New Find 5 - another RARE Portrait of Louise Brooks

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the fifth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks. 

As I mentioned in the second installment in this series, "New Find 2 - a Rare Paparazzi Picture of Louise Brooks," I am always a bit gobsmacked when I see a picture of Louise Brooks which I have never seen before. Here is another such image, which I uncovered a few days ago. It dates from 1933, and depicts newlyweds Louise Brooks and Deering Davis.

The caption below this portrait reads: "The Deering Davises, of Chicago, down on the farm. Mrs Davis is the former Miss Louise Brooks, erstwhile of the movies in the dear silent days."

I am not sure what farm the caption refers to, but judging by their attire, I don't think the new couple (he, a suit and she, high heels and gloves) were engaged in farm work. Perhaps they were enjoying horseback riding, as Deering Davis was a wealthy, well known polo player.... Here, for your amusement, is another picture of the soon divorced couple.

New Find 4 - an Unknown Louise Brooks Film Cameo?

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the fourth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks.

In 1926, Paramount released Fascinating Youth; the studio filled the film with its "Junior Stars" - including Charles "Buddy" Rogers (in his feature debut), as well as Thelma Todd, Josephine Dunn, Jack Luden, Iris Grey and others. It was an ensemble effort which was meant to feature and promote recent graduates of the Paramount Pictures acting school. Sam Wood directed, while Robert Benchley helped pen the titles. In addition, a number of established Paramount stars also made cameo appearances in the film, including the one and only Clara Bow. Some of the other well known Paramount talent who appear in Fascinating Youth include actors Richard Dix, Adolphe Menjou, Lois Wilson, Percy Marmont, Chester Conklin, Thomas Meighan, and Lila Lee, as well as directors Lewis Milestone and Malcolm St. Clair. AND POSSIBLY, LOUISE BROOKS?

I recently came across an article about the film which mentions Louise Brooks' "minor role" in Fascinating Youth. The article is Bill Reilly's "The School for Scandalous Success," which appeared in Moving Picture World on March 13, 1926. Seemingly, the article was written after the author saw the film premiered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York City on March 2nd, following a banquet and the Paramount school graduation exercises. Brooks' name is highlighted in the piece below.

Brooks' possible cameo was news to me! I searched out and read a number of other magazine and newspaper articles about the film, and only a few mentioned some of the prominent stars who appear in bit parts. This brief write up in Photoplay lists them, and is likely one of the sources for the very same credits found on IMDb and Wikipedia.

This considered review in Picture Play magazine (shown below) also mentions some of the big names in the film, but not all, and not Louise Brooks. Sally Benson, the reviewer who penned this piece, especially liked Chester Conklin's role, but curiously didn't mention emerging superstar Clara Bow.

Shown below are Chester Conklin and Clara Bow in a scene from the 1926 Paramount Pictures production, Fascinating Youth.

Few newspaper articles (which are typically shorter and less detailed) mentioned cameos by the big name stars. One that did appeared in the Washington Evening Star on July 7, 1926. The author changes the standard line-up of stars ever so slightly, adds Ralph Lewis, and misspells Lois Wilson's name. The Evening Star article, shown below, also mentions that the film offered "behind-the-scenes glimpses of Paramount's Long Island Studio."

A similar piece in the Boston Globe mentions Adolphe Menjou, Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Clara Bow and Percy Marmont. While a May 10 review in the Brooklyn Times-Union notes only Adolphe Menjou, Richard Dix, and Lois Wilson. However, the latter piece does ad some interesting detail to the roles played by the name stars. It is excerpted here, beginning with "The rather vapid story tells of a young man threatened...."

Of all the few dozen magazine and newspaper articles I looked at, only Bill Reilly's "The School for Scandalous Success" mentions Louise Brooks. I wonder why? Was it a simple mistake? Did Reilly confuse a similar looking background actor with Brooks? Or did Reilly confuse Clara Bow (who isn't mentioned) with Brooks, a not uncommon mistake? We may never know....

Compared to Menjou, Dix, Marmont and the other Paramount actors said to have appeared in Fascinating Youth, Brooks was little known. Their cameos were deliberate, meant to ad star luster to a film whose cast featured talent who hadn't made a name for themselves. If Brooks made an appearance in the film, it was in all likelihood accidental.

By March of 1926, Brooks had achieved a certain degree of renown in New York City - when Fascinating Youth was screened at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. While not yet known nationally as an actress, Brooks was known around NYC as a showgirl & personality, having performed with both the George White Scandals and Ziegfeld Follies. She had also gotten her name and picture in local papers on numerous occasions. Perhaps Reilly knew her or knew of her and recognized her and gave her a shout-out? We may never know....

