January 5, 1960
Danton Walker of the New York Daily News reports in his Broadway column, “Louise Brooks, one of the early-day film beauties, plans to be on hand for the showing for the first time in the U.S. of her film Prix de Beaute (Beauty Prize) made in Paris in 1929, during the oldtime film revival at the YMHA Film Center Jan. 12.”
January 12, 1960
Lunch with Lillian Gish at Gish’s apartment in New York City. Later, Brooks attends a screening of Prix de beaute at the Y.M.H.A, where she gives a well received 10 minute talk described by Jan Wahl as “a charming impromptu speech.” In the audience are Wahl, John Springer, Jimmy Glennon, and old friends Peggy Fears and Leonore Scheffer.
January 13, 1960
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle runs an article titled “Louise Brooks Honor Guest in NYC.”
January 16, 1960
Prix de Beaute is shown at the Cinematheque in Paris.
January 22, 1960
The New York Daily News reports “G.W. Pabst’s The Diary of a Lost One, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at Cinema 16 at 8 pm Tuesday and at 7:15 and 9:30 pm Wednesday at the Fashion Industries Auditorium, instead of the previously announced screening of Tod Browning’s Freaks, cancelled because of a sudden dispute over legal rights to this motion picture.”
January 26 – 27, 1960
The Diary of a Lost Girl is shown by Cinema 16 at Fashion Industries High School Auditorium on January 26, and twice on January 27. James Card introduces each screening. On January 16, the New York Times notes that the films star was also invited to appear.
February 5, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, noting that an editor at Macmillian, Charlotte Painter, showed interested in one of her earlier articles.
February 6, 1960
The New York Daily News reports “Louise Brooks is active at Eastman House, the leading film museum, at Rochester, N.Y., and writing her own memoirs of Hollywood.”
February 28, 1960
Writes a note to Jan Wahl, in which she mentions a publisher, Random House, is “nibbling” at her book on women in film, “10 dames and me.”
March 3, 1960
Watches Girl from Missouri (1934), starring Jean Harlow, on television.
March ?, 1960
Completes painting titled “Snow-striped Tree” (black and white – oil on cardboard), which Brooks eventually sends to Lotte Eisner in Paris.
March 27, 1960
Listens to radio program from 7:00 to 8:00 pm which features Mitch Miller, Bosley Crowther, Archer Winston.
March 28, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, noting that she read Wahl’s “Jackal, Wolf, and Fox,” which she praises a great deal. (The story is included in Wahl’s 1978 book, Youth’s Magic Horn.) She also mentions having heard of Norman Mailer’s book Advertisements for Myself, and that she would love to see Martha Graham’s Spring concert in NYC, but she owes too much on her recent dental work.
May 2, 1960
Writes a letter to G.W. Pabst.
May 14, 1960
Eastman House screens Prix de Beaute.
June 23, 1960
Views Blonde of the Follies at Eastman House.
June 26, 1960
Watches Camera Three on television. This episode features Yuriko, a dancer best known for her work with the Martha Graham Dance Company.
July 16, 1960
Dreams about Eddie Sutherland, which she records in her diary.
July 17, 1960
George Marshall telephones to say Eddie Sutherland is in poor health.
August 31, 1960
Writes a letter to Lawrence Quirk.
September ?, 1960
Listens to radio program which features Mitch Miller.
September 9, 1960
Writes a letter to Lawrence Quirk.
September 17, 1960
Writes a letter to Lawrence Quirk.
September 18, 1960
Watches Playmates (1941), starring John Barrymore, on television.
September 22, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl saying she may receive a grant from the Bollingen Foundation, and quoting from a poem by W.B. Yeats.
September 28, 1960
Watches Fred Astaire on television.
October 8, 1960
Watches Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) on television.
October 15, 1960
Leonard Brooks dies in Cherryvale, at the age of 92.
October 19, 1960
James Card brings a Japanese edition of Lotte Eisner’s book.
October 26, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, thanking him for an original photograph of Anna Pavlova, and mentioning a September 20th break with James Card.
December 1, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, mentioning she had read Wahl’s story, “At the Crossing, and material he had written on Carl Dreyer’s film, Ordet. The p.s. mentions Ted Shawn wants Brooks to read his recently published autobiography, One Thousand and One Nights Stands.
December 7, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl.
December 19, 1960
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl.
December 21, 1960
Writes a short note saying she is sorry for having written her previous “mean” letter.
January 18, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl.
April 1961
National Film Theater in London screens Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl as part of their season of films by G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau.
April 1, 1961
Receives a letter from John de Lungo, a younger English fan, with who she strikes up a correspondence.
April 16, 1961
Watches television program on the music of the civil war hosted by noted conductor Frederick Fennell (of Rochester’s Eastman Wind Ensemble).
June 12, 1961
Writes a long, chatty letter to Jan Wahl mentioning Peggy Fears, Henri Langlois, Lotte Eisner, and a “script” she was working on about Chaplin. Brooks also mentions an essay she is working on about Mary Pickford, and that she had borrowed a copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita from the library.
June 16, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, mentioning she sent him a manuscript.
June 17, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl mentioning her anger after reading Lolita.
June 18, 1961
Receives an evening call from old NYC friend Jimmy Glennon.
June 21, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl.
June 22, 1961
Sends a telegram to Jan Wahl.
