Lehigh University newspaper weighs in on The American Venus

I was stumbling around the Lehigh University website recently when I noticed that the school's newspaper, The Brown and White, had been scanned and put on line in a searchable format. I looked up "Louise Brooks" and found newspaper advertisements for a couple of her films in which the actress was noted as starring. Those films were Now We're in the Air (which showed at the same time as Metropolis - "words can't describe it") in November, 1927 and then again in February, 1928 as well as Beggars of Life in November, 1928.

I then did a search for film titles (where Brooks was not listed), and found advertisements for The Street of Forgotten Men screenings in October, 1925 and January, 1926. I also turned up an advertisement for a three day run for The American Venus in February, 1926. This showing of the film also received a humorous review of sorts which is well worth reading. (Click on the image to view a bigger copy.)

The review suggests that the Thursday afternoon matinee of The American Venus was very, very, very popular - so much so the writer wondered whether classes at Lehigh had been cancelled! The Miss Bay Port referenced in the piece is indeed Louise Brooks, while the Miss America critiqued for her acting was Fay Lanphier - who was Miss America in 1925.

Almost 60 years later, Louise Brooks' best known film, Pandora's Box, was shown at Lehigh. The campus silent cinema series screened what it described as the "one of the most subtly erotic films ever made," presented by Professor Michael Pressler. 

Lehigh University (located in in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is one of a number of college newspapers I have searched - either over the web on on microfilm - looking for Louise Brooks-related material. They include the University of Michigan, Harvard, USC, UCLA, University of California, Berkeley and others.

Louise Brooks anniversaries

Louise Brooks (actress, dancer, and writer) died on this day, August 8th, in 1985. And in tribute, the Louise Brooks Society was launched on the web in August of 1995.

A major overhaul of the LBS (at www.pandorasbox.com) is coming this Fall.

Don't forget, Diary of a Lost Girl TONIGHT in Los Angeles

DON'T FORGET: The Silent Treatment and the Cinefamily Theater will screen the classic 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, on August 7 in Los Angeles, California. More information here. Showtime is 7:30 - tickets are $12.00.

Vintage Hollywood comic books, including Dixie Dugan and Buck Jones, at Digital Comics Museum

The Digital Comics Museum is a wonderful online resource. The site says it is "the best site for downloading FREE public domain Golden Age Comics," and it may well be true. To start downloading, register an account and enjoy reading a great assortment of vintage comic books. The Digital Comics Museum does not charge per download, with the stated goal of the project to archive these comic books online and make them widely available.

There are comic books dating, mostly, from the late 1930s through the early 1960s. Among them are a couple associated with the career of Louise Brooks, as well as many others relating to Hollywood and the movies.

The Digital Comics Museum has a couple of issues of the Dixie Dugan comic book. As fans of Brooks will recall, the actress was the inspiration for this long-running comic strip / comic book character. The early incarnation of the strip, circa 1930, featured a look-alike character, scenes set in the entertainment world, and even a few panels lifted directly from film stills. Follow this link to see these later-day Dixie Dugan comics - http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=244

The Digital Comics Museum also includes a half-dozen issues of a Buck Jones comic book. As fans of Brooks will also recall, Brooks was featured in Empty Saddles, a 1936 Western starring Jones. He started in the silent era, a remained major star throughout the 1930s. Sadly, Jones was one of the 492 victims of the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, Massachusetts, dying two days after the November 28th blaze. For years, legend held that Jones's fatal injuries were the result of his going back into the burning building to save victims, but it is now known that he was one of many trapped in the fire. Follow this link to see the Buck Jones comics, which date from the early 1950s, a number of years after Jones' death - http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=632

And speaking of Western films featuring Louise Brooks, the Digital Comics Museum also has issues of John Wayne Adventure Comics. As fans of the actress will recall, Brooks was featured in an early John Wayne film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938). These comics date, I think, from the early 1950s.

The Digital Comics Museum has numerous other Hollywood-related comic books from the 1940s and 1950s, some of which harken back to the silent and early sound era.

They have runs of Johhny Mack Brown, Bill Boyd Western, Motion Picture Comics, Tom Mix Western, Hollywood Diary, Hollywood Secrets, Abbott and Costello Comics, Three Stooges, Famous Stars, and others. And of course there are many non movie or celebrity related comics.

But wait, there is more! The Digital Comics Museum also has very early issues of Little Nemo (circa 1906 - the year Brooks was born) and Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang (from the early 1920s). As fans of the actress will also recall, Brooks appeared in the cover of this humor journal in the late 1920s.

MUST READ - Flashback: Louise Brooks By Peter Cowie

Thomas Gladysz and Peter Cowie in 2006

Peter Cowie, film critic and film historian extraordinaire and the author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever, has penned a wonderful essay for the Criterion website.

The piece is called "Flashback: Louise Brooks By Peter Cowie," and it's about the critic's friendship with the actress during the 1970's. It's a must read.

This is the second in a series of pieces devoted to film figures Cowie has gotten to know in the course of his long and illustrious career. Read his introduction to the series here.

In the comments field, Kevin Brownlow wrote: "As beautifully written and as vivid as a letter from Louise Brooks."

If you are a Louise Brooks fan and don't have a copy of Cowie's pictorial book, Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever, then get a copy today on amazon or ABE.com or your favorite used bookstore!

Cinefamily screens the Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, on August 7

DON'T FORGET: The Silent Treatment and the Cinefamily Theater will screen the classic 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, on August 7 in Los Angeles, California. More information here. Showtime is 7:30 - tickets are $12.00.

Inside the Cinefamily Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Notice the portrait
of Louise Brooks on the wall!

"There’s a reason the name Louise Brooks elicits sighs every time it’s mentioned at the Cinefamily: her ferocious charisma and otherworldly beauty cemented her status as an icon well before she retired from the silver screen, at the age of 32. From her comic role opposite W.C. Fields to multiple turns as troubled, willful heroines in the films of legendary German Expressionist auteur G.W. Pabst, Brooks shines as an actress capable of endless nuance and versatility — as she understood the impact both her inner and outer beauty could bring to the screen. Here, in her second and final collaboration with Pabst, Brooks gives a delicately restrained performance as the naive daughter of a prosperous pharmacist who stuns her clan by becoming pregnant. After being put through the repressive reform school ringer, she escapes to a brothel where she becomes liberated and lives for the moment with radiant physical abandon. Pabst’s escalating nightmares are heightened by Brooks’ sensitive portrayal of a truly lost girl whose hard-earned redemption is as beautiful a vision as the star herself. Dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929, 35mm, 116 min. - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/the-silent-treatment/#the-silent-treatment-louise-brooks-in-diary-of-a-lost-girl"

See the movie? Read the book. Check out the "Louise Brooks edition" of Margarete Bohme's controversial bestseller, The Diary of a Lost Girl - available through Indiebound and Amazon.

Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks

Here is a rather remarkable picture of Louise Brooks, taken most likely in 1925 during her time on the stage in New York City. It is an usual look, wouldn't you say....