Let's Dance: Louise Brooks and the popular dances of her time

It is well known that Louise Brooks was a gifted dancer: she was trained in aesthetic dances, like those performed by Denishawn, and talented as well as in the popular dances of her time, like the Charleston and Black Bottom. In fact, she is thought to be the first person to dance the Charleston in London, at the popular Cafe de Paris nightclub. She did so in late 1924.

Later, in the mid-1930's, Brooks even made a living touring as a Ballroom dancer in nightclubs on the East Coast, Midwest, and South. And, in 1939, she self-published a booklet called The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing. Brooks could cut a rug.

What did the popular dances of the 1920's look like? Here are a few video clips, one vintage, the other contemporary, which give an idea of what Brooks was up to on the dance floor.

And here is a clip from Love Em and Leave Em (1926) which shows Brooks making moves on the dance floor.

I Like New Books on Una Merkel, Helen Twelvetrees, and Sally Phipps

Recently, the New Yorker ran a long, glowing piece on My Hollywood, When Both of Us Were Young. It is a little known memoir by a largely forgotten film star, Patsy Ruth Miller (1904 - 1995). Today, she is best known as the actress who played Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), opposite Lon Chaney.

The occasion for Richard Brody's New Yorker piece was "It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies & Vamps," a two week, three dozen plus film series at the Film Forum in New York City. (The series continues through March 28.) Among the films being shown is Ernst Lubitsch's delightful 1926 comedy So This Is Paris, which stars Miller as the wife of a husband on the prowl.

Curious, Brody read up on the actress and came across her memoir, issued by a small publisher in 1988, more than a half-century after the actress' career came to an end. Brody was impressed. He compared the book to Louise Brooks' classic Lulu in Hollywood, adding "If Brooks writes like Fitzgerald, documenting tragedy beneath the glamour that both charmed and repelled her, Miller is more like a Dreiser of anecdotes, endowed as she was with a seeming total recall, a photographic and phonographic memory that vigorously and artlessly conjures an era and its conflicts through the accretion of surprising details and precise, incisive observations." As praise goes, that's pretty good.

Miller's My Hollywood is still in print, and today is available through BearManor Media. If you are not familiar with BearManor, they are a small press publisher specializing in popular culture and books on film, radio and television. Film International has called them an "independent maverick publishing house," while Leonard Maltin has noted their "impressive series of books for film, radio and TV aficionados." Since 2001, BearManor has done a commendable job issuing books on all manner of subjects. They, along with other specialty houses like McFarland and a handful of university presses, are helping fill-out the shelves of film history.

One newly released BearManor title worth checking out is Una Merkel: The Actress with Sassy Wit and Southern Charm, by Larry Sean Kinder. It's the first full-length biography of this quirky character actress who often played wisecracking best friends, harebrained ingénues, and cantankerous matrons.

Once hailed by D. W. Griffith as "the greatest natural actress now in pictures," Merkel (1903 - 1986) was something rare in Hollywood. According to her biographer, she was humble, self-effacing, and almost egoless, confessing not only to insecurities, but an inferiority complex as well. Never aspiring to stardom, Merkel was more interested in good parts, which meant supporting roles to some of the biggest names of her day. Memorably, Merkel got into a cat-fight with Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939), and over the years supported such major stars as W.C. Fields, Harold Lloyd, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy and others.

Merkel's film career went into decline in the 1940s, but she would make a comeback as a middle-aged woman playing mothers and maiden aunts. She was Debbie Reynolds's mother in The Mating Game (1959), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Summer and Smoke (1961), based on the Tennessee Williams play. Her final film role was opposite Elvis Presley in Spinout (1966).
Merkal was able to parlay supporting roles.into a noteworthy career that lasted more than forty years; she garnered acclaim not only in film, but also in theater, television, and radio. On stage, one early success came in 1927 in Coquette, which starred Helen Hayes. Later, Merkal won a Tony Award in 1956 for her role on Broadway in The Ponder Heart.

Una Merkel: The Actress with Sassy Wit and Southern Charm is a detailed look at the career of a memorable performer, an actress with the special distinction of having played Sam Spade's secretary in the original 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon. For these and many other reasons, Kinder's book is a fun read.

Along with indie presses like BearManor, self-published authors are also making noteworthy contributions to film history. Admittedly, some of their books are crap, but some have merit.

One of the better titles is another first-ever book on a significant early Hollywood actress, Helen Twelvetrees, Perfect Ingenue, by Cliff Aliperti. This Long Island writer and classic film buff runs a few different nostalgia websites about old Hollywood and vintage collectibles, including Immortal Ephemera, a site about unheralded films and film stars of the 1930s. (Aliperti also runs a swell sight on that likeable pre-Code cad, Warren William.)

In her heyday, Helen Twelvetrees (1908 - 1958) was a leading lady to male stars like John Barrymore, Spencer Tracy, and Maurice Chevalier. Her other early co-stars included Clark Gable, Joan Blondell, and John Wayne. Twelvetrees rose to fame in Her Man (1930). This film set the course of her screen career, and she was subsequently cast in a series of roles portraying suffering women fighting for the wrong men. Twelvetrees' ten-years in Hollywood were highlighted by starring roles in a string of pre-Code melodramas.

