Louise Brooks: A pretty portrait

This image of Louise Brooks is currently for sale on eBay. It's a rather pretty portrait of the actress - and unusual in that her usual bob has been pulled back behind her ears. But yet, she is unsmiling.

Valentina postcards of Louise Brooks

A set of four postcards by the Italian comix artist Guido Crepax featuring Louise Brooks as Valentina are currently for sale on eBay. They were published in 1985.

The last card, orange tinted, has LB doing the Potempkin as von Stroheim looks on - curious and curiouser. The drawings are completely mystifying.

Good news from the European front

Good news from the European front: the local Goethe-Institut here in San Francisco is helping promote the November 14th event for The Diary of a Lost Girl at the San Francisco Public Library. They have posted it on their website and will include it in their newsletter!

And, the Neue Galerie in New York City ordered lots of copies of the book - they are the first NYC museum or store to stock copies. For those not familiar, the Neue Galerie (at 1048 Fifth Avenue) is a museum devoted to German and Austrian art. They should have the book within a week.

Also, a major German news organization is likely going to do a story. I shouldn't say who until it is published - but they have requested a copy of the book and images. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

And, there is a good chance of an event in Paris sometime early next year - in January, 2011. A friend and fan of Louise Brooks is attempting to set up a screening of Diary of a Lost Girl in conjunction with a talk at one of Paris' film theaters. Again, let's keep our fingers crossed. Here are a few key links.

Background info on the book: http://www.pandorasbox.com/diary.html

Goethe-Institut: http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/ver/en6693917v.htm

San Francisco Public Library: http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1002352301

If there are any book reviewers / film reviewers / bloggers out there in need of a review copy of my new edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl - please let me know. I have a few copies to spare for those interested in writing something.

Beggars of Life screens in Los Angeles

(adapted from my article on examiner.com)

The acclaimed 1928 Louise Brooks film – directed by the Academy Award winner William Wellman – will be shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 pm. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Vince Morton.

This special screening marks the second time in the last few months that this once-obscure Brooks film has been shown in Los Angeles. (It was also shown in Seattle last week.)

The LACMA screening honors the institution, The Film Foundation, which helped fund the recent George Eastman House restoration of the film which in turn helped spur the current interest in Beggars of Life.

Harrison Carroll, writing in the Los Angeles Evening Herald when the film first showed in Los Angeles (at the Metropolitan theater) wrote in 1928, “Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor. . . . It is a departure from the wishy-washy romance and the fervid triangle drama.”

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who attends this LACMA event. Please post a write-up in the comments section.

New play about Tilly Wedekind

(adapted from my article on examiner.com)

Frank Wedekind (1864-1918) is a German playwright best known to fans of Louise Brooks as the author of the Lulu plays, which served as the basis for the actress’s later 1929 silent film, Pandora’s Box.

Frank Wedekind was married to an actress named Tilly. She was a singular personality who appeared alongside her husband in some of his most famous works. Tilly even appeared as Lulu in Pandora’s Box back in 1905. (The black and white image below depicts Tilly as Lulu with Wedekind as Schon in an early staging of Lulu.)

A one woman stage play based on the life of Tilly Wedekind, the playwright’s wife and muse, has recently had its world premiere in Davis, California. This new play is called Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love. It’s by Bella Merlin, and is based on many years research by the author. Merlin is a British-born actress and teacher now based at the University of California, Davis. Like Tilly, Merlin once played Lulu in a staging of Lulu (in London in the 1990s). That’s when Merlin got interested in the actress behind the character.

Tilly was devoted to her husband’s work, and during their marriage he wrote powerful plays fueled by their tempestuous relationship. Frank often insisted that Tilly play the female leads.

This 75 minute play follows Tilly's tumbling thoughts. Beginning with her attempted suicide and travelling backwards in time, it weaves together biography, letters, dramatic incidents, puppets, and original songs; Merlin traces the course of the Wedekinds’ passionate marriage, which ended in Tilly’s Frank’s premature death.

This new work is a production of the Sideshow Physical Theatre Company in collaboration with the University of California, Davis Department of Theatre & Dance. Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love is directed by Miles Anderson, with music by David Roesner. (Sample the song, “Tilly Dances,” at http://www.colorblind-visuals.com/files/tillydances.mp3)

Performances of Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love runs through October 24 at the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis (which is near Sacramento). For more info, check out Bella Merlin’s production blog at http://tillynobody-bellamerlin.blogspot.com/ An information page about the play can also be found at http://mondaviarts.org/events/event.cfm?event_id=933&season=2010

I won't have a chance to see this play. But, I would love to hear from anybody who might.

A postscript to this blog: Tilly Wedekind (1885-1970) lived a long time and even wrote a book, Lulu Die Rolle Meines Lebens, which was published in 1969. It has never been translated from the German. Tilly also appeared in four films, according to IMDb. There is also a book about her called Briefe an Tilly Wedekind, 1930-1955, by Gottfried Benn, which was published in 1986. I have a copy of Tilly's book, but have yet to track down a copy of the Benn book.

Smore pics of LB at the SFPL

Here are a few more snapshots of the Louise Brooks / "Diary of a Lost Girl, from book to film" display at the San Francisco Public Library. This small display can be found on the fourth floor.

As was mentioned in yesterday's blog, I will be speaking about my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library on LB's birthday - Sunday, November 14th at 1 pm.

