Sale on Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl

Between now and March 10, everything on Lulu.com is 20% off - use code SUPER20. That  includes the Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl, and essential title for every fan of silent film. The sale doesn’t last long. Grab some great reads before this sale is gone!

RadioLulu is streaming Louise Brooks music of the 1920s, 1930s and today

A reminder to be sure and check out RadioLulu - Louise Brooks inspired, silent film themed radio featuring music of the Twenties, Thirties and today - includes Brooks' related film music, early jazz, dance bands, songs sung by silent film stars, and contemporary pop music about the silent film star.

This week, in order to help spread the word, the Louise Brooks Society has established a Twitter feed for RadioLulu @Radio_Lulu as well as a Facebook page. Please check 'em out.

RadioLulu features music from six of the Brooks' films - including the haunting themes from Beggars of Life (1928) and Prix de Beaute (1930), as well as musical snippets from The Canary Murder Case (1929) and Empty Saddles (1936). Other vintage tracks associated with the actress on RadioLulu include Maurice Chevalier's much-loved 1929 recording of "Louise," and rare recordings by co-stars Adolphe Menjou, Noah Beery, Blanche Ring, Grace Moore, and Cary Grant.

Rare recording by Brooks' Hollywood contemporaries are also featured. Among the film world personalities heard on the station are Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Pola Negri, Ramon Novarro, Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, Bebe Daniels, Marlene Dietrich, Buddy Rogers, Jean Harlow, and Tallulah Bankhead.

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell can be heard singing the charming "If I Had A Talking Picture Of You."

On RadioLulu, you'll hear Jazz Age crooners, torch singers, dance bands, hotel orchestras, show tunes, standards, and some real sweet jazz! There are vintage recordings from England, France, Germany, and even Czechoslovakia. There are tracks featuring the celebrated 1930's Polish chanteuse Hanka Ordonówna, the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht (singing "Mack the Knife" in 1929!), and the contemporary cartoonist Robert Crumb (playing on "Chanson por Louise Brooks").

 And what's more, you'd be hard-pressed to find a station that plays more tracks with "Lulu" in the title than the always eclectic and always entertaining RadioLulu!

RadioLulu also plays contemporary musical tributes to the actress by the likes of Twiggy, Rufus Wainwright, Soul Coughing, OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark), Marillion, The Green Pajamas, Ron Hawkins, Sarah Azzara, Paul Hayes, and Clan of Xymox, among others.

Who else can be heard on RadioLulu? How about the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Abe Lyman, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Gertrude Lawrence, Annette Hanshaw, Rudy Vallee, Helen Kane, Paul Whiteman, Ted Weems, George Gershwin, Russ Colombo, Harry Richman, Libby Holman and Xavier Cugart - as well as Camilla Horn, Lillian Harvey, Anny Ondra, Josephine Baker, Lucienne Boyer, Mistinguett, and even Kiki of Montparnase.

RadioLulu plays great music, including numerous rare recordings of movie stars from the silent film and early sound era. Check it out !

Cool pic of the Day: Louise Brooks, a flower

On this day in 1927, Evening Clothes had its world premiere

On this day in 1927, Louise Brooks' eighth film, Evening Clothes, had its world premiere at the Metropolitan theater in Los Angeles, California. Adolphe Menjou was in attendance at that special event, as was the noted poet and then current French ambassador to the United States, Paul Claudel. Brooks was not reported to have been there.

Evening Clothes was officially released on March 19, 1927. The film is a comedy-drama about a French gentleman farmer who, spurned by his bride, goes to Paris in order to become sophisticated enough to win her back. The film is lost.

Adolphe Menjou played Lucien d'Artois, Virginia Valli was Germaine, Noah Beery played Lazarre, and Louise Brooks was Fox Trot. The film was directed by Luther Reed, and notably, the film's cinematographer was Hal Rosson. The great cameraman was once married to actress Jean Harlow (from 1933 to 1934), and is best known for his work on the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. Ah, to be able to watch Evening Clothes today!

Alain Resnais, Acclaimed French Filmmaker, Dead at 91

French film director Alain Resnais has died at age 91. The New York Times obit for Resnais mentioned Louise Brooks.

Resnais' famous 1961 film, Last Year at Marienbad  was based on/inspired by Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1941 novella, The Invention of Morel, whose key character, Faustine, was in-turn inspired by Brooks. Perhaps that is why the New York Times wrote, "The film achieves its hypnotic force through repeated lines and situations, a time scheme that folds back on itself, and ominous, black-and-white wide-screen images that evoke both surrealist paintings (human figures cast long shadows, but not the decorative shrubbery that frames them) and the society dramas of silent film. (Ms. Seyrig is costumed to resemble the enigmatic silent star Louise Brooks.)"

For more on this little known, but fascinating connection see Thomas Beltzer's "Last Year at Marienbad: An Intertextual Meditation."

Beggars of Life starring Louise Brooks screens in Scotland on March 13

The 4th annual Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema takes place in Scotland's oldest purpose-built cinema – the Hippodrome in Falkirk – this March.

This year, the festival offers up screenings of several rare and cult classic films from the silent era and beyond. Highlights include a 1933 Japanese gangster movie Dragnet Girl (Hijôsen No Onna), which gets an all-new soundtrack and Oscar-winner Kevin Brownlow's documentary about the legendary 'man of a thousand faces', Lon Chaney. Also, the Dodge Brothers, a skiffle and rockabilly band led by film critic Mark Kermode, will accompany the 1928 Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life on Thursday, March 13th. The Dodge Brothers will be accompanied by Neil Brand.

As well as gala screenings with unique live soundtracks, the festival offers workshops, including New Found Sound, which sees local schools collaborating on an improvised score with composer Thomas Butler. In "Home Front Picture Houses: Cinema And The Great Warc," Prof. John Caughie  and María Vélez (both University of Glasgow) and Dr. Mike Hammond (University of Southampton, and lead guitar for the Dodge Brothers) examine the legacy of picture houses like the Hippodrome and the role they played in the Great War.

Other films by greats of the silent era being screened this year including work by Buster Keaton and a F.W. Murnau, along with a Laurel and Hardy triple bill. The festival runs March 12 through the 16th – visit the festival site to find out times, prices, and full listings.

Yasujirô Ozu's Dragnet Girl

Event for The Vanity at Orinda Books

Great turn out today (some 50 people) for Robert Murillo's event for The Vanity at Orinda Books in Orinda, California. I introduced Louise Brooks and participated in the Q & A, and even autographed a copy of my book for a curious attendee. It was lovely seeing and meeting new & old friends, including Beth Ann Gallagher. Robert Murillo signed some extra copies of his novel, which may be ordered through the store.