In Search of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings

I recently received a message from film historian and new friend Louie Despres asking about actor El Brendel, a onetime vaudeville comedian turned actor who had a supporting role in the 1927 Louise Brooks film, Rolled Stockings. That film is what was called a "youth picture" -- the story is set on a college campus -- and the film itself starred Paramount's "Junior Stars" (a group of young actors which included  Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, James Hall, and Nancy Phillips). El Brendel, who plays a police officer, was some ten or 15 years older than his fellow actors.

Louie Despres is researching El Brendel's career, and over time he has managed to gather images of the actor in most all of the few dozen films in which he appeared. Despres wrote me asking if I had any images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings. I was embarrassed to have to tell him no. 

I have many images from the film, most of them in digital form, but also a few vintage stills. The problem with Rolled Stockings (and so many other silent films) is that it is lost. And so, except for surviving stills and other imagery, we don't know what the film looked like. I am posting this blog asking for help in finding more images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings. Do you have any? (I recall an eBay auction from a couple of years ago which featured dozens of stills from the film. I put in a couple of bids, but lost out.)

Louie Despres has only two images from Rolled Stocking which include El Brendel, and is in search of more. One image of the actor can be found on one of the lobby cards from the film, which is depicted above. (Notice that El Brendel's name is included on the lobby cards, which suggests Paramount considered the actor significant enough to name, despite it being on of his earliest films. BTW, the name that is blacked out on this lobby card but not all lobby cards is that of Sally Blane, Loretta Young's sister.) The other images Louie Despres has is this slightly cropped film still, shown below. I am very grateful that it was shared with me, as I had never seen it before.

Do you have any images of El Brendel in Rolled Stockings which you would be willing to share? El Brendel is a significant actor with a notable career, and Louie Despres is working on a book which will certainly break ground in documenting the actor's career. Any help would be appreciated.

Through the Black Velvet Curtain: Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino

Back on August 23, 2019, I gave the keynote talk at the 92nd annual Valentino Memorial Service at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California. The title of my talk was "Through the Black Velvet Curtain: Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino," with its subject being the two iconic silent film stars. My talk asks . . . might these two Jazz Age personalities have known each other? Might they have met? Over the years, various documents have come to light which go a long way toward answering those questions. While we will likely never know what Valentino thought of Brooks, we do know what Brooks thought of Valentino.

When I gave my talk in 2019, technical challenges (the acoustics of the crowded room once we figured out how to play back the audio that played perfectly in rehearsal) made it difficult for the attendees to  hear / appreciate the rare audio (from 1962) of Brooks speaking about Valentino. I felt bad.

In converting my original power point presentation to video, I have taken the opportunity to refine my spoken text just a bit, and add narration as well as a few more relevant images. I think fans of both actors will find this material and this newly refurbished presentation of interest. Please let me know what you think.

I have uploaded my presentation to the Louise Brooks Society YouTube channel (which I hope you will take time to explore, and subscribe to). "Through the Black Velvet Curtain: Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino" can be found in the "Louise Brooks - Documentaries and related material" playlist. This is only the second YouTube video I have made, so I apologize if its production values seem a little crude - but, I wanted to stay true to the nature of my original slide show presentation.

 

I have attended a couple of the Valentino Memorial Services in the past. It can be a moving experience, especially as Valentino is resting in the very building where this event takes place - and on the day on which the screen legend passed away. In fact, the Valentino Memorial Service is the oldest continuing annual event in Hollywood. Begun in 1927 on the first anniversary of the actors' death, it has continued uninterrupted into the 21st century. Over the years, thousands have gathered to remember one of the most beloved actors of his or any generation.

If you are interested in learning more about Valentino and the Valentino Memorial Service, I recommend Valentino Forever: The History of the Valentino Memorial Services by Tracy Terhune. It is a fascinating read. Another related book well worth checking out is The Valentino Mystique: The Death and Afterlife of the Silent Film Idol by Allan R. Ellenberger.

The Rise & Fall of Max Linder, and a couple of tenuous connections to Louise Brooks

A few months ago I received a copy of The Rise & Fall of Max Linder: The First Cinema Celebrity, a remarkable new biography by Lisa Stein Haven. The book, the first English language study of the life and art of the comedic great, is published by Bear Manor Media. I have been slowly making my way through it, not because it is slow going, but because I am relishing reading it. The Rise & Fall of Max Linder is an immersive biography. Reading it, absorbing its rich detail, learning about the life of someone I admittedly knew only little about made me feel like I was displaced back in time to the beginning of the 20th century. 