The event is co-sponsored by the Art, Music, and Recreation Center of the SFPL and the Louise Brooks Society. My thanx go out to Gretchen Good, Maureen Russell and the other SFPL librarians who have been so very helpful in setting up this event and these promotional displays.

I hope to see some of you there. If you haven't already gotten a copy of The Diary of a Lost Girl, its available through Lulu.com as well as other online retailers.Yesterday, I spent some time updating the informational pages on the book at www.pandorasbox.com/diary.html There, you can find information about other events as well places where it can be purchased.

Praise for the new edition of THE DIARY OF A LOST GIRL

"Gladysz provides an authoritative series of essays that tell us about the author, the notoriety of her work (which was first published in 1905), and its translation to the screen. Production stills, advertisements, and other ephemera illustrate these introductory chapters. In today’s parlance this would be called a 'movie tie-in edition,' but that seems a rather glib way to describe yet another privately published work that reveals an enormous amount of research — and passion." -- Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

"Thomas Gladysz is the leading authority on all matters pertaining to the legendary Louise Brooks. We owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing the groundbreaking novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl - the basis of Miss Brooks's classic 1929 film - back from obscurity. It remains a fascinating work." -- Lon Davis, author of Silent Lives

"Read today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling. As a bonus, Gladysz richly illustrates the text with stills of Brooks from the famous film." -- Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

"Long relegated to the shadows, Margarete Bohme's 1905 novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl has at last made a triumphant return. In reissuing the rare 1907 English translation of Bohme's German text, Thomas Gladysz makes an important contribution to film history, literature, and, in as much as Bohme told her tale with much detail and background contemporary to the day, sociology and history. He gives us the original novel, his informative introduction, and many beautiful and rare illustrations. This reissue is long overdue, and in all ways it is a volume of uncommon merit."  -- Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran

Louise Brooks at the San Francisco Public Library

On November 14th, I will be speaking about my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl at the San Francisco Public Library. This sensational / controversial / bestselling 1905 book by Margarete Bohme has been out-of-print in the United States for more than 100 years. I brought it back into print and wrote a 20-plus page introduction detailing its remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks. This special event (on LB's birthday) will take place in the Koret auditorium.

Should all go according to plan, I will give a short 10-15 minute talk (with power point presentation) before a screening of the celebrated 1929 film. Copies of my new bookwill also be for sale in the lobby. A booksigning will follow the screening.

I am expecting a good crowd, as I've heard back from many friends & fans and notices have already appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle website, the BookForum website, and on Facebook, Craigslist, Yelp, MySpace and elsewhere. The Koret Auditorium holds 235 people.

The good folks at the SFPL have also been promoting the event. They put up a small exhibit on the fourth floor, and a larger than life portrait of Louise Brooks fill one of the light boxes on that same floor (as pictured above). It's hard to miss and looks lovely. Here are some pictures of the display, which is made up of mostly vintage material from my collection relating to the original book. Do check it out!

I can also report that the SFPL has four copies of The Diary of a Lost Girl in their collection, and each and every one of them are out on loan - and, two of those copies have holds placed on them. Someday, this little book might just prove popular. I have also heard that a local reading group which adopted the book as their November selection will be attending the November 14th event.

 

I hope to see some of you there. If you haven't already gotten a copy of The Diary of a Lost Girl, its available through Lulu.com as well as other online retailers.

Sight & Sound article on Pandora's Box

The current issue of Sight & Sound (the British film magazine) has a long, illustrated article about Pandora's Box (or at least their website does) focusing on Neil Brand's accompaniment of a restored print of the film the other day in London. Check it out at http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/blog/lff-2010-10-15-pandoras-box.php

For the record

For the record, this is not an image of Louise Brooks - just a nice-looking contemporary look-alike. This model, namely Mischa Barton, is sometimes mistaken for the silent film star, and this image is being offered on eBay as an image of Louise Brooks. Not.

Vanity Fair

Reports have it that there is a picture of Louise Brooks on page 106 of the November, 2010 issue of Vanity Fair. I haven't seen it yet. Has anyone ?

Yours for only $7,966.00

A book once owned by Louise Brooks is for sale on eBay. The book, Film Star Portraits of the Fifties, is signed and inscribed by the actress. The book, edited by John Kobal, was published by Dover in 1980. Seemingly, a copy of the book was sent to Brooks by the author. She received it and inscribed it "From Dover and Kobal, 20 Sept 1980." Eight days later, she gave the book to Valerie, and inscribed it once again. The seller is asking $7,966.00.

Yours for only $3,000

This exceptional art deco style insert poster for the 1927 Louise Brooks film, Evening Clothes, is for sale on eBay. I do admit, I haven't seen anything like it before. The seller is asking $3,000. These posters were originally available from Paramount for 25 cents. (Apparently, they could be leased for such a price - as indicated at the bottom of the poster.) This poster measures 14" x 36".

Love Em and Leave Em tonight

Louise Brooks is the girl who vamps em and pets em.

Evelyn Brent is the girl who love’s em and leaves ‘em.

Lawrence Gray is the boy who can’t choose between ‘em.

Is it really the best policy to get, pet, love, leave and forget?

Find out tonight, when I'll be introducing a rare 16mm screening of Love Em and Leave Em in the Edison Theater at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. Showtime is 7:30 pm

Before the film, I'll be signing copies of my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl in the Niles Essanay gift shop. And, I be giving away a free mini LB pinback button to everyone who purchases a book. Hope to see some of you there. 

More info at examiner.com and Artsopolis or at SFGate and Facebook.

