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A ballet of Frank Wedekind's Lulu

December 3, 2015, 6:45 am
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If you are near the Oper Halle (Saale), Germany on December 4, 2015 you might want to check out the premiere of Lulu, a ballet enacted by Jochen Ulrich & the Tanzfonds Erbe, based on Frank  Wedekind's Büchse der Pandora and Erdgeist.

There are performances on Dec. 30th 2015; Jan. 23rd & 31st, Feb. 26th, March 4th and June 25th 2016. For more information see http://buehnen-halle.de/lulu


Gefördert von TANZFONDS ERBE – eine Initiative der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Mit der Premiere des Balletts »Lulu« des 2012 verstorbenen Choreografen Jochen Ulrich, einem der entscheidendsten Wegbereiter des Modernen Tanzes in Deutschland, knüpft das Ballett Rossa an die erfolgreiche Vertanzung von dessen »Anna Karenina« an. Auch bei diesem Handlungsballett nach der gesellschaftskritischen Doppeltragödie »Erdgeist« und »Die Büchse der Pandora« des deutschen Schriftstellers und Dramatikers Frank Wedekind steht eine der faszinierendsten Frauenfiguren der Weltliteratur im Mittelpunkt. Als musikalische Grundlage dienen Kompositionen des Italieners Nino Rota zu den zwischen 1952 und 1970 entstandenen Filmen »Rocco und seine Brüder« und »Der Leopard« von Visconti sowie »Der weiße Scheich«, »La Strada«, »8 ½« und »Die Clowns« von Fellini, die sowohl groteske als auch dekadent neo-roman- tische Züge tragen. Hierzu erzählt Jochen Ulrich seine »Lulu« mit seinem unverwechselbaren ausdrucksstarken Tanzstil als Geschichte einer selbstbewusst mit ihrer erotischen Anziehungskraft spielenden Frau aus einfachsten Verhältnissen. Alle Männer, die ihr begegnen, erliegen ihren Verführungs- künsten. Indem Lulu deren Fantasien befriedigt, bringt sie ihre Liebhaber um den Verstand und treibt sie in den Tod. Auf der Flucht vor der Polizei landet sie in London, wo sie sich – inzwischen selbst emotional ausgebeutet – im finstersten Milieu prostituiert und die Begegnung mit dem Freier Jack the Ripper tragisch endet.

Musikalische Leitung Hilary Griffiths

Musikalische Leitung Robbert van Steijn

Inszenierung und Choreografie Jochen Ulrich †

Inszenierung und Choroegrafie Darie Cardyn

Bühne Katrin Kegler-Fritsch

Kostüme Marie-Therese Cramer

Dramaturgie Manfred Weber

Dr. Schön Michal Sedláček

Eduard Schwarz Johan Plaitano

Lulu Yuliya Gerbyna

Dr. Goll Martin Zanotti

Schigolch Dalier Burchanow

Ballett Rossa

Statisterie der Oper Halle

Staatskapelle Halle
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San Francisco Silent Film Festival Presents Day of Silents

December 4, 2015, 12:30 am
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With its many festivals devoted to so many different aspects of film, festivals goers in San Francisco are especially fortunate in their opportunity to take in movies others may have only heard or read about.

Take, for example, the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival "Day of Silents" on December 5th. The event features a rare thriller starring the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini, a more than century old travelogue from China, a silent era pirate film in Technicolor, and more—including the not-to-be-missed masterpiece starring the sublime Anna May Wong.

And what's more, each film features live musical accompaniment in the confines of the historic Castro Theatre. For complete details, visit silentfilm.org.

THE BLACK PIRATE - 11:00 am

The day starts with The Black Pirate (1926), starring Douglas Fairbanks and featuring the lovely Billie Dove. The film's many spectacular feats of derring-do include swordplay and underwater scenes—all in dazzling two-color Technicolor (one of its earliest uses). In this classic, Fairbanks plays a nobleman who takes the identity of a pirate to infiltrate and take revenge on the cutthroats responsible for his father's death. Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance writes, "Fairbanks is resplendent as the bold buccaneer and buoyed by a production brimming with rip-roaring adventure and spiced with exceptional stunts and swordplay, including the celebrated 'sliding down the sails' sequence." Author and Fairbanks expert Tracey Goessel will introduce the film; live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra.

AROUND CHINA WITH A MOVIE CAMERA - 1:00 pm

This compilation program takes viewers back to the days of the late Qing dynasty in Imperial China with a program of rarely-seen short films including travelogues and newsreels. See bustling and cosmopolitan Shanghai in 1900, visit Imperial Beijing in 1910, and cruise the picturesque canals of Hangzhou in 1925. Recently compiled from the collections of the BFI National Archive, the footage was shot by a diverse group of British and French filmmakers—some professionals, but mostly amateurs, including tourists, expatriates, and missionaries. Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

THE GRIM GAME - 3:00 pm

The Grim Game (1919) is the second of master escape artist and magician Harry Houdini's five silent films, and the first of two he made for Paramount. It has long been unavailable, as the studio retained only one five-minute sequence featuring the film's famous mid-air plane collision. However, thanks to a print held by a longtime Houdini fan, audiences can now see a restoration of the complete film. The Grim Game casts Houdini as a newspaper reporter who fakes his uncle’s murder so he can be convicted of it, only to have villains kill the man and kidnap the reporter's fiancée. Of course, it's all a pretext for a series of daredevil escapes, from Houdini’s breaking out of prison to his getting out of a straitjacket suspended from the top of a skyscraper. The Grim Game restorer Rick Schmidlin will introduce the film; live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

THE INHUMAN WOMAN (L’INHUMAINE) - 6:30 pm

Famous singer Claire Lescot (played by soprano Georgette Leblanc) is the "inhuman woman" of the title of Marcel L’Herbier’s elaborate 1924 fantasy. Lescot lives on the outskirts of Paris, where she draws men to her like moths to a flame. She is aloof, always. When it seems that Lescot is the cause of a suicide, her fans desert her. The filming of a concert where she's raucously booed is a bit of cinema history: among the attendees were Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Erik Satie, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound! The director's conception for the film's sets were no less ambitious. Painter Fernand Léger and filmmakers Alberto Cavalcanti and Claude Autant-Lara had parts in the design. The film was recently restored by Lobster Films, who commissioned a new score to be performed by Alloy Orchestra.




PICCADILLY - 9:15 pm

After years of being typecast in Hollywood, Anna May Wong left for Europe in search of better roles. In British director E.A. Dupont’s Piccadilly (1929), Wong is mesmerizing as Shosho, a scullery maid who becomes a dance sensation and an object of desire for all who see her. In Piccadilly, Wong displays the cold ambition and manipulative sexuality of the classic femme fatale, while revealing—occasionally—the vulnerability of a young woman. This is hot stuff for 1929, especially the film's inter-racial romance: American censors cut a kiss. Gilda Gray and Charles Laughton round out the cast of the film, some of whose scenes were filmed inside London's famous Cafe de Paris (where Louise Brooks was the first person to dance the Charleston). Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

Besides the special guests on hand to introduce films, a handful of authors will also be on hand to sign books between screenings. They include Tracey Goessel (The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks), Karie Bible (Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays: 1920-1970), and Thomas Gladysz (the "Louise Brooks edition" of Diary of a Lost Girl).