June 23, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, discussing Isadora Duncan and artistic representations of Duncan, and that she detests Ruth St. Denis, of whom she writes, “She grabbed everything, lighting and drapery movement, musical ‘visualization’ from Loie Fuller and Izzy [Duncan] not forgetting the use of great music…. Nowhere do I say that I like Martha’s dancing better than ballet. I am a Pavlova kid myself. My last dances [in] 1941 were as delicate as Debussy.” In a mood, Brooks also slights film critics / theorists Siegfried Kracauer (whom she calls “Krapauer”), Rudolf Arnheim, and Vsevolod Pudovkin. She also states that everyone involved in the making of Pandora’s Box referred to it as The Box of Pandora. In a post script, referring to Vladimir Nabokov, Brooks writes, “Jerkoff is marvelous. And what a story-teller.”
June 26, 1961
Writes a long letter to Jan Wahl, mentions she has reread Lolita, revises her opinion of Nabokov, and was thinking about her essay, “Girl Child in Films.” Brooks also writes, “I wrote Lolita in 1951, Naked on My Goat…. even the foulest degenerates recoiled in horror when I talked about it.”
June 27, 1961
Writes two long letters to Jan Wahl. The first mentioning his story “A Nun’s Afternoon Off,” and discussing what it takes to be a great writer. Later, she says “Lotti kept after me and after me to write and I thought I stunk and could never learn and she said ‘Write it article by article and then you will have your book the way I did’.” In the second letter, Brooks says that Card had read her story “Who Is the Exotic Black Orchid” (an excerpt from Naked on my Goat), and said it “stunk.” Brooks also says that Herbert Brenon called her a lousy actress on the set of The Street of Forgotten Men in front of those gathered.
July 5, 1961
Writes a long letter to Jan Wahl, and mentions the book she is writing on women in film (titled Thirteen Hollywood Women), which is to include chapters on Constance Bennett, Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Gloria Swanson, and Constance Talmadge. “But after a hundred pages on Gish I found out that I am not the biography type…. I did a bit of work reading about Colleen Moore because Clara Bow learned her acting from Moore pictures and Moore was an excellent actress. But she is the damnest bore…. I must tell you about the absolute fascination of her one brown and one blue eye. I would site and let her talk at me just to watch those blue eyes. I would sit and let her talk at me just to watch those eyes which gave me the feeling that I was talking to two different people with one voice. Dietrich I would love to write about but I met her only once when she first came over and was sweet and fluffy in baby blue. Same with Negri. Just once Mal St. Clair took me to her dressing room and we were much interested in each other.” In the second part of the letter, Brooks mentions she had received letters from Macmillian and Random House asking about her book. “Maybe Lillian Gish will give me some leads in research. I wrote her how important Broken Blossoms we be in the article.” Brooks also mentions she has just read Lytton Strachey’s Queen Victoria, and concludes by asking Wahl if he has any material on Marguerite Clark or Nazimova.
July 16, 1961
Folke Isaksson article about Brooks, “Filmen vakraste kvinna” (“The Cinema’s Most Beautiful Woman”), appears in the Swedish publication Dagens Nyheter.
July 17, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl mentioning that the French government could pay $4000 for her visit to France, and she was hoping to get $100 for a recent article in a French magazine. She also mentions she has been typing up her notes on Clara Bow, which came to 100 pages and which she hopes to place in a popular magazine.
July 18, 1961
Receives a 40 minute phone call from Bill Kendall, who was drinking in Glennon’s NYC bar.
July 19, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl in which Brooks says Kendall was in love with her 30 years earlier. Brooks also mentioned her knowing Dorothy Parker and her one-time flame, critic John McClain. Brooks says she sent McClain her manuscript of Word and Movement, and was hoping to find an agent for her piece on Clara Bow, “The Bow Who Tied Up the Twenties.”
July 24, 1961
Watches Here’s Hollywood (celebrity interview program which aired weekday afternoons at 4:30 on NBC) on television. The episode included Mae Murray.
July 31, 1961
Prix de beaute is screened at the New Yorker theater in New York City. Among those in attendance were the noted poets Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson, each of whom would write poems based on Brooks and the film.
October 10, 1961
Richard Arlen makes a personal appearance in Rochester at Sibley’s department store, but does not meet Brooks.
October 26, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl mentioning that Henri Langlois had sent her the catalogue to the Melies Exposition at the Louvre. She also suggests Wahl write to the German film publicist Lothar Wolff, who was now living in NYC working for an agent. Brooks says Wolff knows her “intimately.”
November 27, 1961
Begins a correspondence (the first of more than 125 letters) with the Canadian film historian, author and broadcaster Gerald Pratley. Brooks writes in this first letter that she is working on a piece on Clara Bow titled “The Wounded Heart.”
December 18, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, which mentions that John McClain had sent Brooks’ Words and Movement to his agent, who is interested in representing Brooks.
December 26, 1961
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl mentioning she is reading Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, as well as the latest notices in the Saturday Review. Brook also mentions she needs to write an outline for Women in Films, and that Lillian Gish had sent her a Christmas note.
1961-1962
Ted Shawn and Louise Brooks correspond regarding the George Eastman House copy of Kinetic Molpai film.
1962
Brooks notes her living allowance as $250.00 per month.
January 4, 1962
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, mentioning that she is reading about Maude Adams for her articles “The Garbo Mystery” and “Girl Child in Films.”
