Adolpho Bioy Casares on Louise Brooks, Marion Davies, silent comedians, Fellini, and working with Borges

Today, Adolpho Bioy Casares (1914 – 1999) is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century; Bioy, as he is called, was an Argentine fiction writer, diarist, and translator. He was also a great friend and regular collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges. 

Bioy authored more than 30 books, both short stories as well as novels, including A Plan for Escape (1945), The Dream of Heroes (1954), Diary of the War of the Pig (1969), and Asleep in the Sun (1973). He also collaborated with Borges on the seminal Anthology of Fantastic Literature (1940), as well as a series of satirical detective stories written under the pseudonym Bustos Domecq. 

Today, Bioy is likely best known for his 1940 novella, La invención de Morel (The Invention of Morel), which is widely considered the first work of “magical realism.” Borges wrote in the book’s introduction: "To classify it as perfect is neither an imprecision nor a hyperbole." Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz echoed Borges when he said: "The Invention of Morel may be described, without exaggeration, as a perfect novel." Later Latin American writers such as Julio Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez have also expressed their admiration for this novella whose influence extends beyond literature into film, music, television and the realm of popular culture. [I have written about Bioy’s book and its connection to Louise Brooks in the past, as seen HERE and HERE.]

Along with his many literary achievements, Bioy was also a great devotee of the cinema, especially the silent and early sound era, as is made clear in the following interview. This interview is something I have been trying to track down for years, decades really, because of what Bioy says about Brooks being the "inspiration" behind The Invention of Morel. 

And just recently, within the last couple of weeks, I was sent a copy. The interview was published in FILM, an Argentine film magazine, in the summer of 1995. I studied Spanish for two years in high school, but regretfully recall little. This interview, by Daniel Martino (Bioy's editor), Fernando M. Pena, and Sergio Wolf, is presented here in my unauthorized, software assisted, translation. I think anyone interested in early film and Latin American literature will find it of interest.

###

The idea of a meeting with Bioy to talk about cinema was suggested by the bibliophile Manuel Pena and took place through the kind mediation of specialist Daniel Martino. The shared interests sustain the informal tone proposed from the beginning. By Daniel Martino, Fernando M. Pena, and Sergio Wolf.

- When did you start watching movies?

- My mother told me that the cinema was not suitable. However, she went every day, every afternoon, to the movies. She said that I had to play sports, fortify myself and not sit there in the dark.

 - How old were you?

- Eight, ten years. This was in Mar del Plata. On the Rambla there were two cinemas, Palace and Splendid. I was desperate to always be with my mother, so when the cinemas let out I would wait for her, and if she didn't leave the Palace I would run to the Splendid to find her.

- We're still talking about silent movies?

- Of course, when talkies came it seemed to me that I had no hope, it was awful. In the first sound movie that I saw the actors were singing. So then they had talents as singers and not as actors. Every time there was a love scene, they sang, sang the ... that seemed to me to be the destruction of what had been achieved.

- You told others you were afraid that movies would stop being silent.

 - No, that they stopped being silent and were sung.

- Once you said that if you had a brother, you would have liked him to be a director. Did you ever wish to direct?

- No, being a writer was enough for me. Being a director was a bigger concern and I left it to my brother.

- When you were a boy, Drago Mitre and the Menditeguy brothers had a 9 1/2 mm Pathe, and they made some movies.

- We tried to make movies but we failed.

- There was no worthwhile result.

- The results were not very good. I think we shot without a roll of film in the machine. [Laughs] My brother was missing.

- Didn’t you go to see dirty films at the Miriam cinema, perhaps with Drago and Menditeguy. Could it be?

- Correct, almost every afternoon. There was a time when Drago, Julio Menditeguy, Carlos Menditeguy and I went to the movies after playing tennis. And at the Miriam, which was in the plaza Dorrego, they showed pornographic films. They also presented movies about diseases, which really didn't help you. In the Miriam cinema you always saw come-ons, girls who went from one row to another until they picked up a client. From there they went directly to a nearby street, to look for a room.

- That must have been surprising to see...

- And venereal diseases. The movies that were showing there completely put us off.

 - Then you wrote some movie reviews...

- I wrote some reviews for a neighborhood journal, which was called The Spectator. It was around 1932, I was about eighteen years old.

