Prix de beauté - early American newspaper reference

This newspaper clipping, from September 13, 1929 may represent one of the earliest, if not the earliest, American newspaper reference to Prix de beauté, the 1930 film starring Louise Brooks. This article references the film as it was being shot in 1929 (the film was in production from August 29 to September 27), but before it was released almost a year later, on August 20, 1930. It also claims that Prix de beauté was the first French talkie. Had it's release not been delayed, it could have been the first or second.

Seeking expert in French Musette

I wonder if an expert in early French popular music could offer any clues as to the name of the small orchestra playing a Tango in this scene from Prix de beauté (1930).

Please email the Louise Brooks Society directly (at LouiseBrooksSociety AT gmail DOT com) or post something in the comments section. I hope to include this song on RadioLulu at http://www.live365.com/stations/298896. Thank you.

Prix de Beauté burlesque performer - Homage to Louise Brooks

Prix de Beauté is a Los Angeles-based burlesque performer and producer who takes her name from the 1930 French film, Prix de beauté, starring Louise Brooks. She performs solo and in groups, and specializes in dances of the Jazz Age, as well as numbers inspired by different themes. As this performer's website states, she takes her inspiration and her look from Louise Brooks.

One of Prix de Beauté's acts is called "My Canary has Circles Under his Eyes," based on the song of the same title by Janet Klein. The concept revolves around classic feather fan dance in tribute to the Louise Brooks’ movie Canary Murder Case.

Prix de Beauté also appears in Chromataphore (embedded below), a Louise Brooks / Busby Berkeley inspired music video by Princess Pangolin. Check out Prix de Beauté's website for more burlesque fun.

The Show-Off - a round-up of reviews

The Show-Off, Louise Brooks' fifth film, was officially released on this day in 1926. The film is a comedy-drama about an insufferable braggart who disrupts the lives of a middle-class family. We all know the type, don't we?

The film stars Ford Sterling as Audrey Piper (the braggart), Lois Wilson as Amy Fisher Piper, Louise Brooks as Clara-Joe's Girl, Gregory Kelly as Joe Fisher, Claire McDowell as Mom Fisher, and C.W. Goodrich as Pop Fisher. The film, adapted from the stage play by George Kelly, was directed by Malcolm St. Clair. The screenplay is by Pierre Collings.

The film is very good, and is one of Brooks' best roles in a light drama. The Show-Off received many positive notices - as well as negative reviews, as did Brooks, whose part was somewhat limited. Here is a round up of magazine and newspaper reviews and articles drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.

Tinee, Mae. "Ford Sterling Almost a Perfect Bumptious, Bombastic Show Off." Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1926.
--- " . . . splendidly cast and acted."

Reel, Rob. "You'll Remember and Like Ford Sterling as Show Off." Chicago Evening American, July 27, 1926.
--- " . . . is well done, and a lot of fun. You ought to like it."

anonymous. "A Hit on the Stage; as Good on the Screen." Chicago Evening Post, July 30, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks and George Kelly also handle their parts most effectively."

anonymous. "Two New Films Hold Fans Interest." Los Angeles Evening Herald, August 7, 1926.
--- "The cast includes Louise Brooks, who does a bit of excellent acting."

Harrison, P. S. "The Show Off - with Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, Louise Brooks and Gregory Kelly." Harrison's Reports, August 7, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks makes a good sweetheart of the heroine's brother; in the scenes where she is shown upbraiding the hero for having brought misery upon the heroine's family, she is very good."

Moulton, Herbert. "Sterling Shines in Show-Off." Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1926.
--- "The sweetheart of the brother is played by Louise Brooks, who does well in a negligible role."

anonymous. "The Show-Off at Metropolitan." Boston Herald, August 10, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks is the Clara. The movie people decided that the unhappily married sister of the play was not suited to Louise, so the movie Clara turns up as a next-door neighbor, Joe's girl friend. Miss Brooks has little to do but wear form-revealing gowns and ever so often uteer a 'wise crack,' for all titles of this nature are put right in her mouth."

anonymous. "The Show-Off Less Interesting as Photoplay Than on Stage." New York Post, August 23, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks as Clara has very little to do, but she made a charming picture."

Cohen Jr., John S. "Picture Plays and Players." New York Sun, August 23, 1926.
--- "Directed by Malcolm St. Clair, the film boasts of exceptional naturalistic acting on the part of Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, Claire McDowell, C. W. Goodrich, Gregory Kelly and - in one sequence - Louise Brooks. . . . Miss Brooks is best in the scene where she burlesques the pantomime employed by Mr. Sterling to describe his automobile experience."

Hall, Mordaunt. "The Braggart." New York Times, August 23, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks, an emphatic type, with her dark hair and eyes and straight eyebrows, is bound to be noticed. Her histrionic efforts in this picture, however, are negligible."

Herzog, Dorothy. "The Show Off." Daily Mirror, August 23, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks spitfires, prisses, oogles and calls it a day of heavy emoting. Miss Brooks is a distinct type, but she seems to suffer from inefficient direction and miscasting. She also appears a trifle rounded, for and aft, in this opera, but this may be due to her skin-tight dresses."

anonymous. "Show-Off at California." San Francisco Bulletin, August 30, 1926.
--- " . . . one of the best comedies of the American screen."