January 19, 1962
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, writing that she is “enraptured” with The Life and Letters of Janet Erskine Stuart: Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart, 1857-1914, by Maud Monahan. The book was given to her by a local nun, Mother Digges. Brooks also mentioned that she had previously attended a one day religious retreat, and expected to do so again in July. Brooks also writes that she (account No. 3791) receives 42 dollars a year for life from the Propagation of the Faith in New York City, as well as 10 Gregorian Masses at her death.
February 12, 1962
Brooks escaped injury after a small fire broke out in the living room of her Rochester apartment. Careless smoking was blamed for the incident, in which a chair was wrecked and the fire department called.
February 13, 1962
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle runs a short article about Brooks titled “Fire Wrecks Chair.”
February 20, 1962
Because of the fire, Brooks moves from 16 Buckingham Street to 7 North Goodman Street in Rochester.
February 23, 1962
Writes a letter to Herman Weinberg.
February 25, 1962
Goes to dinner at the Dickens restaurant with her confessor, Father Atwill (editor of the Catholic Courier-Journal), and a couple of his friends, amateur actors and directors.
February 26, 1962
Writes a long letter to Jan Wahl, thanking him for sending her a copy of Screen Stories, which contains John Springer’s profile of Brooks. “John did a good job. And a sweet finish–if untrue.” Brooks showed the article to Mother Digges. Brooks also details the February 12th fire in her apartment, and its aftermath. Additionally, Brooks states that she has taped three segments of Women in Films for WHAM radio; she expects to tape about 12 programs, which will run in 6 minute segments.
February 28, 1962
James Card and George Pratt visit, and Card arranges for Brooks to see Clara Bow’s The Wild Party (1929).
March 1962
John Springer’s article, “Great movie stars: where are they now?,” appears in Screen Stories. It discusses Brooks, and is one of the earlier American articles to appear post WWII.
March 31, 1962
Writes a long letter to Jan Wahl, quoting Janet Stuart and noting that she is just finishing reading Thomas Merton’s The Seven Story Mountain.
April 1962
A one page article about Brooks appears in the Brazilian publication, Cinelandia.
April 10, 1962
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
April 15, 1962
Gerald Pratley visits Brooks in Rochester.
April 22, 1962
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
May 2, 1962
Begins broadcasting “Portraits of the Stars” (about Marion Davies) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
May 9, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (about Marion Davies) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
May 11, 1962
Writes a long letter to Jan Wahl, mentioning she has read Willard Maas‘ piece in Filmwise, an avant-garde film journal with a very small print run. She also suggests she has seen Kenneth Anger’s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), and criticizes his Hollywood Babylon (which was then only released in France): “A bunch of old dead photographs. A lot of ridiculous mumbo junk. A bunch of old dead gossip….”
May xx, 1962
Views Intolerance at Eastman House.
May 16, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (“story about Joan Crawford”) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
May 23, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (further memories of Joan Crawford) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
date unknown 1962
Corresponds with film critic Pauline Kael.
June 5-9, 1962
“The seldom-revived silent comedy,” A Girl in Every Port, is shown twice daily (and three times on June 7) at the Museum of Modern Art as part of a series honoring Howard Hawks.
June 6, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (about Constance Talmadge and her sisters) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
June 12, 1962
Views Nana at Eastman House.
June 13, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
June 27, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (about Norma Shearer) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
June 29, 1962
Pandora’s Box is screened in Los Angeles as part of a series of five “psychological masterpieces” sponsored by the UCLA Committee on Fine Art Production. (Pauline Kael hoped to bring Brooks to Los Angeles for this screening, but plans fell through.)
July 11, 1962
Brooks heard on “Portraits of the Stars” (“reminisces about Clara Bow”) on “Woman’s World” program at 10:05 am on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
July 25, 1962
“Retired actress Louise Brooks” is guest on “Woman’s World” program at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
August 2-5, 1962
Pandora’s Box is screened at Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey, California as part of the Peninsula Film Seminar, organized by Philip Chamberlin. James Card, of the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York supplied the print of the film. Also in attendance was film critic Pauline Kael, film curator Tom Luddy, and San Francisco poet Jack Hirschman.
August 8, 1962
Speaks about Greta Garbo on “Woman’s World” program at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
August 27, 1962
Begins corresponding with French writer Denis Marion.
August 28, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, which states, “Yesterday when I wrote to you I was so busy — reading your article, feeding the cat, checking my notebook, making a cake, writing to Lotte [Eisner], clipping the ivy and reading a letter from William Inge.”
September 16, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
September 27, 1962
Brooks lunches with actor Richard Arlen, who is making a personal appearance in Rochester at Sibley’s department store.
September 28, 1962
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ran an article about Brooks meeting with Arlen.
October 8, 1962
Views Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939) at Eastman House.
October 20, 1962
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
October 30, 1962
Starts weekly radio series “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” discussing Marily Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
November 6, 1962
Discusses Fatty Arbuckle on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
November 13, 1962
Discusses William Desmond Taylor on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
November 20, 1962
Discusses Theda Bara on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
The French writer Denis Marion, with whom Brooks is corresponding, writes to Brooks offering to translate her book Women in Film into French and to help find a publisher in France.
November 23-24, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
November 25, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion in which Brooks states her reluctant admiration for Mae Murray.
