A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
If you are anything like me (and I realize most people aren't), then you may enjoy surfing the internet and browsing old newspapers and magazines, especially international publications. I like doing so on occasion. In particular, I enjoy looking at old film magazines. They depict a world gone by. A time and place no longer. But what's more, you never know what you will find - rare and unusual images, little known interviews with favorite stars, and more.
I am drawn to publications from Eastern Europe, especially publications from Poland. (I am of Polish heritage.) One of my favorite magazines to look through is KINO, a Polish film magazines. A small archive of the magazine, dating from the 1930s, can be found online HERE. (Warning, this archive can be problematic to navigate.)
What is especially notable about this magazine (especially in the early 1930s) is its striking, sometimes avante-garde cover art, which utilizes a muted palette and employs portrait photography and illustration, as well as moderne and art deco designs, collage, coloring, patterns, layers, geometric forms, abstraction, "exoticism" and a varied layout (i.e. title placement). It is also worth noticing the predominance of angles over curves. (As the decade progressed, KINO covers were less bold, and began to resemble the covers found on other magazines of the time.)
I found a bit of material about Louise Brooks, of course, as well as many attractive magazine covers which I wanted to share - both because they depict favorite movie stars, but also for their swell graphic design. There are so many interesting images that I need divide this post into a few parts.
This is part one. I will start with a Louise Brooks cover and go from there.
Louise Brooks 1932
John Gilbert 1930
Ramon Novarro 1930
Charlie Chaplin 1931
Buster Keaton 1932
Pola Negri 1931
Colleen Moore 1930
Clara Bow 1930
Greta Garbo 1934
The next post will feature even more covers. Of course, there are many other interesting / appealing / unusual interior illustrations. Here is one that I came across that intrigues me to no end - a caricature and poem related to Garbo. Can anyone transcribe and translate the verse?
Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1929. Based on two plays by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind, Die Büchse der Pandora, or Pandora’s Box,
tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant
showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks
plays Lulu, the singular femme fatale. As Brooks' biographer Barry Paris
put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful
men around her.” And not just men. . . Lulu’s sexual magnetism had few
bounds, and this once controversial film features what may be the
screen’s first lesbian character. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.
The film went into production at the Nero-Film Studio in Berlin, with production lasting between October 17 and November 23, 1928. The film premiered on February 9, 1929 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin, Germany.
Under its original German title, Die Büchse der Pandora, documented screenings of the film took
place in Austria, Danzig, Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia),
Latvia, Luxembourg, Ukraine, and the United States.
Outside Germany, Die Büchse der Pandora was exhibited or written about under the title Loulou (Algeria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Argentina); Le boîte de Pandore and Loulou (Belgium); A caixa de Pandora (Brazil); Кутията на Пандора (Bulgaria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Chile); Lulu La Pecadora (Cuba); Pandořina skříňka or Pandořina skříňka(Lulu) and Umrít Büchse der Pandoru (Czechoslovakia) and Pandorina skrínka (Slovakia); Pandoras æske (Denmark); De doos van Pandora (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Pandora’s Box (England); Pandora laegas (Estonia); Pandoran lipas (Finland); Loulou and Le boîte de Pandore (France); Λούλου and Lulu- το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Greece); Pandóra szelencéje (Hungary); Lulu and Il vaso di Pandora and Jack lo Sventratore (Italy); パンドラの箱 or Pandoranohako and The Box of Pandora (Japan); Korea (Box of Pandora); Pandoras lade and Pandoras Kaste (Latvia); Pandoros skrynia (Lithuania); Lou lou La Boite de Pandore (Luxembourg); La caja de Pandora (Mexico); De doos van Pandora (The Netherlands*); Pandoras eske (Norway); Lulu and Puszka Pandory (Poland); A Bocéta de Pandora and A caixa de Pandora (Portugal); Cutia Pandorei and Lulu and Pandora szelenceje (Romania); Lulu and Pandorina skrinjica (Slovenia); La caja de Pandora (Spain); Pandoras ask (Sweden); Meş’um Fahişe and Meş’um Fahişe (Lulu) (Turkey); Dzieje Kokoty Lulu (Ukraine); Box of Pandora and Pandora’s Box and Pandora szelencéje (Hungarian-language press) and Ящик Пандоры (Russian-language press) (United States); La caja de Pandora and Lulu and El alma de la herrera (Uruguay, sound version); Lulu and Лулу and Ящик Пандорьі (U.S.S.R.); La caja de Pandora (Venezula).