 - And then your cinematographic activity stopped.

- Pretty much, yes. Only later did I go to the movies again every day.

- Did you follow some director, some genre?

- I followed directors. If they showed a Lubitsch movie I went to see it, if it was Ashby I went to see it...

- Hitchcock?

-Yes, as well... It seemed to me that he always set a trap, but that it was enjoyable, he knew how to entertain. He was an entertainer.

- It's a trap? Just knowing that Cary Grant could never die, for example!

- Yes ... There were fallacies in his movies. I made a list of movies and directors that interested me and, well, he isn't here.

- The cinema also comes into play a good deal in your stories and novels. There is a story, The Hero of Women, where you make some references to Western movies, to what the hero of the Western represents, let's say. Do you like the Western a lot?

- I like them a lot, yes. I always watch them with a good deal of enjoyment. I have noticed that the French, who are so fond of fashion, have a great passion for Westerns and they show them often in the old Paris cinemas.

- In your work you refer to the Western more than other genre.

- Yes, that's correct. There is the field, there are the horses. There is something very broad; life opens up in the Western.

 - You wrote stories with Borges as well as scripts.

- Scripts that were poor. Although it is true that they were written before we knew how to write scripts. It is a bit more Borges's fault, rather than mine. He wanted to craft great dialogue with each phrase in the text and that is intolerable.

- You wrote differently when you wrote as Bustos Domecq, for example, than when you wrote scripts?

- Yes, but also because of time. When we wrote such timid scripts it was much earlier. With Bustos Domecq we let loose, we made jokes on jokes, we lost ourselves. Bustos Domecq was also a kind of intellectual defeat: we said that one wrote as he wanted and what we wanted was to write classic police stories, with a clear and sharp solution. Well, we couldn't do that, we got lost in the jokes. Borges suddenly asked me: "Now what do we do with this character? How do we solve this...? "

- The scripts you wrote were tighter.

- Much tighter, and as well there was no pleasure in writing in that overwrought way.

- It's true, but notably Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi is from '42, and there are adaptations from '43, '46, and '49. Things get mixed up a bit.

- Well, in Six Problems anyway ... we were never satisfied. In later stories, really ... I was referring to other earlier, made to order scripts. Pago Chico, for example.

- From what you told us about your work, Borges had a much greater desire to write for the cinema than you.

- I think so. Perhaps because Borges was much more intense than me, with respect to everything. I don't know why he was so oblivious to our failures, but the truth is that he was much more determined than me.

- Did he pressure you to write with him?

- Well, we liked working together. If I wished to work with him, why wouldn't I? It was instructive, it was fun, it was terrific working with him.

- When you wrote scripts with Borges did you go to the movies? Did you have a model?

- No, no we didn't go to the movies because my friendship with Borges was nocturnal, not daytime. He came home to eat at night and then we would write or read.

- Did you ever go to the cinema together?

- No, the circumstances weren’t right.

- You told me that he liked The Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935) but you did not, so there was a range of horror movies that you did not share.

- No, no. Except when there was a funny horror film, like Young Frankenstein, which I liked a lot.

- In your list of memorable films there is an abundance of comedies. You prefer humor in the cinema, in your literature...

- In my literature despite myself, because when I write ... I like to be a little more serious.

-Why more serious?

- Because women tell me that humor is cool. [Laughs].

- Speaking of comedies, I can't help asking about Keaton, who is a personal obsession.

-Yes, Keaton seemed to me much superior to Chaplin. Always. I found Chaplin’s movies good, yes? But, in general, I would say that I don't like Chaplin's lyricism but I do Keaton's.

- Did you like silent comedians?

- Yes, I loved them. It seemed to me that they were refreshing to the soul. One was happy to see those comedians. And since it often happened that reality did not agree with me, it was good to see them. There was another comic that I really liked, Charley Chase. At the time I liked Larry Semon too, but when I saw him again I didn't like him that much. Instead, I still really like Laurel and Hardy.

- Why do you think so much is lost in revision?

- It's something strange. That happens more with cinema than with literature. With the cinema it is quite common.

- In many of your stories you mention specific theaters. In The Adventure of a Photographer in La Plata you cite several cinemas, the Roca, Gran Rocha cinema ... did you know those cinemas?