Jack Garner discusses working with Louise Brooks

Jack Garner discusses working with Louise Brooks in a new article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101008/LIVING0107/10080301/1052/ENT (see end of article).

Louise Brooks on the cover of the Police Gazette

Louise Brooks appeared on the cover of the Police Gazette, a large format tabloid, on April 4, 1925. This is in all likely-hood her first magazine cover appearance. A copy of this publication is currently for sale on eBay.

The text beneath Brooks' image reads, "A charming young dancer in a big Broadway musical show." The show the caption refers to is "Louie the Fourteenth," which was then playing at the Cosmopolitan Theater in New York City. The caption also predicts a bright future for the dancer.

Louise Brooks private journals to be unveiled

It's been a quarter of a century years since Louise Brooks passed away. Before her death, she bequeathed her private journals to the George Eastman House with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years.

Today, Variety reports that her journals have been unsealed and "Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public." Read more at http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118024992.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

I wonder if Brooks diaries and letters will also made public? We can only hope, as we all know the actress was a gifted writer and something of a braniac. Stay tuned.

Chin up

She is everywhere, and she is "fearless"

This collage image featuring the one and only Louise Brooks seems to be showing up everywhere. 

Last week, a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon sent me snapshot of it taken in a local store window. And yesterday, my wife brought me home a postcard with the image which she bought in a store in Petaluma, California. 

Earlier, I also noticed it on a handbag or some such item in a store window not far from where I live in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.

The image, which is copyrighted 2010, is the work of a design collective known as Papayaart. And in fact, if you visit their stylish website at www.papayaart.com you will see that they use a variant of this image on their homepage. It's an effective image - and one easily applied to various products. According to their website, their designs and products are distributed all around the world.

I like the image. I also noticed a collaged image of Ruth St. Denis on their website.

Kevin Brownlow: "My Life in Archives"

Back in May, the eminent and now Academy Award winning British film historian Kevin Brownlow gave a talk at the London Television Centre. His talk, part of series called the Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture, was titled "My Life in Archives."

As fans of Louise Brooks are likely aware, Brownlow has been a longtime champion of the actress. He befriended her in the late 1960’s, they corresponded for many years (reportedly some 200 letters), and she was included (a bit prominently) in three of Brownlow’s most significant works - the groundbreaking book The Parade’s Gone By (1968), the seminal 13 part filmed history of the American silent cinema, Hollywood (1979), and the also remarkable 3 part history of European silent film, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (TV series, 1996).

The Parade’s Gone By is widely considered the single most import history of silent film. And thus, it’s a bit notable that the book contains a note of thanks by Brownlow which reads, “I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book’s publication.”

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 1 from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

During Brownlow’s talk, the British film historian speaks about the actress on two occasions. He claims at one point that his actions led to the destruction of the last remaining print of the James Cruze gangster film, The City Gone Wild (1927), which featured Brooks.

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 2 from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

And, at a later point, he talks about the time he slept in Brooks’ bed. Watch the clips of this truly fascinating lecture to find out exactly what Brownlow meant by each claim.  

2010 Jane Mercer Lecture part 3 Q&A from Gerry Lewis Productions on Vimeo.

And, if you haven't already done so, go out and get yourself a copy of The Parade's Gone By, which is available either through amazon.com or through independent booksellers. I can't recommend either Hollywood or Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, as each is out-of-print and sells for hundreds of dollars. (Each also includes brief clips of Louise Brooks.)

A little more on Kevin Brownlow and his many activities as an author, documentary filmmaker, and archivist can be found on his production company website, Photoplay Productions. There is also a Wikipedia page for the film historian which contains links to other online biographies, articles and links. [ A bit more at examiner.com ]

The World Encyclopedia of the Film

I love old reference books, for they have a tale to tell.. . . .

This past weekend, I went to the BIG book sale sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. I go every year, and always make a point of hitting the last day of the sale when every book is $1.00. I always find something - especially on the table of film books. One of the books I found this year was The World Encyclopedia of the Film by Tim Cawkwell and John M. Smith. This over-sized 444 page tome was published in 1972 by the A & W Visual Library. Seeminlgy, this book originated in Great Britian.

I hadn't ever seen this book before, which I guess was why it caught my eye among the numerous celebrity biographies and old works of "film history" published by Barnes, Citadel, Castle, etc.... So, at one dollar, I figured I would take a chance. Text on the back cover claimed it was by far the "most-complete" work of its kind.

What interests me about old reference works is the way in which they reflect the accepted facts and opinions of the time. Take, for example, this brief entry on Louise Brooks. 

Brooks was born in 1906, not 1900. Three of her films from 1927 are not listed, as isn't Empty Saddles from 1936. An emphasis is given to her work as a writer - which is interesting, as the emphasis would shift to her European films within the next decade. And Brooks' German films are listed with their German names, not the more familiar English-language titles. Within the context of this book, Brooks' entry is brief - but at least she is included. Most every film reference work from earlier decades did not include her.

The entry on G.W. Pabst is interesting in a similar way. Now-a-days, most every piece on Pabst begins with his work with Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Here, those two films - which would soon under-go a revival - are only listed. 

What old reference works tell us is the ever developing history of a thing. I also picked up an early 1980's encyclopedia  of rock music. I noticed right off a near full page entry on Rick Springfield, a performer now not as big as he once was. (I did see him in concert while in college!) Lesson learned: times change, and so do reference works.

