A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
One of the people I met at this year's Cinecon in Hollywood was Charles L Epting, the author of the just released Bebe Daniels: Hollywood's Good Little Bad Girl (McFarland). Charles was proudly carrying around the first copies of his new book.
When I returned home, my copy of Charles' book was waiting for me! I was pleased, as it looks promising and I have always wanted to read something substantial on Bebe Daniels. I am currently reading the new Pola Negri book by Sergio Delgado (also from McFarland), so the Bebe Daniels book will have to wait a bit. It's next up.
In the meantime, here is the publisher description for Bebe Daniels: Hollywood's Good Little Bad Girl: "Bebe Daniels had one of the most diverse and lengthy careers in show
business. From her beginnings as a child on the vaudeville circuit to
her resurgence as a radio and television star in postwar Britain,
Daniels' story has not been told."
"Best remembered for her work in
silent films, Daniels was a child actress in the earliest days of the
West Coast film industry before becoming Harold Lloyd's first leading
lady. Later she was one of Cecil B. DeMille's vamps before reaching the
pinnacle of success with Paramount in the 1920s. With the advent of
talkies, she was able to reinvent herself, enjoying a resurgence in the
1930s until her eventual retirement to England. Daniels' life was
filled with determination and steadfast principles but also high-profile
romances and the glitz and glamour of early Hollywood."
About the Author: Charles L. Epting is the editor-in-chief of Silent Film Quarterly magazine. He has also written extensively about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and stamp collecting. He lives in Huntington Beach, California.
Here is a reminder that their will be a Louise Brooks-related book signing taking place at this year's Cinecon classic film festival taking place in Hollywood this weekend. Here's what's happening.
THE DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (Louise Brooks edition) PandorasBox Press Edited By Thomas Gladysz
The
1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary image of a Lost Girl, is based on a once
famous and controversial book by Margarete Bohme which is counted among
the bestselling titles of its time. The "Louise Brooks edition" of
Bohme's book, edited by Thomas Gladysz (Director of the Louise Brooks
Society), includes dozens of illustrations and an introductory essay
detailing the book’s remarkable history and relationship to the
acclaimed silent film. Gladysz also provided the audio commentary to
last year's DVD & Blu-ray release of the film from Kino Lorber.
The book signings are part of the Cinecon Memorabilia Show which is
normally located in the third floor meeting area of the Loews Hollywood
Hotel but this year will be relocated to the mezzanine level (second
floor) of the hotel.
For more information and a complete list of signings, check out THIS PAGE. "Who else will be there," you ask?
SILENT TRACES: Discovering Early Hollywood Through The Films of Charlie Chaplin SILENT ECHOES: Discovering Early Hollywood Through The Films of Buster Keaton SILENT VISIONS: Discovering Early Hollywood Through The Films of Harold Lloyd Santa Monica Press By John Bengston
The
books provide a unique visual history of early Hollywood as depicted in
the silent comedians’ classic movies by combining images from various
films with archival photographs, historic maps, and scores of dramatic
“then” and “now” photos, revealing dozens of movie locations that lay
undiscovered in Hollywood for over 80 years. John has given
presentations at past Cinecons based on his research for these books and
then conducted walking tours showing the actual movie locations
depicted in the books.
A THOUSAND CUTS: the Bizarre Underground World of Collectors and Dealers Who Saved the Movies University Press of Mississippi By Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph
This
book is a candid exploration of one of America’s strangest and most
quickly vanishing subcultures. It is about the death of physical film in
the digital era and about a paranoid, secretive, eccentric, and
sometimes obsessive group of film-mad collectors who made movies and
their projection a private religion in the time before DVDs and
Blu-rays. It also examines one of the least-known episodes in modern
legal history: the FBI’s and Justice Department’s campaign to harass,
intimidate, and arrest film dealers and collectors in the early 1970s.
Victims included Roddy McDowall, who was arrested in 1974 for film
collecting and forced to name names of fellow collectors, including Rock
Hudson and Mel Tormé. A Thousand Cuts explores the obsessions of the
colorful individuals who created their own screening rooms, spent vast
sums, negotiated underground networks, and even risked legal jeopardy to
pursue their passion for real, physical film.
