Monday, January 30, 2017

Trump's effect on the Louise Brooks Society and silent film

On January 19th, 2017, the Trump administration said that it would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump also said he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees both PBS and NPR. All together, such funding represents a minuscule portion - a reported 0.004% - of 2016 federal spending.

The Louise Brooks Society stands against such actions. Each would disastrously impact the arts and American culture, as well as silent film preservation and exhibition -- including the films of Louise Brooks.

Over the years, the Public Broadcasting System has shown silent films on television, as well as documentaries about silent films. I remember seeing Kevin Brownlow's magnificent Hollywood series on PBS in the early 1980's. That was my first sustained exposure to silent film and film history. Looking back, it changed my life. What's more, having examined old television broadcast records, I have also been able to find that PBS screened Pandora's Box on television a handful of times in the 1980's. I wonder how many individuals saw a great actress like Louise Brooks for the first time, and it somehow impacted their life?

National Public Radio has, as well, covered many news stories related to silent film - stories likely not covered in the mainstream media. I myself, as the director of the Louise Brooks Society, have appeared on NPR stations across the country talking about the actress, most recently on WXXI in Rochester, New York. Without such attention to less popular art forms like silent film, American culture would be a much lesser thing.

Similarly, both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities grant funds to various film festivals, including silent film festivals, as well as the specialized musicians who perform at them. And what's more, eliminating such funds would eliminate funds that go towards silent film restoration and silent film preservation, DVD releases, as well as the researching and writing and publishing of articles and books (and the making of documentary films) on silent film.

I don't want to live in a world where the cultural standard is some crappy reality television show. The arts enrich our lives. All of our lives, whether we get a grant or not.


The most important thing individuals can do is to keep informed and to support arts organizations and the media that gives coverage to the arts. This article has a number of great suggestions. 

Another thing we can do is to sign petitions against cutting funding. Here is a link to a petition on the whitehouse.gov website asking that funding not be cut to the NEA and the NEH. I think others are going around as well. As we know, Louise Brooks was a Denishawn dancer, an actress, and a great reader of books. I, for one, feel she would be against eliminating funding of the arts.




Consider this: When the Nazi's came to power in Germany in the early 1930's, they too moved to control society by controlling culture. In fact, Margarete Bohme's sensational 1905 book, The Diary of a Lost Girl, which can be seen as a feminist social critique of German society and had remained in print since it was first published 25 years earlier, was driven out of print by right wing groups in the early1930's. Additionally, some of G.W. Pabst's films - like Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box - were suppressed. No one wants to see that happen again!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Louise Brooks found in La La Land

Speaking of La La Land, I was there last week researching two of Louise Brooks' films. I scored a lot of great material, nearly 200 pages worth of stuff, including many rare stills and publicity photos and lots of rare Paramount production records. The results of my research shall be revealed in the coming months..... Here is a snapshot of me outside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Margaret Herrick Library. Over the years, I have visited the library nearly ten times, and am finally starting to feel I know my way around its way of doing things. While there, I also had the pleasure of running into author and film historian Mary Mallory while doing my research. Hello Mary!


Apparently, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills (where the Academy is located) is riddled with crime. Who da thunk? I spotted this WANTED poster tacked to a bulletin board.


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Louise Brooks in La La Land

I have seen an image on social media which people are saying is from the acclaimed new film La La Land. This romantic musical comedy-drama film is regarded as one of the best films of 2016, having been nominated for a record-tying fourteen Oscars!

The image in question is a street scene depicting a mural which depicts Louise Brooks. I haven't yet scene the movie. Can anyone confirm this image is from La La Land? Additionally, I am wondering, is this an actual locale in Los Angeles?




Monday, January 16, 2017

Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985, part five

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 from the sixties through to the end of Brooks' life.

Jan. 12, 1960
Lunch with Lillian Gish at Gish's apartment in New York City. Later, Brooks attends a screening of Prix de beaute at the Y.M.H.A, where she gives a well received 10 minute talk. In the audience are John Springer, Jimmy Glennon, Jan Wahl and old friends Peggy Fears and Leonore Scheffer.

March 27, 1960
Listens to radio program from 7:00 to 8:00 pm which features Mitch Miller, Bosley Crowther, Archer Winston.

