Around the World with Louise Brooks : Where and how her films were distributed

Fourteen of the twenty-four films in Louise Brooks' filmography were Paramount productions. That includes all of her American silent films except Just Another Blonde (1926) and A Girl in Every Port (1928); for those two productions, Brooks was loaned out to other studios. Just Another Blonde was a First National production, while A Girl in Every Port was a Fox production.

After her return from Europe, where Brooks made three films for a three different European studios, Brooks more-or-less returned to work in Hollywood, where she appeared in films for Warner Bros. Educational, Universal, Colombia, and Republic. Only two of her seven later sound films, It Pays to Advertise (1931) and King of Gamblers (1937), were Paramount productions. The former was done to complete her Paramount contract. Her role in the latter was small, and her part was eventually cut in it's domestic release.

[As is known, the domestic and foreign prints of films sometimes differed - even substantially, both in content (camera shots and plot points) and length. As is revealed in my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, there is some evidence that the actress' role in King of Gamblers may have been retained in some copies of the film's overseas release.]

As my forthcoming book shows, Brooks' films were shown all around the world, even in regions and countries where one might not think American films would have drawn much interest. As a powerhouse American studio, Paramount films were especially well distributed around the globe. In fact, it was something of which the studio was quite proud; over the years, they even published a few in-house journals showing just how far and wide their films were seen. Publications like Paramount Around the World and Paramount International News gathered news and publicity for Paramount films from far and wide. There were even nation specific publications, like Australia's Paramount Punch.

What's interesting is how Brooks was promoted in other countries. Combing through these and other publications, I came across some remarkable material. Did you know, for example, that giant roadside billboards promoted Brooks' Love Em and Leave Em in Australia? Or that crowds lined-up around the block to see The Canary Murder Case in Japan? (Brooks had a substantial following in Japan.)

The page reproduced below notes the many countries where Paramount films were shown. Notice, for example, how the office in Japan was also responsible for distribution to Korea, China, and the Philippine Islands. How the office in Cuba was also responsible for distribution to Porto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the West Indies. And how the office in Italy was also responsible for distribution to Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria.

This post will be continued, and will look at Brooks' and Paramount's presence in the Middle East.  .....

Around the World with Louise Brooks : Paramount's KNX Radio Station in Los Angeles

Who might know more about the Paramount radio station, KNX in Los Angeles? Is it the same, or related to, the KNX super-station currently heard in the LA area? Is there a history of the station or of broadcasting in the LA area that might be consulted? Are there records as to what was broadcast in the late 1920s? (I have looked at old newspaper listings, and they don't reveal all that much.)

I am wondering if Louise Brooks was ever heard on the station, or were one of her films featured? The microphone below pictures Clara Bow and two of Brooks' two-time co-stars, Adolphe Menjou and Wallace Berry.

The other day, I came across a few clippings about the station, which according to the second clipping went on the air on Armistice Day in 1928. These clipping seem to be somewhat at odds with the Wikipedia history of the station in that the station went on the air before 1928 and they don't mention the Paramount connection. Might Paramount have leased air time, or only broadcast at certain times? I would like to learn more. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a clipping which notes the stations 1927 debut, and what was heard on that day.

And here is an article from the San Bernadino County Sun newspaper about the station's launch. There is only little mention of Paramount.

Around the World with Louise Brooks - a Postcard Biography from Spain

Here is something you don't see everyday, a Spanish cigarette card with a brief biography of the actress -- her identified as Luisa Brooks - on the reverse. (Generally speaking cigarette cards are smaller than postcards. They were, as you might guess, tucked into a pack of cigarettes.) This card dates to around 1930, perhaps 1931. (Can does reader of this blog know the history of these particular cards?This one is series K, number 19.)

I have transcribed the text on the back. In Spanish, it reads: "Linda y gentil como ninguna, la belle Luisita se ha especializado en los papeles picarescos, en los cuales no hay que decir que convence al mas esceptico en gustos cinematograficos. Sin traspasar nunca los limites del descararo, Luisa Brookss la muchacha moderna, atrevida y valiente, que lo mismo conduce un automovil a toda marcha, que se declara al hombre qu le gusta y lo rapta, si es preciso, que sostiene un pugilato de boxeo con el atrevido que osa ofrenderla. La vimospor vez primera en la pantalla en "La Venus americana" y mas tarde se mostro gran actriz en "Amalos y dejalos" y otras producciones del mismo genero de fina comedia de salon. Ultimamente ha interpretado "mendigos de Vida", en la que hace un papel sentimal, "Quien la mato?", intrigante produccion de crimen y misterio."