November 27, 1962
Discusses Jean Harlow and Marion Davies on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
December 4, 1962
Discusses Garbo, Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Errol Flynn on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
December 8, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, offering to help research Erich von Stroheim. Brooks also writes that she will acquire a copy of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders, which she plans to read again.
December 11, 1962
Discusses Marilyn Monroe and others on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY.
December 12, 1962
Meets Buster Keaton and his wife at the Sheraton Hotel in Rochester, New York. Brooks notes, “Buster said Mabel Normand, except in films, with Arbuckle, was not a really great comedienne. Marie Dressler was the greatest comic. Today Lucille Ball.”
December 18, 1962
Discusses Liz Taylor, Mary Pickford, Ingrid Bergman and others on “Does Scandal Destroy the Stars?” at 1:15 pm on WHAM in Rochester, NY. Also, writes a letter to Denis Marion.
December 21, 1962
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
December 25, 1962
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
dates unknown 1963
Begins corresponding with Fraser Macdonald of the Toronto Film Society; their correspondence continues for 20 years.
January 5, 1963
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. Discusses the return of stills taken by James Card, and that she is reading Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Papers.
January 11, 1963
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
January 30, 1963
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
February 4, 1963
Sends her essay, “My Work with Pabst,” to Lotte Eisner for publication in the Munich catalog.
February 18, 1963
Sends the corrected version of her essay, “My Work with Pabst,” to Lotte Eisner.
April 11, 1963
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle runs an article about Brooks titled “Club Bills Ex-Film Star,” about Brooks’ talk before the Catholic Women’s Club.
April 12, 1963
“Screen Star,” an article about Brooks, appears in the Courier Journal (a weekly newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Rochester, New York)
April 15, 1963
Delivers a feminist-themed speech, “The Influence of Movie Stars on the Freedom of Women,” before an evening meeting of the Catholic Women’s Club of Rochester, New York.
June 8, 1963
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
June 20, 1963
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
June 27, 1963
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
July 1, 1963
Submits “ZaSu Pitts Diffused” to editor Andre Poirer of the Montreal film journal, Objectif.
July 14, 1963
An article in the New York Times notes Brooks’ inclusion in The Love Goddesses.
August 1963
Brooks’ “ZaSu Pitts” is published in the August 1963 issue of Objectif.
August 11, 1963
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley. In it, she mentions that her husband at the time, Eddie Sutherland, obtained a print of A Woman of Paris from Charlie Chaplin and screened it for Brooks in 1927. She also writes that Pola Negri had “laid an egg” in regards to her American career, in that her acting was “old school.” And that she is “pressing on” with her book, is working on Chapter 4, and is taken by Director Malcolm St. Clair, whom she notes “was crazy and in love with me for years.”
August 26, 1963
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, who notes she often spent nights in Chez Florence in Montmartre while in Paris.
September 1, 1963
Quoted in the Democrat and Chronicle regarding her contemporary, Nancy Carroll, “She’s darn nice.” Carroll, in turn, speaks “warmly” of Brooks.
September 4, 1963
Meets with Nancy Carroll ?, who is in Rochester appearing in a stage play, Never Too Late, with William Bendix.
September 18, 1963
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, in which Brooks says “Perhaps I never would have had courage to write had you not told me to read novels.”
October 3, 1963
Writes a letter to Denis Marion asking which Balzac novels he suggests she read. “I reread Manon Lescaut. It is just as silly to me now as 35 years ago…. Another book I read again was [Flaubert’s] Madame Bovary.”
October 10, 1963
Submits “Filmography — Positive and Negative” to Objectif.
November 17, 1963
Henri Langlois visits Rochester, and is quoted at length about Brooks.
December X, 1963
Submits the corrected version of her essay, “My Work with Pabst,” to Rudolph S. Joseph of the Munchener Photo und Filmmuseum. It is published in 1964.
January 8, 1964
In a Variety article about film buffs titled “Forever Faithful Film Fans,” American Federation of Film Societies President James L. Limbacher states “There are even ‘film nuts’ who have private showings of all the films of such personalities as Veda Ann Borg, Louise Brooks or a retrospective showings of all the Busby Berkeley musicals. Greater love hath no film society members.”
February 1. 1964
Brooks’ “Filmography – Positive and Negative” is published in the February – March 1964 issue of Objectif, along with part one of “Louise Brooks par elle-même, ou quand s’ouvre la boite de Pandore.”
February 23, 1964
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
March 15, 1964
Corresponds with French writer Denis Marion, writing “Last month I read the letters of Oscar Wilde published in 1963.”
April 1, 1964
Part two of Brooks’ “Louise Brooks par elle-même, ou quand s’ouvre la boite de Pandore” published in the April – May 1964 issue of Objectif.
April 18, 1964
Writes a letter mentioning she has started re-writing Naked on My Goat. Regarding the title, Brooks writes “The quote is from the Young Witch’s speech—“Der Puder ist so wie Dey Rock fur alt’ und graue Weibehen. Drum sitz ich nackt auf mein Bock und zeig einderber leibchen.” Brooks also says, “The key to success of the venture is to keep the whole story in sight every word, to be aware of the architecture while inhabiting the room.”
April 19, 1964
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
May 9, 1964
Visiting Canadian priests Cousineau and Godin have lunch with Brooks in her Rochester apartment.
