Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks

Cool pic of the day: presenting Louise Brooks (sexy and not to be messed with)

Louise Brooks on Soundcloud

I was recently exploring Soundcloud and came across a handful of songs which were inspired by or are homages to silent film star Louise Brooks. Check out these songs, as well as Soundcloud itself. There are other related tracks on the website which aren't embedded below.

"Sur ma Serviette" (On my towel) taken from "ARTEMIS"

Louise Brooks is the star of "Sur ma Serviette" ("On my towel") from the album "ARTEMIS" --

Released on April 22nd 2013 on Manivette records/Le Chant du monde in France. 

Louise Brooks at the Internet Archive TV News site

Only recently has the Louise Brooks Society become aware of the Internet Archive's TV News site. It indexes a select number of archived news television programs. Search "Louise Brooks" and there are four results. Among them is a San Francisco news program about Laura Moriarty's novel, The Chaperone, and a CSPAN Book-TV program in which noted historian David Pietrusza speaks about his fondness for Louise Brooks. Check it out.

The quotable Louise Brooks

"A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world." -- Louise Brooks

For more quotes by Louise Brooks, visit the Wikiquote page devoted to the actress at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louise_Brooks 


The two other quotes from Brooks on the Wiki page are:

"I have a gift for enraging people, but if I ever bore you it will be with a knife." -- Lulu in Hollywood (1982)

"I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita. How I have existed fills me with horror for I failed in everything. Spelling, arithmetic, writing, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend, even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of not trying. I tried with all my heart." -- Letter from Louise Brooks to her brother, quoted in the biography by Barry Paris.

Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks, circa 1925

Cool pic of the day: the one and only Louise Brooks, circa 1925.

Louise Brooks and the original Great Gatsby

This 1926 trailer is the only surviving footage of the first movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's  1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. This lost silent film, written during and set in the Roaring Twenties, was first adapted as a stage play at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City. 

The subsequent film was directed by Herbert Brenon (his 1925 credits include The Street of Forgotten Men, Louise Brooks' first film), and produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky at Famous Players-Lasky. It was released by Paramount Pictures (Brooks' studio), and starred:

Warner Baxter - Jay Gatsby
Lois Wilson - Daisy Buchanan (starred in The Show-Off)
Neil Hamilton - Nick Carraway (starred in The Street of Forgotten Men)
Georgia Hale - Myrtle Wilson
William Powell - George Wilson (starred in The Canary Murder Case)
Hale Hamilton - Tom Buchanan
George Nash - Charles Wolf
Carmelita Geraghty - Jordan Baker
Eric Blore - Lord Digby
Gunboat Smith - Bert
Claire Whitney - Catherine
Nancy Kelly - child

I think Louise Brooks would have been wonderful in The Great Gatsby. She was the flapper type, though Brooks' herself did not think so.... Interestingly, Louise Brooks met F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on a couple of occasions, according to Barry Paris' brilliant biography of the actress. The first time was in Los Angeles in January, 1927. The second time was in France in May, 1929. Her observations of the famous literary couple (told to critic Kenneth Tynan and others) are recorded in the Barry Paris book.

Here's a bit of related trivia: did you know that the original and most famous cover of The Great Gatsby was designed by Francis Cugat, the older brother of bandleader Xavier Cugat. The bandleader recorded a version of "Siboney" which was a favorite of Louise Brooks. She recommends it as a Latin dance number in her 1940 booklet, The Fundamentals of Ballroom Dancing. A version of that classic song can be heard on RadioLulu.

‘Just One Day’ by Gayle Forman has Louise Brooks inspired character

Just One Day, the recent YA teen novel by Gayle Forman, has a Louise Brooks inspired character. The book is the story Allyson, a “good girl” on a European tour with Willem, an adventurous Dutch actor. After seeing him perform in Twelfth Night, Allyson accepts Willem’s invitation to spend a day together, after which he calls her Lulu, the nickname of the silent film actress Louise Brooks.... that's according to the review in the New York Times.

More about the author and her books can be found at www.gayleforman.com/

Caro Emerald's new video features Louise Brooks

How many images of, or related to, Louise Brooks can you spot in the new video from the Dutch singer Caro Emerald?

"Tangled Up" is the new single from Caro Emerald's new album, The Shocking Miss Emerald, which was released just a few days ago. From what I've heard, I like it.

I hadn't known of Caro Emerald before, and obviously, I've been missing something. The Shocking Miss Emerald (which brings to mind The Shocking Miss Pilgrim film and memoir by Frederica Sagor Maas) is Emerald's second album.

Her debut album, Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor, was released in January, 2010 and immediately went to number one on the Dutch album charts. The album stayed number one for 27 weeks, an all time record, beating out Michael Jackson's Thriller, which spent 26 weeks at number one in 1983. The album reached double platinum status in the Netherlands in July, 2010. In August of that same year it reached triple platinum, and by November it had gone quadruple platinum, before hitting platinum six times over by year's end. Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor would end up spending 104 weeks on the album charts, until it was removed due to a Dutch rule which provided that albums can't spend more than 2 years in the charts. It later returned and climbed as high as number eight.

So, how many images of, or related to, Louise Brooks can you spot in the new video from the Dutch singer Caro Emerald? For more on this fantastic singer, check out her website at www.caroemerald.com/

[Thanx to the Meredith Lawrence for alerting me to this fantastic video.]