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival "Day of Silents" will take place at the Castro Theatre on Saturday, December 5. For more information and to purchase tickets and passes, visit silentfilm.org.
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Snapshots from Louise Brooks' Rochester, NY (part 1)

December 5, 2015, 5:00 am
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I recently had the pleasure of visiting Rochester, New York in order to conduct some research on Louise Brooks at the George Eastman House Museum. During my four day visit, I had the chance to meet friends, talk on the radio, and walk the streets of a city Louise Brooks once called home. I also spent two and a half days reading through Brooks' notebooks. (More on that at a later date.)

While I was in Rochester, I had the chance to visit a few sites of interest to fans of Louise Brooks. My thanks to Rochester resident Tim Moore who was my valued guide. All of the snapshots below were taken by myself, unless otherwise noted. Here they are, in no particular order.

Rochester Public Library, which Louise Brooks visited many times.


The one-time site of the Regent Theater, the first theater to show a Brooks' film in Rochester.







Under a different name, this is the restaurant where Brooks and Kenneth Tynan once ate.
(Photo by Tim Moore)

Outside the Eastman Theater, where Louise Brooks danced as a member of the Denishawn Dance Co.
(Photo by Tim Moore)

Inside the Eastman Theater. Brooks danced upon that very stage!





Outside Brooks' longtime Rochester apartment on North Goodman street, which is not far from the GEH.
(Photo by Tim Moore)



Another view of Brooks' apartment building in Rochester.

Outside the newly renamed George Eastman Museum.
At my work station inside the George Eastman Museum, where I spent 2 1/2 days reading Brooks' notebooks.
(Photo by Tim Moore)
The Dryden Theater is attached to the Eastman Museum. Most all of Brooks surviving films
have been shown there, and the actress herself watched movies there.

To be continued ......
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Snapshots from Louise Brooks' Rochester, NY (part 2)

December 6, 2015, 5:00 am
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I recently had the pleasure of visiting Rochester, New York in order to conduct some research on Louise Brooks at the George Eastman House Museum. During my four day visit, I had the chance to meet friends, talk on the radio, and walk the streets of a city Louise Brooks once called home. I also spent two and a half days reading through Brooks' notebooks. (More on that at a later date.)

While I was in Rochester, I had the chance to visit a few sites of interest to fans of Louise Brooks. My thanks to Rochester resident Tim Moore who was my valued guide. All of the snapshots below were taken by myself, unless otherwise noted. Here are more of them, in no particular order.

The curtain at the Dryden Theater, where I saw the Marion Davies' film "Show People," with musical accompaniment by
the great Philip Carli. (Later we went out out drinks and a bite to eat.) Louise Brooks saw more than a few movies here.
Inside the Dryden with my new friend Emily Freitag. What a treat it was to meet here after being internet friends for years!
We sat in seats bearing plaques for James Card and his wife. (Photo by Tim Moore.)

A plaque outside the Dryden honoring James Card, founding curator of film at the Eastman Museum
(and Louise Brooks friend and champion).
A selection of books in the Eastman Museum gift shop.
Out to dinner with Rochester film critic and Brooks' longtime friend Jack Garner. He signed my copy of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever - for which he wrote the intro. (My copy is also signed by author Peter Cowie.) Jack told me many stories of his long friendship with Brooks. (Photo by a young waitress who is interested in LB.)
Inside another local restaurant with a wall honoring local hero Louise Brooks. (Photo by Tim Moore.)
The wall of honor (though oops the top left image is of Clara Bow)
 



My trusted guide Tim Moore. Few know as much about Brooks' time in Rochester as he does.

One afternoon, we had lunch at Starry Nights. Much earlier, it was a liqueur store where
Louise Brooks may have got her gin. (Photo by Tim Moore.)


To be continued ......
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Snapshots from Louise Brooks' Rochester, NY (part 3)

December 7, 2015, 5:30 am
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I recently had the pleasure of visiting Rochester, New York in order to conduct some research on Louise Brooks at the George Eastman House Museum. During my four day visit, I had the chance to meet friends, talk on the radio, and walk the streets of a city Louise Brooks once called home. I also spent two and a half days reading through Brooks' notebooks. (More on that at a later date.)

While I was in Rochester, I had the chance to visit a few sites of interest to fans of Louise Brooks. My thanks to Rochester resident Tim Moore who was my valued guide. All of the snapshots below were taken by myself, unless otherwise noted. Here are yet more of them, in no particular order.

No doubt Louise Brooks read this inscription on the front of the Rochester Public Library more than once. After reading
her notebooks which record her intellectual journey, I believe she held this notion close to her heart.
 
The entrance of the old Sibley department store building, where Louise Brooks once encountered two-time
co-star Richard Arlen (Rolled Stockings and Beggars of Life).
Another view of the George Eastman House. No doubt, Brooks walked the path past the house many times.
Brooks' grave in Rochester. The small picture of the actress was left by an earlier visitor.
Thanks to Tim and Cathy for driving to the grave on a cold, rainy day. (Photo by Tim Moore.)
Tim and Cathy provided the wreath. They were generous guides and are great fans.
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Notes on Louise Brooks' notebooks

December 9, 2015, 11:43 am
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As the three previous blogs note, I recently took the opportunity to visit Rochester, NY and its world famous George Eastman Museum. The purpose of my visit -- a trip five years in the planning -- was to spend time at the museum with which Louise Brooks was closely associated for many years.

Back in October of 2010, I published a piece on examiner.com titled "Louise Brooks Journals to be Revealed, and Perhaps Published". My piece was occasioned by the announcement by the then George Eastman House that it had unsealed Brooks' private notebooks. Before her death, the actress had bequeathed her notebooks to the museum with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years. That was five years ago. This was my first opportunity to check out the notebooks for myself.

As my 2010 article stated, "Brooks kept journals from 1956 until her death in 1985. According to an Eastman House archivist, there are 29 research journals -- which contain her notes and thoughts while she conducted research for her book and other writing projects -- ranging in size from 20 to 120 pages. All together, these working journals approach 2000 pages of hand-written text. Notably, Brooks went back and reworked material in various notebooks over the years. She also added a table of contents to the cover of each volume."

I enlisted the help of Rochester resident Tim Moore, and allotted myself two and one-half days to read / skim / survey the material -- which literally was nearly 2000 pages of mostly handwritten, sometimes difficult to read material. There was also some typewritten material inserted into binders or pasted onto the pages of the notebooks. After I was done, I felt I barely scratched the surface. 
 
Inside the Eastman Museum, where I read Louise Brooks' notebooks
The material in the notebooks is largely just that -- notes. More than anything, Brooks compiled filmographies of many of the leading movie personalities of her time (this was in the day before IMDb, as well as before many of the film books we know were even published -- think the ubiquitous "The Films of ....." series). One almost gets the impression that Brooks had the idea to write some sort of grand history of film as a way of understanding her small part in its history.

Brooks also listed and took notes from the books she was reading. Often times she would transcribe passages out of biographies, memoirs, and film histories. Brooks recorded the titles of many if not most of the films she viewed and where she saw them, either at the Eastman House or on television. (Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, silent films and films from the early 1930's turned up on broadcast TV more often than they do today.) The actress also recorded key information about each film -- year of release, director, actor -- along with her thoughts on what she had seen.