A Beggars of Life revival redux

Beggars of Life, the 1928 silent film featuring Louise Brooks, is undergoing a revival – and in more ways and more instances than even I had been aware.

On September 19, Beggars of Life was screened at the 30th Cambridge Film Festival in Cambridge, England. The live musical accompaniment for the event was provided by the Dodge Brothers.

In April, as readers of this blog may remember, the British roots music combo had accompanied the film at a screening which was part of the British Silent Film Festival.

AND now, reports the Daily Echo, a UK newspaper, the Dodge Brothers were at it again. “The band was back in action at Brockenhurst College last night when eight bicycles were used to power a projector for a screening of Beggars of Life, a 1928 silent movie starring Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen. Music was by The Dodge Brothers and silent film pianist Neil Brand.”

Bicycle powered projectors! Who woulda thunk? (more at examiner.com)

The Diary of a Lost Girl: A brief history of a banned book

Every September since 1982, the American reading public observes Banned Books Week. This year, as in years past, hundreds of libraries and bookstores draw attention to the problem of censorship by hosting events and by creating displays of challenged works. It about creating awareness. The 2010 Banned Books Week runs September 25th through October 2nd.

Recently, I did my small part by helping bring a once censored work back into print. The book is called The Diary of a Lost Girl. It's by a turn of the last century German writer few today have heard of. Her name is Margarete Böhme. Her book, a once controversial bestseller, had been out of print in the United States for more than 100 years.

What I did was to publish a reprint of the original English-language translation. I also wrote a long introduction detailing the book’s remarkable history. As there is little in English about this book and its author, my introduction breaks ground. More importantly, it gives voice once again to a story which critics had long tried to silence.

Though little known today, The Diary of a Lost Girl was nothing less than a literary phenomenon in the early 20th century. It's considered by scholars of German literature to be one of the best-selling books of its time.

The book tells the story of Thymian, a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution. Her story goes something like this. Seduced by her Father’s business associate, the teenage Thymian conceives a child which she is forced to give up; she is then cast out of her home, scorned by society, and ends up in a reform school – from which she escapes and by twists of fate hesitantly turns to life as a high-class escort. Prostitution is her only means of survival.

In 1907, the English writer Hall Caine described the book as the "poignant story of a great-hearted girl who kept her soul alive amidst all the mire that surrounded her poor body." Many years later, a contemporary scholar called it “Perhaps the most notorious and certainly the commercially most successful autobiographical narrative of the early twentieth century.”

The author of The Diary of a Lost Girl, Margarete Böhme (1867-1939), was a progressive minded writer who meant to expose the hypocrisy of society and the very un-Christian behavior of some of its leading members. She also meant to show-up the double standards by which women of all ages suffer. Böhme’s frank treatment of sexuality (by the standards of the day) only added fuel to the fire of outrage which greeted the book in some quarters.

The Diary of a Lost Girl is an unlikely work of social protest. It’s also a tragedy – in 1909, a newspaper in New Zealand called it “the saddest of modern books.”

First published in Germany in 1905 as Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, Böhme’s book proved an enduring work – at least for a while and despite attacks by critics and social groups. The book was translated into 14 languages, and was reviewed and discussed across Europe. It inspired a popular sequel brought about by a flood of letters to the author, a controversial stage play banned in some German cities, a parody, lawsuits (Böhme herself was accused of being a prostitute – how else could a woman have written such a book?), two silent films - each of which were in turn censored, and a score of imitators.

The book confronts readers with the story of a likeable young women forced into a life of degradation. The complicity of her family – and by extension society – in her downward turn is provocative. However, Thymian – a truly endearing character and a heroine till the end, refuses to be coarsened by her experiences. She also refuses to let others define her - she defines herself. At the time, Böhme’s book helped open a dialogue on issues around the treatment of women.

In 1907, when the book was translated into English, its British publisher placed an advertisement in newspapers. The ads proclaimed Böhme’s work “The Book that Has Stirred the Hearts of the German People,” but somewhat defensively added “It is outspoken to a degree, but the great moral lesson it conveys is the publishers’ apology for venturing to reproduce this human document.”

In response to a review of the book in the Manchester Guardian, the Rev. J.K. Maconachie of the Manchester Association Against State Regulation of Vice wrote a surprising letter to the editor. He stated, “The appearance in Germany of this remarkable book, together with the stir it has made there and the fact that its author is a woman, betoken the uprising which has taken place in recent years amongst German women against the evils and injustice which the book reveals. . . . It may be hoped that discriminating circulation of The Diary of a Lost One will help many here to realize, in the forceful words of your reviewer, ‘the horror of setting aside one section of human beings for the use of another.’”

Back in Germany, the same sorts of groups which objected to the book also objected to the two films made from it. The first, from 1918, is considered lost, but we know from articles of the time that it was withdrawn from circulation. The second film, which starred Louise Brooks, has only come down in a heavily censored form.

As the second film's 1929 censorship records show, various groups including a German morality association, a national organization for young women, a national organization of Protestant girl’s boarding schools, and even the governor in Lower Silesia all voiced their objections to aspects of the film. As with the book, these groups objected to key scenes. Each found the overall work to be demoralizing.

By the end of the Twenties when G.W. Pabst released his version, The Diary of a Lost Girl was still in print and was still being reissued across Europe. It had by then sold more than 1,200,000 copies – ranking it among the 15 bestselling books of the era. Twenty five years after it was first published, Böhme's “terribly impressive book, full of accusations against society” was still considered a provocation. That’s why, just a very few years later at the beginning of the Nazi era, conservative groups still unsettled by its damning indictment of society deliberately drove it out-of-print.

