Monday, March 7, 2005

"Norma Shearer" by Gavin Lambert

God, I wish I could write as well as Gavin Lambert. . . .  I just finished reading his biography of the actress Norma Shearer (1902-1983), and was impressed by his telling of her life story - from her humble beginnings in Canada, to her ascent to movie stardom, marriage to Irving Thalberg, worldwide fame, and then slow withdrawal from Hollywood. The last chapter, describing the actress' final years, was moving. Shearer's life was opaque, and Lambert (who is a novelist and screenwriter) manages to envision a kind-of story arc in the telling of this life. That effect, I think, gives us insight into the woman. And for that reason,Norma Shearer, by Gavin Lambert, is recommended.

[ Only while scribbling this mini-review did I come to realize that there was another Shearer biography. In it's review of Lambert's 1990 book, Library Journalsaid, "In comparison to Lawrence J. Quirk's Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer (St. Martin's, 1988), Lambert's book is more detached, although both authors interviewed Shearer. Quirk comes across as more of a fan and features more quotes from Shearer's coworkers. Lambert's book has more insight. Each book has information not included in the other; both are worthwhile." I will have to try and track down Quirk's book, provided I can find a cheap copy. ]

Sunday, March 6, 2005

March 12th happenings

Looking for something to do on Saturday, March 12th ? Check out either of these happenings:

The Archive Hour on BBC Radio Four
Date: Saturday 12th March 2005
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
"To produce his landmark book on the art of the silent movie, The Parade's Gone By, Kevin Brownlow interviewed many of the leading figures including directors Henry King, Alfred Hitchcock, Lewis Milestone and Garbo's favourite Clarence Brown, as well as stars such as Mary Pickford, Louise Brooks, Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton and Boris Karloff. In conversation with Kevin Brownlow, Michael Pointon explores a fascinating archive, voices from a now almost forgotten era. The programme also includes contributions from Sir Jeremy Isaacs, who helped to promote the silent film during his tenures at Thames TV and Channel 4, and film music composer, Carl Davis." Individuals can listen to this program for a week afterwards via the following link: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/archivehour.shtml   [ Radio, and on-line radio archives such as the BBC, are a great unexplored domain for fans of silent cinema. For example, follow this link to listen to a September 11, 2004 program on Buster Keaton.  ]

Also on March 12th, the wonderful William Wellman film, Wings, which won the first Best Picture Oscar, will be shown with live organ accompaniment in Wichita, Kansas.

Silent Movie Night: Wings (1927)
Century II Exhibition Hall, 7 PM
Tickets: $12 and $6 for students
Century II, Wichita's main convention center, houses the 1926 New York Paramount Theatre Wurlitzer organ. Music from this one-of-a-kind instrument will accompany the film and will be performed by Clark Wilson.

Saturday, March 5, 2005

"Lulu" by Frank Wedekind


Lulu
Ich liebe nicht den Hundetrab
Alltäglichen Verkehres;
Ich liebe das wogende Auf und Ab
Des tosenden Weltenmeeres.
Ich liebe die Liebe, die ernste Kunst,
Urewige Wissenschaft ist,
Die Liebe, die heilige Himmelsgunst,
Die irdische Riesenkraft ist.
Mein ganzes Innre erfülle der Mann
Mit Wucht und mit seelischer Größe.
Aufjauchzend vor Stolz enthüll' ich ihm dann,
Aufjauchzend vor Glück meine Blöße.
by Frank Wedekind

Friday, March 4, 2005

Free pens in the mail

Because the Louise Brooks Society is considered an organization (of sorts), I am on various mailing lists and occassionally receive free sample pens in the mail. The nifty red pen pictured top is a LBS "10th anniversary" pen.

Thursday, March 3, 2005

NYPL Digital Gallery

From today's New York Times . . . "Let the browser beware. The New York Public Library's collection of prints, maps, posters, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, sheet-music covers, dust jackets, menus and cigarette cards is now online (www.nypl.org/digital/digitalgallery.htm). If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too. So far, about 275,000 items are online, and you can browse by subject, by collection, by name or by keyword. The images first appear in thumbnail pictures, a dozen to a page. Some include verso views. You can collect 'em, enlarge 'em, download 'em, print 'em and hang 'em on your wall at home."