There are passages on the Talmadge sisters, Garbo, Pola Negri, Clara Bow, Marion Davies, Tallulah Bankhead, Leni Riefenstahl, Humphrey Bogart, Grace Moore, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty, and numerous others -- along with encounters with director Jean Renoir (at a party in Paris in the 1950s) and Roddy McDowell (when the actor came to her apartment to photograph her). In the margin, Brooks' recorded the fact that G.W. Pabst had called her on the telephone while she was living in New York City in 1948.

Brooks watched films by D.W. Griffith and Erich von Stroheim (her opinion on the director changed over time), as well as those starring Marlene Dietrich, like The Blue Angel and I Kiss Your Hand Madame. She also saw Dinner at Eight, William Wellman's The Public Enemy, and G.W. Pabst's Threepenny Opera. On October 29, 1959 she saw Empty Saddles, a 1936 B-western in which she had a supporting role. Brooks wrote "First film I ever heard my voice." Brooks was also taken with John Barrymore's performance in Maytime (1937). There were others, many others.

Brooks watched television programs and listened to the radio. If something stood out, she noted it. On September 28, 1960 she recorded watching Fred Astaire on NBC. Brooks also noted having seen the poet W.H. Auden on television in 1958 (two pages of her commentary on Auden followed), or listening to a local radio program on the critic H.L. Mencken. She also seemed to have a liking for Mitch Miller, and recorded hearing him on the radio at least a couple of times.

On occasion, Brooks was also a list maker. There was one listing the twelve painting she had completed up to that time. There was another listing books she intended to read about the 1920s. There was one noting "geniuses I have known: Chaplin, Gershwin, Graham, Thalberg, Gish, Garbo". There was another from the early 1970's listing where she had lived and for how long:

"18  Kansas
21  New York
9  Hollywood
16  Rochester
1  Europe - Chicago"

The notebooks also contain a number of clipping, which most often were obituaries of individuals she had known, including actor Addison (Jack) Randall, NYMoMA film curator Iris Barry, dancer Ruth St. Denis, and others. Usually, these clipping came from either Variety or TIME magazine, which she seems to have had regular access to. (Brooks also seems to have had access to a run of past issues of Photoplay magazine, as she often cites it.)

Brooks read a book about the composer George Gershwin, someone she first met and flirted with during her brief time with the George White Scandals, and recorded and dated an impressionistic memory: "at Scandals 1924 rehearsals George took off coat -- played in vest -- sometimes with a cigar in his mouth LB 1968". In her notebooks, she took notes on Gershwin's upbringing, on his many compositions, and on his early death on July 11, 1937, adding in parenthesis "[Two weeks before at the Clover Club George asked me to dance and seemed brilliantly healthy.]"

There was a good deal of surprising material. For a while, Brooks was deeply interested in existentialism, which was in vogue in the 1960s. She recorded reading a couple of books on the subject, as well as one or two by Jean Paul Sartre. She disliked Simone de Beauvoir, and said so in the pages of her notebooks. [Curiously, Sartre records in his own journals that one of his very first dates with de Beauvoir was when he took her to see A Girl in Every Port, which co-starred Brooks.]

Brooks also wrote her observations on Elizabeth Taylor and on Marilyn Monroe, thoughts on George Raft, and pasted in a clipping on Andy Warhol. She watched television coverage of Queen Elizabeth's 1957 visit to the United States and Canada, and wrote pages and pages about it. She also wrote many pages of material on Henry Kissinger, the Kennedys, and Zen thinker Alan Watts (which tied into her interest in existentialism). English writers John Ruskin and Lewis Carroll, and American novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are also referenced time and again.


On the outside of the Rochester Public Library, which Brooks visited often.


One of the binders which the Eastman House inherited from Brooks contains even earlier notes, loose leaf pages dating from as early as the 1940s. There are pages and pages of notes on the French philosopher Henri Bergson from 1941, on the English writer George Meredith from 1943, on Lord Byron and the qualities of great poetry from 1948, on Gandhi's Autobiography from 1949, on the letters of Marcel Proust from 1955. There are also scattered notes on art, and on modern painters.

Considering Brooks may never have achieved her high school degree (she left to join Denishawn after her sophomore year in school), these notebooks reflect an intellectually curious mind. Brooks was striving to understand. She was fascinated by authority figures -- either spiritual or political or literary or cinematic or romantic. George Bernard Shaw was a major obsession. It seems to me, Brooks attempted to understand the world and herself through the pages of literature, and in the biographies and histories of great individuals and momentous times. Her notebooks are a record of her striving.

I also came across this recipe: "Brooks' cookies 18 March 1973"

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 table spoon milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
dates and nuts. lemon rind
350 degrees 45 minutes cut to squares

During my two and a half days reading Brooks' notebooks, I took lots of notes, and transcribed a few passages. That is all researchers may do. (Recording devices like scanners or cameras are not allowed.) The material above represents a summation of my notes.

Cut into the sidewalk in Rochester, not far from Brooks' Goodman
Street apartment and the Eastman Museum
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Diary of a Lost Girl (book and DVD) starring Louise Brooks

December 11, 2015, 4:00 am
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If you are still looking for just the right gift for the Louise Brooks or silent film fan on your holiday list, may I suggest Diary of the Lost Girl, either the "Louise Brooks edition" of the book that was the basis for the film, or the recently released Kino Lorber DVD or Blu-ray. (Send me your order for both items within the next five minutes and you will receive an autographed copy of each item plus free shipping -- please indicate which format disc you prefer. Offer valid only in the United States.)


Need some convincing? Here are some of the reviews for each item. Don't hesitate. Quantities are limited!

The Diary of a Lost Girl (book)


“Most certainly a book for all you Louise Brooks fans out there! And silent cinema fans as well.” – Bristol Silents (UK)

“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, Movie Crazy

“You’ve done a beautiful thing.” – Barry Paris, author of Louise Brooks

“Read today, it’s a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling.” – Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

“It was such a pleasure to come upon your well documented and beautifully presented edition.” – Elizabeth Boa, University of Nottingham (UK)

“Long relegated to the shadows, Margarete Böhme’s 1905 novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl has at last made a triumphant return. In reissuing the rare 1907 English translation of Böhme’s German text, Thomas Gladysz makes an important contribution to film history, literature, and, in as much as Böhme told her tale with much detail and background contemporary to the day, sociology and history. 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

“An amazing forward that chronicles the history of Margarete Bohme’s book … a must for any silent film fan.” — silenthollywood.com

“Historian Thomas Gladysz has done the silent film community an interesting service: He has made available the original English translation of Margaret Bohme’s novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl. To fans of the beautiful actress Louise Brooks, this is a significant contribution indeed. What makes this new book so appealing is the way in which Mr. Gladysz has presented the vintage material. Featuring a scholarly introduction and numerous, wonderfully reproduced stills and rare advertisements, it is a pleasure to behold. It is also obviously a labor of love.” – Lon Davis, author of Silent Lives

Diary of a Lost Girl (DVD / Blu-ray)


"In this masterful restoration, from archival 35 mm elements, DIARY benefits from an incisive commentary by the director of the Louise Brooks Society Thomas Gladysz." -- Stephen Schaefer,  Boston Herald

"This DVD is the best possible restored version, and is beautiful in its imagery, and in Brooks' performance. This new release also benefits from a well-researched and often-fascinating commentary track by Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society." -- Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

"The Kino blu ray is a beautiful high def transfer.... The insightful audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz offers a wealth of fascinating information about the movie and about Ms. Brooks." -- James L. Neibaur, examiner.com

