Seeking your Louise Brooks story of discovery

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Louise Brooks Society is soliciting short essays from the actresses' many fans asking them to describe how and when they first came across Louise Brooks, and what the actress means to them. The length of the piece is up to the writer, with the only requirement being that it be detailed and individualized. Pieces that range from short anecdotes to full fledged compositions are welcome.

Selected submissions will be run here on the Louise Brooks Society blog, and the best piece (in the eyes of the LBS) will be awarded some Louise Brooks swag - like the forthcoming KINO Diary of a Lost Girl Blu-ray bundled together with a signed copy of the Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press). The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2015 with the prize awarded later that month (before Christmas).

Sharpen your pencils, start your engines. Send submissions to LouiseBrooksSociety@gmail.com

New book - Sally Phipps: Silent Film Star

There is a new book out that silent film fans will want to know about. It's Sally Phipps: Silent Film Star by Robert L. Harned. It is a self-published work, issued under the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform imprint (Amazon). Don't let the fact that it is self-published stop you from checking out this book. It is a worthwhile subject, and a labor of love. I purchased a copy recently, and liked it.

Here is the publisher description: "Sally Phipps was only three years old and the veteran winner of several beautiful baby contests when she appeared as the Baby in the film Broncho Billy And The Baby. It was made at the Niles California Essanay Studio in late 1914. This book follows her amazing life and a career that culminated in her receiving the Rosemary (for remembrance) Award shortly before her death in 1978. Her memories of the early years at Essanay include sitting on Charlie Chaplin’s lap and enduring a frightening stage coach accident. In her teens, she was a Fox Studio star appearing in 20 films, including a cameo in the classic Sunrise. There were bad times also. She was on the set of her Fox two-reel comedy Gentlemen Preferred Scotch in 1927 when word reached her of the scandalous death of her father, a state senator. But in that same year, she was selected as one of the 13 Wampas Baby Stars, starlets that were considered destined for future success. Despite her popularity in Hollywood, she left for New York where she became the darling of gossip columnists, particularly Walter Winchell. She appeared in two Broadway shows, made a Vitaphone comedy short, and married and divorced one of the Gimbel department store moguls before she darted off for India and around the world travel. Back in New York, there was another marriage, two children, and later a stay in Hawaii. Earl Wilson wrote about her in 1938 when she was working for the Federal Theatre Project during the WPA period -- headlining his column “Wampas Ex-Baby Lives On WPA $23 – And Likes It.” Her images – especially her pinup photographs – have become highly collectible. The book features 150 pictures from Sally’s personal and professional life, including glamorous portraits and pinups."

Robert L. Harned was born in Des Moines, Iowa, but grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a professional research librarian and has worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and in several universities and law firms in New York City. He now resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, with his partner, food journalist, cookbook author, and broadcaster Arthur Schwartz. Robert’s interests are film history, Greek and Roman archaeology, and singing. He has recorded four CD albums. And is also the son of Sally Phipps.

William Wellman blogathon: Nominate Beggars of Life for the 2016 National Film Registry

The Library of Congress is now soliciting nominees for their 2016 National Film Registry list. Please take a moment to nominate the William Wellman-directed Beggars of Life (1928). It is a fine film, very American, and stars the one and only Louise Brooks.

Learn more about “Beggars of Life” by reading this excerpt from 100 Silent Films by Bryony Dixon (British Film Institute, 2011). Or, check out this essay by Laura Horak from the 2007 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

You can nominate as many films as you like. More information can be found HERE. It is easy to do. Just send a simple email with your nominees (reasons optional) to filmregistry@loc.gov

Your voice is important! Librarian of Congress Dr. James H. Billington invites you to submit your recommendations for movies to be included on the National Film Registry. Public nominations play a key role when the Librarian and Film Board are considering their final selections. To be eligible for the Registry, a film must be at least 10 years old and be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The National Film Registry historically has included only those films that were produced or co-produced by an American film company, typically for theatrical release or recognized as a film through film festivals or film awards. If in doubt, check the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for country of origin. Registry criteria does not specifically prohibit television programs, commercials, music videos or foreign productions, however, the original intent of the legislation that established the Registry was to safeguard U.S. films. Consequently the National Film Preservation Board and the Librarian of Congress give first consideration to American motion pictures.