In 1988, after decades of obscurity, a facsimile of the special 1907 edition (picture above) was published in Germany. It was followed in 1995 by a small paperback which featured Louise Brooks as Thymian on the cover. My illustrated reprint (picture above), also with Brooks on the cover and with some 40 pages of introductory and related material, appeared in late July.

Why did I do it? I was motivated, initially, by the remarkable history of the book. (Not discussed here is the lingering controversy behind its authorship. The book was first published as the actual diary of a real girl – and Böhme claimed only to be its editor.) Also, I feel now more than ever that The Diary of a Lost Girl is a worthwhile work of literature - one with a still relevant message. For me, it’s about creating awareness.

A Beggars of Life revival

The 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, seems to be undergoing a revival. (More at examiner.com).

On Sunday, September 19, Beggars of Life was screened at the 30th Cambridge Film Festival in Cambridge, England. Live musical accompaniment was provided by the Dodge Brothers, a contemporary skiffle / rockabilly band out of England who play American-style “roots music.” The Cambridge screening was the second time in recent months that the Dodge Brothers have accompanied the film.

In August, Beggars of Life was screened as part of The Hollywood Heritage "Silents Under the Stars" series at the Paramount Ranch near Los Angeles, California. 

It will be screened next in Seattle, Washington as part of the "Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays" series at the Paramount Theatre on October 11th at 7:00 pm.

And again, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 pm. This screening, a 20th Anniversary Tribute to The Film Foundation, honors the institution which helped fund the George Eastman House restoration which has helped spur the current revival.

Love em and Leave em screening

JUST ADDED: I'll be introducing the 1926 Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em, at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California on Oct. 9th at 7:30 pm. It's a rare 16mm screening of a seldom seen film - one of Brooks' best American silents IMHO. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have never been to Niles, here is the perfect opportunity to check things out.

Before hand (from about 7:00 pm), I'll be signing copies of my new edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl. And what's more, I am giving away a free Louise Brooks button to everyone who buys a book!

A different look

Paramount didn't quite know what to do with Louise Brooks. Perhaps that is why they gave her a different look in Evening Clothes, a 1927 romantic comedy starring Adolphe Menjou and Virginia Valli.That's Brooks - without her signature bob - on the far right. This image is for sale on eBay.

Love em and Leave em

This battered publicity still from the 1926 Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em, is currently for sale on eBay. Its a charming image from what I think is one of Brooks' best American silent films.

This now rarely screened film will be shown at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California on October 9th.

This delightful Frank Tuttle-directed film tells the story of two sisters - one good (Evelyn Brent) and one bad (Louise Brooks) - who share a boyfriend (Lawrence Gray) while both are employed at a department store. Trouble ensues. . . . 

According to my records, the last time Love Em and Leave Em was publicly screened in the Bay Area was on November 21, 2006 in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library. The first time is was screened in the Bay Area was at the California Theater in Pittsburg on December 14, 1926.

Reading her diary

Cine-Miroir was a French film magazine which often ran near full page images of actors and actresses on their back cover. Here is one of Louise Brooks on the back of the December 5, 1930 issue. It depicts Brooks as Thymain in a scene from Diary of a Lost Girl (1929).

Valeska Gert (Diary of a Lost Girl) helped inspire punks

Valeska Gert, the dancer and actress who gave a memorable performance as a sadistic reform school disciplinarian in the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, was not only a precursor of performance art, but helped inspire punks in Germany (especially Nina Hagen). That's according to a new article in Deutsche Welle.

That must-read article, "Germany's forgotten performer Valeska Gert helped inspire punk," is occasioned by a new biography of Gert, as well as a first ever exhibit about the actress and dancer at the National Gallery's Hamburger Bahnhof.

Besides her appearance in Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl, she also appeared in his Joyless Street (1925) and Threepenny Opera (1931) - as well as later on in films by the likes of Fellini and Fassbinder.

In the late 1920's, Gert unveiled one of her most enduring works of "performance art" (though it wasn't called that then). Entitled "Pause," it was an interpretative anti-dance piece performed between reels in cinemas; it was designed to draw attention to stillness and serenity. It reminds me of John Cage's 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played.

Valeska Gert's transdisciplinary art is paid tribute to for the first time in the National Gallery's Hamburger Bahnhof. Gert (1892-1978) is one of this city's great figures, albeit one who remains vastly underestimated to this day. Her art, according to the gallery, "probes the structures and effects of perception" - where it is placed alongside others that also tackle the phenomenon of perception, such as Marcel Duchamp. Even as far back as the 1920s, Valeska Gert's conceptual works anticipated happenings, current trends in performance art, popular, small-stage entertaining arts, free improvisation and many other developments in contemporary art and modern music.

In exile in the United States in the 1940's, she opened the Beggar Bar in New York, where Julian Beck, Judith Malina, and Jackson Pollock worked for her. Tennessee Williams also worked for her for a short time as a busboy.

If Louise Brooks is the secret muse of the 20th century, is Valeska Gert the great missing link in 20th century culture?

[ Here is a link to Gert's Wikipedia entry, which contains additional details. And here is a link to a German language page which includes an interview with Wolfgang Müller, the author of the new book on Gert. Use your web translation function to get the gist of it. ]

An Encounter with F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

In June, the 59 year old writer F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre took his own life. He set his book and paper-filled New York City apartment on fire and died in the resulting blaze. It was an ugly ending to what was certainly a sad, even tormented life. On Sunday, the New York Times ran a long article on the enigmatic, Scottish-born author.

