Louise Brooks Society at LiveJournal

Anita Page dies

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:36:56 GMT

Anita Page, one of the last living silent film stars and a contemporary of Louise Brooks, has died, according to an article syndicated by the Associated Press.

Her longtime friend and companion Randal Malone says Page died in her sleep of natural causes early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles. Anita Page, a beautiful blond MGM actress who appeared in the films of Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, has died. She was 98.

The New York-born Page began her film career as an extra in 1924. She had a major role—as the doomed bad girl—in "Our Dancing Daughters," a 1928 film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films.

Here is a link to another wire service story - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080907/ap_en_ce/obit_page_5

They didn't need dialogue. They had faces

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:09:44 GMT

An interesting, effusive article in yesterday's Guardian (UK) newspaper concerning the history of the cinematic gesture of the close-up on a woman's face mentions Louise Brooks.

Louise Brooks's black bobbed hair framing her pale kittenish face in GW Pabst's Pandora's Box (1928) and The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) burns itself into the mind. It was Pabst who gave the 20-year-old Greta Garbo her first real chance to emote as a woman on the brink of prostitution in Joyless Street (1925), the role that led to her Hollywood career, prompting Roland Barthes to write in 1957: "Garbo still belongs to that moment in cinema when capturing the human face plunged audiences into the deepest ecstasy, when one literally lost oneself in a human image as one would in a philtre, when the face represented a kind of absolute state of the flesh, which could be neither reached nor renounced."

Marlene Dietrich's career only began to bloom with the coming of sound and her meeting with Josef Von Sternberg, who created her iconographic figure as the eternal femme fatale in various guises, conjured up by makeup, costumes and the subtle play of light and shadow on her face in close-up. Dietrich's face became an erogenous zone in Sternberg's pictures.

Lily Koppell, "The Red Leather Diary"

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:04:12 GMT

I am looking forward to Lily Koppel's author event on Wednesday, September 10th at The Booksmith in San Francisco. Lily will be discussing her new book, The Red Leather Diary. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the 1920's / 1930s.

New York Times journalist Lily Koppel found the inspiration for her book after discovering an old diary in a Manhattan dumpster. The diary recorded the thoughts and feelings of an intelligent, ambitious and creative teenager on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the early 1930s. In the diary, the young author recorded everything from her first kiss (with a boy) to her crush on actress Eva Le Galliene (whom she had met - and which led her to question her sexuality) to her passion for writing and art. There are also numerous observations on daily life in 1930's NYC. Ultimately, the diary acts as a window into a fascinating and privileged world, one that Lily Koppel successfully recreates by telling a story in a novelistic way using no more than snippets of text from the teenager's diary.

Remarkably - and this is a big part of the story - Lily Koppel was able to reunite the long lost diary with it's then 90-year-old author after locating its her in Florida. I am reading The Red Leather Diary now - and enjoying it a great deal. Check out this event if you can.

Filmmaking in New York, exhibit

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:58:55 GMT

EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Museum of Modern Art, New York
17 September – 19 October 2008

Hollywood on the Hudson traces the roots of the modern American film industry to New York City between the two world wars, when an industry built on centralized authority began to listen, for the first time, to a range of independent voices, each with their own ideas about what the movies could say and do.

The Hollywood studio system was geared toward creating a standardized product and sought to appeal to all ages and classes, whereas New York cinema was technically innovative and culturally specific, and played to niche audiences, from art houses to ethnic enclaves. But the collapse of Hollywood's economic and industrial model in the post–World War I era forced American filmmakers to rethink the way they made films and sold them to audiences.

Finding they could no longer depend on a system that required long-term contracts and studio backlots with elaborate standing sets, they began to adopt the methods being used by writers, directors, and actors in New York.

This exhibition surveys filmmaking in New York during the hegemony of Hollywood, from D. W. Griffith's return from the West Coast in 1919 to the World's Fair of 1939. Screenings include pioneering sound films shot at the Paramount Studios in Astoria, Queens, and starring Broadway luminaries; films featuring such stars as Louise Brooks, Marion Davies, the Marx Brothers, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino; and noteworthy African American and Yiddish films.

