What will they think of next.... Louise Brooks soap

What will they think of next? Found this image of Louise Brooks soap for sale on eBay. The product description reads: "CJs Collector Handmade Soap with clear glycerin. With image of Silent Screen Star, Louise Brooks. Soap is very gentle on the skin. With Vanilla fragrance nutmeg added. Approximate size is 3 x 2 1/4 x 1/2."

Louise Brooks' drawings in Rochester, New York

Tim Moore posted on Facebook that Hogan's Hideaway, a restaurant not far from Louise Brooks' longtime Rochester, New York residence, has moved their drawings of the actress to their maitre d' station / loo area. And, they've added a write-up about the star. [The image at the top left, however, resembles Clara Bow.]

Tim also noted: "The place was a grocery when Brooks moved to the neighborhood in '62. Not her closest option. The Hideaway, opened in 1980, was a bistro in the back while she was alive; now the grocery is gone, the restaurant is up front, and a bar is in back."

Magnificent Frank Martin drawing of Louise Brooks

This magnificent, wonderful 1974 Frank Martin drawing of Louise Brooks is up for auction through Bonham's in the UK. I think it is grand. The work was reproduced in Victor Arwas and John Kobal's Frank Martin; Hollywood - Continental (Academy Editions/St. Martin's Press, 1988), on page 19. Also, the Tate in London hold an edition of this print in their collection. If anyone would like to purchase it and donate it to the Louise Brooks Society.....

Lot 239^AR

Frank Vernon Martin (British, 1921-2005)

'Louise Brooks', 1974

£2,000 - 3,000

US$ 3,000 - 4,500

1 Apr 2015 11:00 BST

Lot Details

Frank Vernon Martin (British, 1921-2005)

'Louise Brooks', 1974
drypoint on copper, with hand tinting, a portrait of the famous film star wearing a sheer blouse against a fantastical Cubist background; an Artist's Proof aside from an edition of 100, with full margins, unframed
10 ½ x 14 ½ in. (26 x 37 cms), titled and signed by artist in pencil

From the 2005 Guardian UK obit of the artist:

Martin's career as a commercial illustrator developed simultaneously. On leaving St Martin's, he began as a fashion illustrator for the Sunday Times, but his many commissions included advertising, books - such as Ursula Bloom's 1959 novel, Youth At The Gate, The Readers' Digest Bedside Book Of The Art Of Living (1956), The Manual Of Catholic Prayer (1962) and the letterhead for Evelyn Waugh's stationery.

Most of Martin's freelance career was involved with books - from the jackets to the illustrations. His most significant contribution was for the Folio Society, for which he illustrated 12 volumes, from Thornton Wilder's The Bridge Of San Luis Rey, in 1956, to Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in 1988. His illustrations for the Folio edition of Stendhal's Scarlet And Black in 1965 have been called one of the best series of postwar English illustrations.

A fine and instinctive draughtsman, Martin produced work that is bold, decorative and good-humoured, although he could be too unsubtly fascinated by the female figure.
As a boy, Martin had been enthralled by the stars of the silver screen, and his love of the iconography of film found expression in the Hollywood series he began in the 1960s. Working with the grain of the wood, he turned glamorous screen stills into prints. The artists he created images of included Tallulah Bankhead, Clara Bow, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth and Greta Garbo, as well as the Ziegfield Follies, the Keystone Cops and Montgomery Clift. They are perhaps his most celebrated work.

Martin held his first one-man show in 1956. In all, there were 25 exhibitions at, among other venues, the Folio Society, the National Film Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and the Leeds International Film Festival. Overseas, he exhibited in Berlin, Dublin, New Zealand and the United States. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1961, a member of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers in 1959, and an honorary academician of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence in 1965.

Artist Barbara Chase image of Louise Brooks

I rather like this new portrait (Painting - Acrylic On Canvas) of Louise Brooks by artist Barbara Chase, available through FineArtAmerica. Check it out.

New Louise Brooks soundtrack CD from Wurlitza

Wurlitza, a five piece band from South East Cornwall (in the UK), have released a CD featuring their new soundtrack to the 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Diary of a Lost Girl.  I just got my copy in the mail, and here are scans of the recording.

Recorded live at Goodmerry Farm Studios in Cornwall (UK), the CD features 20 tracks from Wurlitza's soundtrack. The recording will be on sale at upcoming performances (see list below), or  can be ordered by post by emailing wurlitza@wurlitza.co.uk. (£8+£2 p+p in the UK). The band accepts PayPal. I encourage Louise Brooks fans everywhere to order a copy.

Saturday 14th March 2015 - Diary of a Lost Girl. A Calstock Arts event at The Old Chapel, Calstock, Cornwall

Sunday 22nd March 2015 - Diary of a Lost Girl. Wadebridge Cinema, Cornwall. 7:30pm. 

You can learn more about the band and their music on their Facebook page, or listen to the soundtrack via Soundcloud. Band members are Dave Stroud - bass guitar; Lizzy Stroud - piano/keyboard, clarinet, vocals; Lil Lanyon - guitar, vocals; Claire Abbott - drums/percussion, vocals.

The Jesus And Mary Chain ♫ Just Like Honey (( Special Louise Brooks ))

The Jesus And Mary Chain sing "Just Like Honey" to imagery of Louise Brooks. I like this video, as I had seen the Jesus And Mary Chain perform in San Francisco in the late 1980s at the old I-Beam on Haight Street.

Today in Toronto, Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life

Tonight in Toronto, Canada, The Revue Cinema will screen the classic 1928 silent film, Beggars of Life, staring Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen. Start time is 4:15 pm, according to the Toronto poster case pictured at the left.

Visit the Revue Cinema website for more information.

And, be sure and check out the Revue Cinema Twitter account for a really cool graphic!

Louise Brooks on David Thomson book, Moments that Made the Movies

The great Tim Moore, Louise Brooks fan extraordinaire, spotted this book on the shelf at a local bookstore. Tim wrote:

Seen tonight at bn: "Moments That Made the Movies," David Thomson (2013). 120 years, 300 pages of images ... and who's that, glancing from the top of the spine? Louise Brooks in "Pandora's Box" (1928).

Louise Brooks Pendants

A Louise Brooks fan named Jann White has created a set of Louise Brooks pendants which she sells through her Etsy page, Relica Design. The pendants are 1" images of the actress under glass, set in silver on a silver chain. Pretty neat.

Jann White wrote to the Louise Brooks Society, "I am from Cherryvale, Kansas, having lived only a couple of blocks from where Miss Brooks lived, (and several years apart!), I have had an interest in her for quite some time." Check 'em out.