"G.W. Pabst’s silent German classic is intact, restored and looking great.... Thomas Gladysz’s commentary is thorough and informative." --  Glenn Erickson, trailersfromhell.com

"... a beautiful and masterfully made social drama. ... New to this edition is commentary by Thomas Gladysz, film historian and director of the Louise Brooks Society." -- Sean Axmaker,  www.cinephiled.com

"Diary of a Lost Girl was another torrid, atmospheric collaboration between American actress Louise Brooks and German director G. W. Pabst. The Kino Classics Blu-ray presents the film in a meticulous digital restoration to savor. Recommended.... The disc includes a feature-length Audio Commentary from scholar Thomas Gladysz, director of the long-standing website The Louise Brooks Society. This was a good, informative track revealing lots of interesting tidbits about the production, the lives of the other actors seen on screen, and Brooks' own recollections on the making of the film." -- Matt Hinrichs, DVDtalk

"Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society, discusses the ambiguous nature of Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl, the film's visual style and its impressionistic aura, the relationships between the main characters, interesting details from the lives and careers of some of the principal actors, etc." -- Dr. Svet Atanasov, blu-ray.com

"The results are often excellent, with increased image detail that surpasses our hopes for this edition.... The supplementary material includes a new audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society." -- Carl Bennett, silentera.com

"Diary of a Lost Girl' is a haunting work of filmmaking that I am very glad to see has made its way to Blu-ray in fine form.... Director of the Louise Brooks Society, Thomas Gladysz provides an interesting look at the film, discussing the style of the film, it's reception as well as some of the production details that are known about the film. A solid listen, especially if you're at all interested in learning more about Brooks herself." -- Matthew Hartman, High-Def Digest

"The movie is subtle and spellbinding—qualities not obvious in inferior prints. Like the earlier disc, it includes Brooks’ unremarkable comedy Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, a talkie short in lousy shape. A new extra is an informative commentary by historian Thomas Gladysz." -- Michael Barrett, popmatters

"If you think you’ve seen sordid, a characterization meant as a compliment, do not go through your movie life without seeing this second of two masterpieces that were filmed in almost boom-boom fashion by Germany’s G.W. Pabst — both starring misused-by-Hollywood Louise Brooks, whose legend is based near-exclusively on these collaborations. The most you can say against Diary of a Lost Girl is to concede its ranking just a sliver behind the previous year’s teaming on Pandora’s Box — that one about as good as the movies get." -- Mike Clark, HomeMedia Magazine




"Brooks is a remarkable screen presence, lighting up Diary's tale of an innocent girl taken advantage of by men and then punished for it.... It would be rare when any film ever was as good as the silent greats at their best, films like this one." -- Michael Giltz, HuffingtonPost

"After “Pandora’s Box,” director G.W. Pabst and actress Louise Brooks teamed up for one of the most stunning melodramas of the silent era. Beautifully restored to its original running time, the Berlin-shot film follows a naive pharmacist’s daughter as she is seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant. Placed in a horrific home for wayward girls, she escapes only to wind up in a brothel. Way ahead of its time, “Diary” tackles provocative themes of sexuality and exploitation while providing Brooks with a role that helped defined her career. Extras: commentaries and a Brooks short from 1931." -- Amy Longsdorf, Delaware County Daily Times
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True Confession: I've Been Stalking Louise Brooks for 20 years

December 12, 2015, 12:00 am
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An early VHS copy of Pandora's Box
from a time when this was the only
way to see a Louise Brooks' film
It all started more than 20 years ago on a Friday night at Video Wave in San Francisco. Not having anything in particular to do, I walked over to the local video store to rent a movie. There weren't any new releases that especially interested me. I had already seen most of what was then current. So, I spent a few minutes browsing the classics section. I am a film buff, and had seen much of what was on the shelves. One title, however, caught my eye, Pandora's Box, a German silent film from 1929. I thought the actress on the cover was kind of hot.

I hadn't heard of the film -- nor its star. What peaked my interest was the text on the back of the VHS, "censored because of its explicit sexuality." With it being a Friday night, and with me having nothing in particular to do, an erotic film -- even though it was from more than sixty years old -- seemed ok to me.

I watched that film that night as if in a dream. Who was this Louise Brooks? And how had I never heard of her? The questions ricocheted through me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How could such an actress -- such a woman even, be possible? I went to bed that night confused, in a daze. And I got up the next morning and watched Pandora's Box all over again. I had to. The rental tape was due later that day, and, I really, really, really wanted to watch it again. Anyways, I simply had to come to grips with what I had experienced the night before. Like her victims in Pandora's Box, I was in the thrall of Lulu.

Excited by the movie and this actress "I had discovered" -- that was how I felt, I asked everyone I could about Louise Brooks. "She is beautiful. She has short dark hair, like a helmet. She was in this silent film called Pandora's Box. She played Lulu. . . ." Friends, family, people I knew who were into film -- no one really seemed to know much about her until a co-worker recalled there had been a biography. A book. A place to start! 

A first edition copy of the Barry Paris
biography of Louise Brooks
Long before the internet put a world of knowledge at our fingertips, I went to the library in search of information. Looking through the card catalog, I turned up a 1989 title, Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris. I hadn't heard of the book, but it looked substantial, and there was an especially alluring portrait on the cover, and even more tantalizing images inside. I devoured every page of that biography. It is the perfect book -- the perfect match of subject and author. Its intelligence and especially its empathy, as well as its many citations and footnotes, fed my fascination with Louise Brooks. It became my Bible.

Aren't we all smitten with an actor or actress sometime in our life? Don't we all have a secret crush on some cute starlet or some handsome hunk? Don't we want to see every film starring our favorite? Haven't film buffs all saved a picture or magazine clipping for no particular reason known only to ourselves? I figured there must be others out there who appreciated Louise Brooks like I did. I was eager to talk with others about her. But who might they be? How could I find them? Was there a group?

I went back to the library and asked at the reference desk if there was a directory of fan clubs, and much to my surprise, there was. I scoured its many pages of small type. There were thousands of fan clubs: there were groups for Laurel and Hardy, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and for dozens of other contemporary stars and entertainers I couldn't believe anyone cared about. Disappointed, I didn't find any for Louise Brooks.
All this -- renting Pandora's Box, asking everyone I knew about Louise Brooks, finding the biography of the actress -- was back when the world wide web was just getting started. Up until then, the internet was largely text and made up of places like Prodigy, The Well, UseNet groups, BBS and AOL. I had been online for a few years, and explored each. I even once telnet into the Berkeley Public Library. But now -- around 1994 and 1995, the web was going graphical, and anyone who could figure out HTML could make their own website.

That's when I had an idea. Why not make a webpage about Louise Brooks? Or better yet, why not make a multi-page website, and post some of the material about the actress I had started to gather. I might even "meet" others who shared my interest. That's when I decided to form the Louise Brooks Society, what I called a "virtual fan club in cyberspace." Eventually, I secured the domain pandorasbox.com.