Louise Brooks in Los Angeles exhibit

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:51:42 GMT

The Vanity Fair exhibit, which drew large crowds and much acclaim while on exhibit in London, is coming to Los Angeles. Opening October 26 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008" brings together 150 of the famed magazine's iconic portraits. This is the first major exhibit to bring together the magazine's historic archive of rare vintage prints with contemporary photographs as well. The exhibition will complete its tour at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Australia, where it will run June 12 – August 30, 2009.

Of special note to Louise Brooks devotees and fans of the 1920's is the inclusion of portraits of a handful of celebrities from the 1920's. "Among the exceptional people portrayed in the exhibit are Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein, Jesse Owens, James Joyce, Katharine Hepburn, and Fred and Adele Astaire. The introduction of modernism into photography was particularly evident in the progressive work of [Edward] Steichen (1879–1973), who held the title of Vanity Fair 's chief photographer for 13 years. Steichen was America's leading photographer of style, taste and celebrity, and many of his iconic photographs are in "Vanity Fair Portraits," including those of Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks, Anna May Wong and Paul Robeson. The exhibition also showcases definitive portraits of the Jazz Age, including now-classic studies of Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker and Noel Coward."

Love Em and Leave Em screens in L. A

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:44:26 GMT

The Silent Society of Hollywood Heritage, in association with the National Parks Service, is hosting a screening of Love 'em and Leave 'em (1926) at the Paramount Ranch in Agoura (near Los Angeles) this Sunday evening, August 17th at 7:30 pm. The screening is part of the groups “Silents Under the Stars” series. This feature will be preceded by a surprise short subject, and will feature live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.

Sunday, August 17, 2008 - 7:30 pm

Love ‘Em And Leave ‘Em (1926) starring Evelyn Brent, Louise Brooks and Lawrence Gray. Directed by Frank Tuttle. Mame Walsh (Evelyn Brent) returns from vacation to find her younger sister, Janie (Louise Brooks) has stolen the affections of her boyfriend and decides to make
him jealous by adopting Janie’s “love ‘em and leave ‘em” philosophy.

Tickets are $6.00 for adults, $5.00 for members of Hollywood Heritage. Children under twelve are $3.00, under three free.
Films begin at dusk. Picnic dinners are encouraged. Please bring a flashlight as the parking area is dark.
For further information call Hollywood Heritage at (323) 874-4005, or visit http://www.hollywoodheritage.org/

Louise Brooks and forged letters

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:03:00 GMT

There have been a lot of articles popping up regarding Lee Israel's new book, Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger. One of the best articles / reviews I read was by Thomas Mallon. It appeared in the New York Times on August 3rd. I recommend reading it. And what's more, two of the illustrations accompanying the article relate to Louise Brooks.

As some readers of this blog may know, Lee Israel is a noted journalist and biographer. [I own a copy of her Tallulah Bankhead biography.] When she fell on hard times some years back, she turned to stealing the letters of famous individuals from archives and libraries, whcih she sold, as well as forging letters from other subjects of interest (which she also sold). Apparently, Israel was very good at what she did. A couple of her Noel Coward letters were even included in a recently published collection of the British authro's correspondence.

Among the letters Israel forged and sold where some from Louise Brooks. I haven't read this new book yet, but from all the coverage its getting, I gather that Israel's forgeries of Brooks' letters play a significant part in her story. The name of the actress also appears, ~~obliquely,~~ on the cover of the book.

[This bit of literary intrigue reminds me that I had once heard that shortly after Louise Brooks' death, a number of fake signatures ascribed to the actress came on the market. Signed books, signed pictures, etc.... I wonder what ever became of them. Buyer beware.]

Lulu in Augusta

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:48:49 GMT

The Sacred Heart Cultural Center in Augusta, Georgia will be screening Pandora's Box, with live musical accompaniment, on Friday, September 19th at 7:30 pm.The center's website carries this announcement.