Since the late 1950s, numerous screenings of the film have been taken
place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Pandora’s Box
in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere.
Within the last few years, a showing of the film also took
place in Turkey under the titles Pandora’nın Kutusu and Pandora’nýn Kutusuö. The film has also been shown on television across Europe as well as in Australia, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere.
*Despite the film being banned in The Netherlands in 1930, it was shown on October 18, 1935 in Amsterdam at De Uitkijk.
— The jazz combo seen playing in the wedding scene in the film is Sid Kay's Fellows.
They were an actual musical group of the time. Founded in 1926 and led
by Sigmund Petruschka (“Sid”) and Kurt Kaiser (“Kay”), Sid Kay’s Fellows
were a popular ten member dance band based in Berlin. They performed at
the Haus Vaterland (a leading Berlin night-spot) between 1930 and 1932.
And in 1933, they accompanied the great Sidney Bechet during his
recitals in the German capitol. Sid Kay’s Fellows also accompanied
various theatrical performances and played in Munich, Dresden,
Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona and elsewhere. The group’s
depiction in Pandora’s Box predates their career as recording
artists. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Sid Kay’s Fellows were
forbidden to perform publicly. They disbanded, and transformed
themselves into a studio orchestra and made recordings for the Jewish
label Lukraphon.
— When Pandora’s Box debuted in
Berlin in 1929, an orchestra playing a musical score accompanied the
film. The score was reviewed in at least one of the Berlin newspapers.
The score, however, does not apparently survive. What is also not known
is if the music of Sid Kay’s Fellows, or any sort of jazz, played a part
in the music of Pandora’s Box. [Interestingly, director G.W. Pabst included another jazz combo in his next film with Brooks, The Diary of a Lost Girl.]
The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926. The film is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a
beauty pageant, namely the actual 1925 Miss America contest in Atlantic
City. The film is the second in which Louise Brooks appeared, but the
first for which she received screen credit. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.
Production took place in the fall of 1925, beginning around August 24
and ending around November 10. (The exact dates are not known.) The film was shot in part in early
September at the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City, and later at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island (located
at 3412 36th Street in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens), as well as
on the Coney Island boardwalk, in Greenwich, Connecticut (in the
vicinity of Round Hill and Banksville), and “near a swimming hole” in
Ocala, Florida (the future shooting location of It's the Old Army Game).
In the United States, the film was also presented under the title La Venus Americana (Spanish-language press) and A Venus Americana (Portuguese-language press).
Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took
place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia
(Singapore), Canada*, China, Dutch Guiana (Surinam), India **, Ireland,
Jamaica, Korea, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa, and the United
Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).
Elsewhere, The American Venus was shown under the title Vénus moderne (Algeria); DieAmerikanische Venus (Austria); AVenus Americana and La Venus Americana (Brazil); La Venus Americana (Chile); La Venus Americana (Cuba); Americká Venuše (Czechoslovakia) and Dieamerikanische Venus (Czechoslovakia, German language); Den amerikanske venus (Denmark); La Venus Americana (Dominican Republic); De Moderne Venus (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Vénus moderne (Egypt); The Modern Venus (England); Miehen ihanne (Finland); Vénus moderne and Vénus américaine (France); Die Schönste Frau der Staaten (Germany); Az amerikai Vénusz (Hungary); Il trionfo di Venere and Trionfo di Venere (Italy); 美女競艶 or Bijo dai Kei tsuya (Japan); Venus Moderne–Die
Modern Venus (Luxembourg); La Venus americana (Mexico); De Moderne
Venus (Netherlands); Amerykan’ska Wenus and Venus Pokutujaca (Poland); A
Vénus American (Portugal); Miss Amerika (Slovenia); Американская Венера
(Soviet Union); La Venus americana and La Venus Moderna (Spain); Mannens ideal–Venus på amerikanska (Sweden); and La Venus moderne (Switzerland).