Looking for ideas on possible films to nominate? Check here for hundreds of titles not yet selected to the National Film Registry. This link will take you to the complete list of films currently on the Registry.

For consideration, please forward your recommendations (limit 50 titles per year) via email to: filmregistry@loc.gov. Please include the date of the film nominated, and number your recommendations. Listing your nominations in alphabetical order is very much appreciated, too. There’s no need to include descriptions or justifications for your nominations unless they’re films that have not been distributed widely or otherwise made available to the public. For example, if a film is listed in the Internet Movie Database or the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, no further information beyond title and date of release is necessary. Lastly, please tell us how you learned of the Registry.
Email is preferred; however, to submit via regular mail, send your nominations to:

National Film Registry
Library of Congress
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
19053 Mt. Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701
Attn: Donna Ross

William Wellman blogathon: The sounds of silents, Beggars of Life

William Wellman's 1928 film, Beggars of Life, is considered Paramount's first sound film. Though shot as a silent (and released to some markets in that format), a synchronized musical score, sound effects, a few lines of dialogue, and a song sung by Wallace Berry were added to prints of the film --  against the director's wishes.

The film stars Beery as Oklahoma Red, Louise Brooks as The Girl (Nancy), and Richard Arlen as The Boy (Jim). Beggars of Life was named one of the six best films for October by the Chicago Tribune; it also made the honor roll for best films of the year in an annual poll conducted by Film Daily. Musical Courier called Beggars of Life ” . . . one of the most entertaining films of the littered season.” And Photoplay thought it “good entertainment.”

Beggars of Life was well regarded, as was Wellman's earlier effort, Wings. On the basis of those two films, Film Daily named Wellman one of the world's best directors for the year's 1928-1929. Each was adapted for sound, as the rare newspaper advertisement below indicates. The two films were showing in Buffalo, New York at the same time.

Though the sound elements for the film are lost, newspaper articles and advertisements of the time tell us a little about the nature of Beggars of Life. Commenting on its New York City premiere, Women's Wear Daily noted "All of these stars outdo themselves in this picture. Wallace Beery talks in this picture, sings a hobo song and ends with an observation about jungle rats in general." The New Yorker commented on "the synchronized accompaniment of sentimental music."

Elsewhere, the New Orleans Item observed, "Vitaphone helps the story along with music that is fitting and well arranged. The 'Hallelujah I'm a Bum' rhythm helps the story's speed." Peggy Patton of the Wisconsin News wrote "Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen (also playing in Wings) and Louise Brooks play the featured roles. All do praiseworthy work. By the way it is a sound picture and Wallace Beery speaks a few lines and sings a song. His speaking voice is splendid." Frank Aston of the Cincinnati Post penned, "The direction is admirable. Vitaphonic sounds lend some extra force. Beery is heard singing." The San Diego Union added, "Accompanied by a synchronized musical score of more than average excellence, the picture provides an hour and a half of film entertainment radically out of line with the general run of cinema drama. It is pungent, powerful, appealing, masterfully directed and superbly acted."

Advertisements for the film proclaimed something along the lines of “Come hear Wallace Beery sing!” But what that song was is uncertain. Reliable sources, including the director's son, site one of two similar titles, “Hark the Bells” or “Don’t You Hear Them Bells?” While at least two newspaper advertisements for the film, including the NYC one above, mention the songs "I Wonder Where She Sits at Night" and "Beggars of Life."

At the time of the film's release, a few recordings of the J. Keirn Brennan and Karl Hajos song “Beggars of Life” were released. The label on some of those 78 rpm recordings describe it as the “Theme Song of the Motion Picture production.” One was by The Troubadours (with male quartet), another by Scrappy Lambert. Here is the Troubadours' recording. It was issued as Victor 21683-B in 1928.

The lyrics to "Beggars of Life" go this way:

"Beggars of life, beggars of life;
Gypsy hearts that are sighing
For skies of blue, sunlight and dew,
Out where swallows are flying.
Each one longing to be led
To a happy homestead,
Where love will cry,
'Don't pass me by!'
Beggars of life, come home!"

Below is the Scrappy Lambert recording. Lambert (1901 – 1987) was an American dance band vocalist who appeared on hundreds of recordings from the 1920s through the 1940s. Might his or The Troubadours recording have been appended to the film, the so-called "sentimental music" referenced by the New Yorker?