HOLLYWOOD CELEBRATES THE HOLIDAYS 1920-1970 Schiffer By Karie Bible & Mary Mallory
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 in lavishly
produced photographs. Legends such as Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor,
Joan Crawford, and Audrey Hepburn spread holiday cheer throughout the
calendar year in iconic, ironic, and illustrious style. These images,
taken by legendary still 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.
THEDA BARA MY MENTOR: Under the Wings of Hollywood's First Femme Fatale McFarland By Joan Craig with Beverly F. Stout
As
movie patrons sat in darkened theaters in January 1914, they were
mesmerized by an alluring temptress with long sable hair and kohl-rimmed
eyes. Theda Bara—“the vamp,” as she would come to be known—would soon
be one of the highest paid film stars of the 1910s, earning an unheard
of $4,000 per week, before retiring from the screen in 1926. Although
Theda was retired she was very much a part of Hollywood. Hollywood
celebrities flowed through her front door!
In 1946, at
age five, the author met Bara—then 61—at her Beverly Hills home and the
actress became her mentor. This memoir is the story of their
friendship.
FORGOTTEN HOLLYWOOD FORGOTTEN HISTORY Book Publishers Network By Manny Pacheco
Nothing
grabs the mind like a finely crafted image film. Memorable lines strike
an instant impression, and imagery provides celluloid art to enjoy time
and again. Bypassing the legendary stars from the studio era's golden
age, Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History focuses on the character
actors and actresses that consistently delivered stellar performances,
and it offers a bold fresh new take of our human journey.
And Manny will also be bringing his follow-up book - Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History
HARLOW IN HOLLYOOD: The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937 Angel City Press By Darrell Rooney and Mark Vieira
In
her short decade in Hollywood, Harlow created a new genre of movie
star--her fans idolized her for her peerless image, her beautiful body,
and her gorgeous facade. "Harlow in Hollywood" is the story of how a
town and an industry created her, a story that's never been told before.
In these pages, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood
historian Mark Vieira team to present the most beautiful--and
accurate--book on Harlow ever produced. With more than 280 rare images,
the authors not only make a case for Harlow as an Art Deco artifact,
they showcase the fabulous places where she lived, worked and played
from her white-on-white Beverly Glen mansion to the Art Deco sets of
"Dinner at Eight" to the foyer of the Cafe Trocadero. "Harlow in
Hollywood" is a must for every film buff, Harlow collector, and book
lover.
LAUREL & HARDY: The Magic Behind the Movies Bonaventure Press By Randy Skretvedt
This
is a massively expanded and updated edition of the book, which was
originally published in 1987. The new hard cover edition with 632 pages
has twice as much text as the original and four times as many
photographs (now 1,000 of them). Most of the photos are previously
unpublished and many of them are one-of-a-kind items from Oliver Hardy's
personal collection. The text is based on interviews done in the 1970s
and early '80s with 65 of Laurel and Hardy's working associates, along
with original scripts and studio files.
WILD BILL WELLMAN: Hollywood Rebel Pantheon By William Wellman, Jr.
William
Wellman, Jr. has written this great new biography about his legendary
father, famed director William "Wild Bill" Wellman. Here is a revealing,
boisterous portrait of the handsome, tough-talking, hard-drinking,
uncompromising maverick juvenile delinquent whose own life story was
more adventurous and more unpredictable than anything in the movies.
William Wellman is famous for directing such iconic pictures as: the
pioneering World War I epic Wings (winner of the first Academy Award for
best picture), Public Enemy, Nothing Sacred, the original A Star Is
Born, Beggars of Life, The Call of the Wild, The Ox-Bow Incident,
Battleground, The High and the Mighty.
I came across this image in a 1927 Japanese movie magazine, but can't figure out what or who it is. Can anyone help? I don't think it is Louise Brooks. Nevertheless, it is a very striking image who or whatever it turns out to be. Thanks in advance.
Every Summer for the last ten or twelve years I have made a point of spending a day or two visiting one of the San Francisco Bay Area's university libraries. I have spent a few days at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Sonoma State University, as well as University of California-East Bay in Hayward and Standford University in Palo Alto. Each has a little something, a piece of the puzzle. I have also driven out to University of California-Davis and Sacramento State University. And at each I found things I hadn't seen before related to Louise Brooks.
