Monday, March 7, 2016

Beggars of Life - Three recordings of the popular theme song to the 1928 Louise Brooks film

And here is what that recording sounded like..... Yesterday's post, depicting an early UK newspaper advertisement for "Beggars of Life" by the Troubadours, promoted only the most popular recording of the song. There exists at least three others, and perhaps more. One other was by Scrappy Lambert, a popular vocalist of the time. And another was by Seger Ellis. And yet another was by the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra, which featured the great Ben Selvin.

"Beggars of Life," by The Troubadours.


"Beggars of Life," by Scrappy Lambert.


"Beggars of Life," by the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra (featuring Ben Selvin) with vocal by Irving Kaufman.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

In honor of the Dodge Brothers live musical accompaniment to Beggars of Life

In honor of the Dodge Brothers live musical accompaniment to the William Wellman film, Beggars of Life (1928, starring Louise Brooks) at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on March 7. . . . here is a few related clipping from the English press dating from the late 1920s.  This particular advertisement for a recording of the Beggars of Life theme song, as performed by The Troubadours, appeared in the Yorkshire newspaper in January, 1929.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Louise Brooks and Gary Cooper, what might have been

Here is an uncommon publicity picture of some of Paramount's junior stars. I would guess it dates from later 1927, or early 1928. A smiling Louise Brooks sits in the middle of the picture, on the far left of the bench. And to her left is none other than Gary Cooper, who early on was considered for a role in Beggars of Life (which would co-star Brooks). I would guess Cooper was considered for the role that eventually went to Richard Arlen.


Friday, March 4, 2016

Beggars of Life screens in the UK on March 7

The sensational 1928 William Wellman film, Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on March 7. The Dodge Brothers will provide live musical accompaniment. More info and a link to tickets HERE.

"Experience classic silent films with world class live music accompaniment in the Royal Albert Hall’s intimate Elgar Room. The Elgar Room’s silent films live music series continues with a special screening of the Louise Brooks classic Beggars of Life with live music accompaniment from The Dodge Brothers. The Dodge Brothers are an Americana-drenched quartet comprising:

Aly ‘‘Dodge’ Hirji (acoustic guitar, mandolin)

Mike ‘Dodge’ Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals, banjo, dobro)

Mark ‘Dodge’ Kermode (double bass, harmonica, ukulele, accordion, vocals)

Alex ‘Dodge’ Hammond (washboard, snare drum, percussion)

and featuring special guest Neil Brand (piano).

"Their motto, ‘death and trains a speciality’, has never been more appropriate than to William Wellman’s legendary 1928 film Beggars of Life, a tale of depression-era, rail-riding hobos played by the iconic Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen and the great Wallace Beery." Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the British Film Institute, said "Never has a film and a band been more perfectly matched than Beggars of Life and the Dodge Brothers – deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks – they were made for each other."



Thursday, March 3, 2016

Tone poem: "Louise Brooks et l'amour" by Roland Jaccard

Tone poem: from 2013, "Louise Brooks et l'amour" by Roland Jaccard, a French author responsible for the first ever book about the actress, Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Louise Brooks and New Confessions, by William Boyd

Another novel which features the iconic image of a dreaming Louise Brooks sitting in a chair with books scattered on the floor about her is William Boyd's The New Confessions. First published in 1987, the edition pictured here was issued by Penguin in the UK in 2010.

According to the publisher, "In this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred percent William Boyd.

From his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed. Emerging from his angst-filled childhood, he rushes into the throes of the twentieth century on the Western Front during the Great War, and quickly changes his role on the battlefield from cannon fodder to cameraman. When he becomes a prisoner of war, he discovers Rousseau's Confessions, and dedicates his life to bringing the memoir to the silver screen. Plagued by bad luck and blind ambition, Todd becomes a celebrated London upstart, a Weimar luminary, and finally a disgruntled director of cowboy movies and the eleventh member of the Hollywood Ten. Ambitious and entertaining, Boyd has invented a most irresistible hero."

I haven't yet read this book, but according to a friend as well as various reviewers, a Louise Brooks-like character also figures in the story. Have you read this book?

William Boyd is the author of ten novels, including A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year.
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