Before reading Haven's book, I was only a bit familiar with Linder. I knew that he was French. I had seen a few of his short films, and also knew that he was a comedic actor and had influenced Charlie Chaplin. That's about it - except for a tenuous connection to Louise Brooks, which I mention later. What is remarkable about Haven's book is that it pulls back the curtain on a time and place long ago and reveals a distant world from which this comedic genius sprang. That is revelatory.

Max Linder was born Gabriel Leuvielle in St. Loubes, France in 1883; he started in films with the Pathe Brothers in 1905, making him one of the first film comedians to achieve world-wide renown. In fact, according to Haven, there is evidence that Linder was the first screen celebrity to see his name in print. His comedy timing and gags -- Linder started writing his own scenarios early on -- have been copied and imitated by many of his followers, including Charlie Chaplin. (Upon receiving the news of Linder's death, Chaplin is reported to have closed his studio for a day out of respect.)

Notably as well, his high society characterizations as the dapper "Max" also influenced such actors as Adolphe Menjou and Raymond Griffith. (Louise Brooks played in two films opposite Menjou, A Social Celebrity and Evening Clothes, and appeared in another, God's Gift to Women, which was co-authored by Griffith.)

Just how big was Linder? The universality of silent films brought Linder fame and fortune throughout Europe, making him the highest paid entertainer of the day. By 1910, he had become the most popular film actor in the world, and is thought to be the very first movie star with a significant international following. In Russia, he was voted the most popular film actor, ahead of Asta Nielsen. He also had a Russian impersonator, Zozlov, and a devoted fan in Czar Nicholas II. Another professed fan was British playwright George Bernard Shaw. The first feature film ever made in Bulgaria was a remake of one of Linder's earlier movies. He was offered $12,000 to spend a month in Berlin making public appearances with his film screenings, but declined for health reasons. Later, in 1911 and 1912, he began touring Europe with his films, including Spain, where he entertained thousands of fans, as well as Austria and then Russia, where he was accompanied on piano by a young Dimitri Tiomkin. 

via Lisa Stein Haven

Spoiler alert: Of course, nothing lasts forever, and Linder's story is both a comedy and a tragedy. His meteoric rise to fame beginning in 1907/1908 hit a roadblock in 1914 with the onset of World War I, and was dealt a death blow by his attempts to revive his career in America and Austria (and in a changing world). His marriage to a young wife was ill-fated and ill-timed, leading Linder to take the life of his wife and himself on the night of October 31, 1925. Linder himself died on November 1, 1925 - 76 years ago today, leaving behind a 16-month-old daughter named Maud who would devote her life to restoring his film legacy. 

I mentioned a tenuous connection to Louise Brooks. Actually, there are two. The first is the famed singing Frenchman, Maurice Chevalier, who is best known to devotees of Brooks as the singer who popularized "Louise" (a song not about Brooks, though long associated with her). Along with director Abel Gance, Chevalier was once one in the company of actors employed by Linder.

In his native France, Linder was a superstar, hugely popular to the degree that a movie theater was opened in Paris which bore his name. Of course, it showed more than just Linder films. In fact, it was at the Max Linder Pathe (located at 24 boulevard Poissonnière in Paris) that Brooks' sole French film, Prix de beauté, debuted on May 9, 1930. To open at the 1,200 seat Max Linder Pathe was considered an honor, and Brooks' film rose to the challenge and proved popular. At the time, most films played a few days or a week before moving on. However, as this ad shows, Prix de beauté was a hit, and ran more than "2eme mois" or two months at the Max Linder Pathe.

The Max Linder theater is still open to this day, helping keep the memory of this comedic actor alive. I would encourage anyone interested in early film to check out The Rise & Fall of Max Linder: The First Cinema Celebrity. It is a good read.

 

Lisa Stein Haven is an Professor of English at Ohio University Zanesville, specializing in British and American modernist literature, the Beat poets and silent film comedy, especially the work of Charlie and Syd Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Max Linder. In 2010, she organized and hosted "Charlie in the Heartland: An International Charlie Chaplin Conference" at Zanesville, which was attended by participants from 11 countries outside of the United States.