I have also visited the University of California-Berkeley many times, perhaps three dozen times. I usually visit the school's microfilm room or great research library. This time, I decided to visit their Asian library in search of any sort of clippings I might find about Louise Brooks and her films in China or Japan. An exploration of the recently built East Asian library was something I have been meaning to do for some time.
I struck gold. I found advertisements for many of Louise Brooks' American Silents in the one or two Chinese newspapers I looked at. And remarkably, I also found an ad for Diary of a Lost Soul, which wowed me. Previously, only Pandora's Box was known to have shown in Japan. Now, the other G.W. Pabst film in another Asian country!
Here is just one of the fabulous film ads I found, this one for Rolled Stockings in Japan. I also found a magazine cover with the actress, clippings which may or may not be reviews, captioned photographs, and other miscellaneous clippings.
There is more, lots more. I was browsing the shelves when I pulled down a bound volume of a Chinese film magazine and flipped through it, finding this.
Can anyone translate this bit of text alongside the picture of Louise Brooks? I assume it is some sort of brief biographical bit.
Here is another nifty page, also from a post WWII Chinese publication, this one about director G.W. Pabst and his films, including Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.
Louise Brooks has long been popular in France, and in Paris in 1930, she must have seemed to have been everywhere. The actress was widely written about and pictured in the French capital's many newspapers and magazines. I have collected dozens of clippings. Her image, as well, was also seemingly everywhere. There is even a picture, shown below, of Brooks' portrait on display in the window of a Paris photographer's studio. If anyone has a time machine handy, I would like to travel back to Paris and purchase a few prints.
Indeed, Brooks was the toast of Paris while she was in France making Prix de beauté. The press recorded her arrival, and profiled her in numerous pieces.
Prix de beauté was in production between August 29 through September 27, 1929, and debuted at the famous Max-Linder Pathe on May 9, 1930. A major American film star in an important French production was BIG NEWS, not at least due to the fact that Prix de beauté was also one of the earliest French talkies. (Sound and music are important visual motifs in the film, which was shot as both a silent and sound film.)
Prix de beauté was a huge success, and it went on to enjoy three month run in various theaters. After two months at the Max-Linder (and for part of that time also at the historic Lutetia-Pathe to accommodate the crowds), the film moved to the Folies Dramatiques, where it was advertised as an "immense success" and played nearly a month. This extended run was at a time when most films played only a few days or a week before moving on.
Remarkably, the successful run of Prix de beauté took place at a time when another of Brooks' films, the German production Diary of a Lost Girl (Trois Pages D'un Journal), was also playing in the French capital, at the Au Colisee. (It also was shown at the Rialto and Splendide theatres in Paris in 1930.) As was Beggars of Life (Les mendiants de la vie), at the Clichy-Palace in March of the same year. Like today, films being shown were advertised in the newspaper, and on one occasion, the two film's respective advertisements sat side-by-side.
Diary of a Lost Girl continued to be shown on and off in Paris in 1930. It was even shown at the famous Ursulines theater in November as part of a trippple bill. As shown below, the evening's program begins with G.W. Pabst's Joyless Street, followed by Howard Hawk's A Girl in Every Port, starring Brooks, followed by G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl, also starring Brooks.
A Girl in Every Port (which Blaise Cendrars called "the first appearance of contemporary cinema") debuted in France at the Ursulines, "one of the oldest cinemas in Paris to have kept its facade and
founder's vision" as a "venue for art and experimental cinema." The
Ursulines opened in 1926 with films by André Breton, Man Ray, Fernand
Léger, René Clair and Robert Desnos. And in 1928, it premiered
the first film of Germaine Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman, from a story by Antonin Artaud. The latter film was heckled by the surrealists, leading to a fight that stopped the screening.
Between 1926 and 1957, a number of now-classic films premiered at the theater, such as René Clair's Le Voyage Imaginaire and Erich Von Stroheim’s Greed. According to the wonderful Cinema Treasures website, "This little theatre with a balcony has a very charming
facade looking like a romantic country house. At the beginning of talking movies, the premiere of Sternberg’s Blue Angel with Marlene
Dietrich took place here, and ran 14 months." In December 1930, Diary of a Lost Girl and Blue Angel evenshared the bill.