My rough Google assisted translation reads: "Cute and gentile like no other, pretty Luisita has specialized in picaresque roles, in which it is not necessary to say that she convinces the most skeptical of cinematic tastes. Without ever going beyond shameful limits, Luisa Brooks the modern, daring and brave girl, who drives a car at full speed, declaring to the man what she likes and kidnaps him, if necessary, that holds a boxing match with the daring of one who dares to offer it. We saw her for the first time on the screen in "The American Venus" and later she was a great actress in "Love Em and Leave Em" and other productions of the same genre of fine salon comedy. Lately she has interpreted "Beggars of Life", in which she plays a sentimental role, "The Canary Murder Case", an intriguing production of crime and mystery."

This card and dozens of others from across Europe, as well as cards from Africa and South America, are depicted in my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks. Please see the four earlier posts for even more from this new book.

Around the World with Louise Brooks: Brazil

Here are some rather nifty pages from Cinearte, one of the leading Brazilian film magazines. Louise Brooks seemed to have been especially popular in that Latin American nation. I say that because she received a fair amount of coverage in that Portuguese-speaking nation. One of the earliest international profiles (2 plus pages) of the actress appeared in Brazil, as well as one of her earliest appearances on the cover of a magazine.

Just about each page below features an image of Brooks.

Around the World with Louise Brooks : With Thanks

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have been working on a long-in-the-making project, a book titled Around the World with Louise Brooks. I have been working on this book on-and-off for almost 20 years, and am determined to finish it this summer. I have nearly 600 pages completed. The book will be larger format, 8" x 11" in size with many full page images. The are dozens of countries represented (a few didn't yet exist - while others no longer exist as nations), with material coming from every continent except Antarctica. It has been challenging to gather material from Africa, but I did so from four countries.

I have uncovered a lot of material, some of it interesting and some of it mundane. I have also come across a number of little seen images of Brooks. Some are American publicity portraits and film stills sent to European publications, and apparently never printed in the United States. At least, I have never seen them before. Others are images of the actress taken in Europe and published there, but never in the United States. I think fans of Louise Brooks will be pleased, and hopefully as fascinated as I am. I can say that I have uncovered a few items that in effect rewrite particular points in Brooks' history. They will be revealed in the book itself.

Well anyways, I have uncovered a lot of material and just can't use it all. And so, I figured I would post some of the lesser material. It is neat stuff none-the-less. Here are three portraits from a Spanish magazine.

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before

I have been working day and night on my latest book project, Around the World with Louise Brooks: the making of an international star. And as of today, I have nearly 550 pages completed, and hope to have the book finished in a few months. Perhaps because I have been so focused on this project, last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before.

Onchi Koshiro "Movie Theater (Hogaku-za)" 1929 *

I dreamed I was at a screening of the lost Louise Brooks' film A Social Celebrity (1926). Since it is lost, no one today really knows what the film "looked like." But there I was in my dream, viewing whole scenes and anxiously wondering how to record what I had seen. What was this dream, this fevered pitch? Was A Social Celebrity somehow transmitted to me through our collective unconsciousness and through time? If so, who sent this dream to me?

A street scene is vivid in memory, though I don't know that there is any sort of street scene in that particular film. There is such a scene in The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), and perhaps in my dream logic I was conflating the two early Brooks' movies. I have seen that earlier film, and recently came across a remarkable foreign clipping depicting a production still (depicting a street) taken during the making of The Street of Forgotten Men. Below is that production shot. I wonder who the solitary, short haired young women might be in the lower center of the image? Standing apart, day dreaming....

* The print shown above was made by the Japanese artist Onchi Koshiro. It depicts a woman on a movie screen inside the Hogaku-za movie theatre in Toyko. The work is dated 1929, the same year that The Canary Murder Case was shown to great acclaim in that very theatre. Koshiro once said "Art is not to be understood by the mind but by the heart." I think the same can be said for dreams.

A bit more on Louise Brooks inspired film, The Chaperone

From the writer / director of Downton Abbey and star Elizabeth McGovern comes The Chaperone, a Louise Brooks inspired film in which the future film star is a major character. The film tells the story of the summer Brooks (played by Haley Lu Richardson) went to New York City to study dance in the presence of a chaperone (played by Elizabeth McGovern).

The film premieres in New York City on March 29th and expands across the country throughout April! It opens in Los Angeles on April 5th. No word yet on when the film will be shown on PBS.

From PBS: "The Chaperone takes place against the backdrop of the tumultuous times of the early 1920’s. A Kansas woman (Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey) is forever changed when she chaperones a beautiful and talented 15-year-old dancer (Haley Lu Richardson, Split) named Louise Brooks to New York for the summer. One of them is eager to fulfill her destiny of dance and movie stardom; the other is on a mission to unearth the mysteries of her past.