While it is unlikely Brooks appeared in Fascinating Youth (based on scant evidence = one mention in an article in a film magazine), it is not impossible. According to friend and film historian J. B. Kaufman, who authored a stellar article "Fascinating Youth: The Story of the Paramount Pictures School," Fascinating Youth was in production "between 23 November and 24 December 1925. Then the location shooting started the week after Christmas and lasted until mid-January 1926." According to articles from the time, location shooting on Fascinating Youth was done in the Adirondacks, while  the earlier work was done at Paramount's Astoria Studio on Long Island, and as well, possibly, in Greenwich Village, as some articles mention.

At the time Fascinating Youth was being made, Brooks was also in New York City, and was set to begin work on A Social Celebrity. Brooks' third film was directed by Mal St. Clair, starred Adolph Menjou, and featured Chester Conklin - each of whom made a cameo in Fascinating Youth. Production work on A Social Celebrity began on December 21, 1925 and continued through the third week of January, 1926. Like Fascinating Youth, the Brooks' film was shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island, with location work done elsewhere on Long Island (in the village of Huntington) as well as in Manhattan.


Today, Fascinating Youth is considered a lost film. And truth be told, we may never know who else - including Louise Brooks - may have made an appearance in the film, no matter how brief. She was in the right place at the right time, but we may never know....

New Find 3 - Trade Ads Mentioning Louise Brooks and Her Films

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the third in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks. 

In the movie biz, trade ads were advertisements taken out by a studio or some other corporate entity which typically promote not just one film or actor, but rather a group of films or stars. These ads might be aimed toward theater managers or the press, but sometimes as well the movie going public. Over the years, I have accumulated a number of examples of these sorts of ads. One chapter in my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, for example, will feature a selection of rare foreign ads, each of which promote Louise Brooks or one of her films.

In the meantime, here are a few American trade ads which I came across just a few days ago. Each were found in a general interest magazine, in particular Ladies Home Journal; each promote a batch of new releases and were aimed at the movie going public. To me, these ads are interesting in that they show which films and which stars Paramount was especially keen to promote. Which as it turns out, wasn't necessarily Louise Brooks. Nevertheless, these ads featured some rather delightful graphics.

This piece below suggests a world of adventure awaits those who go to see a Paramount Picture. It mentions The Show-Off  and its four stars, including Louise Brooks. We're in the Navy Now, which is mentioned in the right hand column, was directed by Brooks' husband at the time, Eddie Sutherland. He named one of the small boats in that nautical comedy "Louise."

This piece, with a humorous illustration, also features a prominent mention of The Show Off, as seen in the left hand column.

The delightful comic strip featured in this piece mentions Evening Clothes, which starred Adolphe Menjou (and which featured Louise Brooks in a supporting role). Apparently, older women and Mothers were keen on Menjou, who almost always played a sophisticate and was a heart-throb to some.

This piece, which merely lists Love Em and Leave Em among the "Best Motion Pictures", features a nifty Ralph Barton-like illustration - though this illustration is initialed "R.I." Among the films highlighted in the right-hand column is the German production, Metropolis, which Paramount distributed in the United States.

This trade ad features W.C. Fields first feature film for Paramount, It's the Old Army Game, which co-starred Brooks. The stylistic illustration at the top is again by "R.I." (Does anyone know the name of "R.I." ?)

New Find 2 - a Rare Paparazzi Picture of Louise Brooks

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the second in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks. 

I have seen a lot of images of Louise Brooks, in fact hundreds if not thousands. Thus, I am always a bit gobsmacked when I see a picture of Louise Brooks which I have never seen before. Here is one such image, which I uncovered just days ago. It dates from 1933.

In th picture, Louise Brooks is shown standing on an Atlantic Ocean beach while walking her dog, a terrier. The women she is talking with, also shown in profile to the left, is Lois Long (aka "Lipstick"), the well known New Yorker writer who was once married to the famous New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. (When this picture was taken, Long and Arno were divorced.) It is interesting to note that as late as 1933, Brooks was still wearing her hair in a bob and rather short.

This image, which has been cropped and had been captioned, was published in a society magazine, and in the days to come and as part of the "New Find" series, I will run another previously unknown image of Brooks from the same source from around the same time. Stay tuned.

New Find 1 - Mention of Louise Brooks in Charlie Chaplin's FBI file

There is still a lot of interesting Louise Brooks & silent film material yet to discover. This post is the first in an ongoing series highlighting some of the newly found material I have just recently come across while stuck at home due to the coronavirus. With time on my hands, I have turned to picking through some of the many online databases and archives - some of which are newly accessible (due to the physical restrictions put on researchers because of the coronavirus), and some of which I am returning to in order to more thoroughly explore their holdings. As I am always finding out, it pays to not only have more than one set of key words to search under, but to look in the most unlikely places. You never know what you will find. Be sure and follow this blog for more discoveries in the coming weeks. 