Thanks to my brother, who was a computer engineer and who helped me figure out Hypertext Markup Language, I posted my first web pages. This was in the summer and fall of 1995. The Louise Brooks Society had begun.
LBS director Thomas Gladysz and
Academy Award honoree Kevin Brownlow
I would meet others -- others just as passionate about the actress. Lots of others. They included distant relations of the actress, individuals who worked with her, a couple of rock stars, an Academy Award honoree, a Doctor Who, film historians, artists, poets, novelists, and others from all walks of life. There is a fellow from Rome who is about as devoted to Louise Brooks as me and has his own website. We have exchanged countless emails. There are also new friends -- some I have met, some not -- in Wichita, Kansas and Rochester, New York and elsewhere. Some emailed me. Others I found by exchanging links on film websites, especially those devoted to silent film. It seems individuals interested in the silent era were among the first to colonize the web. There weren't many of us, I guess, and we wanted to find community.
Soon enough, the Louise Brooks Society started to take off. I remember being excited when my hit counter read triple digits. Quickly, visitors were counted in the thousands and then tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. In 1996, USA Today named the Louise Brooks Society a "Hot Site," noting "Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience." A few years later, the New York Timesdescribed it as an "excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars."

In 1998, the popularity of my virtual fan club in cyberspace got noticed by Turner Classic Movies. The cable station devoted to classic films decided to commission a documentary about Louise Brooks. An article on the Wired website, "FanSite Sparks Biopic", quoted a TCM spokesman who said the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and an evening of the actress' films. "The Web presence for Louise Brooks was overwhelming. It was definitely a driving force in convincing the network to produce this documentary."

At the San Francisco Public Library exhibit

I have always been the scholarly type, and always thought that I wanted the Louise Brooks Society to be more than just a fan club. I wanted to do something. I see the mission of the society as one of honoring the actress by stimulating interest in her life and films. To that end, I have compiled bibliographies on the actress and her films which if printed out would run hundreds of pages. I have also written a couple of hundred articles and a couple of thousand blogsabout Louise Brooks. In 2010, I wrote the introduction and edited the of Diary of a Lost Girl, the once controversial novel that was the basis for the 1929 film. Co-published by the Louise Brooks Society, it was this significant book's first English publication in more than 100 years. Recently, I provided the audio commentary for the new Kino Lorber DVD & Blu-ray of Diary of a Lost Girl.



The Louise Brooks Society also has its own online radio station, RadioLulu, which streams Louise Brooks and silent-film related music of the 1920's, 1930's and today. Musical purists have complained, but I can't help but include some of the contemporary rock and pop songs about the actress by the likes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Soul Coughing, Rufus Wainwright, NatalieMerchant, and others. 

Something that the website does is track and promote the many homage to the actress not only in music but in movies, fiction, comic books, the visual arts and popular culture. Did you know there was a street named after Louise Brooks in Paris, as well as a French perfume? The actress shows up in books by Neil Gaiman and Paul Auster and Salman Rushdie, has been mentioned on The Simpsons, and pops up in movies ranging from Hugoto Blue is the Warmest Color. The current staging of Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, at the Met in New York City owes a littlesomething to Louise Brooks.

With bestselling author and Louise Brooks fan Neil Gaiman (center)
Over the years, the Louise Brooks Society has mounted exhibits and sponsored author talks and screenings. One of the group's great accomplishments took place in the year 2000. At the time, both Louise Brooks' own book, Lulu in Hollywood, as well as the Barry Paris biography which I loved had fallen out of print. The LBS mounted a grass roots campaign to bring them back. And it worked. The University of Minnesota Press reissued both books, and acknowledged the LBS in each. At one point, the press told me those two books were among their bestselling titles.

I didn't do it all by myself. The members of the Louise Brooks Society -- which I number at about 1500 from 50 countries on six countries -- have contributed in all manner of ways. Individuals from around the world have sent pictures and clippings and rare pieces of memorabilia, provided translations of non-English materials, and helped in other ways. 

With English fan Meredith Lawrence (left)
Looking back, that chance encounter some 20 years ago with an old film started me off on a kind of journey into the heart of the Jazz Age. These days, I am interested in not only Louise Brooks but also silent film, Weimar Germany, Denishawn, Twenties Jazz, and more. Those interests all started with Louise Brooks. One thing would lead to another.

Louise Brooks was a pretty big star in the late 1920s. She was world famous for about five years. But then it all ended. She went to Europe to make films, including Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, the two for which she is best known today. When she returned, Hollywood didn't want her anymore. Sound came in, and her Jazz Age impertinence and sleek black bob seemed out of place in Depression-era America. She tried to make a comeback, but ended up quitting films, twice. Louise Brooks and her 24 films would be largely forgotten.

Eventually, she returned to New York City where her showbiz career had begun. She lived there anonymously, broke, drinking, living the life of a barfly, a once famous movie star working behind the counter at a department store; and, while she still had her looks, she may or may have not escorted gentlemen on dates. Can you image what they must have thought had they realized who they were with?

All the while, Louise Brooks had begun to write -- observations, memories, articles, essays. Once derided as a brainy showgirl, she emerged late in life as an articulate and acerbic writer and memoirist. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whom she once met, wrote something about there being no second acts in American lives. Brooks proves the exception. After decades of obscurity, she emerged late in life as an acclaimed author and thoughtful commentator on film.

Signing books at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Though she left her mark on her time, Brooks always thought of herself as a failure. In his biography, Barry Paris quotes a letter the actress wrote to her brother, "I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita in 1922 at the age of 15 to become a dancer with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything—spelling, arithmetic, riding, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying.' I tried with all my heart." 

There is a mystery at the heart of Louise Brooks and her story that goes a long-way toward explaining why she thought herself a failure and why others find her so fascinating. 

I have wondered, and others have asked me, why I am so obsessed with Louise Brooks. I don't know. I think it is because I want others to know she wasn't a failure. Deep down, I suspect I somehow want to save her, to rescue her. But to save her from what I am not sure. Perhaps it is from being forgotten. She often played imperiled women, and that can bring out the rescue impulse in fans and admirers. If that is the case with me, all I can do is try. 

Barry Paris inscribed this copy of his biography: "For Thomas --
who resurrected me & LB the way Tynan did in The New Yorker!"
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More True Confessions: Pics from the Louise Brooks Society (part 1)

December 13, 2015, 4:00 am
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Here are some more images from the 20 year history of the Louise Brooks Society. Launched in 1995, the LBS was one of the first websites devoted to silent film or a silent film star. Only a few pages at first, the LBS has grown, and so has its acclaim as a resource for fans of Louise Brooks as well as early cinema. Check it out at www.pandorasbox.com

With Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star author Roland Jaccard (left)
in Paris in 2009. LBS Director Thomas Gladysz is center. On the right
is Aline Weill, who translated the Barry Paris biography into French.

In 1999, with 99 year old screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, who penned the
story behind the 1927 Louise Brooks' film Rolled Stockings. The event
the LBS co-presented with Maas for her book The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
was only the second she had done.

With author Barry Paris in 2000, at the LBS co-sponsored event
celebrating the new edition of the Barry Paris biography of the actress
(which the LBS helped bring back into print).

Introducing Pandora's Box at the Detroit Institute of the Arts in 2006,
the year which marked the Louise Brooks centennial.
 
With William Wellman Jr., whose Father directed the 1928
Louise Brooks' film Beggars of Life. Wellman Jr. told me his
Father adored Louise Brooks.

One view of the 2006 LBS sponsored Louise Brooks exhibit at the
San Francisco Public Library marking the actress centennial.
 
