In the 1930s, Louise Brooks attempted -- or was seen to attempt -- a series of comebacks. Hoping to relaunch her sputtering film career, the actress kept her name in gossip columns and made it known she was interested in working; she tested with a few studios, took the occasional role in films for which she was poorly suited (namely Westerns), and even worked on the stage.
Recently, I have been researching Brooks' life for material to ad to the "
Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1985 " page on the
Louise Brooks Society website when I came across a couple of little known occurrences regarding Brooks' work on the stage.
It is known, for example, is that in the Fall of 1931, while living in New York City, Brooks was under consideration for the ingenue role in Norma Krasna’s
Louder Please, a comedy about Hollywood press agentry. Replacing Olive Borden at the end of October, Brooks appeared in a pre-Broadway staging of Krasna’s play at Brandt’s Boulevard Theater in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn. Within a few weeks, however, the actress left the cast and was replaced by Jane Buchanan. Here is a rare newspaper advertisement of that production which mentions Brooks. Tickets were only 50 cents. Don't you wish you could have been there?
What is not known is that earlier in the year, while living in Los Angeles, Brooks was under consideration for the role of Poppy in an upcoming stage production of
The Shanghai Gesture at the Music Box theater in Hollywood. The production was being staged by no less a person than
Mrs. Leslie Carter, the red-haired American silent film and stage actress known as "The American Sarah Bernhardt." Brooks did not get the role, despite being under serious consideration for three weeks. Because of a disagreement over billing, Brooks and
Mary Duncan were passed over for a young actress named
Isabel Dawn, a former Indiana newspaper reporter.
Over the next few years, mentions would appear in various newspapers noting Brooks come back. On New Year's Eve in 1936, the
New York Times wrote ”Louise Brooks, star of the silent screen,
is making her screen comeback as a member of the ballet in Grace
Moore’s forthcoming Columbia production,
When You’re in Love.” Nothing came of it.
In June of 1938, the
Los Angeles Times columnist Read Kendall reported “Louise
Brooks, under the name Linda Carter, is essaying a comeback through the
Bliss-Hayden Miniature Theater. Her first appearance is in the play
Miracle for Two by Stanley Kaufman and Effie J. Young. Others in the cast include Beverly Holden, William Stelling, Margaret
Meri, Harry Hayden, Howard Johnson, Walter Murray, Nell Keller, Michael
Stuart, Mary Rains, Geraldine Gorey and Franco Corsaro.” A couple of days later, Louella Parsons reported in her syndicated column that “Louise Brooks has
changed her name to Carrington [Carter], dyed her hair black and opened in a
play at the Bliss-Hayden Theater. It is the first step in her new
career.” The following day, in its review of
Miracle for Two, which the
Los Angeles Times thought "zestful," the newspaper coyly remarked “Linda Carter used her every artifice to give an interesting portrayal.”
Brooks seemed to have stuck with it, despite the fact that her part was only a supporting role. In early July, syndicated columnist Paul Harrison reported that Brooks, under the stage
name Linda Carter, has been appearing in a play in Los Angeles. “A
20th-Fox talent scout spotted a girl called Linda Carter in a
little-theatre play and offered her a screen test. It turned out that
‘Linda Carter’ really is Louise Brooks, who’s aiming at a screen
comeback under a different name.” I don't think the production ran much more than a month, or five weeks, as other productions were announced in mid-July.
The
Miracle for Two actress who did get some attention was the star of the production, Beverly Holden (who seemingly replaced Margo Bennett just before opening?). Despite a bit of press, I wasn't able to find any other screen credits for Holden. Nor could I find any other stage credits for Linda Carter. In early August, production work began on
Overland Stage Raiders, a film which would turn out to be Brooks' last.
I was able to learn a little more about the Bliss-Hayden Miniature Theater. The building still stands, and is now known as the
Beverly Hills Playhouse, an acting school with theaters and training facilities in Beverly Hills. From the pictures I found online, it's stage is indeed a small one. The Bliss-Hayden School of Acting was founded and run by a husband and wife team of motion picture actors—actress Lela Bliss with over 45 credits stretching from 1915 to 1965, and her husband actor Harry Hayden with over 260 credits from 1936 to 1955. Veronica Lake, Mamie Van Doren and many other professional actors later studied there. I contacted the Beverly Hills Playhouse asking if they had any archives or records from 1938, and they responded that they did not. Might any reader of this blog know if any sort of regional theater archives cover this historic little theater exists?
[In 1954, the Bliss-Hayden Theatre was acquired by Douglas Frank Bank and
Jay Manford, and renamed The Beverly Hills Playhouse. Many actors had performed there including Anne Baxter and Louella Parsons. Bank and
Manford owned the theatre until 1959. Later stars who studied and performed under later owners include George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Tom Selleck, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ted Danson, Tony Danza, Jeffrey Tambor, Tyne Daly, Patrick Swayze, Miguel Ferrer, James Cromwell, and others.]
A footnote to Brooks' 1930s stage work was her work as a ballroom dancer and her curious appearance at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs. On November 4, 1939, Brooks and dance partner Barrett O’Shea performed at a Saturday night
party at the Racquet Club in support of headliner Rudy
Vallee. (Actor Ralph Bellamy (one of the founders of the Racquet Club), actor Charles Butterworth, director Edmund
Goulding, and singer Judy Starr were also present, and took their turn
on the Racquet Club’s "stage.") According to a report in the Palm Springs
Desert Sun, O’Shea, and “his charming partner Louise
Brooks, did a very clever mask dance, imitating Mrs. Roosevelt and
[English Prime Minister] Chamberlain, doing an old time square dance.”
 |
| Louise Brooks and Barrett O'Shea |
The
Racquet Club in Palm Springs was a Hollywood hot spot. Reportedly, Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey Bogart had their own table near the dance floor, and Harry Cohn, Howard Hawks, Franchot Tone, Peter Lorre, and others were occasional visitors.
A week after Brooks did her mask dance,
The Desert Sun reported that O’Shea and Brooks had been hired as staff dance instructors at the Racquet Club.
“They will teach Saturday and Sunday afternoons until the middle of the
season and then every afternoon for the rest of the season. Rhumba and
La Conga classes, as well as ordinary ballroom dances and private
lessons, will be their feature.”
