Happy Holidays from the Louise Brooks Society #2

A vintage Japanese holiday greeting from Paramount. How many stars can you name? One at least!

Happy Holidays from the Louise Brooks Society #1

A vintage Japanese holiday greeting from Paramount. How many stars can you name? Check back tomorrow for another!

The shocking edition of Diary of a Lost Girl

Yesterday, I received something very, very special in the mail - my recent order of a scarce edition of Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / Diary of a Lost Girl. Wow, what a score! It came from Germany, and is in beautiful condition, near fine. I have been hunting for this edition for some time now, ever since I worked on the Louise Brooks edition of Diary of a Lost Girl, which was published in 2010.

This illustrated edition of Margarete Bohme's book contains dozens of illustrations, some of them strangle, and some surprisingly risque.

If I am decoding his bookplate correctly, the owner bought the book in 1917. Also laid in were 4 scarce postcards from the 1918 film version of Tagebuch einer Verlorenen. Each of the postcards depict Erna Morena, who played Thymain (the role played by Louise Brooks in 1929); two postcards also depict Conrad Veidt, who starred in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Casablanca.

I had read that the book in its original German was far more suggestive than the English language translation. The owner, a close reader, discretely penciled in notes, like the cost of prostitutes (notice the amounts penciled next to each portrait below).

He also penciled a comment to the right of the last image: "Morbus gallicus," which translates as "The French disease," or syphilis.  No wonder Walter Benjamin described this book as something like “a complete inventory of the sexual trade.”

Silent film stars celebrating the Holidays #1

Here are a couple of images of silent film stars celebrating the Holidays.... First Louise Brooks' one-time co-star Mary Brian, and second, the other bobbed wonder, Colleen Moore.

Announcing a Louise Brooks Documentary on Kickstarter

Documentary of a Lost Girl is a new, in-the-works documentary about Louise Brooks which has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to help it reach completion. According to its campaign page, "This film will uncover the life of Louise Brooks through interviews, traveling, archival resources and Brooks-style immersive research." It's the brainchild of Charlotte Siller, a dedicated Louise Brooks researcher and devotee. I had the chance to meet Charlotte last year when I visited Rochester, New York and was impressed by her enthusiasm.

I encourage everyone to find out more and to make a donation to this worthwhile cause. I already have . . . . Find out more HERE.

Louise Brooks Society wishlist

In case you are wondering, or even worried, what you might give the Louise Brooks Society this holiday season, wonder or worry no more. The Louise Brooks Society has updated its wish list on amazon.com, and it can be found HERE. The list contains a handful of books, compact discs, and DVDs of interest to the LBS.
 

And what's more, RadioLulu also has a wish list made up of CDs and digital music which the LBS is interested in obtaining for possible inclusion on it's streaming music station. The RadioLulu wish list can be found HERE.

Special offer: Give the gift of live cinema

2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival Pass

Holiday Special: Member - $200/General - $220 (No service charge!)

More information HERE.
  

Give the gift of live cinema with an all-program PASS to the 22nd annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, June 1–4, 2017. Believe you me, every silent film and Louise Brooks fan will want to be there!

The 2017 festival passes are available at at big discount for a very limited time. Give the gift of live cinema to that film lover on your list. This offer is only good until December 31.

For a very limited time, you can buy a deeply discounted SFSFF 2017 PASS for that film lover on your list. Four glorious days of silent-era film set to live musical accompaniment! This offer is only good until December 31 at the stroke of midnight, so don’t delay.

“SFSFF is in a class by itself: a feast for lovers of classic film and live music that is as elaborate, ambitious, and masterfully mounted as any I’ve seen.” —Leonard Maltin 

Follow the Louise Brooks Society on Twitter

Do you follow the Louise Brooks Society on Twitter? If not, you should! The LBS ( @LB_Society ) has been on the popular social media platform since 2009 -- that's about 7 years! In fact, the LBS is followed by more than 4,300+ interested individuals (including a few famous names).

And while you're at it, be sure and check out the LBS Twitter profile, and nearly 5,100 LBS tweets ... so far! There's always more to come.....

@LB_Society

 

Pandora's Box screens in Istanbul, Turkey on January 15

The 1929 Louise Brooks film, Pandora's Box, will be shown with live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne in Istanbul, Turkey on January 15, 2017. For more information about this event, please visit THIS PAGE.  What follows is further information from the host website.

Pandora’nın Kutusu / Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora’s Box

Kadın-erkek herkesin etrafında pervane olduğu cazibeli  ve güzel Lulu (Louise Brooks), varyete şovlarla birçok kişinin gönlünü çalmaktadır. Aşk yaşadığı varyete sahibi Dr. Schön’ün başka bir kadınla evleneceğini duyunca bu evliliği bozmak için elinden geleni yaparak, onu kendisiyle evlenmesi için ayartır. Fakat bu evlilik Pandora’nın kutusunun açılmasına neden olurken kendisi dahil herkesi trajedinin içine çeker. 1925 yılında ilk defa Amerika’da sinema dünyasına adım atan Louise Brooks’un Avrupa’daki ilk filmi olan Pandora’nın Kutusu, Alman oyun yazarı Frank Wedekind’in iki oyunundan uyarlanmıştır. Bu filmdeki Lulu karakteri, Brooks’un sonraki yaşamında bu isimle anılmasına neden olmuştur. Geçen yıl festivalde “Güzellik Ödülü”ne yer verdiğimiz Brooks’un ilk filmi kaçmaz.

Charming and attractive musical revue actress Lulu (Louise Brooks), who inspires admiration of both men and women and steals everybody’s heart, does everything to break the upcoming marriage of Dr. Schönn, a patron of the show and her former lover.  She succeeds in marrying him, but this opens Pandora’s Box ultimately leading to a tragic end for everybody, including Lulu. Louise Brooks began her career in the US in 1925.  Pandora’s Box, adapted from two plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind, was her first European movie.  After this movie, the name Lulu became Louise Brooks’ nickname. Last year’s “Beauty Prize” is followed by Louise Brooks’ first European movie. Don’t miss it!