April 16, 1961
Watches television program on the music of the civil war hosted by noted conductor Frederick Fennell (of the Eastman Wind Ensemble).

Feb. 12, 1962
Brooks escaped injury after a small fire broke out in the living room of her Rochester apartment. Careless smoking was blamed for the incident, in which chair was wrecked and the fire department called.

May 2, 1962
Begins broadcasting "Portraits of the Stars" on "Woman's World" program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.

Nov. 6, 1962
Discusses Fatty Arbuckle on "Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?" at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.

Dec. 12, 1962
Meets Buster Keaton and his wife at the Sheraton Hotel in Rochester, New York.

April 15, 1963
Delivers a feminist-themed speech, "The Influence of Movie Stars on the Freedom of Women," before an evening meeting of the Catholic Women’s Club of Rochester, New York.

Nov. 17, 1963
Henri Langois visits Rochester, and is quoted at length about Brooks.

Dec. 12, 1965
Roddy McDowell is quoted in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle regarding his visit with Brooks.

Dec. 27, 1965
Kevin Brownlow visits Brooks in Rochester.

July 12, 1966
Views The Wedding March at Eastman House.


Feb. 15, 1967
Reading Ethel Merman's Who Could Ask for Anything More? (1955).

July 4, 1968
Visits composer David Diamond at his Rochester home.

Jan. 30, 1971
WROC Channel 8 broadcasts Overland Stage Raiders in Rochester.

Feb. 23, 1972
Due to a "lame hip," declines invitation from David Rockefeller to serve on Salute to Chaplin Committee.

July 16, 1972
Watches Camera Three on television. This episode features an Alfred Hitchcock interview.

Feb. 28, 1974
Watches her brother Theo on the NBC news program Behind the Lines; the episode also featured "energy Czar" William Simon.

Oct. 7, 1974
Roddy McDowell telephones asking what Brooks thinks of his role on the Planet of the Apes television series.

April 18, 1979
Writer Jim Watters and photographer Horst P. Horst visit Brooks in her Rochester apartment on assignment for LIFE magazine.

Feb. 1980
Brooks is featured in Life magazine article, "What Became of Mary Astor and other Lost Stars?" by James Watters.

Oct. 30, 1980
Returns to her apartment after a week in the hospital after suffering a fall.

Sept. 19, 1982
The local newspaper reports that Brooks was disturbed by a local jazz musician, practicing their drums outside near Brooks' apartment. The musician was escorted to Brooks apartment, and spoke with the bed-ridden former actress. The musician took her drum kit indoors, and the next day received a phone call from Brooks.

Feb. 15, 1983
Rochester radio personality William Klein brings comedian Joan Rivers to Brooks' apartment, where they talk and enjoy croissants from the Strathallan hotel.

March 21, 1983
Brooks reports having received a phone call from director Robert Towne, and that they talked for more than an hour.

Feb. 15, 1984
Visiting actresses Peggy Cass and Susan Strasberg (on tour with Agnes of God) visit Brooks at her Rochester apartment.

Feb. 25, 1985
Due to ill health, Brooks declines an invitation from the International Women's Film Festival to serve on their awards jury.

Aug. 8, 1985
Dies in Rochester, New York.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Pandora’nın Kutusu starring Louise Brooks screens tomorrow in Istanbul

The classic Louise Brooks film, Pandora's Box (1929), will be shown tomorrow in Istanbul, Turkey. This special presentation will feature live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. For more information about this special event, please visit THIS PAGE.


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!

Friday, January 13, 2017

Kickstarter campaign for Louise Brooks documentary, Documentary of a Lost Girl

Pictured above: Film critic Jack Garner and documentarian Charlotte Siller.

Charlotte Siller, a dedicated Louise Brooks researcher and devotee, is doing something vital, and something important. She is making a documentary about Louise Brooks. And, she has set out to interview some of the last few surviving people who knew Louise Brooks. 

Documentary of a Lost Girl is an in-the-works documentary about Brooks which 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." Find out more at http://www.documentaryofalostgirl.com/

I encourage everyone to find out more and to make a donation to this worthwhile cause. I already have . . . . Find out more HERE, and please consider making a donation. There is only about a week left to do so. A new documentary about Louise Brooks is something we all want.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985, part four

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 from the forties and fifties.