In summer 2014, Haven was the keynote speaker at Charlot 100, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Chaplin's Little Tramp persona, held in Bologna, Italy and sponsored by Roy Export S.A.S and the Cineteca di Bologna. She is also a member of the executive board for the Buster Keaton Celebration, held every year in Iola, Kansas. 

Stein's earlier books, which I have read and written about in the past, include another first ever study, Syd Chaplin: A Biography (McFarland, 2010), a book about Chaplin, A Comedian Sees the World (University of Missouri, 2014), and Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in America, 1947–77 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

via Cinema Treasures at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/16578

Happy Halloween from the Louise Brooks Society

Happy Halloween from the Louise Brooks Society. The two spookiest images involving the actress that I could find are these two publicity images from The Canary Murder Case (1929).

The closest Louise Brooks ever came to appearing in a horror film was when she was considered for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the James Whale classic. Of course, the role went to the another actress with iconic hair, Elsa Lanchester, who was brilliant in the dual roles of the Bride and Mary Shelley. Would Brooks have been any good in the role? It is hard to say.

A new Louise Brooks photograph?

There is a new (to me) photograph floating around the internet that some claim depicts Louise Brooks. I am not sure. It could be of Brooks, or it could be of an unknown, similar looking starlet or showgirl. 

I messaged the person who first posted the image, asking where it came from, but have not heard back. Context can often provide a clue. To me, the image looks like the sort one would see in the "girlie" magazines of the 1920s, like Artists and Models. I am guessing that this image was taken in 1924 or 1925.

THE ARGUMENT AGAINST: The model is not identified. Most models were back then, even something vague like "the newest star of the Follies." However, the identity of this model could have been lost when a caption was trimmed from the image. Hence, my request for the picture's source. Secondly, I don't recall seeing this bit of clothing on Brooks before. When originally posted, some thought the image depicted Colleen Moore. It does not.

THE ARGUMENT FOR: The model does bear a striking resemblance to Louise Brooks, especially in her face. The hair is also right. And so is the body type. Some of the fake nudes floating around get that last point wrong. Also spot on, and this could be coincidence, is the way the model in this photograph holds herself. At some point early on, Louise Brooks was taught to pose. This model knows how to do so. She is also holding her hands -- fingers spread -- in ways Brooks did in some of her early images. As well, there is also the use of a curtain in the background. This is something other photographer's of the time, such as John De Mirjian of the "draped nudes" scandal, would sometimes employ.

CLOSING ARGUMENT: I don't know.

If anyone know who this model is, or knows more about the origins of this picture and where it might have been printed, I would certainly appreciate hearing from you. 

Admittedly, I have been fooled before. I once came across a 1920s photo of a pretty model, the so-called "sepia-toned nude," and believed it to be Louise Brooks, even though the model was identified as being of someone else. But still, the resemblance was so great I talked myself into believing it was Brooks to the point of creating a little narrative in my mind as to why the image was deliberately misidentified. Wishful thinking. . . . until other images of this similar looking model-showgirl were pointed out.

The enduring charm of Hailey Tuck - "the millennial's Louise Brooks"

It's no secret I adore Hailey Tuck, not just because she is darn cute and sports a swell bob, but also because she is a gifted jazz vocalist. Hailey is a singer from Austin, Texas who, in her own words, is "based in Paris & London in the 1920's." 

I have been spending a good deal of time on YouTube over the last few days (refurbishing the Louise Brooks Society YouTube channel) when I came across a 2018 interview with Hailey in which she mentions the impact Louise Brooks and Brooks' own memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, had on her life and career. I hadn't seen it before. My bad. And thought to post it here.

I have written about Hailey in the past, as have many other publications including Marie Claire, who once described her as “The millennial's Louise Brooks.” Back in 2015, Hailey contributed a piece to the Louise Brooks Society blog in which fans of the actress were asked to submit their story of discovery -- of how they first came across Louise Brooks and what the actress means to them. Before I reprint that piece, here is another 2018 video clip of Hailey's UK TV debut, singing "That Don't Make It Junk" on the BBC show, Later... with Jools Holland.

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Hailey Tuck's story of discovering Louise Brooks
by Hailey Tuck

When I was 18, I was working in a rare and out of print bookstore in Austin, TX and lazily attending a mess of random liberal arts classes at the community college across the street. I'd graduated from a Baptist military boarding school early, and subsequently 'suffered' two heart wrenching defeats in attempting to gain admittance to Julliard, and though I can look back on that malaise with the same wry smile as reading my self-aggrandizing childhood diaries, I do acutely remember looking at my options and feeling very "none of the above."