There was also a cylinder recording of "Beggars of Life" released at the time. A copy of this  recording, housed in a rectangular box and with a paper label, is in the archive of the Louise Brooks Society. However, it being a cylinder recording, the LBS doesn't have a way to play and record it.
To conclude, here is more vintage recording, a cover version on 78 rpm, dating from 1928. It is the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra featuring vocals by Irving Kaufman.

While discussing the use of sound in Beggars of Life, it's worth mentioning that it was during the making of this transitional film that the "boom mic" was perhaps first used. According to David O. Selznick, "I was also present on the stage when a microphone was moved for the first time by Wellman, believe it or not. Sound was relatively new [this was Beggars of Life, 1928] and at that time the sound engineer insisted that the microphone be steady. Wellman, who had quite a temper in those days, got very angry, took the microphone himself, hung it on a boom, gave orders to record--and moved it." In the annals of film history, others have been credited with moving a microphone during the production of a film. Selznick's anecdote, which comes from Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By, is one account.

William Wellman blogathon: William Everson on Beggars of Life

In yesterday blog post, it was mentioned that the George Eastman House optically enlarged its 16mm print of Beggars of Life (which once belonging to William Everson) to 35mm. As part of the William Wellman blogathon, the Louise Brooks Society presents William K. Everson's thoughts on the 1928 Wellman film, starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks. These notes date from May 31, 1966.

William Wellman blogathon: An appreciation of Beggars of Life

William Wellman (far left) and Wallace Beery (far right) during the making of Beggars of Life (1928)

Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), Beggars of Life (1928) is a gripping drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. On the run, she rides the rails through a male dominated hobo underworld in which danger is close at hand. Picture Play magazine described the film as "Sordid, grim and unpleasant," adding, "it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie."

Beggars of Life is based on the 1924 novelistic memoir of the same name by Jim Tully, a once celebrated "hobo author" whose own reputation is also on the rise. Kent State University Press in Kent, Ohio (Tully's one-time hometown) has in recent years reissued the author's books, including Beggars of Life -- his best remembered work. They have also recently published an excellent biography of the author called Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler.

Author Jim Tully and actors Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen, during the making of Beggars of Life.

Though shot as a silent and released in that format, Beggars of Life also has the distinction of being considered Paramount's first sound film: a synchronized musical score, sound effects, and a song were added (against the director's wishes) at the time of its release. Early advertisements for the 1928 film boasted "Come hear Wallace Beery sing!" The gravel-voiced character actor and future Oscar winner plays Oklahoma Red, a tough hobo with a soft heart. Richard Arlen, who the year before had starred in Wings, plays a vagabond and Brooks' romantic interest.

Beggars of Life is a film about the desperate and the downtrodden. And in some ways, it anticipates films made during the Depression, which was just a few years off. Among them is Wellman's own 1933 effort Wild Boys of the Road, whose premise echoes that of Beggars of Life.

In 1928, Beggars of Life was named one of the six best films for October by the Chicago Tribune, and, it made the honor roll for best films of the year in an annual poll conducted by Film Daily. (On the basis of Beggars of Life and Wings, Film Daily named Wellman one of the world's best directors for the year's 1928-1929.) Musical Courier called Beggars of Life " . . . one of the most entertaining films of the littered season.” Photoplay thought it "good entertainment." Nevertheless, it is not especially well known today, and its grim story set among tramps drew mixed reviews upon release. One Baltimore newspaper said it would have limited appeal, quipping, "Tully tale not a flapper fetcher for the daytime trade."

Louella Parsons, writing in the Los Angeles Examiner, echoed the sentiment when she stated, "I was a little disappointed in Louise Brooks. She is so much more the modern flapper type, the Ziegfeld Follies girl, who wears clothes and is always gay and flippant. This girl is somber, worried to distraction and in no comedy mood. Miss Brooks is infinitely better when she has her lighter moments." Her cross-town colleague, Harrison Carroll, added to the drumbeat of disdain when he wrote in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, "Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor."

Critics in New York were also divided on the merits of Beggars of Life, and many of them instead focused on Brooks' unconventional, cross-dressing role. In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall noted, "Louise Brooks figures as Nancy. She is seen for the greater part of this subject in male attire, having decided to wear these clothes to avoid being apprehended. Miss Brooks really acts well, better than she has in most of her other pictures."