Feb. 23, 1940
Brooks-O’Shea Studio of Ballroom Dancing opens in Hollywood.

April 20, 1940
Dances at the Arrowhead Spring Hotel in San Bernadino, California.

June 15, 1940
Los Angeles Times reports Brooks the victim of reputed swindler Benjamin F. Crandall; according to articles from the time, Brooks lost $2,000 in a Hollywood magazine stock promotion scheme.

Jan. 1941
Reads and takes notes on the French philosopher Henri Bergson.

Aug. 3, 1942
Hired as a sales girl at Garfields, a department store in Wichita. Brooks works the accessories counter.

June ?, 1943
Meets with writer Robert Benchley, who gives her a copy of Pascal's Pensees.

June 29, 1943
Attends original Broadway production of Oklahoma! at the St. James Theatre in New York, with William S. Paley, Ben Gimbel and two others.

Dec. 24, 1944
Brooks and Lothar Wolff spend Christmas Eve with Blythe Daly and Jim Backus.

Dec. 15, 1948
Lowell, MA journalist (and future Jack Kerouac in-law) Charles Sampas muses about Brooks in his column, "I can remember Way Back When and actress named Louise Brooks was the Number One favorite of the Square Beaux...."

Nov. 10, 1949
Brooks sees Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn perform "Creative Dances on Ethnic Themes" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Oct. 18-19, 1952
Eastman House screens Beggars of Life, an "adult silent film not recommended for children."

Nov. 10, 1952
Visits rectory of St. John the Evangelist's Church (55 East 55th Street at First Avenue, New York City) seeking spiritual counsel.

Dec. 13, 1953
Receives confirmation in the Catholic Church at St. Patrick Cathedral in New York City. Bishop Flannelly presides. Before the ritual of being confirmed, those seeking confirmation choose to take a saint's name with whom they identify. After confirmation, the confirmed can pray to the saint for guidance and protection. Brooks chooses St. Thérèse, "the little flower."

April 4, 1954
Attends reception at the guest house of John D. Rockefeller III in honor of Lillian Gish; others in attendance include Gloria Swanson, Josef von Sternberg, Neil Hamilton, Carmel Myers, Anita Loos, Ilka Chase, June Collyer, Aileen Pringle,  and others.




Winter 1956
At the Eastman House, view Pandora's Box for the first time. Brooks arranges a score of works made up of recordings of music by Kurt Weill.

May 5, 1957
Watches Gloria Swanson interview (by Mike Wallace) on television.

May 31, 1957
Diary of a Lost Girl screened at the Eastman House for members of the Cinema 16 film club from New York City. Brooks is likely in attendance, as is the film's assistant director, Paul Falkenberg. Also present is film historian Arthur Knight, cineastes Amos Vogel, animator and film director Gene Deitch, and others.


Oct. 27, 1957
Watches coverage of Queen Elizabeth visit to the United States on television.

Nov. 5 - 7, 1958
"Homage to Louise Brooks" takes place at Cinematheque Francaise; Brooks makes a short speech in French, and meets with Prix de Beaute co-star Georges Charlia. Brooks attends a reception in her honor, and reportedly signs hundreds of autographs.

April 30, 1959
Watches The Milton Berle Show on television. This episode included Tallulah Bankhead.

June 15, 1959
Views Loulou (1918), starring Asta Nielsen, at Eastman House.

Oct. 29, 1959
Views Empty Saddles at Eastman House; records in notebooks that this screening marked the first time she ever heard her voice on the screen.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Louise Brooks featured in The Chap magazine

A BIG thank you to The Chap magazine, who sent me a copy of their latest issue. It features an article about Louise Brooks, "Inventing the Girl," which I enjoyed reading.

For those not familiar with the UK magazine, "The Chap takes a wry look at the modern world through the steamed-up monocle of a more refined age, occasionally getting its sock suspenders into a twist at the unspeakable vulgarity of the twenty-first century. Since 1999, the Chap has been championing the rights of that increasingly marginalised and discredited species of Englishman – the gentleman. The Chap believes that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is a society on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse, and it seeks to reinstate such outmoded but indispensable gestures as hat doffing, giving up one’s seat to a lady and regularly using a trouser press."