According to Aliperti, Twelvetrees was an "unexpectedly modern woman." Her independent attitude led to whispers of temperament, and that along with typecasting, studio realignment and a changing industry led to a loss in momentum in the actress' career. Twelvetrees made a film in Australia in 1936 before closing out her career in Hollywood in 1939. The faded star then left films for the stage.

Helen Twelvetrees, Perfect Ingenue is one-half biography, one-half critical study of Twelvetrees' thirty-two motion picture, some of them good, some bad, a few lost. Aliperti's book is recommended.
Another self-published book deserving mention is Sally Phipps: Silent Film Star by Robert L. Harned. The author is a professional research librarian based in New York City, and the son of his subject.


Before you roll your eyes, know that this scrapbook style work is more than just a vanity project or book by a child about their parent. It's a labor of love, to be sure. But it's also the first book on its subject, and an enjoyable read ripe with appealing anecdotes and images.

Sally Phipps (1911 - 1978) was a dish, one of the cutest stars of the silent era. More than just putting his mother on display, Harned sketches her fascinating story-of her upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area (her parents knew Jack London) and start in films as the toddler in Broncho Billy and The Baby (1914). That film was shot at the Essanay Studio in nearby Niles, California, where this three-year old veteran of beautiful baby contests once sat on Charlie Chaplin's lap.

Discovered by director Frank Borzage and signed to a contract by Sol Wurtzel, Phipps worked for Fox Studios, appearing in some 20 short and feature films. There was Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl (1926), Love Makes 'Em Wild (1927), and The Cradle Snatchers (1927), as well as a uncredited bit in F.W. Murnau's Academy Award winning Sunrise (1927). Also that year, Phipps was selected as one of 13 Wampas Baby Stars, starlets considered destined for future success. A few more films followed, including Why Sailors Go Wrong (1928).

After a contract with Howard Hughes failed to materialize, Phipps headed to New York. Her named popped up in the gossip columns, she appeared in a Broadway show, made a Vitaphone comedy short, and married and divorced one of the Gimbel department store moguls. Ever restless, she eventually left for India. Back in the United States, there was another marriage, two children (one of whom is the author), a stay in Hawaii, and ever changing fortunes. In 1938, during the depths of the Depression, columnist Earl Wilson wrote that Phipps was working for the Federal Theatre Project: he headlined his article "Wampas Ex-Baby Lives On WPA $23 - And Likes It."

About old film stars, someone once said "they had faces then." As it turns out, they also had stories to be told.

A variant of this story originally appeared in the Huffington Post.

It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies & Vamps

File this under not to be missed: Film Forum in New York City is about to launch "It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies & Vamps," a two week, thirty-one film series featuring sex symbols of the Twenties and early Thirties. Along with a 35mm presentation of Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box (with live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterneron on March 19th), the series features Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Colleen Moore, Miriam Hopkins, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck and others. "It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies & Vamps" runs Friday, March 11 through Thursday, March 24.

The festival was programmed by Bruce Goldstein, the hea dof Film Forum, and is presented in association with the Library of Congress. Here is the line-up of films.

MARCH 11 FRI (DOUBLE FEATURE)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932, Ernst Lubitsch) 35mm
Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall
2:15, 5:45, 9:30

GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931, George Cukor) 35mm
Kay Frances, Joel McCrea, Lilyan Tashman
12:30, 4:00

MARCH 11 FRI (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
MANTRAP (1926, Victor Fleming) Restored 35mm print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive
Clara Bow, Ernest Torrence, Percy Marmont
7:30 ONLY*
*Introduced by Clara Bow biographer David Stenn, Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 12 SAT (DOUBLE FEATURE)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932, Ernst Lubitsch) 35mm
Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall
12:30, 4:00, 9:30

GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931, George Cukor) 35mm
Kay Frances, Lilyan Tashman, Joel McCrea
2:15

MARCH 12 SAT (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
SO THIS IS PARIS (1926, Ernst Lubitsch) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Patsy Ruth Miller, Lilyan Tashman, Monte Blue, André Beranger
5:50 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 12 SAT (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
CALL HER SAVAGE (1932, John Francis Dillon) Restored 35mm print courtesy Museum of Modern Art
Clara Bow, Thelma Todd, Gilbert Roland
7:30*
*Introduced by Bow biographer David Stenn

MARCH 13 SUN (DOUBLE FEATURE)
THE BLUE ANGEL (1929, Josef von Sternberg) 35mm. In German with English subtitles
Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings
3:10, 7:20

A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (1928, Clarence Brown) 35mm. Silent, with original synchronized musical score
Greta Garbo, John Gilbert
1:00, 5:20

MARCH 14 MON (DOUBLE FEATURE)
"GET INTO OUR SHORTS" co-presented by The Vitaphone Project
2:20, 6:00
Introduced by Ron Hutchinson

FOLLOW THRU (1930, Laurence Schwab & Lloyd Corrigan) 35mm print, preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive
Nancy Carroll, Zelma O'Neal, Jack Haley, Charles "Buddy" Rogers
12:30, 4:10