May 13, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. Thanks Wahl for sending Thackery’s Vanity Fair (“I do not believe there has ever been a more nearly perfect book written”) as well as Wahl’s Pleasant Fieldmouse (“The text is most imaginative and for action–great. The drawings [by Maurice Sendak] are wonderful.”) Brooks parodies a chapter from Wahl’s book in describing the recent visit by two film-buff priests from Canada. Brooks also mentions that contributors to the Montreal magazine Objectif taped a long interview with Brooks for their magazine.
May 20, 1964
New York Daily News columnist Charles McHarry writes “Louise Brooks, the silent screen star, writes from Rochester that she’ll be seen again in The Love Goddesses, a documentary on movie sirens from Bara to Bardot.”
May 22, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. Mentions that she is having trouble getting back to work on Naked on My Goat, because “Looking at old films, reading odd stuff, all fills me with sorrow,” and that she is currently reading Leslie Fielder’s Love and Death in the American Novel. “I hate it although I agree with everything he says.” She also states that she has read a limited edition copy of Lord Alfred Douglas’s My Friendship with Oscar Wilde, which she borrowed from the local library.
May 25, 1964
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
Spring 1964
Breaks with Catholic Church.
July 1964
National Film Theater in London screens Pandora’s Box, Diary of a Lost Girl and
Prix de beaute as part of a series celebrating other national film archives.
July 14, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. References Irving Shulman’s biography of Jean Harlow, whose author Brooks heard on radio station WOR (710 AM out of NYC). Brooks also mentions that Doubleday editor Donald Friede has written to her stating he will send a copy of the Harlow book. Brooks also asks Wahl if he has read Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. “Hemingway now really did write as he says–building line up on line, with perfection.” She also notes that she had written a letter the previous week to George Marshall, and heard back from his assistant. And, that Herman Weinberg had sent her a translation from the Lusanne film congress of 1963 which praises her acting. “Thirty years ago I allowed the critics to break my heart, saying I did not ‘act’ — I did not ‘do anything,’ because I did not mug in the conventions of the period. If I am now ‘ageless,’ it is because I found such antics ludicrous without beauty, and played all my parts as ballets.”
July 16, 1964
Hand-writes a note to Jan Wahl which accompanies her homemade fudge.
July 22, 1964
Writes a postcard to Jan Wahl, “Read Harlow – terrible and true – smashes myth and idols (my book beaters) sounds death knell to slobbery crap passed off as Hollywood history – tit-mad and commode crazy Shulman.” [Irving Shulman authored Harlow: An Intimate Biography; though something of a bestseller, Shulman’s book was widely panned.]
July 28, 1964
Types a note to Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn which states, “If today, in Lulu, Diary of a Lost Girl, Prix de Beaute, films made in 1928-29, I am hailed as an actress whose art is timelessly beautiful while the great stars of that period are found grotesquely funny . . . it is because I composed my art out of the beauty and timelessness of movement and mime learned with Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and the Denishawn Dancers.”
August 6, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, stating she has received his The Beast Book, which she terms “beautiful and lovely.” Brooks also reports she has received an invitation to Jacob’s Pillow, where the 50th Golden Wedding anniversary of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn would be celebrated. Brooks goes on to mention that she once attended one of Shawn’s classes in 1926, while she was making pictures for Paramount on Long Island, and thinks his recent book, Thousand and One Nights, is “awful.” Brooks also mentions she has now read Irving Shulman’s biography of Jean Harlow, and recalls that Paul Bern had sent her a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Verse for Christmas in 1927. Inspired by the Harlow book, Brooks also states that she has written a piece called “Harlow Recalls Another Voice from the Dead.” In a post script, Brooks says that BBC filmmaker Ken Russell wants to do a Monitor episode on her.
Aug. 6, 1964
UCLA screens Love Em and Leave Em as part of a “Vintage Vamps” film series. William Everson introduced the film, and Santa Monica musician Chauncey Haines provides
organ accompaniment.
August 28, 1964
Writes letters to Jan Wahl and Steve Wiman.
September 18, 1964
Receives a letter from Doubleday editor Donald Friede expressing strong interest in a book.
September 20, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl mentioning that she had submitted a 17 page, 4300 word piece, “Harlow Recalls John Gilbert’s Voice from the Dead,” to Penelope Houston at Sight and Sound. Its publication was deemed legally problematic by the magazine. Brooks also mentioned she had borrowed D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover from the Rochester Public Library, but found pages torn out. She also notes that she wants to read Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. Brooks also borrowed three books by Samuel Beckett, but couldn’t make sense of them, leaving her feeling “bitched, buggered and bewildered.”
September 21, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl discussing the Friede letter and her writing. Brooks also mentions that the dialogue in Beckett is “marvelous–Dylan Thomas must have thought so too.”
October 7, 1964
Writes two letters to Jan Wahl. The first mentions that she is reading Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. The second suggests Wahl write a book on the theater work of Dwight Wiman. Brooks also mentions that Sight and Sound has rejected her Harlow-Gilbert piece, which she excerpts. (The excerpt notes the time Brooks met Harlow at the Cocoanut Grove, after being introduced by William Powell.)
October 18, 1964
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. It states that she left the Catholic Church in the Spring, and that she had considered herself an “intellectual” Catholic. Brooks mentions that she has read Gerald: A Portrait by Daphne du Maurier, which she critiques, and that Henry Miller “left me cold.” Brooks goes on to say, “The first thing I learned writing for Winchell was to send him only first-hand gags,” and that she is thinking of writing an article for Esquire called “Come-On Girl for Wilson Mizner.” Brooks, who says she is “fearfully depressed,” ends her letter by stating, “I don’t belong anywhere, to anyone, to anything.”