Swint, Curran D. "The Show Off at California." San Francisco News, August 30, 1926.
--- "A romance has been developed between Joe Fisher, the inventor son, given a distinctive performance by Gregory Kelly, and girl next door, fetchingly portrayed by Louise Brooks."

Aston, Frank. "Comedy of Home Seen in Show-Off." Cincinnati Post, September 6, 1926.
--- "And henceforth and forever when we think of The Show-Off we shall picture Louise Brooks and her display of hosiery."

Sargent, Epes W. "Ford Sterling Scores Heavily in Stage Success That Makes Thoroughly Enjoyable Audience Film." Moving Picture World, September 11, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks, Gregory Kelly and C.W. Goodrich form the remaining members of the essential cast."


Sherwood, Robert E. "The Silent Drama." Life, September 16, 1926.
--- "He has taken a simple play of average American life and made a genuinely tender, touching, sympathetic picture of it. . . . a worthy reproduction of a great comedy."

O., H. H. "Stage and Screen." Ann Arbor Times News, September 28, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks as Clara, her sister, almost runs away with the picture."

anonymous. "Stage and Screen." Kalamazoo Gazette, November 8, 1926.
--- "The Show Off has caught the fancy of the town."

Lusk, Norbert. "The Screen in Review: We All Know Him." Picture-Play, December, 1926.
-- "Lois Wilson tossed aside opportunities for shrewd characterization by wearing Paris frocks as a daughter of the Philadelphia poor. Louise Brooks, another little sister of poverty, likewise offended."
O., H. H. "Stage and Screen." Ann Arbor Times News, September 28, 1926.
--- "Louise Brooks as Clara, her sister, almost runs away with the picture."

anonymous. "Stage and Screen." Kalamazoo Gazette, November 8, 1926.
--- "The Show Off has caught the fancy of the town."

Lusk, Norbert. "The Screen in Review: We All Know Him." Picture-Play, December, 1926.
-- "Lois Wilson tossed aside opportunities for shrewd characterization by wearing Paris frocks as a daughter of the Philadelphia poor. Louise Brooks, another little sister of poverty, likewise offended."

Sherwood, Robert. "The Film of the Month." McCall's, December, 1926.
--- named a recommended film

Lane, Tamar. "Best Pictures and Performances of 1926." Film Mercury, December 10, 1926.
--- named one of the best eight films of the year in film trade journal

É SEMPRE BOM OUVIR "LUIZA" E REVER "LOUISE"

É SEMPRE BOM OUVIR "LUIZA" E REVER "LOUISE".
(Homenagem a Antonio Carlos Jobim e Louise Brooks).
Créditos no final do clip. Acervo: Rádio Educativa Mensagem (REM).

Louise Brooks - two moderne / art deco backgrounds

Louise Brooks - moderne / art deco backgrounds

New York Review of Books subscription card

This 2007 subscription card for the New York Review of Books features a caricature of Louise Brooks by David Levine. Its swell.

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood - A round up of reviews

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, Louise Brooks' one short film, was officially released on this day in 1931. The 21 minute film follows cocky Windy Riley as he tries to revamp the publicity department of a Hollywood studio and mucks it all up.

The film stars Jack Shutta (brother of Ethel Shutta, who appeared in the Follies with Brooks) as Windy Riley, and Louise Brooks as Betty Grey. Also in the cast are William B. Davidson, Dell Henderson (a frequent associate of film pioneer D.W. Griffith and, on a less prolific basis, Mack Sennett), Wilbur Mack, and Walter Merrill. This Educational Pictures film, based on the screenplay by Ernest Pagano and Jack Townley, was adapted from the cartoon strip character by Ken Kling. The film was directed by Roscoe Arbuckle under the name William B. Goodrich.

The film received very few reviews, and in fact, they are very few documented showings of the film following its initial release. Here are a few of its reviews drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.

anonymous. "Riley Comic Strip Short Rather Dull." Hollywood Reporter, January 22, 1931.
--- "Louise Brooks is the star and brings forth the fact that she has an excellent speaking voice, looks very well, and that her forte is not short-reel comedies."

anonymous. Film Daily, April 5, 1931.
--- review

anonymous. "Shorts." Motion Picture Herald, April 11, 1931.
--- "The auto record of Windy Riley from New York to Hollywood and the subsequent excitement at a studio when he works a fake publicity stunt, cannot be rated more than fair. The story by Ken Kling is not at all unusal. Jack Shutta, Louise Brooks, William Davidson, Dell Henderson, Wilbur Mack and Walter Merrill do their best but not very successfully."

Dixie Dugan - reader of books

Here is a multi-panel Dixie Dugan Sunday strip from 1932. (By comparison, the daily strip was usually three or four panels.) By this time in the evolution of the Dixie Dugan comic strip, Dixie's hair had evolved away from the Brooks-influenced shingled bob depicted in the 1929 / 1930 strips to something a little longer and more Thirties style. I like this particular strip because it suggests Dixie/Louise was something more than just a "dumb showgirl" = she read books!