by G.W. Pabst.) I plan on incorporating much of my new research into an expanded e-book. Notably, I have uncovered a bunch of interesting new material, including, even, a connection to Sigmund Freud! I also uncovered what I think was the very first newspaper review of The Diary of a Lost One in the United States, while finding out that the book was banned in Canada.

One of the things I have also been tracking is the influence Bohme's book had on subsequent literature. In Germany, it brought about not only a popular sequel, a controversial stage play, a parody, and two or three silent films – but a score of imitators as well. There was also a movie made from the book’s sequel; and in France, a novelization of the 1929 film with Louise Brooks was issued. (Imagine that, a novelization of a film which was based on a book.)

In England, Bohme's book lingered in the British imagination for some time. It went through at least three printings. And  was referenced in a few literary works from the time - one in 1909, another in 1917. It also inspired another. That latter book, from 1931, was titled No Bed of Roses: A Pathetically Realistic Story of a Woman of the Underworld. 

When No Bed of Roses was advertised in England it was described as “The Diary of a Lost Soul” (which also happened to be the original advertised English-language title of The Diary of a Lost One). In not unfamiliar language, an ad for No Bed of Roses stated “These are the actual diaries of a prostitute and dope fiend. They form one of the most important human documents uncovered in our time.” 

  

No Bed of Roses was followed by God Have Mercy on Me. Like The Diary of a Lost One, the sequel was edited from the reportedly real life diaries of a wayward, nearly anonymous woman (named O.W.) Here is the cover for that book as well. Both covers are more than a bit lurid.

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!