October 19, 1964
Writes a note to friend Don Smith saying that she is sending him the fudge she had made for Jan Wahl, as he had moved to Toledo, Ohio.
November 27, 1964
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
December 1, 1964
Brooks’ “Als ich mit Pabst arbeitete” [“My Work with Mr. Pabst”] published in Der Regisseur: G. W. Pabst in Munich, Germany.
December 4, 1964
Writes to Jan Wahl.
December ??, 1964
Hollis Alpert visits Brooks, and tapes an interview for his Playboy article.
December 7, 1964
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
December 9, 1964
Writes a letter to friend Don Smith complaining about friend Jan Wahl, who she notes she met in Copenhagen in 1957. Brooks also states she sent $10 to Wahl, who was then a struggling writer. Brooks also tells Smith not to send her the Dictionary of Film, which she says Herman Weinberg had already sent her. She also notes that the book says she appeared in two films in which she did not actually appear, Steel Highway and Hollywood Boulevard. Brooks also writes, “Hollis Alpert of Saturday Review was here last Friday to tape me for a series of articles he and Arthur Knight are doing on Sex and Censorship for Playboy.” She also asks Smith “Can you find out to whom Jan Wahl sold his print of Prix de Beaute? And how Hollis can see it?”
December 17, 1964
An article about Brooks, “Louise Brooks pa duken igen,” appears in the Swedish newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen.
December 18, 1964
Syndicated columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes “Louise Brooks, a cinema star of long ago (now living in Rochester N.Y.) is almost finished writing her autobiography, titled Naked on My Goat. It’s reported to be ‘really wild,’ and quite a few Hollywood old-timers are worrying because word is around that she’s naming names and pulling no punches.”
1965
Begins corresponding with film historian Peter Cowie; also corresponds with Anita Loos.
January 1965
Folke Isaksson’s article about Brooks, “Oh Louise,” appears in the Swedish publication Chaplin.
January 26, 1965
Writes a postcard to friend Don Smith thanking him for “beautiful Balanchine and cat” and that she would send fudge.
April 10, 1965
Henry Clune’s column in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle discusses Brooks’s appearance in The Love Goddesses.
April 16, 1965
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
May 1965
Article on Brooks appears in the May 1965 issue of Sight and Sound.
May 3, 1965
Writes a letter to Rochester journalist Henry Clune thanking him for sending an advance copy of his May 9 column.
May 9, 1965
Henry Clune profiles Brooks in his Democrat and Chronicle column.
May 28, 1965
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, who has sent Brooks his new book, Cabbage Moon. “To me it is your best book for children…. Like Max Beerbohm and Roland Firbank, your serious novels will have to be found by some great critics.”
June 30, 1965
Writes a letter to Rochester journalist Henry Clune mentioning the Playboy article, her break with the Catholic Church, and her having read Ezra Goodman’s The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood.
Summer 1965
Brooks’ “Pabst and Lulu” published in the Summer 1965 issue of Sight and Sound. Roger Reynolds’s article, “National press revives interest in Louise Brooks,” appears in 8mm. Collector.
July 1965
“Checklist 27 – Louise Brooks” published in the BFI Monthly Film Bulletin.
July 1965
Receives first letter from Kevin Brownlow, praising her “Pabst and Lulu” piece in Sight and Sound. [Brooks and Brownlow would exchange approximately 250 letters in the years to follow.]
July 10, 1965
Henry Clune notes in his Democrat and Chronicle column that Brooks had contacted him asking that he purchase a copy of Playboy magazine, in which she is interviewed.
July 19, 1965
Writes a letter to Rochester journalist Henry Clune praising his July 10 column, and mentioning her own June Sight and Sound article.
July 21, 1965
Writes a note to friend Don Smith asking him to go by a New York City store to ask if they have sent her the two copies of Sight & Sound she had mail ordered.
July 1965
Views The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926), Lady Windemere’s Fan (1925), and Shoulder Arms (1918).
Summer 1965
Kevin Brownlow visits Brooks in Rochester.
August 1965
Arthur Knight & Alpert Hollis’ article, “The history of sex in the cinema. Part Four: the 20s – Europe’s decade of decadence and delirium,” which discusses Brooks, appears in Playboy. Douglas McVay’s article on Brooks appears in the August 1965 issue of Films and Filming.
August 1, 1965
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 3, 1965
William Everson lunches with Brooks.
August 6, 1965
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, who mentioned that Donald Friede had died a few months after she had sent him her rewritten “most horrible chapter” of Naked on My Goat.
August 10, 1965
Writes a letter to Michael Pabst, son of the director.
August 11, 1965
Writes a letter to G.W. Pabst.
August 23, 1965
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, discussing the Holis Alpert article in Playboy. Brooks also says that she received stills from her Pabst films from Michael Pabst, the director’s son. And that she called Germany to speak with Pabst. Brooks says that the telephone is the last of her “expensive vices,” and that she also tried to called Lotte Eisner in Paris.
