Thursday, November 14, 2002

Happy Birthday, Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks was born on this day in 1906. Happy Birthday, Louise.

Monday, November 11, 2002

Cherryvale News and other new citations

Numerous citations from various American newspapers have been added to the bibliographies. These citations - garnered from inter-library loan material - include articles and reviews from the Cherryvale News, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Rochester Times-Union, Philadelphia Inquirer, Milwaukee Journal, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Denver Post, New Orleans Times-Picayuane and three different papers from Washington D.C. - the Washington Herald, Washington Star, and Washington Times. The hope in gathering such material is to present as wide a spectrum of critical response to Brooks' films. Along the way, a handful of previously undocumented articles about Brooks have also been uncovered!

Two pages on the LBS website were recently updated - Vintage Magazine Covers and Vintage French Postcards.

Saturday, November 2, 2002

Sally of the Sawdust

Recently signed up with Netflix. One of the first films I rented was Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring W.C. Fields and Carol Dempster. Alfred Lunt also had a part. It was directed by D.W. Griffith. This film wasn't bad, and there are some memorable moments. Interestingly, there is a reference to the "old army game."

On imdb, there is a long write up about the film. The reviewer notes that "Sally of the Sawdust  was first introduced to television as part of the 13-week series on public television's 1971 presentation of THE SILENT YEARS, hosted by Orson Welles, which was, by this time, the only known surviving silent movie to feature Fields." What about the following year's It's the Old Army Game, with Louise Brooks? Was that film thought lost then?

Thursday, September 26, 2002

New citations and new material

A handful of citations from the New York Daily Graphic and the Film Spectator (each dating from the 1920's) were added to the various film bibliographies. Also added is a scan of my latest e-Bay purchase - a copy of Loew's Weekly which contains an article on Now We're in the Air.

Sunday, September 15, 2002

LBS updates

Considerable time this weekend was spent updating the Site Tools page; additional translation utilities were added as a service to the website's many international, non-English speaking visitors. I have tried to integrate these utilities into some of the key text pages. Also updated and improved was the Site Map page, as well as Newsgroups and Listserves and the links page, Lulu in Cyberspace.

Some additional citations from the Baltimore Sun and Boston Globe have also been added to various bibliographies. In the coming weeks, I expect to add other citations from other American newspapers.

Monday, September 2, 2002

Mention in NY Times, new message board, new stuff

On August 29, the New York Times ran an article in which the LBS was mentioned! An article by Pamela Licalzi O'Connell stated "The Louise Brooks Society is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars."

A new message board has been installed. The free service which provided the old board has shut down - so a new message board has been set up. It works pretty much the same as the old board. The new message board can be found at www.voy.com/104307/. Also, as a result of the change in boards, the site architecture (namely the headers and footers found on every page) had to be reworked. Hopefully, everything is functioning as it should. Also, please be sure and scroll to the bottom of this webpage where you can vote for the Louise Brooks Society.

The entire contents of the "Illustrierter Film-Kurier issue devoted to The Canary Murder Case have been posted to the website. Check it out. Also, a few pages were added to the filmography section. The remaining basic textual parts of the filmography will be put in place this Fall. Afterwords, images (scene stills, film art, lobby cards, advertisements, etc...) will be added. That is a big project which will take some time.

Additional citations were added to various bibliographies; these entries were gathered from a handful of California newspapers including the San Diego Union, Santa Barbara Morning Press and Stockton Daily Record - as well as from a few European publications including Cinemagazine (France), Berliner Tageblatt (Germany), El Sol (Spain) and Kino i Zhizn (U.S.S.R.). All of these citations resulted from recent weekly all-day trips to the UC-Berkeley library and their outstanding microfilm collection.

I think I have found pretty much all that was possible to find in the UC-Berkeley collection. Some trips I have planned in the next six to eight months include visits to Palo Alto, California (Stanford University library) in the Fall; Detroit, Michigan (a visit home with a side trip to the Detroit Public Library) in December; San Jose, California (San Jose State University library) early next year; and Los Angeles, California (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles Public library, and possibly elsewhere) in May, 2003. There is still much to find!

Saturday, August 31, 2002

LBS anniversary

In August of 2002, the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) celebrates its seventh year online. And sometime this month, the website will also enjoy its 750,000th visitor.

Begun in 1995, the LBS has grown to become the largest, most popular and most comprehensive website devoted to any silent film star. (It is also one of the oldest silent film websites on the internet.) The site now contains more than 200 pages of material, and serves as home to the Louise Brooks Society - the world's first "virtual fan club." At last count, its approximately 1100 members hail from 43 countries on six continents.

In its seven year history, the LBS has been recommended by the Encyclopedia Brittanica's "Brittanica Internet Guide," featured on the Microsoft Network's "One Click Away," as well as being named an USA Today Hot Site, Open Directory Cool Site, Celebrity Site of the Day,  Hollywood Site of the Week, and Yahoo "Desert Island Pick." And just last month, in an article about Louise Brooks, the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper in Germany referred to the LBS website as "exemplary." [ See www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/detail.php/218213 ]

And as always, new material is added on an on-going basis. Look for more material in the coming weeks and months.

Thursday, August 8, 2002

Anniversary / News of Lulu

Louise Brooks died of a heart attack during the night of August 8th, 1985. She was seventy-eight years old. This year marks the seventeenth anniversary of her passing. Why not watch a film or video or DVD in remembrance.

Also on August 8th, News of Lulu - the newsletter of the Louise Brooks Society, was sent out to all members. A few additional vintage citations were added to various film bibliographies; these entries were gathered from Le Figaro and the Manchester Guardian. And - for fun - a new collection of links, Around the World with Louise Brooks, has been added to the News of Lulu website. Also, a few pages were added to the filmography section.

Tuesday, August 6, 2002

Film screenings

Pandora's Box will be shown in Chicago at the Gateway Theatre (5216 W. Lawrence Avenue) on Friday, August 9 at 8:00 pm. There will be live organ accompaniment by Dennis Scott. For details see www.silentfilmchicago.com/festival2002.htm

The Walter Read Theater at Lincoln Center (at W. 65th St.) in New York City will be screening Diary of a Lost Girl on Saturday, August 10 at 9 pm. The screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

The Cleveland Institute of Art's Cinematheque will show Diary of a Lost Girl on Saturday, August 24 at 9:30 pm. Lingua - a three-member band consisting of musicians Dan Bode (harmonica), Al Moses (guitar), and Rick Kodramaz (bass) -- will perform a new musical score. More info can be found at www.cia.edu/campuslife/cinematheque/julaug02.asp#diary
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