Little is known about him, except that at one point, in order to escape his troubled past, he changed his name to "Fergus MacIntyre." According to Wikipedia, the allusive author acknowledged he took the middle-name of "Gwynplaine" from the protagonist of The Man Who Laughs, the memorable novel by Victor Hugo turned into an equally memorable 1928 film starring Conrad Veidt. In those works, Gwynplaine was the disfigured, always smiling malcontent who later inspired “The Joker” character in Batman.

MacIntyre was best known as a genre author whose sporadic output included science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery stories as well as a science fiction novel and a book of light verse and humorous pieces once praised by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Reportedly, a number of unpublished manuscripts were burned in his apartment fire.

MacIntyre also authored newspaper articles and book reviews, and ghost authored and contributed to other works. According to Wikipedia, MacIntyre “contributed substantial script material” to a 2006 documentary on the silent film actress Theda Bara, The Woman with the Hungry Eyes. It was directed by Hugh Munro Neely, who also directed Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu.

MacIntyre’s reputation in the film community (which is curiously not addressed in the New York Times article) rests on his having written reviews of lost films which he sometimes claimed to have only recently seen. These reviews appeared on IMDb and film message boards, where they live-on to this day.

Such claims, made convincing through MacIntyre’s skills as a writer, drove film historians to distraction. To many in the online film community, he was little more than a prankster playing with the facts while playing a joke on serious film enthusiasts. MacIntyre's claim to have seen various lost films included at least one featuring Louise Brooks, A Social Celebrity (1926).

In the spring of 2006, I emailed MacIntyre regarding his 2002 IMDb review of that lost Brooks film. Not then knowing his reputation, I wrote “I am preparing a book on the films of Louise Brooks, and noticed your thoughtful comments on A Social Celebrity on the IMDB website. I am wondering if you ever saw the film? (The last known copy of A Social Celebrity was lost in a disastrous nitrate fire at the Cinémathèque Française in the late 1950s.) If you have in fact seen the film, I would be very curious to know when and where.”

MacIntyre responded the next day.

Greetings to Thomas Gladysz (do you pronounce it Gladdish?) from Fergus (F. Gwynplaine) MacIntyre, whom you contacted regarding the film A Social Celebrity.

Although I've read your IMDb review of Looking for Lulu, and your email address is an obvious tribute to Brooks, I'm surprised to learn that you're writing a book about her. Surely every possible fact about Louise Brooks has long since been unearthed?

I wish you good luck with your book, and I encourage you to avoid the cliche which several other authors (including Brooks herself) have perpetrated when writing about her: please do not refer to Brooks as 'Lulu'. Lulu was one of the characters she played onscreen. Louise Brooks was a far more fascinating and complex person than Lulu was.

To answer your question: yes, I have seen a print of A Social Celebrity. It was a 'flash print', meaning that it possessed the original (Paramount) intertitles, but they ran for only a few frames each; the print was intended for distribution in a non-Anglophone market, and the local exhibitor was supposed to use the flash titles as a guide for translations, which would occupy more footage than the flash versions and be onscreen longer. I viewed this print more than ten years ago, and it was already slightly deteriorated due to nitrate instability.

This print is (or was) in the personal collection of a private film collector in Europe, who does not wish to be publicly identified. He owns several original nitrate prints of films that were released in the 1930s and earlier. I was given some limited access to some of the films in his collection, solely in order to examine their physical deterioration, and to advise him as to which reels of film in his collection were most urgently in need of restoration or duplication to acetate safety stock.

Normally, when a reel of film has deteriorated to the point where I'm unwilling to subject it to the vagaries of a motorised projector, I will inspect the footage through a hand-held Steenbeck viewer. Several reels of the Social Celebrity print had begun to decompose, so I Steenbecked them rather than running them through a projector.

I have offered to put this collector into contact with several professional film restorers in Europe and Britain, and it is my understanding that he will eventually have most of the nitrate films in his collection converted to acetate stock. I have very little ability to influence his actions in this matter.

This collector is a private individual who only very rarely grants access to his film collection. I was given very limited access to his collection, solely in order to inspect his films as physical artefacts in need of restoration. I do not have direct contact with this gentleman; I contact him only through his attorneys, who are strongly inclined to refuse all requests for access to his collection. He has made it clear that he will not grant public access to his collection. As this gentleman has been helpful to me in my own business endeavours, I must respect his privacy.

Thank you for reading my IMDb reviews. I'm not an employee of IMDb, and they don't pay me for my reviews. I'm a full-time journalist and author. If you log onto www.amazon.com and go to their Books section, then key a search for my by-line "F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre", you'll see the covers of two books that I wrote and illustrated. One of these is my Victorian erotic horror/romance novel: The Woman Between the Worlds, featuring Conan Doyle, Aleister Crowley, GB Shaw, WB Yeats, Arthur Machen, Sir William Crookes and several other eminent Victorians united to aid an invisible she-alien during an invasion of London by alien shape-changers. This novel got rave reviews from Harlan Ellison on his Stateside cable-tv show. I'm also the author and illustrator of a humour anthology which was praised by Ray Bradbury and other authors: MacIntyre's Improbable Bestiary, likewise available on Amazon, which contains some original material I wrote about Lon Chaney and silent films.