SILENT MOVIE NIGHT
Featuring "Pandora's Box" & Ron Carter,
Theater Organist
Friday, September 19, 2008, 7:30 pm

It’s movie time once again! As part of the inaugural Westabou Festival Sacred Heart Cultural Center presents Silent Movie Night Friday, September 19, 2008. This year’s feature will be the G. W. Pabst’s 1929 masterpiece starring the iconic Louise Brooks. Once again, the delightful Ron Carter will bring the film alive on Sacred Heart’s fabulous organ – movie palace style. This groundbreaking and steamy 1929 thriller follows the vampy Lulu on her destructive path through Berlin to her ultimate end. One historian says this film is “bold for the way it featured a strong, decisive female character, and innovative for the way it broke down stereotypes and barriers.”
Pandora’s Box is perennially on the short list of great silent films and is one no enthusiast should miss.

Ron Carter is dedicated to keeping the art of early 20th century “Movie Palace” organ music alive. His passion for this unique art form keeps him busy accompanying silent film all over the Southeast. He is actively involved in the American Theatre Organ Society which rescues and restores vintage theatre pipe organs, most notably the Fox Theatre organ in Atlanta and recently the original Imperial Theater Wurlitzer in Augusta. Combining the original movie scores with his own improvisations, Ron’s talent for bringing silent film alive is compelling – a treat not to be missed.

$12.00 general seat, cash bar and snacks
(cabaret tables seat 8)
- OR -
$35.00 Special Seating, courtesy bar and snacks in VIP area

A Louise Brooks movie?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:40:53 GMT

According to various news reports . . .

SHIRLEY MacLAINE has developed a script for a movie about the life of screen icon LOUISE BROOKS - and she wants to play the dancer in her latter years. The actress reveals filmmaker Martin Scorsese is interested in directing the movie.
She tells WENN, "I've written a script with Kathleen Tynan and it was a pretty good script. Martin Scorsese is interested in doing it. He took an option on the script, so that might happen.
"I'd love to be part of the film - I'd love to play Brooks in her later years, when she was living an isolated, hermit-like existence in upstate New York."

LouLou in Paris

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:07:43 GMT

from www.villette.com/spectacles/loulou.html

Mardi 15 juillet
CINÉ-CONCERT
Loulou
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Allemagne / 1929 / 1h44,
Avec Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner…

Loulou, belle fille capricieuse et insouciante, est entretenue par Peter Schoen, un homme très riche qui organise les revues de music hall où elle apparaît. Elle réussit à se faire épouser par son amant, qu’elle ne tarde pas à tromper ! Elle multiplie les conquêtes masculines pour finir par sombrer dans la déchéance.

Composition et interprétation Airelle Besson (trompette, violon), Yonnel Diaz (saxo) et Emmanuel David (clavier)
Interprétation Siegfried Courteau (percussions), Éric Boffel (guitare) et Julien Reyboz (sonorisation)

Its What I'm Doing Next Weekend

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:23:31 GMT

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-07-03/article/30484?hea...

MOVING PICTURES: SF Festival Showcases Cinema’s First Golden Era
By Justin DeFreitas,
Thursday July 03, 2008

The Kid Brother (1927) may be Harold Lloyd’s greatest film, bringing a high level of artistry to the bespectacled comedian’s slapstick humor.

Conrad Veidt and Olga Baclanova in Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs (1928), a film that expanded on the sympathetic portrayals of disfigured men that had been so successful on the screen in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. The Man Who Laughs gave rise not only to the series of Universal horror films of the 1930s, but inspired the character of The Joker.

Far from the ragged, blurry, jumpy images in the popular imagination, the silent era of filmmaking was an age of discovery, innovation and supreme achievement in the new medium of cinema. Motion pictures, at first treated as a mere novelty, came into their own between 1910 and 1920, growing from brief, flickering diversions into full-scale narratives. But it was in the 1920s that cinema truly blossomed into the great art form of the 20th century.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, now in its 13th year, showcases the breadth and depth of what was the first golden era of cinema, presenting the full range of film treasures—from slapstick comedy to gothic horror, from experimental animation to stately costume drama—as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen, in a beautiful 1920s movie palace, and with live musical accompaniment.

This year’s program begins Friday night, July 11, at the Castro Theater with Harold Lloyd’s The Kid Brother and continues all day Saturday and Sunday with 10 more presentations from the peak of the silent era.

