Louise Brooks at home, outdoors

Louise Brooks at home, enjoying the California sun in and around her yard, circa 1928. Brooks is pictured in the first and fourth images with her younger sister June.

Louise Brooks Society is on Twitter @LB_Society

The Louise Brooks Society is on Twitter @LB_Society. As of today, the LBS is followed by more than 2,700 individuals. Are you one of them? Why not join the conversation? Be sure and visit the LBS Twitter profile, and check out the more than 3,465 LBS tweets so far!
The LBS twitter stream can also be found in the right hand column.

And that's not all.

RadioLulu ♪♫♬♪

also has a Twitter account at @Radio_Lulu.
This new account tweets about Louise Brooks and music and additions to
RadioLulu - the online radio station of the Louise Brooks Society
at live365.com/stations/298896 Check it out today!

Rolled Stockings - A round-up of reviews

Rolled Stockings, Louise Brooks' ninth film, was officially released on this day in 1927. The film is a romantic drama, set on a college campus, involving roadhouse adventures and a climatic race involving the schools' rowing team. The film, shot mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, is lost.

The film stars five of Paramount's "junior stars," Louise Brooks as Carol Fleming, James Hall as Jim Treadway, Richard Arlen as Ralph Treadway, Nancy Phillips as The Vamp, and El Brendel as Rudolph. The film, based on the screenplay by Percy Heath, adapted from an original story idea by Frederica Sagor, with titles by Julian Johnson, was directed by Richard Rosson.

The film received many positive reviews, though Brooks sometimes only received faint praise. Here is a round up of magazine and newspaper reviews and articles drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.

McN., J. "James Bill Good Stuff." Columbus Citizen, June 13, 1927.
--- ". . . the provoking presence of Louise Brooks."

anonymous. "College Fun Features New Film at 'Met'." Los Angeles Examiner, June 17, 1927.
--- "Louise Brooks is utterly adorable as Carol Fleming. She is exactly the type college boys swoon over. She displays a sincerity in her work that has been absent from her previous roles. Though this particular part offers little opportunity to show any great acting, she measures up splendidly in the few scenes that border on the emotional."

Barnes, Eleanor. "Rolled Stockings Unfolds Great Comedy Drama." Los Angeles Daily Illustrated News, June 17, 1927.
--- "Hall and Arlen do nice work in this production, and Louise Brooks, judging by this film, is destined to go a long way. She has some of Colleen Moore's qualities with a dash of Florence Vidor thrown in, and a lot of her own distinctive personality."

Rush. "Rolled Stockings." Variety, June 20, 1927.
--- "The casting of the young stars is fortunate. Miss Brooks, who has done several excellent things, here finds a role for her demure charm, with its tricky suggestion of mild sophistication."

anonymous. "Strand." New Orleans States, June 27, 1927.
--- "One of the best comedies of college life that has been seen hereabouts in sometime."

Feldkamp, Frances V. "Movie Reviews." St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 27, 1927.
--- "Louise Brooks is the girl; enough of a looker to make any man lose his head and fraternity pin."

Taaffe, Agnes. "Movies." Minneapolis Daily Star, June 27, 1927.
--- " . . . which co-stars Louise Brooks and James Hall, two personable screen performers who have the ability to hold the interest of the fans throughout six lively reels. . . . Louise Brooks gives a highly diverting performance as the flapper."

Sheekman, Arthur. "Rolled Stockings Is Amusing Trifle, Very Collegiate." Chicago Daily Journal, June 29, 1927.
--- "Miss Brooks, as you know, is always a lovely ornament for any picture, and more than good enough as an actress."

Heffernan, Harold. "The New Movies in Review." Detroit News, July 4, 1927.
--- "The dark-eyed Louise Brooks, with a flashy, new hair trim, is the destructive siren who infests the snappy little college known as Colfax."