The Ursulines theatre was a kind of cinematic home to the Surrealists.... Which got me thinking about the affection some of the surrealists had for Brooks. It's known that Philipe Soupault, the great French Surrealist poet, mentioned the actress in his journalism and reviewed Diary of a Lost Girl. (A couple of images of the actress adorn the poet's collected writings on the cinema, Ecrits de cinema 1918-1931.) And it's also known that Man Ray was smitten by the actress. The great photographer and the film star met in Paris in late 1958, and Man Ray recounted how he had seen her image in Paris years before. Man Ray was fond enough of Brooks that he sent her a small painting in memory of their meeting and in memory of his memory.
Perhaps Man Ray also saw one or two of her films. Earlier, in 1928,A Girl in Every Port shared the bill with a short Man Ray film, L'Etoile de Mer, at the Ursulines during the months of October, November, and December. L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish) was scripted by the surrealist poet Robert Desnos and "stars" Desnos and Alice Prin. Better known as Kiki de Montparnasse, Prin (Man Ray's one-time paramour) famously sported Louise Brooks-like bobbed hair and bangs.
Prix de beauté proved especially popular, and even influential. (A novelization of Prix de beauté was published in 1932. And in 1933, a short story by the French writer Leon Bopp was published which describes a character in love with Louise Brooks.) Similarly, A Girl in Every Port (which was one of the few American films to retain its American title in France) proved popular and was revived time and again in Paris in the 1920's and 1930's. [I wonder which of those showings was the one Jean-Paul Sartre took Simone de Beauvoir to on one of their first dates.]
Of course, one could also Lee Miller to this piece. Miller, a sometime Surrealist photographer and one-time paramour of Man Ray, is known to have seen Louise Brooks dance on stage in Poughkeepsie, New York long before Brooks became a film star and Miller a Surrealist.... If any scholars of Surrealism can add to the information found on this page, please contact me.
I will close this blog with two collages from 1929, both of which include Brooks. The first is Herbert Bayer's "Facing Profiles." Bayer was associated with the Bauhaus. The second is Edward Burra's "Composition Collage." Burra was a English modernist. Obviously, something was in the air circa 1930.
I saw and loved the original production in 2006, and am thus curious and excited about this production....
Silent Theatre presents a re-imagination of its
inaugural production "LULU: a black and white silent play". Step aboard
this three prong adventure as a live taping of each production allows
audiences to watch the show, participate in immersive components, and
consequently, download the filmed version of the experience featuring
the audience's participation. Based on Frank Wedekind's Lulu Cycle plays
and accompanied by a live band, the story follows a young woman whose
aspirations, sexual appetite and lust for intimacy leaves lethal affairs
in her wake. Our original production was hailed by the New York Times
as "bolder, faster and meaner than any others" with "crisply designed
scenes that slip back and forth between erotic and macabre."
Also join them for "LULU: the remix" each Saturday night at 10:30p.
Experience the production with a modern twist and Silent Theatre's very
own Marvin Quijada as the live DJ. A fierce cast weaves a tale of
seduction, unrequited desire and destructive longing.
Opening: Nov. 25th @8p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Nov. 26th @8P LULU: a live silver screen experience Opening: Nov. 26th @ 10:30p LULU: the remix Run: Nov. 27th @5p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 2nd @ 8p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 3rd @ 8P LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 3rd @ 10:30p LULU: the remix Run: Dec. 4th @ 5p LULU: a live silver screen experience Industry Night: Dec. 5th @ 8p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 9th: @ 8p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 10th @ 8p LULU: a live silver screen experience Run: Dec. 10th @ 10:30p LULU: the remix
$20 cabaret table seating $10 SRO $50 VIP intimate cocktail table seating with bubbly and giveaways
Vendors, goodies, boozies, live music, dance music, photo booth, flirty staff and all around one of a kind experience.
In the meantime, here is the publisher description for Bebe Daniels: Hollywood's Good Little Bad Girl: "Bebe Daniels had one of the most diverse and lengthy careers in show
business. From her beginnings as a child on the vaudeville circuit to
her resurgence as a radio and television star in postwar Britain,
Daniels' story has not been told."