Another view of the 2006 LBS sponsored Louise Brooks exhibit at the
San Francisco Public Library.
A long time ago with the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert,
who told me he used the Louise Brooks Society website to
research Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.
In 2006, with film critic Peter Cowie,
author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever.
Thank you for reading this blog. Check back for tomorrow's post and more groovy pics from the 20 year history of the Louise Brooks Society.
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More True Confessions: Pics from the Louise Brooks Society (part 2)

December 14, 2015, 8:41 am
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Here are yet more images from the 20 year history of the Louise Brooks Society. Launched in 1995, the LBS was one of the first websites devoted to silent film or a silent film star. Only a few pages at first, the LBS has grown, and so has its acclaim as a resource for fans of Louise Brooks as well as early cinema. Check it out at www.pandorasbox.com

My obsessive tracing of Brooks' resonance throughout the 20th century helped
land this image of the actress on the cover of this book. The Argentine
author was a huge fan of Brooks, as the LBS website showed.
And look where this book showed up - on the hit television show Lost.
I put on an event with the acclaimed poet
Mary Jo Bang when her LB inspired book
of poems Louise in Love was
published in 2001.

I produced this triptych of limited edition autographed broadsides celebrating Mary Jo Bang's book
and featuring Brooks' imagery.
I also produced a limited edition autographed broadside featuring biographer Barry Paris and a bit of text from his book on the actress. This was issued at the time the LBS helped bring Paris' book and Brooks'Lulu in Hollywood back into print.
My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the then George
Eastman House in Rochester, NY to see the LB
centennial exhibit. What a great experience.
In 2006, I had the great honor of introducing a centenial screening of Pandora's Box at the Castro Theater in San Francisco before a sold out crowd of more than 1,400 people. I also introduced my friend, the seminal Kansas-born artist and filmmaker Bruce Conner, who had his own story to tell about Louise Brooks.
I got to know Bruce Conner after he visited a small exhibit about the actress
which I put on in a San Francisco cafe some years ago. Conner left this
note in the exhibit guest book. Later, when I visited him at his home
in San Francisco, he expanded on this anecdote.
When I introduced Diary of a Lost Girl in Paris in 2009, fans of the actress (alas not me) lined up around the block.






I've had the pleasure of meeting a few fellow fans, like the
charming English dressmaker Irma Romero.
I also had the pleasure of meeting actor Paul McGann,
who is also a big Louise Brooks' fan. McGann, who was the
Eighth Doctor Who, even told me he listened to RadioLulu.
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Is Louise Brooks pictured in a 1927 Our Gang short?

December 15, 2015, 4:00 am
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For some time now, there has been word going round that a newspaper image of Louise Brooks can be seen in the 1927 Our Gang short, Ten Years Old. This 22 minute film centers on Joe and his tenth birthday and the cake he makes for himself. The usual Our Gang mirth and mayhem ensues.

A few short excerpts of Ten Years Old can be found online. I managed to track down the entire film through realclassicsdvd.com, and bought a copy to see for myself. I took a look, and spotted the image at the center of the long running speculation.

Early on, Joe makes himself a party hat from a old newspaper. And on that newspaper is the image in question. It is just a Louise Brooks look-alike, and not the actress, in my opinion. What do you think? Here is a screen capture.


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Louise Brooks and Frankenstein

December 16, 2015, 6:30 am
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It is well known that director James Whale considered Louise Brooks for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). That part, of course, went to Elsa Lanchester. I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Lanchester was sexy and terrifying.



Did you know there is another connection between Brooks and the Frankenstein films. The original 1931 Frankenstein was also directed by Whale, and, it had an uncredited scenario by John Russell, who also penned the scenario for Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men (1925). Russell certainly did a lot of interesting work.




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A Quick Study into the Present‐Day Location of the former Staaken Studios, by Philip Vorwald

December 17, 2015, 9:28 am
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Military historian and author (Battle of the Bulge Through the Lens) and Louise Brooks' fan Philip Vorwald has created a remarkable document, "A Quick Study into the Present‐Day Location of the former Staaken Studios," which he has allowed to be shared on the Louise Brooks Society blog.





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Diamond, a work of historical fiction with a Louise Brooks cover

December 18, 2015, 7:30 am
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How I missed this I don't know, but one year ago today a work of historical fiction was published which featured Louise Brooks on the cover. The book is Diamond, by Cynthia L. Jordan. It is from Emerald Eagle Publishing (self-published?). The book seems to be a follow up, as it were, to Jordan's earlier work, Pearl, from 2013.

Here is the book's description from amazon.com: "Corsets are out. Freedom is in. The 20's are ROARING! Movies are silent and Hollywood is shaping American culture. From coast to coast young girls like Heather Smith dream of becoming a movie star. One day two men shooting a western film near San ANgelo, Texas come to Pearl's Parlor for some fun. Is this Heather's big chance? Wyatt Earp, Mae West, John Wayne, Charlie Chaplin, Louise Brooks, Barbara Stanwyck...their stories will astound you. DIAMOND reminds us that when we remove the glitzy glamour, smoke and mirrors it is our human nature and the need to be loved that makes us all the same. PROLOGUE Ever since she was a little girl, Heather had dreamed of being an actress. While growing up in Illinois, the porch of the farmhouse had served as her stage, and her younger siblings, dolls and pets were her audience. Heather had spent all morning preparing for this interview. After examining herself carefully in the mirror, and after trying on seven different outfits, she had finally decided the royal blue was best. Simple and elegant, the dress showed off Heather’s trim waistline, as well as the fact that this homegrown farm girl was a lady with class. “I believe there must be some mistake. I was told this was an interview to set up a screen test for a part in the new western movie, Rio Concho. I am an actress and I also sing.” “Listen, Sweetheart…if you wanna play in the big leagues, you gotta play by the rules! Now take your clothes off!” Leaning forward, the man rested his elbows on the large oak desk standing between him and his newest conquest. He knew she wanted to be a star. They all did. His eyes glared at Heather’s breasts with appreciation and desire as he chewed on his smelly, unlit cigar. “Oh…I see,” Heather affirmed. “May
I please sit down for a minute, Mister Stein?” “Ok, but just for a minute. I am a very busy man.” Heather had heard the Hollywood stories of casting couches and girls being put in compromising situations. She had rehearsed this scene for months. Looking down at her soft white hands gently folded on her lap, Heather slowly bit her bottom lip. After a moment, she dramatically looked straight into the eyes of a man who had the power to make her dreams come true. With full confidence in her ability to charm, Heather smiled. Locking the man into her hypnotic gaze, she spoke slowly and deliberately. “So this is business? What are your terms? What do I get when I take off my clothes?” The man folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “It depends on how friendly you want to be,” he smirked, licking his fat lips. The man’s lines had been predictable and Heather was more than ready to perform her part. Heather made her eyes big. “Don’t you want me to read for you or sing you a song?” she asked with profound innocence. “Take your clothes off, Missy. We’ll start there.” “Will you guarantee I get a part? If this is business…” “I can make you a star, Sweetheart!” For a long moment Heather stared at the man behind the desk. A woman with experience, she was a master at reading a man and knowing his deepest desires. Coyly, Heather grinned and began speaking seductively in a slow, sultry voice. “All right then, Mr. Stein. Today is your lucky day. I brought a girlfriend with me. Ginger wants to be in the movies too. Can I ask her to join us? Ginger can be extremely friendly. In fact together we can give you quite a show! She is waiting for me just outside the door.” The man quickly laid down his slimy cigar. “Yes in-deedy! Invite her in!” “I’ll be right back,” Heather smiled."