Armstrong, Everhardt. "Brothers Are Rivals For Flirt's Fancy." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 15, 1927.
--- "The vivacious and flirtatious heroine of Rolled Stockings is Louise Brooks, of Love 'Em and Leave 'Em fame."

anonymous. "Rolled Stockings is College Thrill." Seattle Times, July 17, 1927.
--- "Paramounts 'youth' picture, which is now at the Coliseum Theatre, has everything - a thrilling college crew race, some exciting automobile scenes, snappy comedy, a good love story and lots of pep."

Thirier, Irene. "Both College Caper Films, Rolled Stockings Draws Better Than Poor Nut." New York Daily News, July 18, 1927.
--- "Rolled Stockings has Louise Brooks - lovely, no, lovelier than ever. . . . You're going to like this movie and the players in it."

author unknown. New York Graphic, July 19?, 1927. (United States)
--- "Paramount's junior stars romp through this playful picture and participate in an exciting regatta, a few romances, a fight, a road house sequence and college dances."

Cannon, Regina. "Rolled Stockings on Screen." New York American, July 19, 1927.
--- "This is another college story and it is realistic enough to be entertaining. . . . Louise Brooks is seen for the first time in a 'straight' role. This child is so smartly sophisticated that it has seldom been her lot to portray anything but baby vamps on the screen. She has an unusual personality which the camera catches and magnifies, dresses snappily and makes the most of her every movie moment."

lliott, James M. "Rolled Stockings Average." New York Daily Mirror, July 20, 1927.
--- " . . . manages to be pleasant, mildly absorbing and sufficiently accurate for the purposes of the picture. . . . Louise Brooks looks remarkably like Clara Bow, though she lacks the famed pep of our national flapper."

O., H. H. "Stage and Screen." Ann Arbor Times News, August 15, 1927.
--- "The three stars, Louise Brooks, James Hall and Richard Arlen are so thoroughly likeable and the story so different from the usual line of college bunk, that Rolled Stockings proves to be a delightful bit of cinema entertainment."

Double take: a nude Louise Brooks

A nude Louise Brooks (circa 1925), giving the camera a devilish grin. Be sure and follow this blog: in the coming days there will be for the rare vintage comic strip relating the "history" behind this photograph (and Charlie Chaplin's appreciation of its subject and what he called Brooks' little pears).

Berlin - Metropolis of Vice (video documentary) NSFW

Louise Brooks speaks about such things in her memoirs and in filmed interviews shot later in her life. . . . Here is Berlin - Metropolis of Vice, an excellent NSFW video documentary.

Louise Brooks: a social celebrity in evening clothes

Louise Brooks: a social celebrity in evening clothes

"World Gin Day" poster features Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks drank more than her fair share of gin, and perhaps that's why the actress adorns this poster for Ginstock, an event taking place today celebrating "World Gin Day" in England. The annual poster is shown below. Apparently, this is the second year in a row the group has made Louise Brooks their poster girl. 

First ever Louise Brooks Society blog on this day in 2002

The first ever Louise Brooks Society blog appeared on LiveJournal on this day in 2002. To mark the occasion, here is that first post:

In search of the perfect bob, in the Philippines

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, from Manila, recently ran a story titled "In search of the perfect bob." In it, the reporter discusses her own quest for the haircut, as well as a bit of it's history.

It has been a long debate on who actually started the classic bob. But American Hairdresser magazine, in an article on March 1, 2007, “The Way We Were,” credited dancer Irene Castle for the bob, which used to be called “Castle Bob” in 1915.

There was also the tale of an unpopular girl whose life changed after she got her new bob, as told in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” published in the Saturday Evening Post in May 1920.

Others credit the bob to Coco Chanel or the American dancer and actress Louise Brooks, with her ebony black, blunt bob with bangs.

Anna Wintour has been sporting the page-boy bob since she was 14.

Why is the ’do still popping up to this day?

The popularity of the bob knows no bounds. Neither does its identification with Louise Brooks. Both are a worldwide phenomena!

New Silent Film Documentary - Silence is Golden

Check out this swell new short documentary telling the story of cinema's origins from the pioneers of the first films till the first full talkie The Jazz Singer. I like it, and not just because Louise Brooks makes an appearance.