Celebrating France and Louise Brooks

In celebration of France's victory in the World Cup, here are some recently uncovered French clippings regarding Louise Brooks.

First up is what may be the first mention of Louise Brooks in a French newspaper, who is described as a "deliecieuse danseuse des Follies qui a signe une long contrat avec Paramount." This clipping comes from Paris-Soir, and is dated December 23, 1925.

And here is an advertisement for The American Venus (as La Venus Moderne) from a year later from a regional newspaper, Gazette de Bayonne, de Biarritz et du Pays basque, dated December 21, 1926.

And lastly, here is an usual image of Brooks, from a clipping from 1928.

Vive la France. Long live Loulou.

Guest Post: "Louise Brooks Makes The Grade" part 2

Philip Vorwald has come up with another fascinating guest post here on the Louise Brooks Society blog: it's about Louise Brooks' childhood and where she went to grade school. This post is in two parts -- the first part ran yesterday.

Guest Post: "Louise Brooks Makes The Grade" part 1

Philip Vorwald has come up with another fascinating guest post here on the Louise Brooks Society blog: it's about Louise Brooks' childhood and where she went to grade school. This post is in two parts, so be sure and check back tomorrow.

Celebrating Charlie Chaplin - the "Guy with the Feet" - in comics and in Niles, California

The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Niles, California is celebrating Charlie Chaplin with their annual Charlie Chaplin Days event, July 13 - 15. This weekend long happening is filled with screenings, presentations, walking tours and special guests (Dan Kamin, John Fawell, Jeffrey Weissman, Jason Allin, Steve Massa, Paul Mular, Nigel Dreiner, John Bengtson, Marc Wanamaker, and David Totheroh). There is even a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. More information may be found HERE.

And in honor of the great comedian, with whom Louise Brooks had a brief affair in 1925, is one of the rarest bits of Brooksiana and Chapliniana you are likely to see . . . . the four panel comic strip "history" of the summer-long affair between the then little known showgirl and international film star. Tongues were wagging in 1925.

Gossip made the news. The related feature photo below was syndicated across the country. I have found many instances of this captioned image in newspapers from across the United States. (Despite Chaplin's denials, in later years he did vividly describe Brooks' breasts as being like "little pears.")

Comic strip representations of silent films stars, especially Chaplin, were quite common place. Here is a rare 1915 newspaper page which introduces the “Charley Chaplin’s Comic Capers.”

Louise Brooks and It's the Old Army Game (1926) in Florida

As promised, here are some additional clippings from the time It's the Old Army Game (1926) was being made in Florida.

It’s the Old Army Game is a comedy about a small town druggist (played by W.C. Fields) who gets involved with a real estate scam. Louise Brooks plays the druggist’s assistant. The film was Brooks’ fourth, and it reunited her with the Fields, the film’s star. The two had worked together in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

The film, especially its interiors, were shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island, with some additional shots taken in Manhattan. Location shooting, including exteriors, was done in Ocala and Palm Beach, Florida in late February and during the first three weeks of March, 1926.  (Ocala is an inland farming community near Gainesville, Florida.)
It’s the Old Army Game received mostly positive reviews, though some critics noted its rather thin plot. Algonquin Round Table playwright Robert E. Sherwood (who would go on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and an Academy Award) was then writing reviews for Life magazine. His pithy critique read, “Mr. Fields has to carry the entire production on his shoulders, with some slight assistance from the sparkling Louise Brooks.” Ella H. McCormick of the Detroit Free Press countered with “Fields scored a splendid triumph in this picture. A great part of the success of the offering, however, is due to Louise Brooks, who takes the lead feminine part.”

Today, It’s the Old Army Game is largely remembered as a starring vehicle for Fields — a comedic great. It is also remembered for the fact that not long after the film wrapped, Brooks married the film’s director, Eddie Sutherland.

Recently, while researching the film, I came across a few related clippings of interest. Each date from around the time the film was in production, February and March of 1926. The first, whose title I have omitted, is titled "Florida Made Films Are Helping Make State Famous."

The clipping below, which dates from the same day as the clipping above, erroneously states that Thomas Meaghan is to star in It's the Old Army Game. Obviously, a reporter got their facts mixed up.

James Curtis’ 2003 biography of W. C. Fields contains valuable background on the making of It’s the Old Army Game, as does Barry Paris’ 1989 biography of Brooks. See also James Neibaur’s 2017 book, The W.C. Fields Films. For more on Brooks’ recollections of the Fields and the making of It’s the Old Army Game, see “The Other Face of W.C. Fields” in Brooks’ 1982 memoir, Lulu in Hollywood.