MARCH 14 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
THE PATSY (1928, King Vidor) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, Lawrence Gray
8:10 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 15 TUE (DOUBLE FEATURE)
THE BARKER (1928, George Fitzmaurice) 35mm print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive
Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, Milton Sills
12:30, 3:35, 6:40

SAFE IN HELL (1931, William Wellman) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Dorothy Mackaill, Donald Cook
2:10, 5:15, 8:20*
*Introduced by David Noh

MARCH 16 WED (DOUBLE FEATURE)
OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928, Harry Beaumont) 35mm. Silent, with original musical soundtrack
Joan Crawford, Dorothy Sebastian, Anita Page, Johnny Mack Brown
2:45, 6:45

MADAM SATAN (1930, Cecil B. DeMille) 35mm
Kay Johnson, Lillian Roth, Reginald Denny
12:30, 4:30, 9:00

MARCH 16 WED (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
JOAN CRAWFORD'S PRIVATE HOME MOVIES - PART I
6:45 (precedes Our Dancing Daughters)
Introduced by Casey LaLonde

MARCH 17 THU (DOUBLE FEATURE)
POSSESSED (1931, Clarence Brown) 35mm
Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Ford
12:30, 3:45, 7:00

OUR MODERN MAIDENS (1929, Jack Conway) 35mm. Silent, with music score
Joan Crawford, Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
2:10, 5:20, 9:15

MARCH 17 THU (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
JOAN CRAWFORD'S PRIVATE HOME MOVIES - PART II - WORLD PREMIERE!
7:00 (precedes Possessed)
Introduced by Casey LaLonde

MARCH 18 FRI (DOUBLE FEATURE)
BLONDE VENUS (1932, Josef von Sternberg) 35mm
Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Herbert Marshall
12:30, 4:10, 9:30

SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932, Josef von Sternberg) 35mm
Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, Clive Brook
2:30, 7:50

MARCH 18 FRI (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
IT (1927, Clarence Badger) 35mm
Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, Gary Cooper
6:10 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 19 SAT (DOUBLE FEATURE)
BABY FACE (1933, Alfred E. Green) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Barbara Stanwyck, Theresa Harris, George Brent
2:20*, 5:45*, 9:50
*Introduced by Bruce Goldstein

RED-HEADED WOMAN (1932, Jack Conway) 35mm
Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone
12:30, 4:00

MARCH 19 SAT (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
PANDORA'S BOX (1929, G.W. Pabst) 35mm
Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francs Lederer
7:20 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 20 SUN (DOUBLE FEATURE)
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers, Warren William, Ruby Keller, Dick Powell
3:20, 7:30

DAMES (1934, Ray Enright) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick, Powell
1:30, 9:30

MARCH 20 SUN (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
PICCADILLY (1929, E.A. Dupont) 35mm
Anna May Wong, Gilda Gray, Cyril Ritchard
5:20 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 21 MON (DOUBLE FEATURE)
CHICAGO (1927, Frank Urson & Cecil B. DeMille) DCP
Phyllis Haver, Victor Varconi
2:20, 6:30*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 6:30 show (Soundtrack at 2:20)

WHY BE GOOD? (1929, William A. Seiter) DCP.
Silent with original musical score.
Colleen Moore, Neil Hamilton
12:30, 4:40, 8:50

MARCH 22 TUES (DOUBLE FEATURE)
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers, Warren William, Ruby Keller, Dick Powell
2:20

DAMES (1934, Ray Enright) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell
12:30, 4:20

MARCH 22 TUES (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
SYNTHETIC SIN (1929, William A. Seiter) DCP
Colleen Moore, Antonio Moreno
6:15 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner - with original Vitaphone soundtrack for final reel only. Introduced by Joseph Yranski.

MARCH 23 WED (DOUBLE FEATURE)
CHICAGO (1927, Frank Urson & Cecil B. DeMille) DCP
Phyllis Haver, Victor Varconi
2:20

WHY BE GOOD? (1929, William A. Seiter) DCP.
Silent with original musical score
Colleen Moore, Neil Hamilton
12:30, 4:40

MARCH 23 WED (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
SADIE THOMPSON (1928, Raoul Walsh) 35mm
Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore
6:30 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner

MARCH 23 WED (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
CALL HER SAVAGE (1932, John Francis Dillon) Restored 35mm print courtesy Museum of Modern Art
Clara Bow, Glibert Roland
8:30

MARCH 24 THU (DOUBLE FEATURE)
LOOSE ANKLES (1930, Ted Wilde) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
12:30, 3:20, 7:40*
*Introduced by Mike Mashon of the Library of Congress

EMPLOYEE'S ENTRANCE (1933, Roy Del Ruth) 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Loretta Young, Warren William, Alice White, Wallace Ford
1:50*, 4:40, 9:00*
*Introduced by Bruce Goldstein

MARCH 24 THU (SEPARATE ADMISSION)
GET YOUR MAN & Silk Lingerie (1927, Dorothy Arzner) 35mm prints courtesy Library of Congress
Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers
6:10 ONLY*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner. Introduced by Mike Mashon of the Library of Congress

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.