- Yes, sure, I've been a few times. Quoting them was as a memory to myself.

- In an interview you said that the Invention of Morel had come about, partially, from the sudden disappearance of Louise Brooks. Of a certain feeling of abandonment in the face of the loss of someone very dear to you. What happened to Louise Brooks?

- I was madly in love with her. I was unfortunate, because she suddenly left, traveled to Europe, to make a  movie with Pabst which I didn't like as much as when she was in Hollywood. As well, she disappeared very early from the cinema.

- Her absence is like the one suffered by the shipwrecked Morel.

-Yes, she would be Faustine.

- That’s curious, because people fall in love with Brooks through her German movies.

- I did not.

- Can you talk about other actresses?

-Yes of course. I liked Marion Davies, for example. She thought she had married William Hearst. I really liked Anna May Wong, too.

-Garbo?

- I liked her, yes, I liked her in Ninotchka, but not as much as some others.

- In your list you do not cite any police mysteries, that is a genre that you like greatly in literature.

- Well, I liked the Maltese Falcon a good deal, but I think the genre interests me more in literature than in cinema. It is that one can think that just as bad books make good films, good books make less good films. I mean, maybe cinema just needs stimulus from literature.

- It seems you feel that it is a good thing for the film to be absolutely faithful to the book?

-No, no. I am convinced that faithfulness can be very harmful. The Red and black [Le rouge et le noir, Autant-Lara-1954), for example, is very faithful.

- Are you interested in Fellini?

- I liked The White Sheik, Amarcord, 8 1/2 ... The one I don't like is Casanova. It seemed to me ... melodramatic and a failure, wanting to give Casanova a fantastic touch that he doesn't have. I should be clear and say that I saw it before having read Casanova. I don't see any relationship between Casanova's memoirs and that film.

- A character from one of his stories says: "Love is like the biographer: when you leave the room you are changed. " Do you believe it too?

- Oh yes, very much. It is like awaking from a dream. One leaves the cinema playing the movie, finding unfamiliar surroundings outside.

- Has watching a movie inspired you to be write a story?

- No, no.

- You used to say so in the sense after watching a movie, thinking: "I would like to write about a character like this, or with a similar tone ..."

- Oh yes. In that sense – let's go back – the cinema has prompted me to write things. I said no, but because I didn't remember The Great Game [Le grand jeu, 1934), a film by [Jacques] Feyder that has the idea of the eternal return. I was very impressed with that. The theme of the cyclical...

- As in The Perjury of the Snow.

- Yes. But in none of my stories have I been lucky enough to tell it in such a soulful way as I saw it in that movie.

- Going back a ways, to the surrealist era. Did you see Bunuel’s The Golden Age or The Andalusian Dog?

- Yes, but I didn't like them. Because I don't really like surrealism. I liked him in general. I did not like any of his surrealist work. I liked what the critics of surrealism said. I was a victim of the critics.

- At one time you wrote "I am willing to wait for the end of the world sitting in a movie theater."

- Of course, it is really a declaration of love to the cinema and cinemas.

- Do you still think about it?

- I keep thinking about it, and when I go to a cinema I feel safe and very happy. There one surrenders to sound, right?

 

Note  1.

Refers to a film adaptation by Payro, whose elusive story was reconstructed by Daniel Martino Film, No. 1, Buenos Aires, April / May 1993.

Three Louise Brooks films among best of all time, according to 1932 French magazine

Today, lists of the best films are commonplace. There are lists of the all-time best movies (usually headed by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane), the best comedies, the best dramas, best film noir, best pre-code, and also best silent films. Louise Brooks' films rarely figure on any of these lists, except for Pandora's Box, which occasionally makes the top ten or twenty best films of the silent era. 

Back in 1932, just a couple-three years after the end of the silent era, the popular French film magazine Pour Vous attempted to establish a listing of the best films up until that time. It was a kind of curated "reader's poll" which seemingly calls for the preservation of "repertory films," or what were even then seen as classic films from the past. The results are surprising, especially for fans of Louise Brooks, as three of her films, A Girl in Every Port, Beggars of Life, and Diary of a Lost Girl, all made the list. Each were very popular in France, with the first mentioned film, Howard Hawks' buddy bromance, spending nearly a year in various Parisian theaters. Left off the list was Pandora's Box, today Brooks' most celebrated film. (The list of films ends with those released in 1929, and thus it doesn't include Prix de beaute, which was released in 1930 and was as celebrated in France as the four previously mentioned films.)