* The film was banned in the province of Quebec due to “nudities.”
** Bengali censorship records from 1927 called for the elimination of
close-ups of women in the film’s tableaux, noting “The figures are too
naked for public exhibition.”
Miss Bayport, the role played by Louise Brooks, was originally assigned to Olive Ann Alcorn, a stage and film actress who had bit parts in Sunnyside(1919) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
Townsend Martin, whose story served as the basis for the film, was a college friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to the New Yorker and other publications, famed humorist Robert Benchley wrote the film’s titles.
The film was privately screened at the Atlantic City Ambassador Hotel as a benefit under the auspices of the Atlantic City Shrine Club on December 26, 1925. A benefit screening of the film also took place at midnight on December 31, 1925 in Oakland, California -- the hometown of star Fay Lanphier.
The American Venusofficially premiered at the Stanley Theater in Atlantic City on January 11, 1926. It then opened at the Rivoli Theater in New York City on January 24, 1926.
The film was a hit. Such was it's "buzz" that according to the 1999 book, Russian Writings on Hollywood, author Ayn Rand reported seeing The American Venus in Chicago, Illinois not long after she left the Soviet Union.
One month from today, the Kansas Silent Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th annual event when it kicks off the 2022 event in Topeka. More information about the event, including the program of films, notes, directions and more, can be found HERE. Please note, this is a LIVE event with social distancing recommended. And what's more, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, as well as pianists Ben Model, Jeff Rapsis and others will be providing live musical accompaniment.
Among the many highlight are screenings of Herbert Brenon's Peter Pan (1925), Stage Struck (1925, starring Gloria Swanson, The Goose Woman (1925), with Louise Dresser and Jack Pickford, and The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), with Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. No Louise Brooks this year.... but maybe in the future.
Yesterday's New York Times ran a story headlined "Was Dorothy Day Too Left-Wing to Be a Catholic Saint?" The article, subtitled "The Archdiocese of New York has asked the Vatican to consider the social activist for sainthood. But church leaders are not entirely comfortable with her politics," examines the real possibility that the well-known Catholic activist might be canonized.
For those not familiar with Dorothy Day (1897-1980), she was according to Wikipedia a "journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known political radical among American Catholics." Day's conversion to Catholicism took place in 1927; in 1933, she founded the Catholic Worker. But before then, she was a journalist and writer.
Should Dorothy Day be canonized, she would become the first and likely only Saint to have ever reviewed a Louise Brooks' film. On July 20, 1925, the New York Morning Telegraph published Day's review of The Street of Forgotten Men, which was headlined “Herbert Brenon Contributes Absorbing Film at Rivoli.” (The review was run again on July 26th.) Day gave the film a good review, describing it as "An absorbing story, done by a cast of people who really know how to act and directed in a skillful manner by Herbert Brenon." She also singled out various actors, particularly Juliet Brenon (the director's niece) and John Harrington, who plays Bridgeport White-Eye, the shudder inducing character to whom moll Louise Brooks was attached. Day did not mention Brooks - no reviewer did, as Brooks' part was just an uncredited bit. Nevertheless....
Interestingly, Louise Brooks developed a serious interest in Catholicism later in life. However, her interest was more mystical than practical or social, like Day's. Back in 2016, the Catholic Saints Guy blog ran a piece on Brooks and Catholicism titled "The Divine Miss Brooks."
I have always been drawn to collage, whether in the visual arts or in film or literature. Despite the jumble, it makes sense. Early modernism, especially dada and surrealism made use the technique, as did futurism. Recently, while looking online through some vintage Italian magazines, I came across this collage featuring some early film stars. It really appeals to me. I believe this Italian futurist magazine dates from 1932. How many film stars can you name? (Unfortunately, no Louise Brooks.)