August 25, 1965
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
August 25, 1965
Types a letter to friend Don Smith stating she has just got a letter from Bill Everson, who has a friend who is anxious to see Love Em and Leave Em. She also wondered about possible plans to visit New York City, suggesting that Canadian film archivist Fraser MacDonald may accompany her on a flight to NYC. She also mentions her $250.00 monthly allowance from William Paley and that should she decide to travel she wouldn’t be able to afford a hotel room that costs more than $10.00 per night. Brooks goes on to state, “People are so wrong about liking silent pictures better than sound pictures. We can not know a person till we know their voices.” Brooks also mentions she called G. W. Pabst’s son, Michael.
August 26, 1965
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
September 1965
Despite the director’s wishes, a print of Beggars of Life cannot be obtained and the film is not shown at the William Wellman retrospective at the San Francisco Film Festival.
October 4, 1965
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
October November 9, 1965 (mistakenly dated)
Types a letter to friend Don Smith asking him for details regarding his intention to screen Prix de Beaute in New York City, adding “If I decide to come down, I will give the talk I gave when it was shown in 1960 at the YMHA.” She also asks for help paying her expenses, her “awful fear” of planes “although I will travel no other way,” and that a friend named Mike Hall will help get publicity. She also writes, “For the last 6 months I have been living in apprehension and depression over my 59th birthday next Sunday. My mother died suddenly at this point. It is silly for me to worry. But I do.” Brooks goes on to state that she calmed by reading the English essayist Samuel Johnson, except that the edition she is currently reading has tight margins and opening the book sufficiently causes her hands to ache. Brooks also adds a critique, “The modern editions, both of Johnson and Boswell’s Life and Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides have been so ‘improved’ by modern editors, so cut, rewritten, and clawed at, that they are a sinful mess.”
October 23, 1965
Writes a letter to Michael Pabst, son of the director.
October 25, 1965
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, thanking him for sending his children’s book, Hello Elephant. Brooks also says she just received 50 film stills from Michael Pabst, and that she was she was expecting film historians Gerald Pratley and Andrew Sarris to visit in November.
November 9, 1965
The great Northeastern blackout occurs, which cuts power in Rochester, New York. Brooks listens to coverage of the event on WABC radio in New York.
November 10, 1965
Writes to Herman Weinberg, noting among other things the great Northeastern blackout.
November 27, 1965
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
December 3, 1965
Roddy McDowell comes to Brooks’ apartment to take her photo for his book, Double Exposure.
December 4, 1965
Democrat and Chronicle reports that actor Robert Preston, a “great admirer of Miss Brooks,” may write an essay on the actress for Roddy McDowell’s book.
December 12, 1965
Roddy McDowell is quoted in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle regarding his visit with Brooks.
December 19, 1965
Submits her piece on Buster Keaton for publication on Roddy McDowell’s 1966 book, Double Exposure.
December 27, 1965
Kevin Brownlow visits Brooks in Rochester.
December 29, 1965
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
December 30, 1965
Writes a note to friend Don Smith, “a million thanks for the Pabst book.” On this day, syndicated columnist Leonard Lyons writes, ” For Roddy McDowell’s book, Anita Loos will write the piece on Louise Brooks, who’ll write the piece on Buster Keaton.”
dates unknown 1966
Corresponds with screenwriter Fitzroy Davis, and film editor Marc Sorkin.
1966
Brooks’ brief essay “Buster Keaton” is published in Roddy McDowell’s book Double Exposure (New York: Delacorte Press); the book also features an short essay by Anita Loos on Brooks.
January 9, 1966
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
January 12, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 15, 1966
Sends her essay on Marlene Dietrich to John Kobal.
January 18, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 29, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
February 4, 1966
Talks with Roddy McDowell on the phone regarding the death of Buster Keaton.
February 5, 1966
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
February 7, 1966
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
February 21, 1966
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
February 23, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
March X, 1966
Submits her essay on Marlene Dietrich to Positif. It ends with the line, “But every time I see The Blue Angel, I cry a little.”
sometime between March 20-31, 1966
Sees Lord Love a Duck starring Roddy McDowell at the Little Theater in Rochester.
March 23, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
March 27, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
April 9, 1966
Submits her essay, “Charlie Chaplin Remembered,” to Jonas Mekas at Film Culture.
April 14, 1966
“Charlie Chaplin Remembered” is accpeted for publication in Film Culture
April 18, 1966
Writes a postcard to friend Don Smith thanking him for December magazine.
1966
The French film journal Etudes Cinematographiques is published. Issue 48-50, about Erich von Stroheim, is edited by Denis Marion. Brooks contributes a three page preface, and one page of notes about the director are excerpted from her 1964 piece on Zasu Pitts in the Montreal journal Objectif. (Brooks name also appears on the cover alongside Rene Clair, Lillian Gish, Jean Renoir and others.)
May 1, 1966
Brooks’ “Letter to Andrew Sarris” published in no. 3 issue of English Cahiers du Cinema.
May 1966
Brooks’ “Marlene” published in the May issue of Positif.
May 11, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
May 14, 1966
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
May 29, 1966
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
Spring 1966
Brooks’ “Charlie Chaplin Remembered” published in the Spring issue of Film Culture.
June 12, 1966
Writes a letter to Gerald Pratley.
June 13, 1966
Writes to Herman Weinberg, discussing actress Virginia Cherrill, whom she says she met on the street. Brooks’ letter also mentions Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.
July 12, 1966
Views The Wedding March at Eastman House.