This article, with illustration from a handful of the many films mentioned, is titled "Sauvons les films de repetoire," and subtitled "Pour Vous "Établit une liste ideale en s'inspirant des suggestions de ses lecteurs" (which translates as "Pour Vous establishes an ideal list based on the suggestions of its readers"). The introductory paragraphs by Lucienne Escoube (a critic and author) translate thus: 

"The question of a film directory remains on the agenda; our colleagues have, in their turn, taken up the cause of this undertaking of an importance and a seriousness that true cinephiles have not failed to underline. But, before we meet and consult together on the essential decisions to be taken, it would be important to know how this cinematographic repertoire should be put together.

First of all, let's not forget two important points: the repertoire must be put together for the public, of course, but also for specialists, for all those 'in the house'; what we think should be included on the list are not only works which have been proven successes on the screen (provided that they are beautiful and significant), but also works which have not had the reputation they deserve but which, by their intrinsic value, their technique, their tendencies, brought to the screen new directives, a particular style, an atmosphere not yet put forth. This repertoire, a true museum, must be of high quality, let us not forget. It must retrace, in a way, the entire history of cinema, its ages, styles, eras and various trends: early cinema, cinema theater, pre-war cinema (French, Russian, Italian, German), American cinema, war cinema, Swedish era, German era, American era, French post-war cinema, everything that was significant on the screen must find its place in a well-understood repertoire.

Also in this choice of films, the main works of the great directors, of those who brought to the screen the novelty of their genius, works of those who were innovators, must find a place; (Gance, Stiller. Griffith, and how many others! Finally, the works of artists who, by their personality, have created a genre, a character who. animated by them, has become a living entity: including William Hart, Hayakawa. Nazimova, so many names that I cannot name here!

And all the work of the perfect genius: Chaplin.

The list that we publish here. and which we have established from our personal recollections, the documentation offered to us by old journals, and on the basis of suggestions from our readers who responded to our referendum, is only a first attempt at selection that we propose to develop and complete as our research progresses."

Following the lists of films, there is a brief concluding paragraph which states: "Finally, let us mention a few other films suggested by our readers: Senorita, The Image Hunters, The Lily of Life, Towards Happiness (Stiller), The Earth, The Arsenal (Dovjenko), and by almost unanimous request Monsieur Beaucaire (Rudolph Valentino)."

There are, of course, a handful of films by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rene Clair, Mauritz Stiller, Ernst Lubitsch, and Fritz Lang. Other films are credited to Nazimova, Garbo, and Gloria Swanson. There are a number of French films, along with German, Swedish and Russian productions. G.W. Pabst's Joyless Street makes the list, as does Erich von Stroheim's Wedding March and King Vidor's The Big Parade. And so does Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu the Vampire. Some of the surprise entries (in that they are little remembered today) include The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, and a William Wyler directed film here titled Far-West. Off-hand, I am not sure which film the latter that might be. 

The three Brooks' films include Les Mendiants de la vie (Beggars of Life, released in the United States in 1928, the film is mistakenly listed under 1927, though it played in France in 1929 and 1930); A Girl in Every Port (which kept it's English-language title in France, though is mistakenly credited here to Josef von Sternberg); and under 1929 Trois pages d'un journal (Diary of a Lost Girl). Curiously, Loulou is left off the list!

Here is a close-up of the film lists, for those who might to look for their favorite, and to see who was included, and who was left off.

Roberto Baldazzini's Hollywoodland published in France

Roberto Baldazzini's Hollywoodland, a graphic novel originally published in Italy in 2019, has just been published in France. The cover of the new French edition is picture below. Additional information about this new edition can be found HERE. 

