The Week's News, a humor column by Buster Keaton

From 1922, the "Week's News", a humor column by Buster Keaton, along with other bits from the time, including a few words about the Denishawn Dance Company, with which Louise Brooks was on tour.

Diary of a Lost Girl two months from today

The 1929 Louise Brooks film Diary of a Lost Girl will be screened two months from today -- that is June 3rd, 2016 at the Leominster Theatre and Cinema at the Leominster Community Centre in England (that's south of Liverpool. west of Manchester, and north of Bristol. Wurlitza will provide live musical accompaniment.

Lulu in Hollywood photo composition by Hal Wilson

Here is something rather nifty, a photo composition entitled "Lulu in Hollywood." It is by Hal Wilson.

Wilson stated, "I guess you could say I make “Photo Compositions”. In the wee hours of the morning I'll be clipping images from vintage pictures (primarily from the Library of Congress). I take the parts that I like and move them around. A flapper-girl happily sitting in a treehouse-speakeasy might find herself transported into an oyster boat off Virginia.  Poor dear.

I became intrigued with Louise Brooks while researching techniques of classic Hollywood photography. From all the movie stars in the heavens (Garbo, Gable, Bogart or Bacall) it is Louise Brooks who appears on the front cover of John Kobal's Hollywood Glamour Portraits. I have a little crush on Lulu."

How many of the individuals in the above composition can you name?

Louise Brooks Silent Film Star on 3min Late Night talk Show

I don't understand the point of it all . . . but here ya go, another faux interview: "Louise Brooks Silent Film Star on 3min Late Night talk Show." Published on March 24, 2016, and featuring Sarah Quiroz and North Roberts, who "welcomes dead silent film era star Louise Brooks to the studio."

C.B. DeMille pastoral silent film with Louise Brooks

In November, 1927 a person named T.J.G. sent a note to Motion Picture Arts and Sciences magazine (their very first issue, it turns out) humorously suggesting that a film be made by C.B. Demille based on the names of film stars whose names evoke something pastoral. Among them is Louise Brooks.

"King of Jazz" kickstarter campaign

There is a new Kickstarter campaign I would encourage everyone to check out. It's for a new book about the production, release and restoration of the 1930 musical film King of Jazz starring Paul Whiteman.

King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman’s Technicolor Revue tells the untold story of the making, release and restoration of Universal’s 1930 Technicolor musical extravaganza King of Jazz. This special limited edition hardcover book needs your help to get published!

King of Jazz was one of the most ambitious films ever to emerge from Hollywood. Just as movie musicals were being invented in 1929, Universal Pictures brought together Paul Whiteman, leader of the country’s top dance orchestra; John Murray Anderson, director of spectacular Broadway revues; a top ensemble of dancers and singers; early Technicolor; and a near unlimited budget.

The film’s highlights include a dazzling interpretation of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” which Whiteman had introduced to the public in 1924; Walter Lantz’s “A Fable in Jazz,” the first cartoon in Technicolor; and Anderson’s grand finale “The Melting Pot of Music,” a visualization of popular music’s many influences and styles.

The film is not only a unique document of Anderson’s theatrical vision and Whiteman’s band at its peak, but also of many of America’s leading performers of the late 1920s, including Bing Crosby in his first screen appearance, and the Russell Markert Dancers, who would soon become Radio City Music Hall’s famous Rockettes.

And that's not all. The film also includes the first screen appearance by the one and only Bing Crosby!

Authors James Layton and David Pierce have uncovered original artwork, studio production files, behind-the-scenes photographs, personal papers, unpublished interviews, and a host of other previously unseen documentation. The book will offer a richly illustrated narrative of the film’s origins, production and release, with broader context on its diverse musical and theatrical influences. The story will conclude with an in-depth look at the challenges Universal has faced in restoring the film in 2016, as told by the experts doing the work.

The 256-page book will be illustrated with over 200 color and black & white images, many of which will showcase the never-before-published Academy Award winning designs of Herman Rosse. Intricate behind-the-scenes stills will give insight into the scale of the film’s ambitions, while other full-color reproductions of original music arrangements, storyboards, posters, magazine ads, programs and frame enlargements will appear throughout.

The future of film history is in your hands. Find out more, watch the video below and visit the Kickstarter campaign page for this worthy project.

Mae Murray Speaks on Heart Throbs of Yesterday, 1950

In one of her last screen appearances in 1950, silent film star Mae Murray discusses the famous "heart throbs" of yesterday, interviewed by Ralph Staub.