A massive project which I have been working on (in between other projects) is
Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985, a page on the Louise Brooks Society website. It is a work in progress.
Louise Brooks was 78 years old at the time of her death. All together, her life ran over the course of 28,758 days. She
accomplished a great deal in her lifetime, appearing in 24 films,
writing a book, appearing on radio, and performing hundreds of times on
stage as a dancer. She also taught dancing, and worked as a professional
ballroom dancer. However, relatively speaking, little is known about
what Brooks was doing on any given day.
From the mass
of material I have gathered, Brooks' activities can be traced to
approximately a thousand days throughout her lifetime. Best documented
is the
18 year period – running from 1922 through 1940, a period of 6939 days –
when Brooks worked as a dancer and actress and many of her activities
were a matter of public record.
Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985
attempts a day-by-day account of Brooks' life. It
contains entries both significant and mundane, and is based on multiple
sources including, first and foremost, dates and events found in the
Barry Paris biography. I also contains entries recorded by Brooks in her
notebooks (which she kept
from the mid-1950s through her death); other dates were gathered from
various magazines and newspapers (especially those published where
Brooks
was resident), along with other disparate sources, such as census
records and passenger manifests.
I encourage anyone interested to check out what I have so far accomplished at
Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985.
There is more to come. If you can suggest documented specific dates related to Louise Brooks, please contact the LBS. In the meantime, here
are a few highlights for the last half of the 1920s.
Sept. 16, 1925
Brooks and a tipsy Herman J. Mankiewicz attend No, No, Nanette at the Globe Theater on Broadway.
Sept. 17, 1925
Brooks’ ghost-written review (by-lined by Herman J. Mankiewicz) of the stage play
No, No, Nanette appears in the
New York Times.
Dec. 1, 1925
Wearing a celebrated "drafty" costume designed by John
Harkrider, Brooks attends the Lafayette fête (a society fundraiser) held
at the Hotel Astor in New York City. Also there in costume were Gloria
Swanson as Marie Antoinette, and Adolphe Menjou as Price Eugene, with
Leon Errol acting as master of ceremonies, and Irene Bordoni singing.
Also attending were Ethel Barrymore, Noel Coward, Richard Barthelmess,
Marilyn Miller, Walter Wanger, Otto Kahn, John Jay Chapman, and others.
May 26, 1926
Brooks appears on the cover of the Danish film magazine
Ugebladet — probable 1st appearance on a European magazine cover.
Aug. 6, 1926
Attends opening of first sound film,
Don Juan (1926), with Peggy Fears and A.C. Blumenthal at the Warner Theater in New York City.
Aug. 30, 1926
Attends Rudolph Valentino’s funeral in New York City.
Nov. 5, 1926
Makes a personal appearance at a benefit pre-release midnight showing at the Rialto Theater of
We're in the Navy Now,
directed by Eddie Sutherland, who is also on hand. (As is Betty
Bronson, Ricardo Cortez, Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher, William Powell,
Evelyn Brent, and Philip Strange. Helen Morgan sings.) The event is a
benefit showing in aid of the
New York American Christmas and Relief Fund.
July 8, 1927
Attends the West Coast premiere of
Way of All Flesh at Criterion Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Aug. 27, 1927
At the Paramount studio shooting scenes (interiors in the aviation headquarters and ante room) for
Now We’re in the Air. Later in the day attends a Hollywood party in honor of Lina Basquette.
Oct. 10, 1927
New York Sun columnist Eileen Creelman notes
Brooks was among those attending the Oct. 7th opening of Texas Guinan's
new nightclub. (As did Peggy Fears, Herbert Brenon, Gladys Glad, Dagmar
Godowsky, Lita Grey, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Lew Cody, Carmel Myers, and
others.)
Jan. 27, 1928
Attends pajama party with Eddie Sutherland at Esther
Ralston’s Hollywood home; also in attendance are Buddy Rogers, George
Bancroft, Mary Brian, Richard Arlen, Chester Conklin, Frank Tuttle,
Warner Baxter, and others.
Feb. 28, 1928
Departs Miami aboard a cruise ship bound for Havana, Cuba.
May 12, 1928
Brooks and Mary Brian are guests of honor at an
afternoon benefit bridge given by the Los Angeles alumni of Pi Kappa
Psi, a national education sorority, on the south patio of the Alexandria
hotel.
Aug. 28, 1928
In the evening, Brooks, Richard Dix and other 16 others involved in the filming of
Redskin arrive in Gallup, New Mexico, where they stay at the El Navajo hotel.
Oct. 11, 1928
The
Emporia Weekly Gazette reports that Brooks will pass through Emporia, Kansas on the east bound no. 20.
Dec. 1928
Brooks meets William S. Paley, the new owner of CBS. They keep company for the next two months.
Jan. 23, 1929
Variety writes, "Louise Brooks of the
'movies' thinks Jimmy Durante should have that schnozzola patented.
Louise is quite the talk of the ringside these nights."