Here is the publishers description, in French: "Hollywoodland : c'était l'enseigne qui trônait, il y a cent ans, en haut des collines surplombant Los Angeles, avant que le suffixe « Land » ne disparaissent. Des années qui virent la transformation d'une ville née en plein désert dans la Mecque du cinéma. Une Babylone en carton-pâte et ses décors magnifiques où se dissimulent toute la mesquinerie dont l'homme est capable. Dans une Amérique juste sortie de la première guerre mondiale, Hollywoodland est l'histoire de deux frères on ne peut plus différents, de leurs passions et de leurs désillusions. Ils ne le savent pas encore, mais le destin a déjà écrit pour eux des paroles de mort."

And here is the publishers description in English, after being run through a translation program: "Hollywoodland: it was the sign that sat enthroned, a hundred years ago, at the top of the hills overlooking Los Angeles, before the suffix "Land" disappeared. Years that saw the transformation of a city born in the middle of the desert in the Mecca of cinema. A cardboard Babylon and its magnificent decorations which conceal all the pettiness of which man is capable. In an America just emerging from the First World War, Hollywoodland is the story of two brothers who could not be more different, their passions and their disillusions. They don't know it yet, but fate has already written words of death for them." 

Pictured above is a sample page from the book, which hopefully will be published in English someday. (Others of Roberto Baldazzini's book have been published in the United States by NBM.) I have written about the artist and his earlier Italian edition in the past. Those earlier blogs can be found HERE and HERE. 

Roberto Baldazzini is a well know Italian comix artist. He has drawn many published works, many of which are erotic in nature. Baldazzini has also previously depicted Louise Brooks. Michele Masiero is also an Italian graphic novelist, with a number of publications to his credit.

Thanks to those who helped translate the Chinese advertisements for When You're in Love, starring Grace Moore

A BIG thank you to the Louise Brooks fans on Facebook who helped translate the two Chinese advertisements for the 1937 film, When You're in Love.

Takeo Yoshida wrote that the big five characters 葛雷絲摩亞 (read right to left) in each ad is the name of Grace Moore, the star of the film which included Louise Brooks in a uncredited bit role as a masked chorus member. She also wrote that the four large characters 鳥語花香 (read right to left) in each ad is the movie’s title. BTW, according to Google's translation app, the literarl translation of the title characters read as "Birds and Flowers".

Here is a more detailed translation of the above ad, made by Michael Harvey and his teenage students near Shanghai.

Second line: Movie released today 2:30 afternoon, 5:30 afternoon, 9:15 evening.

Third line: Columbia company best romance movie of the year.

Fourth line: female main actor

Fifth line: male main actor

6,7 and 8 line: Watching this movie during night can make you feel like it is spring. After watching the movie will make you don’t want to sleep.

Tenth line: name of the movie

 

 

Line 1: Congratulation the movie earned a lot of money.

Line2: the movie palace theater, use the ticket to go in the cinema. Watch the time

Line 3: today, 2:30 afternoon, 5:00 evening, 7:45 evening. Cost of seats: 1 cent or 2 cents

Line 4: ladies and gentlemen, go buy the ticket.

Line 5: Name of the female actor

Line 6: she sings smoothly.

Line 7, 8 and 9: Watching this movie during night can make you feel like it is spring. After watching the movie will make you don’t want to sleep

Line 10: the name of the movie

 

Of all of Louise Brooks films of the 1930s, When You're in Love was likely the most popular. It played to big crowds just about everywhere. Lately, I have been working on a chapter on  the film for my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks. So far, I have gathered material from a number of countries. It also played in Japan, where this portrait was published.

Under its American title, I have documented screenings of the film in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, Dutch Guiana (Surinam), Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine (Israel), Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and South Africa. As well, it was once advertised in Canada as When You Are in Love. In the United States territory of Puerto Rico, the film was exhibited under the title Preludio de amor (Spanish-language press). 

 

The film was also shown under the title For You Alone in British Malaysia (Singapore), Ireland, and the United Kingdom (including England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, and Scotland).