To whet your appetite, here's the cover (my artwork and typography) of my anthology: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1587154722.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I took some notes while I was Steenbecking A Social Celebrity. If you have any specific questions about the content of this film, I will gladly try to answer them for you, but I must decline any request to give you access to the print.

Straight on till mourning, Fergus (F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre)

Could it be true? I wondered. In my naiveté, I hoped it would be. I responded immediately and pressed MacIntyre for details, sent him specific questions, but didn’t hear back. I am sure I came off as too eager, and MacIntyre wasn’t willing to go extra innings.

A few days later, I wrote MacIntyre again. “I am not sure you received my email. I am glad to know that a copy of A Social Celebrity still exists in some form - even if that copy is unattainable - and may one day be given to a public archive. I shall await that day!” I never heard from him again. And as time passed, I began to feel this curious character with unsubstantiated claims had been pulling my leg.

The New York Times noted MacIntyre worked night jobs in order to spend his days at the New York Public Library researching things which interested him. Those subjects included early film, of which he was by all accounts knowledgeable. Undoubtedly, he relished their depictions of days gone by – and of a world, made safe through the passage of time, which no longer existed.

MacIntyre was something of a pastiche artist - witness his own description of his sole published novel. To me, his reviews of silent films he couldn’t have seen read like a kind-of critical pastiche of reviews found in the old film periodicals housed at the New York Public Library. That occurs to me now when I reread his IMDb review of A Social Celebrity. Its last line, “Louise Brooks is as seductive as usual, but she has very little to do here,” echoes the kind of observation made by a number of film critics in the 1920’s.

It’s hard to know why MacIntyre claimed to have seen A Social Celebrity and other lost films – and thereby muddied the historical record. He must have known it irritated others. Perhaps it was a game. Perhaps it was one way of getting attention. Perhaps it was his way of asserting control over a world in which he felt increasingly out-of-sorts. We’ll never know.

MacIntyre was an enigmatic, intellectual loner. He once wrote, “I collect the fragments of time that other people throw away, and I put these to good use.” Not everyone agreed.

Louise Brooks is the obvious #1 crush for any thinking human being

"Louise Brooks is the obvious #1 crush for any thinking human being," stated novelist Glenn David Gold in a short interview about Charlie Chaplin and silent film at http://www.examiner.com/silent-movie-in-san-francisco/six-questions-with-novelist-glen-david-gold

Gold is not only a fan of Louise Brooks, but an acclaimed writer and film enthusiast as well. 

His 2001 novel, Carter Beats the Devil - inspired by the early 20th century magician Charles Carter, was a national bestseller. It’s in development as a feature film for possible release in 2013.

His second novel, Sunnyside, was published to great acclaim in 2009. It’s based on incidents in the life of the "Little Tramp." Sunnyside was released by Vintage in softcover in May.

Each are recommended.

Diary of a Lost Girl in Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

My new edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl got a nice write up in today's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The article is by Jack Garner, the newspaper's longtime film critic (he also knew Louise Brooks, and wrote the foreword to the Peter Cowie book, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu). Garner wrote:

A RARE BOOK tie-in. The idea of book tie-ins to movies is well known. But it's not every day that a 1929 film generates the reissue of a book. Yet that's the case with Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl, which was originally published in 1905.

The surprising reissue in 2010 is the brainchild of Thomas Gladysz, a San Francisco journalist and director of the Louise Brooks Society. Fans of Brooks, the beautiful silent film star who finished out her years in Rochester, may recognize the title. The Diary of a Lost Girl was the second of two masterpieces she filmed with Germany's G. W. Pabst in the late '20s. It followed the legendary Pandora's Box into theaters. (Both films are available on DVD — and highly recommended.)

Bohme's book caused a sensation at the early part of the last century, telling in diary fashion the story of an abused young woman who ends up a prostitute. It sold 1.2 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of its time.

Read today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling. As a bonus, Gladysz richly illustrates the text with stills of Brooks from the famous film, and also includes an introduction. The book's available at amazon.com, pandorasbox.com/diary.html, or at the Eastman House gift shop.

New restoration of Pandora's Box announced

A new restoration of Pandora's Box has been announced. The BFI London Film Festival has announced the line-up for its October event, and among the highlights is a new restoration of the famous Louise Brooks film.

Pandora’s Box is set to screen at 6pm on October 14th at the National Film Theater 1 in London. The new restoration is listed at 143 minutes, ten minutes longer than a “restored version” released by Criterion on DVD in 2008. A bit more info at http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-in-national/new-restoration-of-pandora-s-box-announced

The Festival, run by the British Film Institute, is in its 54th year. It will include 197 feature films, and 112 shorts. Other restorations are also on the calendar. I sure wish I could be there, but alas . . . .

Canary Murder Case lobby card

This lovely lobby card (11x14) for The Canary Murder Case (1929) is for sale on eBay. Bidding starts at $2,500. It depicts Gustav von Seyffertitz and Louise Brooks. I likes it. Don't you?

Louise Brooks' first movie review

On this day in 1925, Louise Brooks received her first review as movie actress.* Though  not listed in the credits, the Los Angeles Times took note of her brief appearance in the The Street of Forgotten Men when its anonymous critic wrote, "And there was a little rowdy, obviously attached to the 'blind' man, who did some vital work during her few short scenes. She was not listed." 

The paper was referring to Brooks, whose less than 5 minutes of screen time in the Herbert Brenon-directed film went uncredited. It was her first part in a film. She played the role of a  gangster's moll.