MASTERPIECE’s first feature film will reunite the writer, director and star of Downton Abbey. The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty’s best-selling American novel, will be scripted by Julian Fellowes, directed by Michael Engler, and star Elizabeth McGovern, who played Lady Grantham in the hit series."

Otherwise, check out this story on the Town and Country magazine website: "Watch Downton Abbey Star Elizabeth McGovern in an Exclusive Trailer of The Chaperone" 

Upcoming Kansas Silent Film Festival

The 2019 Kansas Silent Film Festival is set to take place Friday & Saturday, February 23 & 24, 2018, at White Concert Hall, Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas.

The theme of this year's festival, the 23rd annual event, is "Lost films, recovered or restored." The festival notes, "In thinking about what we wanted to do for our 23rd event it dawned on us that we talk a lot about what is lost—there is a pretty high percentage out there of silent films that are lost and gone forever. But what about the successes? What about the films that were thought lost but were found in foreign archives, with collectors, and in some really lucky cases, tucked in the hay in a barn. All the films showing this year were lost then found, or simply needed restoration to bring them back to life."

It is an admirable theme, one I think also exciting -- imagine seeing something once thought gone forever! My only quibble is that the festival didn't program the recently found Louise Brooks' fragment, Now We're in the Air (1927). It would have been a great fit, and marked something of a return. Kansas is Louise Brooks' home state; the actress was born in Cherryvale, and grew up in Independence and Wichita.

  FREE ADMISSION for all showings

Fri. Feb. 22, 2019, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

Overture by Jeff Rapsis
Welcome and Intros by Denise Morrison, Film Historian
Many of these films were considered lost at one time

Frankenstein 14 min.	(1910)	Edison Company —Music by Marvin Faulwell & Bob Keckeisen
Metropolis 148 min.	(1927)	directed by Fritz Lang —Music by the Alloy Orchestra, with intermission

Sat. Feb. 23, 2019, 9:00 a.m.-Noon
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University
Overature by Bill Beningfield
Welcome and Intros by Denise Morrison, Film Historian

Film Documentary 60 min.		On DVD, a special presentation by KSFF
Cruel Cruel Love 10 min.	(1914)	with Charlie Chaplin —Music by Bill Beningfield
Hard Luck 23 min.	(1921)	with Buster Keaton —Music by Jeff Rapsis
Venus of the South Seas 56 min.	(1924)	with Annette Kellerman, partly in Prizma color —Music by Jeff Rapsis and Bob Keckeisen

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Lunch Break (on your own), resuming at 1:30 p.m.

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Sat. Feb. 23, 2019, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University
Overature by Marvin Faulwell
Welcome and Intros by Denise Morrison, Film Historian

El Hotel Eléctrico 8 min.	(1908)	with Segundo de Chomón —Music by Jeff Rapsis
The Cook 20 min.	(1918)	with Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton —Music by Bill Beningfield
The Daughter of Dawn 78 min.	(1920)	a Native American Film —Music by Marvin Faulwell & Bob Keckeisen

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Intermission

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Warm-up Music by Jeff Rapsis
Intros by Denise Morrison, Film Historian

When Lincoln Paid 30 min.	(1913)	with Francis Ford (courtesy of Keene College) —Music by Jeff Rapsis
Bucking Broadway 53 min.	(1917)	with Harry Carey / a John Ford Film —Music by Jeff Rapsis

Dinner

Special Dinner Event, Our Eleventh Annual CINEMA-DINNER, Seating begins @ 5:15 p.m. Dinner: 5:15-7:15 p.m. Ben Model, who has played piano and organ with us before. His presentation "Undercranking: The Magic Behind the Slapstick" describes a technique which made action sequences (and especially comic action sequences) appear to be running much faster than usual. Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd knew all about Undercranking, but it appears others in the silent film era knew about it and employed it, too. Ben will illustrate his presentation with some incredible film clips. — This event is by reservation only. Dinner is $40. Contact Bill Shaffer at bill.shaffer@washburn.edu to reserve your space —

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Sat. Feb. 23, 2019, 7:30-10:00 p.m.
@ White Concert Hall, Washburn University

Overature by Ben Model
Welcome and Intros by Denise Morrison, Film Historian

Battle of the Century 20 min.	(1927)	with Laurel and Hardy / Special 16mm film print —Music by Marvin Faulwell & Bob Keckeisen
When Knighthood Was In Flower 115 min.	(1922)	with Marion Davies —Music by Ben Model