 

Elsewhere, When You’re in Love was shown under the title Le Cœur en fête (Algeria); Sérénade (Austria); Sérénade (Belgium); Prelúdio de Amor (Brazil); Preludio de amor (Cuba); Když vy jste v lásce (Czechoslovakia) and Ked si zalúbeny (Slovakia, unconfiirmed); Serenade (Denmark); Preludio de Amor (Dominican Republic); Ma olen armunud (Estonia); Rakastuessa (Finland); Le Cœur en fête (France); Otan i kardia ktypa (Greece); Közjáték and Preludio de Amor (Hungary); Serenade (Iceland); Amanti di domani (Italy); 間奏楽 or Kansō-raku (Japan); Wenn die Liebe erwacht (Latvia); Serenade (Luxembourg); Preludio de amor (Mexico); Le Cœur en fête (Morocco); Als je verliefd bent (The Netherlands); Forelsket (Norway); Kiedy jestes zakochana (Poland); Prelúdio de Amor (Portugal); A rioi szerenad (Romania); Preludio de amor (Spain); När man är kär (Sweden); Le Cœur en fête and Wenn Du verliebt bist (Switzerland); Bir ask macerasi and Sen aska dusunce (Turkey), and Preludio de amor (Uruguay).

 

When You're in Love had a rather robust exhibition history. All of the titles listed above are based on vintage advertisements or reviews. If anyone can provide any additional information on a screening of this film anytime in the first few years after its 1937 release, I would be very grateful.

 

Pictured here are portraits of the film's two stars, Grace Moore and Cary Grant.

 

  

Too cool Louise Brooks swag from Germany!

Yesterday, I received one of the best packages I have ever received. It came from Benjamin Meissner, a new Facebook friend who I met online during my recent appearance on Karie Bible's Hollywood Kitchen. Benjamin was one of the viewers, a posted some comments and questions which I was happy to answer.

 

In our chat, Benjamin posted a picture of a Louise Brooks picture which he spotted in a hairdresser‘s shop in a city called Flensburg, near the Danish border; he also offered to send me a Louise Brooks pin and postcard, which are available in Germany. Above is a picture of the Brooks photo in a German shop window, followed by a scan of the postcard and pinback button.

I was gobsmacked. The postcard and the pinback button are both very cool! Thank you Benjamin. The postcard is made by a German publisher,Gerstenberg Verlag GmbH (www.gerstenberg-verlag.de). Benjamin also sent me small box set of film star postcards which feature Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, and Charlie Chaplin. Picture first is the Brooks card (which came with matching gold envelopes), followed by the front and back of the postcard box set.

Thank you Benjamin Meissner, Louise Brooks and film fan extraordinaire!
BTW: Benjamin is a BIG classic Hollywood fan and president of the international Marilyn Monroe fan club "Some Like It Hot" in Germany with members all over the world.
https://the-international-marilyn-monroe-fan-club-germany.jimdosite.com

Need help with a Chinese film title for one of Louise Brooks' last films

Can anyone who reads or writes Chinese tell me which characters represent the title of the film in the newspaper advertisement pictured below. I think I know but want to be sure. The film is When You're in Love (1937), which was sometimes shown under an alternative title as For You Alone. The film starred Grace Moore and Cary Grant, while Louise Brooks had a uncreditted bit part as a member of the masked chorus.

I assume the title of the film is the four larger bold characters at the bottom of the advertisement. Can these be rendered via Chinese keyboard? Can someone do so and send them to me or post them in the comments.

Is the text in the black box the name of the theater? What are the five larger characters beneath it? Any help would be appreciated. I assume the other text in the advertisement refers to the film and this particular showing.

Here is another newspaper advertisement for another showing of the film in China, circa 1938. I believe the film title (at the bottom of the ad) is the same, but slightly stylized.

German-language story from 1939 references Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks remained a recognizable, if not especially popular figure in Europe for at least a few years following the release of the two films she made in Germany -- Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Both were released in 1929, and both continued to be shown on and off around Europe for another two years. Brooks' sole French production, Prix de beaute, was released in 1930, and like the two German films, it too was shown all over Europe for another two years. (Despite speculation to the contrary, Prix de beaute enjoyed a rather robust exhibition history around the globe.) Also still in circulation in 1930 and 1931 in France and Germany and Poland and elsewhere were a few or Brooks' American films including Beggars of Life (1928) and The Canary Murder Case (1929), as well as A Girl in Every Port (1928), which enjoyed a singular vogue in Paris. In fact, A Girl in Every Port was a favorite of the intelligentsia, and Jean Paul Sartre took Simone de Beauvoir to see the film on one of their first dates.