Friday

Harold Lloyd was not an inherently funny presence as a screen persona. Unlike Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, who rank among the most innately charismatic and unique cinematic artists of all time, Lloyd couldn’t command an audience’s attention simply by appearing on the screen. There were many such comedians struggling to climb their way to the top of the field, to challenge Keaton and Chaplin at the summit, but Lloyd was the most diligent and talented of them, and he alone managed to scale those heights. Through grit and determination he overcame his limitations as a screen presence and established himself as one of the most popular and enduring comedians of the silent era. In the 1920s he was second only to Chaplin in popularity. In fact, in office receipts, the prolific Lloyd surpassed Chaplin, who only released a handful of films in that decade.

Lloyd took a different and perhaps more pragmatic approach to his comedies than his contemporaries. Chaplin made relatively quiet, character-based narratives, punctuated here and there with explosive bits of slapstick. And Keaton let his films develop slowly, building steadily to dizzying climactic chases and daring stunt work. But Lloyd first and foremost aimed to please, and thus he filled movies with gags from start to finish, rarely allowing the audience much time to breathe.

With The Kid Brother (1927), however, Lloyd altered his style somewhat, adopting some of the techniques of his competitors in pursuit of a more artistic approach. He put more time and effort into technical details, especially the photography, using warm lighting to capture the pastoral beauty of a life in the woods. And he put greater emphasis on pathos; more screen time was spent developing his character, showing us his hopes, his dreams and his humiliations.

Lloyd didn’t make a bad film in the 1920s; all of them are good and many of them are great. Others made more money (The Freshman), crammed in more gags per minute (Why Worry?), or have enjoyed more lasting fame (Safety Last), but The Kid Brother may very well represent Lloyd’s crowning achievement, bringing greater artistry and subtlety to his workman-like career. Lloyd himself cited the film as his
personal favorite. Friday’s screening of the film will feature live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Saturday

Saturday’s screenings include The Soul of Youth (1920), a portrait of the fate of unwanted orphans in early 20th-century America; Les Deux Timides (1928), a comedy by René Clair; and Mikael (1924), a landmark film in the history of gay cinema, directed by the great Carl Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr) and starring German actor Conrad Veidt.

Veidt also anchors the centerpiece film Saturday night, The Man Who Laughs (1928). Early in the 1920s, German émigré Carl Laemmle, head of Universal, brought Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame to the screen. Centering an epic film on a grossly disfigured lead character was considered a great risk at the time, but Lon Chaney, who would later become known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” used his formidable pantomime skills to create a sensitive and sympathetic portrayal. Laemmle and Chaney then followed Hunchback with The Phantom of the Opera and enjoyed similar success.

Eager to keep the streak alive, Laemmle turned to his fellow countrymen for The Man Who Laughs (1928), enlisting the talents of Conrad Veidt and director Paul Leni for another Hugo adaptation. Veidt had become the face of German Expressionism with his roles in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and in Leni’s Waxworks, and Leni had recently parlayed his success in Germany into a contract with Universal, bringing the shadowy photography and psychological horror of Expressionism to the States with The Cat and the Canary. These silent classics formed the foundation of what would become a string of classic Universal horror films in the 1930s. Saturday’s screening of The Man Who Laughs will be accompanied by Clark Wilson on the Wurlitzer.

Following The Man Who Laughs Saturday night is the first in the festival’s new “Director’s Pick” series. Director Guy Maddin will be on hand to introduce and narrate (translating the French intertitles) for Tod Browning’s strange and rarely screened film The Unknown (1927), starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. Live piano accompaniment will be provided by Stephen Horne.

Sunday

Sunday’s screenings include The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the earliest surviving feature-length animated film; Her Wild Oat (1927), one of the few surviving films of Colleen Moore, among the most popular actresses of the 1920s; and Jujiro (1928), an avant-garde Japanese film.