About the author (also via amazon.com): Cynthia believes every woman is like a precious pearl that deserves to be respected, appreciated and loved. Growing up in Redondo Beach, California the ocean was her playground and playing music was her passion. A classically trained pianist, Cynthia wrote the 1983 country song of the year, JOSE CUERVO and went on to compose beautiful piano CDs for Page Music in Nashville. BUTTERFLY MOMENTS is her autobiography. In doing research for her new musical PEARL, Cynthia uncovered astounding facts about women in history and found a new passion in writing historical novels to tell their stories. Ada and Minna Everleigh, Mae West, Suzy Poontang, Emily Morgan, Pearl DeVere, and Louise Brooks are just some of the characters in her historical fictions she calls the GEM SERIES. Her books are "real page turners" full of history, humor and deep sentiment. "In understanding our human nature we learn that each one of us is equally the same with the potential to live their life in bliss."
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Two Louise Brooks postcards from France #1

December 19, 2015, 6:00 am
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Here are two Louise Brooks postcards from France dating from the 1990s. The front and back of each card is depicted.

 



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Two Louise Brooks postcards from France #2

December 20, 2015, 6:00 am
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Here are two more Louise Brooks postcards from France dating from the 1990s. The front and back of each card is depicted.





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Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life w Dodge Bros at Royal Albert Hall

December 21, 2015, 3:30 am
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The sensational 1928 William Wellman film, Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on March 7, 2016. The Dodge Brothers will provide live musical accompaniment. More info and a link to tickets HERE.

"Experience classic silent films with world class live music accompaniment in the Royal Albert Hall’s intimate Elgar Room.

The Elgar Room’s silent films live music series continues with a special screening of the Louise Brooks classic Beggars of Life with live music accompaniment from The Dodge Brothers.

The Dodge Brothers are an Americana-drenched quartet comprising:

Aly ‘‘Dodge’ Hirji (acoustic guitar, mandolin)

Mike ‘Dodge’ Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals, banjo, dobro)

Mark ‘Dodge’ Kermode (double bass, harmonica, ukulele, accordion, vocals)

Alex ‘Dodge’ Hammond (washboard, snare drum, percussion)

and featuring special guest Neil Brand (piano).

Their motto, ‘death and trains a speciality’, has never been more appropriate than to William Wellman’s legendary 1928 film Beggars of Life, a tale of depression-era, rail-riding hobos played by the iconic Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen and the great Wallace Beery.





    'Never has a film and a band been more perfectly matched than ‘Beggars of Life’ and the Dodge Brothers – deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks – they were made for each other.' -- Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film, British Film Institute

    'Wistful, sometimes mournful, sometimes dangerous, sometimes galloping blue-grass … my advice to anyone is buy your ticket early!' -- Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
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Best new films books of 2015

December 22, 2015, 5:00 am
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It's been a great year for film books, with biographies and studies of key individuals dominating the field in 2015. Among trade publishers, Pantheon continues to issue "must read" books, while one smaller publisher, Chicago Review Press, is emerging as a leading publisher of film biographies. On the academic side, the University Press of Kentucky continues to carry the banner for film history, having issued a shelf full of outstanding works under the editorship of film historian Patrick McGilligan, who also happened to pen one of the best books of the year.

Admittedly, there are a lot of books mentioned here. But that's because there are so many worth highlighting. And so, without further ado, here are the books every film buff or film historian will want to know about.

Michelle Morgan's The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd (Chicago Review Press) tells the story of the delightful comic actress who started in silents and found success in the talkies only to have it end when she was found dead in a garage near her own popular Hollywood café. Morgan details the dangerous world the actress inhabited, and offers new evidence on Todd's mysterious death, long suspected but never proven to be a murder. 

Ice Cream Blonde is a great read, and also timely. The building which once housed Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café was threatened with demolition, but has now been saved.

In graceful prose, Tracey Goessel's The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks (Chicago Review Press) recounts the life of the actor who became an icon of his age. Fairbanks not only pioneered the swashbuckling adventure film—The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad(1924),The Black Pirate (1926)—he also helped shape Hollywood itself. This actor, screenwriter, director, and producer co-founded United Artists, a turning point in Hollywood history. He also helped organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, was a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy, was elected the first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and hosted the first Oscars ceremony. Fairbanks also married "America's Sweetheart," film's first superstar, Mary Pickford. The celebrated couple were the first to place their hand and foot prints in wet cement at the then newly opened Grauman's Chinese Theatre. With exclusive access to Fairbanks's love letters to Pickford, Goessel illuminates how Fairbanks conquered not just the entertainment world but also the heart of the most famous woman on earth. The First King of Hollywood is a royal read.

Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel (Pantheon) by William Wellman Jr. is an impressive book, a labor of love and an intimate portrait of a father by his son. 

And what a father! Wellman Sr. directed the first film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, Wings (1927), and also wrote and directed what many regard as the greatest movie about Hollywood, A Star Is Born (1937). A WWI hero (who got his start in Hollywood in large thanks to Douglas Fairbanks), Wellman also helmed such great and near-great works as Beggars of Life (1928, starring Louise Brooks), The Public Enemy (1931), Night Nurse (1931), Nothing Sacred(1937), Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and others. It's all here in this first-ever biography.

William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Films to Come (Pantheon) by James Curtis tells the story of Hollywood's first and greatest production designer, a job title David O. Selznick invented for Menzies' all-encompassing, Academy Award–winning work on Gone With the Wind (1939). Menzies, winner of the first-ever Academy Award for Art Direction, also contributed to such films as Fairbanks'The Thief of Bagdad (1924), as well asThings to Come (1936), Foreign Correspondent(1940), Kings Row (1942), The Pride of the Yankees (1943), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Invaders from Mars (1953), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). In the words of Martin Scorsese, "For anyone seriously interested in filmmaking, this is a book you’ve been waiting for, whether you know it or not."

At 820 pages, Patrick McGilligan's Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane (Harper) is another big book on an ambitious over-achiever (or was Welles an underachiever)? The wunderkind of 20th century American entertainment (he appeared on the cover of Timemagazine at age 23) gets his due in this biography of just his early years—from his first forays on the stage (including the Mercury Theater) and radio ("The War of the Worlds") to the inspiration and making of the motion picture now ranked as the greatest ever, Citizen Kane (1941).

The book of the year is The Charlie Chaplin Archives(Taschen) by Paul Duncan. As is befitting it's subject, this huge volume—measuring 18.2 x 12.8 x 2.8 inches and weighing more than 15 pounds—examines the career of the one filmmaker many consider the greatest ever. Drawn from the Chaplin archives and featuring much new material, this remarkable book reveals the process behind Chaplin's cinematic genius through its 900 images which include stills, memos, storyboards and on-set photos, as well as images for unmade films, press clippings which span the length of Chaplin's long career, and interviews with the Little Tramp's closest collaborators. 
Paul Duncan holds his massive The Charlie Chaplin Archives
All together, it's an impressive coffee-table type book which could almost double as coffee table. But wait, there's more—first edition copies include a 12 frame strip from City Lights (1931), cut from an original 35 mm print in Chaplin's archives, which serves as  handy bookmark or just something cool to have. 