The New York Morning Telegraph stated, "Louise Brooks, in a complete departure from the pert flapper that it has been her wont to portray, here definitely places herself on the map as a fine actress. Her characterizations, drawn with the utmost simplicity, is genuinely affecting." While Quinn Martin of the New York World wrote, "Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done."

Also getting attention for their role in Beggars of Life was Edgar “Blue” Washington, who played Black Mose. Washington (1898 – 1970) was a prizefighter and noted semi-pro baseball player before entering films in the late Teens. He was a pioneer among African-American actor, and was given the nickname “Blue” by friend Frank Capra. Washington’s career was of interest to the Negro press. The Afro-American newspaper wrote, “In Beggars of Life, Edgar Blue Washington, race star, was signed by Paramount for what is regarded as the most important Negro screen role of the year, that of Big Mose. The part is that of a sympathetic character, hardly less important to the epic of tramp life than those of Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, who head the cast.”

Girls dressed as boys, pastoral life gone wrong, the mingling of the races, desperation depicted among the glitz and glamour of the twenties -- there is a lot of friction in Beggars of Life. It's a more than worthwhile film and one well worth watching.

Until a few years ago, when the George Eastman House optically enlarged its 16mm print (once belonging to William Everson) to 35mm, Beggars of Life had been seldom screened and seldom seen. That will change next year.

Wellman was one of the great directors -- and he made a lot of great movies; among them Wings (1927), The Public Enemy (1931), A Star is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Ox Bow Incident (1943), and Battleground (1949).

Actor and author William Wellman Jr., who has recently completed a biography of his father titled Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel, told the Louise Brooks Society, "Beggars of Life was one of my Father's favorite silent films. He loved it. He talked about it a great deal with appreciation and GUSTO."

Please nominate the the 1928 film BEGGARS OF LIFE to the 2016 National Film Registry. It's easy. All you have to do is send an email to filmregistry@loc.gov

Oh, and don't forget to nominate the 1928 film BEGGARS OF LIFE to the 2016 National Film Registry. All you have to do is send an email to filmregistry@loc.gov

Really. If you haven't already, please nominate the the 1928 film BEGGARS OF LIFE to the 2016 National Film Registry. It's easy. All you have to do is send an email to filmregistry@loc.gov

William Wellman blogathon starts tomorrow

The William Wellman blogathon starts tomorrow. Hosted by Now Voyaging, the blogathon runs September 10-13, and will feature nearly four dozen blogs from across the web covering many of the director's best known silent and sound films.

The Louise Brooks Society is participating, and will cover Wellman's Beggars of Life (1928), starring Louise Brooks. We'll be posting some amazing and little know material on this singular Louise Brooks film. See you tomorrow. . . .

William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director. Although he began his film career as an actor, he went on to work on over 80 films, mostly as as director, and sometimes as a producer, screenwriter, and consultant.

His ouevre is notable for his work in crime, adventure and war films, with a handful focusing on aviation themes. He also directed several well-regarded satirical comedies.

Wellman directed the 1927 film Wings, which became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony. His other best regarded silent film is Beggars of Life (1928).

Wellman's notable films include The Public Enemy (1931), Night Nurse (1931), the first version of A Star Is Born (1937) which he also wrote, Nothing Sacred (1937), the 1939 version of Beau Geste starring Gary Cooper, Roxie Hart (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Lady of Burlesque (1943), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), The Iron Curtain (1948), Battleground (1949) and two films starring and co-produced by John Wayne, Island in the Sky (1953) and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Wellman managed to elicit Oscar-nominated performances from seven different actors: Fredric March and Janet Gaynor (A Star Is Born), Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste), Robert Mitchum (The Story of G.I. Joe), James Whitmore (Battleground), and Jan Sterling and Claire Trevor (The High and Mighty).

In his career, however, Wellman won only a single Academy Award, for the story of A Star Is Born. He was nominated as best director three times, for A Star Is Born, Battleground and The High and Mighty, for which he was also nominated by the Directors Guild of America as best director. In 1973, the DGA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wellman also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


Wellman is the subject of an outstanding biography, William Wellman: Hollywood Rebel, authored by his son, William Wellman Jr. The LBS has read it and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Please nominate the the 1928 film BEGGARS OF LIFE to the 2016 National Film Registry. It's easy. All you have to do is send an email to filmregistry@loc.gov     Read more about William Wellman on his Wikipedia page or IMDb page.