Friday, October 3, 2003

Greta Garbo biography by Barry Paris

Finished reading Barry Paris' excellent biography of the Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo. In many ways, she is as elusive a personality as Louise Brooks. But, her mystery - her appeal - comes from somewhere else. After having read Barry Paris' biographies of both film stars, I am certain there was more going on in Brooks' head (as well as deeper motivations) than in Garbo's. 

Reading Garbo got me onto a Garbo jag. I am wanting to read more. Scouring the bibliography in the back of Paris' book led me to track down and purchase over the internet two early books on the actress, The Private Life of Greta Garbo by Rilla Page Palmborg (published in softcover in London in 1931), and Greta Garbo: The Story of a Specialist by E. E. Laing (published in London in hardcover in 1946). I am looking forward to receiving each of these books.

p.s. When I saw Barry Paris a few years ago, he gave me a special Garbo bookmark which was made by a friend of his. I keep it in my copy of his book. It measures approximately 2.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and is reproduced below. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2003

LBS Research update

My quest to uncover more articles and reviews related to Louise Brooks' career as a dancer and film actress continues. Some of the publications I have been looking at lately (on microfilm via inter-library loan) are the Kansas City Star, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Salt Lake Telegram, Syracuse Post-Standard, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star and Indianapolis Star. I was able to find some material in each of these papers. The Pittsburgh Dispatch, it might be noted, is now defunct. It ceased publishing not too long after Louise Brooks and the Denishawn dance company passed through town. Other newspapers I have looked at in my research have also closed, have changed names, or have merged with another publication. 

My goal is to survey the leading newspapers in the 20 largest cities in America in the 1920's. I have also looked at - or plan to look at - newspapers from each region of the United States. All together, the accumulated results should offer a representitive critical perspective on Brooks and her films.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Ramon Novarro bio

I just finished reading an excellent film biography, Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, by Andre Soares. It is one of the most sympathetic biographies I have read in a long time. I really liked this book. It is well written and well researched. And is highly recommended. (And if you haven't seen the original Ben-Hur, go out and rent it today. It is excellent. I have seen it at least a half-dozen times.)

Here is a description of the book from its publisher. "Ramon Novarro was for years one of the top lead actors in Hollywood - the first Latin-American performer to become a Hollywood superstar. Born Ramón Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, Novarro arrived in Hollywood in 1916 as a refugee from the civil wars that rocked Mexico in the early 20th century. By the mid-1920s, he had become one of MGM's most important leading men, going on to star in a series of now classic films including The Student Prince, Mata Hari, and the original version of Ben-Hur. He shared the screen with the era's most important leading ladies such as Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer and become Rudolph Valentino's main rival in the "Latin Lover" category. But despite his considerable professional accomplishments, Novarro's most enduring claim to fame is his tragic death - his bloodied corpse was found in his house on Halloween 1968 in what has become one of the most infamous scandals in the vast lore of Hollywood.

Novarro was a life-long bachelor who had carefully cultivated his image as a man deeply devoted to his family and to his religious convictions. His murder shattered that image as it was revealed to the general public that the dashing screen hero had been not only homosexual, but had been killed by two young male hustlers. Since then, his death has achieved near mythic proportions. Increasingly outlandish stories have become accepted as truth, obscuring Novarro's notable professional legacy.

Beyond Paradise presents for the first time a full picture of the man who made motion picture history - from his amazing rise to stardom to the destructive conflicts faced by this traditional Catholic Mexican man who was also a gay film star. Compellingly told and impressively researched - including original interviews with Novarro's surviving friends, family, co-workers and the two men convicted of his murder - Beyond Paradise provides a unique insight into the groundbreaking life and career of one of the most important early Hollywood stars - a man whose myth continues to fascinate today."

Sunday, June 15, 2003

Newspaper research

Some of the newspapers which I have looked at lately include the Austin American-Statesman, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Topeka State Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (the future home of Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris), Boston Evening American, Memphis Commericial Appeal and Dallas Morning Herald. Research, research, research. I love it.

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Rudolph Valentino biography

Currently reading the new Valentino biography, Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, by Emily W. Leider. I am about 125 pages into the book, and am enjoying it a great deal. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in the life and times of the actor, or anyone interested in silent film. I will post further thoughts on the book once I am done reading it.

For those interested in checking out the book (and the author), Emily Leider will be giving a talk in San Francisco. Here are the details.

EMILY W. LEIDER
reading & booksigning for "Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino"
May 7th, 7 pm
at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street, San Francisco)
This event is free and open to the public. For further information, call 415-863-8688 or visit www.booksmith.com

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Site Updates

Added a few more images to the Vintage Magazine Covers page, including a 1926 Danish magazine with Louise Brooks on the cover. Also, scanned my recent eBay purchase of a 1928 issue of Film Weekly with Brooks on the cover. That image was also added to the aforementioned page. Recently, I added a page of vintage Related Magazine Covers, though there are only three examples. Hopefully, I will find others.

Thursday, April 24, 2003

S.S. Van Dine

Recently finished reading Alias S.S. Van Dine, a biography by John Loughery of the man who wrote The Canary Murder Case. I enjoyed the book a good deal, and would recommend it to those interested in 20th century American cultural history. Willard Huntington Wright (aka S. S. Van Dine) was an interesting, though perhaps disagreeable, person who knew many leading figures of the time. (Louise Brooks is mentioned in passing in this book; she had the left the set of the Canary Murder Case by the time Van Dine arrived to lend his then considerable fame to the film.) Having finished the biography, I then decided to read the celebrated mystery novel which served as the basis for the 1929 film. As of today, I am nearly through with the book. Just about 50 pages to go. I will finish it, though I find the book somewhat tedious.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

New material

Yesterday, I received photocopies of some six dozen vintage clippings from various Philadelphia newspapers. The clippings are part of the Philadelphia newspaper morgue housed at Temple University. (I came across a reference to this material while searching for newspaper archives on the internet.) Though the clippings I received were mostly small, wire service articles from the 1930's, they are of some interest. Citations for this material have been added to the appropriate bibliographies.

Through interlibrary loans over the last few months, I have been slowly working my way through the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Syracuse Post-Standard, Chicago Daily News, and Newark Star Eagle - and have recently started looking through the Houston Chronicle, Omaha World Herald, Seattle Times and Birmingham News. Last week, I also spent a day at home looking through some of the websites which reproduce old newspapers. There, I found scattered articles and reviews from a number of small town newspapers such as the Reno Gazette from Nevada, Denton Journal from Maryland, and Daily Northwestern from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. One goal behind this research is to accumulate a representitive selection of reviews from across the United States.

One of the websites I looked through had some Canadian and Mexican newspapers. While I didn't find any articles about Brooks or her films in these North American newspapers, I did manage to find advertisements for the actress' films. The best material were some half-dozen advertisements for films featuring Luisa Brooks in Il Informador from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Sacramento trip

At the California State Library in Sacremento, I looked through the Pasadena Star-News, La Opinion and some Los Angeles newspapers for the period of the mid-to-late 1920's. I found a bunch of film reviews, advertisements and articles in the Pasadena newspaper, but little in La Opinion. (This Spanish-language paper, based in Los Angeles, ran frequent articles on Hispanic film stars such as Dolores del Rio, Raquel Torres, Ramon Navarro, etc . . . , but nothing that I could find on Louise Brooks.) I also took the time to search through four Los Angeles newspapers for material on Just Another Blonde, Evening Clothes and The City Gone Wild. My efforts in this regard were successful, and I found reviews, articles, ads and more. Citations for all of the material that I have found have been aded to the bibliographies.
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