Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks looking stylish and deco

Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks looking stylish and deco

Lulu in Hollywood available through Open Library

Lulu in Hollywood is now available as an e-text through Open Library, an online lending library with zillions of books which can be checked out or read online. Lulu in Hollywood is Louise Brooks bestselling  collection of autobiographical essays. It was first published by Knopf in 1982.

The eBook pdf of the text may be found at http://openlibrary.org/works/OL4772459W/Lulu_in_Hollywood This version includes William Shawn's original introduction, which was replaced by Kenneth Tynan's famous New Yorker essay, "The Girl in the Black Helmet," in the most recent reprint from the University of Minnesota. (Shawn was the editor at the New Yorker when some of the pieces included in Lulu in Hollywood were first published.)

Also available at Open Library is Three Films of W.C. Fields (Faber & Faber, 1990), which includes an introduction by Brooks, "The Other Face of W. C. Fields." (That essay is included in Lulu in Hollywood.) The eBook pdf of the text may be found at http://openlibrary.org/works/OL4772458W/Three_Films_of_W.C._Fields

There are many other swell books on early film available through Open Library. be sure and check it out.

Louise Brooks and F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is all the rage. So now might be a good time to look at Louise Brooks' connections with the famous Jazz Age novelist. Brooks, it could be said, shouldn't be on the cover of the three books by Fitzgerald pictured above. But she is. 

Tender is the Night (Penguin, 1999) 

Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Penguin, 1990) 

 Flappers and Philosophers (Penguin 2010)

That's because Fitzgerald was actually smitten with another actress of the silent era, Lois Moran, who served as the basis for a character or two in Fitzgerald's celebrated fiction. It is widely believed that Moran and Fitzgerald had a brief affair during the 1920s, despite their difference in years. (For more on the actress, see Richard Buller's outstanding biography A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran, from 2005.)

Brooks and Fitzgerald did meet at twice, at a couple of parties, but apparently didn't leave much of an impression on each other. Instead, it was the similarly bobbed actress Colleen Moore about which Fitzgerald famously said, "I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble." (For more on this actress, see Jeff Codori's fine biography Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star, from 2010.)

Nevertheless, Brooks image has become closely identified with the Jazz Age and its most famous writer. At least three other recent editions of Fitzgerald’s work (including new eBook and print-on-demand editions) depict Louise Brooks on their covers. Why? Because Brooks' image is iconic.

For more on Louise Brooks and F. Scott Fitzgerald, see the May 9th LBS blog, "Louise Brooks and the original Great Gatsby."

Brooks did play a Flapper on the screen on at least a couple of occasions, in Just Another Blonde (1926) and Love Em and Leave Em (1926). Only the latter film survives in tact. Brooks' characters in these two films was never so glamorous as Fitzgerald's flappers, but they did diepict the wild and carefree spirit of the times in plainer garb.

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.