The festival concludes Sunday night with The Patsy (1928), starring the great comedienne Marion Davies. Davies, the mistress of William Randolph Hearst, had spent much of her career weighed down with the dreary costumes of the myriad period dramas that Hearst wanted to see her in. It was director King Vidor who finally freed the effervescent Davies from such stifling solemnity, and in The Patsy he gave her free
reign to satirize her contemporaries, offering sharp and hilarious impersonations of such silent-era stalwarts as Lillian Gish and Pola Negri. Clark Wilson will again provide accompaniment on the Wurlitzer.

The San Francisco

Silent Film Festival

July 11-13 at the Castro Theater,

429 Castro St., San Francisco.

www.silentfilm.org.

Wowza

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:04 GMT

According to a reliable eBay seller, "ON MARCH 27, 2008, PROFILES IN HISTORY of LOS ANGELES set the highest price to date for an ALFRED CHENEY JOHNSTON PHOTOGRAPH - $9,500.00 for an unsigned 10" X 13" VINTAGE PORTRAIT OF LOUISE BROOKS!!"

Wowza!

Louise Brooks, a portrait

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:42:57 GMT

new book with Brooks on the cover

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:43:50 GMT

There is a new book coming out this fall which includes Louise Brooks on the cover. The book is titled Hollywood Movie Stills: The Golden Age, by Joel Finler. It looks like the book is being released in England, but it should be available in the United States as well. I plan on getting a copy.

The author, Joel Finler, was the first film critic for London's Time Out magazine. He is the author of numerous books on cinema, including Alfred Hitchcock and Silent Cinema (which I own and like). I don't know much else about it except for what's included on its Amazon.com page. That text reads

Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe . . . it is through the eye of the stills camera that we experience and recall some of the cinema's most memorable events and faces. Still images are so powerful that they can easily pass for actual scenes from the movies they represent—rather than separately posed, lighted, and photographed shots that may not even find their way into the finished film. This classic study traces the origin of stills photography during the silent era and the early development of the star system, to the rise of the giant studios in the 1930s and their eventual decline. Finler focuses on the photographers, on the stars they photographed, and on many key films and filmmakers. Hollywood Movie Stills is illustrated by hundreds of rare and unusual stills from the author's own collection, including not only portraits and scene stills but production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, poster art, calendar art, leg shots, photo collages, and trick shots. There are also photos showing the stars' private lives and special events in Hollywood, all produced in vast numbers by the great studios in their heyday.

Diary of a Lost Girl screened in KC

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:47:12 GMT

Diary of a Lost Girl will be shown tomorrow at the Kansas City Central Library (Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street) in Kansas City, Missouri. Here is a link to the library website, followed by the event description. An image of Louise Brooks was even featured on the Library's homepage.

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL Kansas native Louise Brooks endures degradation in this silent classic shown with live music. 3:30 p.m. Saturday, KC Central Library.

Cyd Charisse Dies at Age 86

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:37:23 GMT

Cyd Charisse, the leggy beauty whose balletic grace made her a memorable dance partner for Gene Kelly in classic MGM musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. [Here is a link to various news articles.] For fans of Louise Brooks and early film, it was her role in Singin’ in the Rain (a musical look at Hollywood during the transition from silent to sound films) that stands out. In that classic film, Charisse plays a dancer who affects the look of a flapper - intentionally with a "Louise Brooks" bob. In memorium, here is a clip from that 1952 film featuring Charisse.

If you haven't seen Singin’ in the Rain, go out and get it today. It is a wonderful film!

From Cinlandia

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:26:56 GMT

Matthew J. Bruccoli

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:48:47 GMT

The Louise Brooks Society notes the passing of literary scholar Matthew Bruccoli. He is considered the world's leading scholar on F. Scott Fitzgerald, and was expert on many of the writer's of the Jazz Age and the inter-war period. His 1981 biography of Fitzgerald, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, is recommended. I have read that book, as well as other Bruccoli authored or edited books like The Romantic Egoists, as well as various volumes of Fitzgerald's fiction, letters and notebooks. To me, Bruccoli was a hero.

Besides being a scholar, teacher, writer, and publisher, Bruccoli was also a collector. He and his wife accumulated books, manuscripts, letters and other materials by and about writers. His Fitzgerald collection, valued at more than 2 million dollars, was donated to the University of South Carolina. Bruccoli collected not out of greed or the compulsion to own something (like some collectors), but for the love of the subject. “It was collecting in order to contribute to future scholarship,” is the way one fellow academic put it.