The new issue is their 90th. "The Chap’s 90th print edition is out now, with Neil Hannon on the cover and a full-length interview inside. We also have a long-overdue profile of Louise Brooks by our resident Doctor of Dandyism; some tips on dress for world leaders, with particular emphasis on how not to dress like Donald Trump; a walk on the wild side of Berlin’s cabaret scene; the life of Eugen Sandow, the Victorian strong man who invented modern bodybuilding.

Sartorial matters covered include bicycle panniers, cardigans and whether slip-on shoes count as proper footwear. We offer a tribute to Albion, loyal Chap adherent who passed away recently; Anthony Newley’s bizarre 1969 film Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness; the launch of new accessories outlet Kit & Kaboodle; the sex scandal that began at a performance of Handel’s Messiah.

Cricket looks at Harold Pinter’s lifelong devotion to cricket, which he thought was better than sex; Laszlo Krass reports from Rome on a plot to steal a valuable Caravaggio; our Parisian correspondent reports from the most elegant stall at the flea market. The Butler advises the gentleman with an embonpoint, Atters rounds up his stable of hirsute beauties and beasts and we crown another King of Chaps."

Order the new issue from www.thechap.co.uk/magazine

My Louise Brooks paperweight holds down the opening pages of "Inventing the Girl."


Monday, January 9, 2017

Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985, part three

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 1930s.

Jan. 9, 1930
New York Daily Mirror reports crooner Harry Richman says that Brooks will reunite with Eddie Sutherland.

Jan. 26, 1930
Attends cocktail party at Clifton Webb's. Also present are Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, authors Edna Ferber and Carl van Vechten, singer Libby Holman, actresses Marilyn Miller and Ruth Donnelly, and others (Edward Wasserman, Blanche Knopf ?).

Feb. 25, 1930
Attends performance of The Last Mile, a play by John Wexley, at the Sam H. Harris Theatre in New York. Among those in the cast is Spencer Tracey.

April 2, 1930
Book columnist William Soskin reports what a few celebrities are said to be reading (Clara Bow, Hulu), and somewhat incredulously notes Brooks is reading Hermann Sudermann's The Mad Professor and Stefan Zweig's The Case of Sergeant Grischa.

Aug. 10, 1930
Syndicated columnist Radie Harris reports Brooks is living at Lois Moran's Malibu home, Halikalani. (Neighbors include John Boles and Ronald Colman.)

Aug. 23, 1930
Syndicated columnist Louella Parsons reports Brooks, "still wearing the distinctive Dutch bob," was seen dining at the Coconut Grove.

May 1, 1933
Brooklyn Daily Eagle columnist Art Arthur reports seeing Brooks at the Ha-Ha Club in New York, where she joined a table with Peggy Fears and Lupe Velez. Other current and former stars were also in attendance, including Mae Murray.

Aug. 17, 1934
Crooner Harry Richman joins Brooks and Dario on the bill at the Blossom Heath Inn near Detroit, Michigan.

Jan. 16-19, 1935
Brooks and Dario dance at the Embassy Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Also on the bill is Enric Madriguera's Orchestra, and French singer Lucienne Boyer.

Jan. 28, 1935
Brooks and Dario begin dance engagement at the Patio in Palm Beach, Florida. Also performing is singer Bruz Fletcher.

Oct. 17, 1935
Brooks meets with G.W. Pabst in New York City to discuss a proposed film of Faust.

Oct. 20, 1935
Arrives in Eureka, Kansas to visit her father, who is in the hospital after having been injured in an automobile accident.

August 4, 1936
Syndicated columnist Sidney Skolsky reports Brooks and Addison Randall "were sitting in the bamboo room at the Brown Derby munching peanuts."

Feb. 27, 1938
Los Angeles Times reports that Brooks and Travis Banton put in an appearance at Bruz Fletcher’s Club Bali, a popular nightclub in Los Angeles.

April 19, 1938
Syndicated columnist Erskine Johnson reports that Brooks and Travis Banton put in an appearance at Bruz Fletcher’s Club Bali.

Aug. 10, 1938
Production of Overland Stage Raiders begins in Southern California, with location shooting done at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California.

June 23, 1939
Syndicated columnist Louella Parsons writes that Brooks and Lew Brice dined together (possibly with John McClain and Paulette Goddard).

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