A search under "Louise Brooks" brought up eight results, including two cigarette card images of the actress and six images from her days with Denishawn. Oddly enough, the NYPL has especially strong holdings in these two areas - cigarette cards and Denishawn. Scans of some 21,206 cards are online now. While a search under "Denishawn" brought up 78 pages of results. I did a few other random searchs. "Clara Bow" brought up seven results. "Rudolph Valentino" two results. "Charlie Chaplin" three results. "Buster Keaton" four results. If you are looking for something, it seems best to search under different keywords. A search under "Ziegfeld Follies" brought no results. While "Ziegfeld" brought four results.

The database seemed slow to respond (and display), but I am sure it is being overrun with search queries. Also, I wasn't sure if more than thumbnail images were displayed for any given entry. I couldn't get larger scans of the Louise Brooks thumbnail images to show. Here is a link to the New York Times story on the debut of the collection. Happy hunting.

Wednesday, March 2, 2005

2 x 2 x 2

My last two trips to the library (over the course of the last two weeks) left me empty handed. No new microfilm had arrived. . . . This week, however, two loans were waiting for me. I looked at February, 1923 issues of the two newspapers from Vicksburg, Mississippi - the Vicksburg Herald and the Vicksburg Evening Post. And in each I found articles and advertisements related to the Denishawn performance at the Walnut St. Theater.

In his review, George W. Crock of the Vicksburg Evening Post reported that "The audience was not as large as such a super-attraction deserved but the heavy sleet fall and bitter winter weather is largely responsible for that. The extreme cold also prevented the theatre heating plant from doing it's full duty, too and it was somewhat uncomfortable for the dancers in their diaphanous draperies." Nevertheless, by all accounts, the Denishawn dancers went over quite well. TheVicksburg Herald wrote, "The dancing of Miss St. Denis is too wonderful for words. It is the poetry of motion, the art of arts. Ted Shawn is also a wonderful dancer, and is superior to any of the men whom Russo has sent here." The article went on to state in somewhat purple prose, "The young ladies of the company - Martha Graham, Betty May, May Bennett, May Lynn, Lenore Schaeffer, Mary Brooks, are truly exquisite, beautiful fairies, light as thistle-down, living and breathing the dance they interpret." [It's curious that the author of this article refers to Brooks by her given name. Or perhaps they got it wrong. I can't think of another instance when a reviewer referred to "Mary Louise Brooks" throughout her various careers as a dancer, showgirl and actress.]

I also looked at two months of the St. Louis Star, one of the lesser newspapers from the midwestern metropolis. I was hoping to find something on the Denishawn performances in that Missouri city in late 1922 and early 1924. However, all I came up with was brief article and a tiny advert. The St. Louis Stargave extensive coverage to the movies and local theater - but didn't seem concerned about dance. (The Globe Democrat and Post-Dispatch are the "papers of record" for St. Louis - and were far superior in their coverage of the arts. I have already gone through each.)

I did notice, however, that the December 2nd Denishawn performance at the Odeon Theater in St. Louis quite nearly overlapped with a December 3rd engagement by Rudolph Valentino at the Delmonte Theater (see advertisement below). Despite legal threats against him, "The Shiek" did appear onstage, where he spoke for six minutes "before a worshipping throng" and denounced Brooks' future employers, the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. The members of the Denishawn Dance Company most likely missed the event, as they had a December 4th engagement in Indianapolis. (See Emily Leider's fantastic biography of Valentino, Dark Lover, for the story behind this incident.)

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

A Woman of Affairs

Just returned from seeing A Woman of Affairs (1928), with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. (This is the third Garbo film I've seen at the Garbo Festival here in San Francisco.) Also in the cast were Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Sebastian, Lewis Stone and Johnny Mack Brown. I thought the film started slow, but it steadily picked up and finished with a bang. Garbo was lovely once again - a pleasure to watch. Fairbanks Jr. was also good - and his death scene was extraordinary in the way it was shot. William Daniels camera work was quite fine. The film was based on Michael Arlen's once controversial novel, The Green Hat. Local film critic Mick LaSalle - who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and authored Complicated Women (a study of pre-code film) gave some interesting opening remarks.

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A somewhat reworked Louise Brooks Society homepage is now on-line. Mainly, the page has been redesigned so as to accomodate higher screen resolutions used by the majority of visitors. (Nearly 58% of all visitors use settings of 1024 x 768 or higher. That wasn't the case a year or two ago, when the majority of viewers used 800 x 600.) The HTML on the homepage has also been cleaned-up, some images changed, and other things neatened and straightened. A "this day in history" javascript has also been added (thanx to Christy), which will change ever day. I hope to rework the rest of the site in the coming months. Comments? Questions?
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