I mention all this because I sometimes wonder about Brooks' "continuing popularity" in Europe, especially after she stepped away from her Hollywood career in 1931. Fame fades for everyone, even our beloved Louise Brooks. As I have found, and as I document in my forthcoming work, Around the World with Louise Brooks (due out later this year), the number of magazine and newspaper articles about the actress dropped off in 1932, as does the paper trail of product advertisements (notably the Lux soap ads), ephemera (postcards, product cards, etc...), and references in "Where are they now?" type articles.

And that's why I was surprised to find Brooks referenced three times in a short humorous story published in an Austrian magazine in November of 1939, two months after the beginning of the Second World War and a few years after Germany had occupied Austria. The publication where I found the reference was a weekly humor magazine titled Die Muskete, and it was published in Vienna between 1905 and 1941. According to it's German-language Wikipedia entry, "Like other humorous magazines founded at the time, Die Muskete combined the works of young local artists and draftsmen with the work of young Austrian writers. At the same time, the magazine attached great importance to the artistic design and the high quality of the content. The magazine was originally intended for officer circles and quickly gained great importance, as the aim was to make it an Austrian counterpart of Simplicissimus, which later made it more widely used and very popular. It fought against excesses in the political, bureaucratic, clerical, military and social areas. During the First World War it developed into a 'funny soldier's sheet'. In 1919 the subtitle 'Humorous Weekly' disappeared and the magazine changed from jokes to an illustrated men's magazine." 

The references to Brooks occur in a short story by Josef Robert Harrer titled "Thomas Raverley." I wasn't able to find out much about Harrer except that he was a writer of the time, mainly active during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, with a few novels and books of short fiction and poetry to his credit. Besides this story in a 1939 Austrian magazine, I also found a story of his in a 1930 Estonian publication.

 

 

I haven't translated the piece as of yet, but from best I can tell the awkward, unmarried protagonist of the piece, Thomas Raverley, meets a young women who seems to be a receptionist, or secretary. He describes her as an "adorable girl who is almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks," with the added implication that this "Brooksian girl" resembled his secret screen crush. Later, on the same page of the story (page 35, depicted below), the actress is again referenced when the feminine character is again described as "almost as beautiful as Louise Brooks." Two pages later, Thomas and the young women meet again, "A curtain is pushed aside and the girl, who looks like Louise Brooks, approaches Thomas with a smile."

 

I don't yet know what the author meant by evoking Brooks' name, but I would guess that it has something to do with her type - i.e. a flapper or neue frau, as another once popular American actress is also mentioned later in the story, "the sweet Clara Bow."  Perhaps, even at this late date, Brooks still served as someone one could reference in a story. [Obviously, though, the drawings which accompany the story look nothing like Brooks, especially in regards to her hair.]

 

 

American actress Alice Faye appeared on the cover of this issue, notably. And also referenced on the last page of this story are references to other bits of American culture, namely a saxophone and a Jazz band, Prohibition, and even Mark Twain.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with this story, or with the work of the author, Josef Robert Harrer. This story is not the only shout-out to Louise Brooks which I have come across dating from the 1930s. There was a similar usage in a crime fiction story published in a French pulp. Evidently, as a figure still remembered by some, Brooks served as a descriptor... a cultural reference.

A Kartoon or Komic, and a Kinema Karol mentioning Louise Brooks

As I have mentioned many times in the past, one comes across all kinds of unusual and interesting stuff while researching a subject from the past. That goes for Louise Brooks, as well.

First up, here is a cute Paramount promotional cartoon titled "The Family Selects a Movie" which references Evening Clothes, the 1927 Adolphe Menjou film which features Louise Brooks. The actress herself is not mentioned. Nevertheless, it is rather charming, and speaks to how Paramount saw their films in the American marketplace.

Next up is a bit of verse, with the last piece, "My Best Girl" by Fussy in Beachy Head, England  referencing Louise Brooks (and Clara Bow). These "Kinema Karols" were published in an English film magazine, and also contain a bit of period charm. (And, if I am not mistaken, the Laurel and Hardy caveman still just below the date is from Flying Elephants, a two-reeler from 1928. That film is notable as the only other film in which Brooks' American Venus co-star, Fay Lanphier, made an appearance.)