As is known, Louise Brooks and Charlie Chaplin had an affair in the summer of 1925. It took place around the time Chaplin was visiting New York City for the premiere of The Gold Rush. Chaplin was married at the time, and was twice Brooks' age. (He was 36 years old, and she was just 18.) The affair was brief, and lasted just a couple-three months. Nevertheless, newspapers of the time took notice, and tongues wagged, if only in an oblique manner. Below is four panel comic strip which alludes to the affair between the then little known showgirl and international film star. It appeared in a NYC newspaper in the Fall of 1925, around the time Brooks' own "draped nudes scandal" was unfolding after she posed in a semi-nude state for the photographer, John DiMirjian.

Gossip made the news. The feature photo shown below, which more directly references their affair, was syndicated across the country. (Despite Chaplin's denials, in later years he recalled his affair with Brooks, vividly describing Brooks' breasts as being like "little pears.")

As is also known, Chaplin liked younger women. His brief affair with Louise Brooks - which had taken place some 18 years earlier - wasn't forgotten when the Federal Bureau of Investigation was interviewing individuals in 1943 as word was beginning to break about his affair with aspiring actress Joan Berry. (Chaplin was 52 years old, and Berry was 22 years old at the time.) A three page section from a FBI file of the time includes a surprising mention of Brooks - with her name highlighted in green.

The passage from the above document which references Brooks reads: "With reference to the individual mentioned in VON ULM's book as 'MAISIE" xxxxxxxx advised he thought it was Louise Brooks. He said she was very young at the time and later married EDDIE SOUTHERLAND (sic), who is a Director in pictures at the present time." Does anyone have an informed guess as to whom the person "advising" the FBI might be? Whoever it is, they are likely wrong about conflating Maisie with Brooks.

I have a copy of Gerith von Ulm's 1940 book, Charlie Chaplin: The Birth of Tragedy, and read the passage which mention "Maisie." First of all, the book isn't very good, and I don't think Maisie is Brooks, but rather Marion Davies (if I were to guess). Von Ulm states in a footnote regarding Maisie, "This is not her name, but because this star has retired into private life, she enjoys a 'legal right to privacy' which is not the writer's wish to invade." For those wishing to check things out, the relevant passages about "Maisie" (which is a garbled almost-anagram of Marion Davies) begin at the bottom of page 203 of Von Ulm's book.

Back to the FBI document, and my shock at having come across Brooks' name in Chaplin's FBI file: I find it surprising that Louise Brooks was mentioned at all in 1943, as she was long forgotten and living in near obscurity at the time. Brooks had been out of films since 1938, and had returned home to Wichita, Kansas in 1940, where she lived in her parents house until January of 1943, when she relocated to New York City in the hopes of finding work in radio. Compared to her heyday in the late 1920's, Brooks was rarely ever mentioned in the press anymore. (I have come across only about a half-dozen mentions of Brooks in 1943, with most of those coming from columnist Dorothy Kilgallen.) The fact that she was mentioned in this FBI document leads me to believe that whoever it was that mentioned her must have known her and known of her affair with Chaplin. Does anyone have an informed guess as to whom the person "advising" the FBI might be? Inquiring minds want to know.

RadioLulu off the air, with a few recommended videos

After 18 years of streaming Louise Brooks and silent film related music, Radio Lulu has come to an end. The Louise Brooks Society online station was begun in 2002, and has reached countless listeners all over the globe. For more on this sad occasion, see the earlier LBS blog post, "Louise Brooks Society announcement regarding RadioLulu".

The station rotation began with "Louise," sung by Maurice Chevalier. In fact, it was my love of this song that led me to launch RadioLulu. In the early days of the Louise Brooks Society, a brief snippet of Chevalier's famed recording launched whenever someone clicked on the LBS website. I was not alone in my love for this particular recording. I recall once receiving an email from a fan who said they visited the LBS website everyday just to hear the snippet!

Because you likely want to hear it again, here is another video recordings of "Louise, a song which originally had nothing to do with our Louise. "Louise" was a show-stopping number from the 1929 film, The Innocents of Paris, Paramount's first musical. The song is sung by Maurice Chevalier, with the Leonard Joy Orchestra,  and it peaked at #3 on US Music Charts in 1929. Today, however, "Louise Brooks" has become associated with Brooks.

And finally, here is Chevalier performing the song in 1932. Chevalier recorded the song a few times over the years, but usually stuck to this original arrangement. Enjoy!