* Brooks had been mentioned earlier on in various newspapers and magazines for her appearances as a dancer and showgirl. The above named review was her first in connection with a film.

Louise Brooks in Love Em and Leave Em screens Oct 9

The 1926 Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em, will be shown in Fremont, California at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum on October 9, 2010. The listing for this rare screening was just announced on the Niles website at http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/sept-oct2010.pdf

This Frank Tuttle-directed film is quite good. It is one of Brooks' best American silents. The last time Love Em and Leave Em was publicly screened in the Bay Area was on November 21, 2006 in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library. That screening was held in conjunction with the SFPL exhibit, "Homage to Lulu," which celebrated the Brooks' centenary.

Prior to that, the film has enjoyed numerous screenings in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The film's local exhibition record, as best I could figure it, is thus:

California in Pittsburg (Dec. 14, 1926); California in Richmond (Dec. 26, 1926); National in San Jose (Dec. 29, 1926 – Jan. 1, 1927); American in Oakland (Dec. 31, 1926 special midnight matinee showing); Hub in Mill Valley (Jan. 1, 1927); Princess in Sausalito (Jan. 2-3, 1927);  New Stanford in Palo Alto (Jan. 6-7, 1927); Granada in San Francisco (Jan. 8-14, 1927); Majestic in Benicia (Jan. 9, 1927); Virginia in Vallejo (Jan. 9, 1927); Novelty in San Bruno (Jan. 12, 1927); Strand in Los Gatos (Jan. 20-21, 1927); Sequoia in Redwood City (Jan. 21, 1927); Casino in Antioch (Jan. 23, 1927); Peninsula in Burlingame (Jan. 29, 1927); California in Livermore (Jan. 30, 1927); American in Oakland (Feb. 5-11, 1927); Regent in San Mateo (Feb. 11-12, 1927); Mountain View Theatre in Mountain View (Feb. 12, 1927); New Fillmore in San Francisco (Mar. 12-13, 1927); New Mission in San Francisco (Mar. 12-13, 1927); Richmond in Richmond (Mar. 13, 1927); California in Berkeley (Mar. 20-22, 1927 with While London Sleeps); Chimes in Oakland (Mar. 29-30, 1927 with A Regular Scout); Lorin in Berkeley (Apr. 2, 1927 with The Night Patrol); Alhambra in San Francisco (Apr. 2-3, 1927); Castro in San Francisco (Apr. 7-8, 1927); Coliseum in San Francisco (Apr. 9, 1927); West Portal in San Francisco (Apr. 16, 1927); Balboa in San Francisco (Apr. 23, 1927); Strand in Berkeley (Apr. 23, 1927); Irving in San Francisco (Apr. 24, 1927); Alexandria in San Francisco (Apr. 28-29, 1927); Washington in San Francisco (May 1, 1927); Plaza in Oakland (May 1, 1927 with The Western Whirlwind); Metropolitan in San Francisco (May 12-14, 1927 with The Timid Terror); Roosevelt in San Francisco (May 15, 1927); Fairfax in Oakland (May 31, 1927 with White Black Sheep); Excelsior in San Francisco (June 6-7, 1927); New State in San Francisco (June 6-7, 1927 with The Gorilla Hunt); Rivoli in Berkeley (June 8, 1927 with Flesh and the Blood); New Balboa in San Francisco (June 12, 1927); Metropolitan in San Francisco (June 18, 1927); and Pompeii in San Francisco (July 31 – Aug. 1, 1927); Century in Oakland (Nov. 1-2, 1927).

And then, in more recent years, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Sept. 30, 1979); and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Mar. 15, 1981 as part of the series “The American Films of Louise Brooks”). This latest screening is another addition to the record.

Pandora's Box screens in Kansas City, MO

Pandora’s Box will be shown on Thursday, September 2 at 6:30pm at the Tivoli Cinema in Kansas City, Missouri. The screening is part of a “Silent Film Series” sponsored by the Tivoli Cinemas and the University of Missouri – Kansas City Department of Communication Studies. All seats are $4.00 / free for UMKC Students / Staff with ID. Tickets are available day of show only at the Tivoli box office. Details at http://www.tivolikc.com/silentfilmseries.html

New Huffington Post article: why I published Diary of a Lost Girl

I've just posted a new article on the Huffington Post discussing why I self-(re)published my Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl. . . .

What originally drew me to the book was the fact that it was the basis for the 1929 German film of the same name. That silent film stars Louise Brooks. She's an obsession of mine, as anyone who knows me is all too well aware. I'm always going on about her ... And I'm always looking into some facet of her life and career. I was curious about what seemed to me an otherwise obscure book. Why did the great German director G.W. Pabst make it into a film? What would he have seen in it?

The article can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-gladysz/a-lost-girl-a-fake-diary-_b_694263.html

Then and now: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1907 edition) and The Diary of a Lost Girl (2010 edition).

Louise Brooks Society mentioned in TimeOut Chicago

The Louise Brooks Society was mentioned in TimeOut Chicago. The magazine ran a story titled "Silent films get a new life online, but not everybody’s celebrating," by Christina Crouch. The article discusses Louise Brooks, Pandora's Box, and the internet. Read more at http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/film/88270/silent-films-gain-new-life-on-the-internet#ixzz0xgHg0eVs

Louise Brooks commemorative bronze medal

A commemorative bronze medal depicting Louise Brooks is currently for sale on eBay. These burnished bronze medals, of European origin (?), don't show up all that often. I don't know much else about them. Does anyone?