Chantal Kury

I recently received a delightful letter from Chantal Kury, a Swiss make-up artist. Not only is Chantal a gifted and very accomplished make-up artist (check-out her website at www.positivelook.ch), but she is also a "big, big fan of Louise Brooks." To show her affection, Chantal made herself up as Thymain, the character played by Brooks in Diary of a Lost Girl. I think you will all agree she did a great job!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 8 - 10th at the historic Castro Theater.  (This is the 10th annual festival -  I've been to every one.) This year's festival includes films starring Clara Bow, John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish (as well as San Francisco's own Lawrence Gray). There will also be rare screenings of silent films from India and Brazil, and a program of animation rarities. Every film is accompanied by live music. I would encourage everyone to attend ! It is THE outstanding silent film festival in the United States.

I will be there all three days, working the book table in the Castro lobby. (I also hope to catch a film or two!) Among the authors who will be signing books at the festival are Leatrice Fountain (daughter of silent film stars John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy and author of Dark Star, the outstanding biography of her father),Anthony Slide (the author and editor of more than 50 books whom Lillian Gish called "our preeminent historian of the silent film"), John Wranovics (author of a fascinating book - the just released Chaplin and Agee: The Untold Story of the Tramp, the Writer, and the Lost Screenplay), Wendy Marshall (author of William Beaudine: From Silents to Television), Suzanne Lloyd (granddaughter of Harold Lloyd and author of Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian), and others. The book table will be featuring lots of new releases, autographed titles, sale books and more.

Check out the festival website for further info including a complete description of programs (there are also a number of short films being presented), ticket information, etc.... And if you make it to the festival, please come say "hello."

SPECIAL OFFER: I just thought of this. Anyone who reads this blog and stops by the book table to say "hello" (there must be at least three or four of you!) will receive a FREE Louise Brooks pinback button or refrigerator magnet AND a copy of  Photoplay Edition by Emil Petaja while supplies last. Please mention you saw this offer posted in the Louise Brooks Society blog.

Four word film review

There is an amusing website called The Four Word Film Review. What is it ? "The fwfr is a film review site like no other - an ever expanding collection of extremely brief film reviews and summaries. Submissions are welcomed from anyone - the only condition being no more than four words may be used." To date, there 127,201 reviews of 12,422 films. I have contributed one review, for Pandora's Box, which reads "Femme fatale finds fate." (My review, and another for the film, can be found on this page.) Pandora's Box is the only Louise Brooks' film so far reviewed, though a handful of other silent movies have been written-up. Check it out, or better yet, contribute a four word film review.

Marion Davies

Last night I watched The Patsy on TCM. Marion Davies was terrific! This King Vidor directed film also featured a wonderful Marie Dressler and the mostly bland Lawrence Gray. Did anyone else see it ? I also watched once again the fine Marion Davies documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley (who did Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu).

Another Louise Brooks film festival

Lulupalooza is not the only Louise Brooks festival taking place this Summer! Word comes from LBS correspondent Pascal that another Louise Brooks film festival will be taking place in France. The Festival International du Film de La Rochelle is presenting a retrospective of the films of Louise Brooks (who appears on the festival poster). The retrospective includes 10 films and the documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. For more information, including a long essay by Bernard Chardère, see this page on the festival website.

And newspapers from Davenport, Syracuse and Oakland

One of the other databases I have been exploring lately is NewspaperArchive.com. This website houses a massive array of scanned newspapers, mostly from small towns and smaller cities across the United States. So far, they claim to have accumulated 21 million pages of searchable newspapers! I have subscribed in the past, but decided to take out another one month subscription (at $24.95 for 30 days) in order to explore new material.

I am in the middle of my search, but so far have found a bunch of material from two newspapers I have not looked at before, the Syracuse Herald (from Syracuse, New York) and the Davenport Democrat and Leader (from Davenport, Iowa). I scored film reviews, articles and advertisements. I was especially happy to get at these two papers, as Syracuse and Davenport each hosted the Denishawn Dance company during the time Louise Brooks was with the group. Resultingly, I found a few more articles. Here is a nifty little piece I uncovered from the Syracuse Herald from March, 1926.



NewspaperArchive.com has also added the Oakland Tribune (from Oakland, California) to its holdings. Though I have previously gone through this newspaper on microfilm at the Oakland Public Library, I took the opportunity to search this database by keyword. And I came up with a handful of new items, including a few film reviews dating from the 1920's which I had missed before. One particular item which caught my attention was the mention of a 1974 screening of Prix de Beaute in San Francisco put on by Kenneth Anger. (The famed author, actor, and filmmaker used to live in San Francisco, and had known Brooks in Paris in the 1950's.) This screening was certainly one of the earliest in America - as the film was reportedly not shown in the United States in the 1930's. When I next visit the San Francisco Public Library, I will search the San Francisco papers for anything additional about this event.

Dallas Morning News

I have been waiting a long time for the Dallas Morning News to put their archive online. Early last year, I came across a webpage announcing a searchable archive of the newspaper (dating back to 1885) would be made available by the end of 2004. And so, I waited, and waited, and waited. And then last night, much to my bibliographical glee, I found that the archive was online.

I spent $29.95 for a one month / 200 page view subscription to the DallasNews.com Historical Archives, and then spent most of the day searching for and downloading material related to Louise Brooks. (These sorts of databases are sometimes tricky. One has to search for things at least two different ways.) I found a few articles about the January, 1924 Denishawn performance in Dallas. I also found ten film reviews, and a half-dozen other short articles about various Brooks' films. And, I found another half-dozen articles which were partly or in whole about Brooks. All of this is new material, as I have not been able to explore other Dallas newspapers. (The Dallas Herald Tribune is unobtainable via inter-library loan. Seemingly, it doesn't exist on microfilm.) Here is a typical find from February, 1926 - most likely a syndicated bit that would have appeared in other newspapers around the country.



There were also a number of other syndicated columns and articles which mentioned the actress. One of the most unsual was a 1934 piece on G.W. Pabst. The article mentioned some of the earlier efforts by this "genius director" - including "Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks." This passing reference to Pandora's Box is an exceptionally rare one. The film was rarely mentioned in the American press in the 1930's. I only know of one other instance from the 1930's.

All-in-all, I was pleased with what I had found - and felt that my subscription to this database was worthwhile (despite the expense). I got a lot of stuff. Citations for all of this material have been added to the appropriate LBS bibliographies.