Also out this year is another not quite as large but still noteworthy pictorial, Charlie Chaplin: The Keystone Album: The Invention of the Tramp (Editions Xavier Barral), edited by Carole Sandrin, Sam Stourdzé and Glenn Mitchell.

There are other notable book well worth checking out. Among them are Bela Lugosi in Person (BearManor Media) by the devoted Lugosi scholars William M. Kaffenberger Jr. and Gary D. Rhodes, Larry Semon, Daredevil Comedian of the Silent Screen: A Biography and Filmography (McFarland) by Claudia Sassen, and Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed (BearManor Media) by Eric Woodard and Tara Hanks. The latter tells the tragic story of the beautiful, Academy Award-nominated film and Broadway star.   

Along with actors, notable new books on directors include Hitchcock Lost and Found: The Forgotten Films (University Press of Kentucky) by Alain Kerzoncuf and Charles Barr, which looks at the Hitchcock oeuvre except for his well known masterpieces. There are also titles on two forgotten figures, Lois Weber in Early Hollywood(University of California Press) by Shelley Stamp, and Albert Capellani: Pioneer of the Silent Screen (University Press of Kentucky) by Christine Leteux. The latter includes a foreword by the Oscar honoree Kevin Brownlow, which for many film buffs represents a recommendation in itself.

Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives (Liveright) by Karin Wieland looks at the careers of the two Germans, Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, one an actress and recording artist, the other an actress and then director allied with the Nazis. This fascinating dual biography examines lives that began in similar circumstances but ended on opposite sides of WWII.

Along with the biographies and studies of key individuals, works of film history also stand out. One is The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915-1935 (George Eastman House) by James Layton and David Pierce. Published to coincide with Technicolor's centennial in 2015, this sumptuous over-sized tomerecounts the beginnings of one of the most widely recognized names in the American film industry. It's remarkable. 

Also out this year is the not unrelated Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema(Amsterdam University Press) by Tom Gunning, Joshua Yumibe, Giovanna Fossati, and Jonathon Rosen, and with a foreword by Martin Scorsese. Track down a copy and prepare to have your mind blown.

In recent years, renewed attention has been paid to the emergence of early black cinema. One recent book on the subject is the excellent Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life (Harvard University Press) by Cara Caddoo. A scholarly work, it's both readable and revelatory. 

Another fascinating scholarly work is Menus for Movieland: Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture (University of California Press), by Richard Abel. 

Also, don't miss these two general interest titles, each of which are fascinating and a lot of fun, My First Time in Hollywood (Asahina & Wallace) by Cari Beauchamp, and Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays: 1920-1970 (Schiffer) by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory. Each would make the perfect stocking stuffer for the film buff on your list.

A slightly different version of this piece appeared on Huffington Post.
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New book: Menus for Movieland: Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture

December 23, 2015, 3:30 am
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I just received a copy of a new book I am especially excited about. It is Menus for Movieland: Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture, by Richard Abel. The book is published by the University of California Press.

Richard Abel is Emeritus Professor of International Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Michigan. He has authored and edited a number of books, including two which belong on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in early film, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 (1998) and Encyclopedia of Early Cinema (2010). Other key books include The Sounds of Early Cinema (2001), Americanizing the Movies and “Movie-Mad” Audiences, 1910–1914 (2006), and Flickers of Desire: Movie Stars of the 1910s (2011). 

The publisher description for his newest book reads thus: "At the turn of the past century, the main function of a newspaper was to offer “menus” by which readers could make sense of modern life and imagine how to order their daily lives. Among those menus in the mid-1910s were several that mediated the interests of movie manufacturers, distributors, exhibitors, and the rapidly expanding audience of fans. This writing about the movies arguably played a crucial role in the emergence of American popular film culture, negotiating among national, regional, and local interests to shape fans’ ephemeral experience of movie going, their repeated encounters with the fantasy worlds of “movieland,” and their attractions to certain stories and stars. Moreover, many of these weekend pages, daily columns, and film reviews were written and consumed by women, including one teenage girl who compiled a rare surviving set of scrapbooks. Based on extensive original research, Menus for Movieland substantially revises what movie going meant in the transition to what we now think of as Hollywood."

Why am I excited about this new book? Because, it is a film researcher's delight. Even though I am primarily intersted in the films of the 1920's, there is much to be learned from this study focusing on the filmworld of the mid-1910s. In other words, not all that much changed in the way American newspapers covered Hollywood a decade later.

The chapters:

1. The Industry Goes to Town (and Country)

Entr’ acte Local and Regional Newsreels

2. “Newspapers Make Picture-Goers”

Entr’ acte Newspaper Movie Contests

3. “In Movie Land, with the Film Stars”

Entr’acte Cartoons and Comic Strips

4. “Film Girls” and Their Fans in Front of the Screen

Entr’ acte Motion Picture Weeklies

5. Edna Vercoe’s “Romance with the Movies”
“As richly packed as an early twentieth-century Sunday newspaper but infinitely better researched, this is an authoritative and comprehensive account of the connections between newspapers and the movies in the mid-1910s. Blending local close-ups and sweeping nationwide panoramas, Abel offers a richly textured view of emergent film stardom, advertising campaigns, early film criticism, and even fan activities—all crucial aspects of American film culture that were enabled and shaped by the nation’s countless newspapers.”—Gregory A. Waller, editor of Film History and author of Main Street Amusements: Movies and Commercial Entertainment in a Southern City, 1896–1930

“An essential study that provides an urgently needed context for historians of film culture before 1920. Readers will discover how, when, and why newspaper coverage of the movies took the forms it did, as talented newspaperwomen helped national media industries engage varied local audiences. Abel not only identifies and fills a significant gap in the literature but also clears a space for further investigation.”—Mark Cooper, author of Universal Women: Filmmaking and Institutional Change in Early Hollywood
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Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays, including Christmas

December 24, 2015, 12:30 am
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There is a swell new book out from Schiffer, Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays: 1920-1970, by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory. Fans of silent film, of early Hollywood, and the studio era will all want to get a copy. At nearly 200 pages, this pictorial is chock-full of images you'll delight in looking at again and again. That's not a cliche, it's just the plain and simple truth.

The book description: "Marvelously illustrated with more than 200 rare images from the silent era through the 1970s, this joyous treasure trove features film and television’s most famous actors and actresses celebrating the holidays, big and small, in lavishly produced photographs. Join the stars for festive fun in celebrating a variety of holidays, from New Year’s to Saint Patrick’s Day to Christmas and everything in between. Legends such as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Audrey Hepburn spread holiday cheer throughout the calendar year in iconic, ironic, and illustrious style. These images, taken by legendary stills photographers, hearken back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, when motion picture studios devised elaborate publicity campaigns to promote their stars and to keep their names and faces in front of the movie-going public all year round."

Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays: 1920-1970includes Louise Brooks in a Christmas themed pic. The book also includes many of Brooks' contemporaries and co-stars on various pages, including these Christmas themed pics. The LBS recommends this new book.


About the Authors: Film historian and photo archivist Mary Mallory is the author of Hollywoodland and the eBook Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found. She writes on Los Angeles and film history for the blog The Daily Mirror and serves on the board of Hollywood Heritage. Karie Bible is the official tour guide at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and co-author of Location Filming in Los Angeles. She has lectured at numerous venues, including the RMS Queen Mary and the Homestead Museum, and has appeared on Turner Classic Movies.


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