Silent film historian John Bengston has written a series of posts on his Silent Locations website looking at various scenes from the film. Each are well worth checking out. They include "W.C. Fields in Palm Beach – It’s the Old Army Game" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks Bring Magazines to Life" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks in Ocala Florida – Part One". Be sure and check 'em out!

Louise Brooks dancing in Palm Beach, Florida in 1926

In "The Other Face of W.C. Fields," one of the essays that make up Lulu in Hollywood, Louise Brooks wrote about the time she danced at Palm Beach Nights, a nightclub (named for its show) located in Palm Beach, Florida. Brooks was in the state filming It's the Old Army Game, and at nights, when everyone was done working, the cast and crew retreated to the nightclub for fun. (Brooks and others involved in the making of It's the Old Army Game were in Florida from about February 22 through March 23, 1926.)

Brooks writes: "Palm Beach Nights . . .  was housed in an old assembly hall transformed by the famous Viennese designer Joseph Urban into a nightclub with a full stage. Ziegfeld provided a choice selection of Follies girls, including Paulette Goddard, who later married Charlie Chaplin, and Susan Flemming, who later married Harpo Marx. And now, every night at the conclusion of Palm Beach Nights, our company (minus Bill Fields) contributed a floor show. Blanche Ring sang "Rings on My Fingers," Mickey Bennett sang ballads in a piercing tenor, I danced, Eddie [Sutherland] did pratfalls, and Billy Gaxton starred as a comedian. He and Rudy Cameron did an old vaudeville act of theirs, singing and dancing and telling bum jokes...."

[I might also mention that Blanche Ring, a popular stage entertainer who happened to be Eddie Sutherland's aunt, can be heard singing "Rings on My Fingers" on RadioLulu.]

One thing that stands out in the above passage is the mention of Rudy Cameron, who I assume to be Rudolph Cameron, an actor active between the years 1916 and 1948. But what was he doing there? I am not aware that he was involved in It's the Old Army Game, though from what I found, Cameron and Gaxton had formed some sort of song and dance team at one point, and knew each other professionally. I also found a handful of clippings which mentioned that Cameron in local society columns, which suggests he was living in the area.

Brooks' mention of Palm Beach Nights, and the fact she danced there, got me wondering about the nightclub itself. Admittedly, I didn't know anything about it, and wondered what I might find out....

.... What I found is that in early 1926, Florenz Ziegfeld opened the Club de Montmartre restaurant-theater, with financial backing from Paris Singer and Anthony Biddle, Jr. During its first year, Ziegfeld staged Palm Beach Nights at the club; it was the only Follies not to originate on Broadway. (Palm Beach Nights later reopened in New York as No Foolin’.) The show's hit song, "Florida, the Moon and You," became Palm Beach's theme song, and the club remained popular until the Depression.

The venue opened on January 14, 1926. It was designed by Joseph Urban, head designer of the Ziegfeld Follies, and was a local sensation. Everybody who was anybody in the area turned out for opening night, including Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, the grounds of whose El Mirasol estate were trashed by W.C. Fields and the the cast of It's the Old Army Game. Providing entertainment between shows was Art Hickman and his Orchestra, from San Francisco. (Art Hickman also can be heard on RadioLulu.) Performing, as part of the cast of  Palm Beach Nights, was the great Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards!

I searched as best as possible to find some sort of reference to Louise Brooks and the Montmartre theater, but didn't find much. The show and club were popular, and local society columns reported that Mrs. Stotesbury and Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld (Billie Burke) were present on a few occasions, once to judge a contest. I did find this clipping, which references The Old Army Game.

Future posts here on the Louise Brooks Society blog will include some additional clippings from the time It's the Old Army Game was being made in Ocala, Florida.

James Curtis’ 2003 biography of W. C. Fields contains valuable background on the making of It’s the Old Army Game, as does Barry Paris’ 1989 biography of Brooks. See also James Neibaur’s 2017 book, The W.C. Fields Films. For more on Brooks’ recollections of the Fields and the making of It’s the Old Army Game, see “The Other Face of W.C. Fields” in Brooks’ 1982 memoir, Lulu in Hollywood.

Silent film historian John Bengston has written a series of posts on his Silent Locations website looking at various scenes from the film. Each are well worth checking out. They include "W.C. Fields in Palm Beach – It’s the Old Army Game" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks Bring Magazines to Life" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks in Ocala Florida – Part One". Be sure and check 'em out!

It's the Old Army Game screens in Niles, California July 21

It's the Old Army Game, the entertaining 1926 silent comedy starring W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks, will be shown July 21, 2018 in Niles, California at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. More information about this event may be found below as well as HERE.