I never met Bruccoli, but was able to pass along a few questions to him about Louise Brooks through my late friend, the book dealer Allen Milkerit. Whenever Bruccolli would come to the San Francisco Bay Area (one of his children lived here), he would visit Allen's bookshop. On my behalf, Allen asked him if he knew anything more about Fitzgerald's and Brooks' encounter. (He did not.) Nevertheless, Allen was able to get a bunch of my Bruccolli books signed for me. Thank you Allen. I will always treasure those. [And thank you Matthew Bruccoli for all of your great work.]

I have included a link above to the New York Times obituary. Here is a link to the Washington Post obit. And here is a link to the obit in The State. And lastly, here is a link to a page detailing his academic accomplishments from the University of South Carolina, where he taught for many years.

What About Bob's

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:16:55 GMT

There is an article in today's St. Louis Post Dispatch about bobs - the history and "meaning" of the hairstyle. The article was written because a touring version of Thoroughly Modern Millie is showing in town. (I remember seeing a portrait of Louise Brooks on the set of the play's New York production some years back.) If anyone sees the St. Louis production, please let me know.

Anna May Wong

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:49:28 GMT

Did anyone see the documentary about Anna May Wong on TCM ? Did anyone notice a portrait of Louise Brooks on the wall behind Philip Leibfried as Leibfried spoke and the credits rolled? Was it Brooks, or Wong ?

Wong was incredibly beautiful. It too bad her acting talent was wasted in so many dismal films. I do like Piccadilly, and Shanghai Express, though.

A reason for the bob

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:03:16 GMT

About every review of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull has mentioned the haircut worn by Cate Blanchett's character - a severe bob a la Louise Brooks. (Similarly, many reviews of Christina Ricci's role in the recent Speedracer also mentioned her Brooks-like bob.) Well, those references to Brooks and her famous haircut are just that, references. No big deal - they show up on my "Louise Brooks news alert."

Well, it turns out there is a reason after all for Blanchett's (aka CB) hairstyle. In a recent interview with Cinematical, director George Lucas (aka GL) revealed his regard for Louise Brooks.

Was that hairdo an homage to somebody specifically in the fifties?

CB: Well, Vidal Sassoon. ...

GL: I'm a big fan of Louise Brooks, a big fan of the bob, and I couldn't resist. I just had to get that in a movie.

CB: I didn't resist.

GL: Just something that had to happen.

I wish I had known. I once went to the Skywalker Ranch north of San Francisco. And I was impressed by the silent film movie memorabilia on display. None of it was Brooks related, but there was stuff belonging to Rudolph Valentino, the Keystone cops, etc..... George Lucas wasn't there at the time. But had I known of his interest in Brooks, I would have left him a LBS button. George, write to me . . . . I have an idea for a film.

The glance

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:19:24 GMT

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Sun, 25 May 2008 17:01:41 GMT

Microsoft announced Friday that it was ending a project to scan millions of books and scholarly articles and make them available on the Web. It's expected that it's book search site will be taken down sometime this week. So far, Microsoft said it had digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may . . . .

Both Microsoft and Google have been scanning older books that have fallen into the public domain, as well as copyright-protected books under agreements with some publishers. I have used both sites in researching Louise Brooks, Frank Wedekind, silent film, and Jazz Age topics. And, I have found a bunch of stuff - including vintage reviews of Brooks' films in obscure trade journals like Educational Screen. I was also able to download a whole lot of early books on film. It's a pleasure to have Movies and Conduct, a book from 1933 about the effect of the movies on youth. (Louise Brooks is mentioned.)

Admittedly, I am an information junkie. Microsoft's discontinuation of this project is a sad thing.

Unusually unusual

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:57:52 GMT

Here is something you don't see everyday - as a matter of fact, it's a somewhat uncommon image. A copy is available on eBay.

Beach weather

Sun, 18 May 2008 17:26:25 GMT

It's rather warm here in California. It's a perfect day to go to the beach.