Francis Lederer: Recipe for Ginger Beef

Francis Lederer co-starred with Louise Brooks in the German-made film, Pandora's Box (1929). In the 1930's, Lederer moved to Hollywood, were he acted in many films and developed a following. Lederer had enough of a following over the years that he was asked to contribute to a booklet of the time, What COOKS in Hollywood (1949). Also featured in the book is Claire Trevor (who co-starred in King of Gamblers), Bing Crosby, Loretta Young, Lucille Ball, Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Sinatra, Shelley Winters, Roy Rogers, Warner Baxter, Joan Crawford, William Holden, Joan Bennett, Betty Hutton, and Fred MacMurray, among others.

Presented here is Lederer's recipe for Ginger Beef, alongside Dorothy Lamour's recipe for Chipped Beef Rarebit. Lamour can be heard singing, not cooking, on RadioLulu. Enjoy, and bon apetit.

Louise Brooks - Egyptian advertising flyer

Here is a recently acquired treasure, an advertising piece from Cairo, Egypt circa 1930. This is only the second instance the LBS has come across of an image of Louise Brooks in Egypt from the silent or early sound era. The Cinema Jardin theater lasted at least into the years of the second World War (see theater ticket below), while a Cafe Cinema Jardin is in business in Cairo today. This bit of ephemera was bought on eBay from an Egyptian dealer.

Louise Brooks, flappers, and evolution

It's not unsual, while looking through newspapers and magazines of the 1920's, to come upon articles about flappers (of which Louise Brooks was considered a prime example). Incredibly, flappers (young women with a decidely modern outlook) were seen as a "threat" to society. (As was "evolution" and the idea that humanity could be related to apes and monkeys.) Many of the articles I have come across about flappers are of the finger-wagging variety.

I couldn't help but notice "Flapper Monkey Too Untrained for Matrimony; Her Three Babies Died." This is certainly one of the most ridiculous pieces I have ever read.

Louise Brooks inspires character in new mystery novel

According to Canadian author Caroline Kaiser, Louise Brooks was a major source of inspiration for the beautiful ghost Constance in Kaiser's recently released mystery novel, Virginia's Ghost (Lavaliere Press). Here is a description of the book drawn from Amazon.

Antiques specialist Virginia Blythe of Gable & Co. Auctioneers is working late one night when she hears mournful wailing. Following the sound to its source, she gasps in astonishment: a breathtakingly beautiful flapper who looks like a refugee from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is lingering in the shadows of the company’s basement. Later the disconsolate young woman returns to offer Virginia her diary, written in 1928. It reveals she’s the ghost of wealthy Toronto socialite Constance Pendleton. What is Constance trying to tell her? Intrigued, Virginia curls up with the diary and begins dipping her toes into the elegant opulence of Constance’s Jazz Age world. But suddenly things go terribly awry at Gable & Co. Just as Virginia’s preparing for a blockbuster auction, some valuable porcelain mysteriously goes missing and her job is on the line. 

The worst, however, is yet to come. A shocking murder spins the eccentric world of the auction house into chaos. Struggling to make sense of it all, Virginia turns increasingly to the secrets of the diary. Virginia’s Ghost is a tale of ghastly crime, euphoric love, and devastating betrayal in which two women transcend time to affect each other’s lives in startling ways.

Louise Brooks Society supports Net Neutrality

An important message worth repeating: The Louise Brooks Society supports Net Neutrality. Without it, the LBS and other small websites and content providers would be lost among the wilds of cyberspace. Read more about net neutrality at http://www.whitehouse.gov/net-neutrality

Nameographs: Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Mae Murray

Nameographs from 1928: Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Mae Murray and others.