The job itself was a total dream, and still my number one back up in case I didn't manage to become wildly successful in jazz. My grandmother was a bookseller and called in an old favor for her bibliophile granddaughter, and voila I became their only employee. The shop opened at noon (ideal) and I was mostly left to my own devices, or occasionally joined by my boss, Luke -- an obviously extreme literate, and general good time -- or one of the eccentric collectors who would come and have a whiskey, or tutor me in French. 

Like some sort of adult Montessori school, my browsing led me to a total cultural revolution for a curious 18 year old. After dully expressing my distaste for poetry, Luke pointed me to Pablo Neruda and Rainer Maria Rilke, and like a light-bulb I suddenly understood the art behind the subtlety of expressing something sensuous or painful without the directness or girth of literature. I pawed through sections on occult, anthropology, Swedish furniture. I bought the entire play section. I dated a professor from the university who slept in a soundproof, light proof box and cut off my black hair because I wanted to look like a New York art dealer in the 90's. And luckily, I picked up a book called Lulu in Hollywood because the illustration of the chick on the front had my hair cut. 

Reading, or inhaling rather, doesn't cover it. For once I felt I was reading a real story, and one that closely echoed my own -- sexual abuse, alcoholism, family troubles, and then looking at traditional success and saying, "Fuck that I'm going to make weird ass art house movies in Germany!" Some might view Louise's subsequent eeking descending fall into obscurity as a classic tragedy, however from my current vantage point as a young performer, I see someone who made deliberate u-turns based on a desire to be the most authentic version of themselves, regardless of the viability for commercial success. And most importantly, I saw myself, and felt steeled to seek out my own adventure, regardless of the wobbling uncertainty of ditching college, my father's approval, and the American dream. 

My newfound hubris manifested into a one way ticket to Paris. I should add that I also had the rare luck of a modest trust fund of sorts -- before you start gagging -- it was an insurance settlement. A lonely month or so later on the metro, this American girl complimented my vintage dress, and I asked her how she knew I spoke English, and she said, "I don't, I just speak to everyone in English!" 

 

For some reason it seemed entirely charming, and I asked her if she wanted to get off and have a glass of champagne together. She told me about her strange marriage to an older wealthy record producer (they have separate houses, and she collects dollhouses) and I told her that I was sort living in this squat and was too scared to tell my Dad, or he'd make me come home. She happened to be house sitting this beautiful apartment in Voltaire and offered for me to sleep on the red velvet fainting couch. One night later we were throwing a party and I was sitting on my bed/fainting couch and this completely decadent red headed American, in head to toe 1920's sat down next to me and I told her I'd been living there on this couch, then asked her the proverbial, "Do you come here often?" She looked at me sardonically, and patiently replied that this was her house. And her couch. After a second/hour or so of complete embarrassment I bumbled and mumbled my way through an explanation about being fresh off the boat, wanting to do acting or singing or something, and a few glasses of Prosecco later she had yanked off the music and had me singing Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You" on her dining room table. 

When I read Lulu in Hollywood I had this grand idea of what Europe might be -- cavorting with intellectuals and passing out at orgies at Rothschild mansions. But when I got there everything seemed garishly contemporary, and lonely. I just felt like an American at an overpriced cafe.

But whatever Sorrel saw in me on her dining room table was the catalyst for everything I could have imagined. I got upgraded from fainting couch to painting studio, introduced to a swath of filthy Italian phrases, chess on trains, regency balls, schooled on not offending Venetians at Carnival, posing nude in an Art Deco harem, literally physically force-dressing me for winter time, and above all encouraged and supported to sing at every single event, party, and opportunity possible until, like learning the other side of poetry, or understanding the inevitability of forever, I became the most true, authentic version of myself as a jazz singer trying to evolve and challenge myself in Europe, and of course offending Venetians and passing out at Mansion parties. 

 

I'm still sort of making wobbly guess-choices, but I do know that everything that has led me to where I am now feels right, and nothing about it seems like the beaten path to any real commercial success, and that feels great. And when Marie Claire did an article on me this year, I definitely felt a wry self-aggrandizing smile when reading the title "The Millennial Louise Brooks".

 

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In 2020, Hailey released another splendid album, Coquette. To keep up with Haily and her career, be sure and check out her website at haileytuckmusic.com/ or follow her on Twitter or YouTube. That's where I am headed now to watch a few more videos.