July 23, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
July 24, 1966
Writes to Herman Weinberg, discusses Humphrey Bogart.
July 25, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 15, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 19, 1966
Writes a postcard to friend Don Smith thanking him for “Swanson and the houses in Esquire – fabulous.”
August 23, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 25, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September ?, 1966
Receives a letter from an editor inquiring about her memoirs.
September 10, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 16, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 27, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 30, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 15, 1966
Writes to Herman G. Weinberg, discusses Humphrey Bogart.
October 22, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 24, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 13, 1966
Receives 10 pm phone call from heiress and socialite Nancy “Trink” Deere Wiman Wakeman Gardiner, whom Brooks “knew well” during the years 1929-1931.
November 15, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 18, 1966
Phones the Theater Division of New York Public Library asking for production stills from the plays of Dwight Deere Wiman.
November 26, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
December 1966
Richard Whitehall’s article, “The flapper, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks and the flaming youth of the Twenties,” appears in Cinema.
December 5, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
December 16, 1966
Writes a note to friend Don Smith, “Thank you for the loveliest postcard I ever received. I shall paste it round a strip of cardboard to make a bookmark – and since the only time I do not have a book in my hand is when I am typing – you will not be forgotten.”
December 25, 1966
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
Winter 1966
Brooks’ “Humphrey and Bogey” published in the Winter 1966 – 1967 issue of Sight and Sound.
January 3, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 12, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 14, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 23, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 25, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 29, 1967
Eastman House screens Love and Leave Them (sic) at 2:30 pm.
February 1, 1967
French translation of Brooks’ “Humphrey and Bogey” published in Positif.
February 10, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
February 11, 1967
Writes a letter to Herman G. Weinberg.
February 13, 1967
Writes a postcard to friend Don Smith stating “Don – did I dream it – ? or did you phone me Sat., a week ago, saying you were sending me two Sight & Sounds?”
February 15, 1967
Reading Ethel Merman’s Who Could Ask for Anything More? (1955).
February 16, 1967
Writes a postcard to friend Don Smith thanking him for copies of Sight & Sound magazine. She also notes she got a Buster Keaton postcard, and asked where one could get them.
February 20, 1967
Writes a letter to John Hampton asking, at Kevin Brownlow’s suggestion, if he has any stills from It’s the Old Army Game, explaining that she is working on an article on the film.
sometime between March 1-11, 1967
Goes to see Hello, Dolly! at the Auditorium in Rochester; meets star Carol Channing backstage. [The musical, which ran Feb. 28 through March 11, was one of the hottest tickets in Rochester in some time.]
March 6, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
March 10, 1967
Writes brief note to John Hampton regarding an exchange of film stills.
March 27, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion stating she gave up sex in 1958. “But right up to my retirement from sex in 1958, I always had some pretty lesbians on a string — flattering and fun. So if I am known as a lesbian it is my own doing, and I don’t mind, I like it.”
April 4, 1967
ABC affiliate WOKR Channel 13 broadcasts Overland Stage Raiders in Rochester.
April 27, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
May 10, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, which states she has “fallen in love with Stroheim — as a person now.”
May 19, 1967
Writes a note to John Hampton of the Silent Movie Theater detailing the many film stills she has sent him.
May 31, 1967
Types her filmography and send it to John Hampton of the Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood.
June 5, 1967
Speaks on the phone with Herman Weinberg regarding Erich von Stroheim.
June 17, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
June 13, 1967
Writes a note to John Hampton regarding film stills and details of her filmography.
June 18, 1967
Writes a note to John Hampton of the Silent Movie Theater discussing various movie stills, including one from A Girl in Every Port. “It was seeing me in this film which made Mr Pabst decide I must play Lulu.” Brooks also discusses Herman Weinberg, and says that Hampton would be hearing from Denis Marion, who might be able to assist with getting prints of Brooks’ European films.
June 21, 1967
Send a telegram to John Hampton.
June 22, 1967
Send a handwritten note to John Hampton mentioning that the telegram might not get through, and that she would be sending money to have her stilled copied.
June 23, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
June 27, 1967
Send a letter to John Hampton discussing their exchange of film stills.
July 11, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
July 22, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
July 29, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
August 4, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 18, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
August 22, 1967
Reading Stuart N. Lake’s biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshall (1931).
August 23, 1967
Types a note to friend Don Smith, “When I found out that Bill Everson was really on the level, that he was coming up on the weekend of 11 September to show films for me, I came to my senses. Nobody could do this for me for nothing, so I called off the whole deal at once.”
September 1, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion.
September 5, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 19, 1967
Writes a letter to Patricia Calvert.
September 28, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 1967
José Pierre’s article about Brooks, “Ursula et la boîte de Pandore,” appears in the French publication L’Archibras (a surrealist affiliated publication).
October 25, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 27, 1967
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, thanking him for sending his children’s book, Pocahontas in London, which she praises (“Your Pocahontas captures the same mysteriousness that sets a child’s imagination free”) and recalling some of the children’s books she had as a child, Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, Alice in Wonderland, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Oliver Twist, Little Women, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, and Mother Goose.
October 30, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 8, 1967
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 13, 1967
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, “Tomorrow I shall be 61, knowing no more about myself or why I do anything then I did at 6. Except this — all my life I have been a learner. That is why I write. As Dylan Thomas put it… “My poetry is the record of my struggles from darkness to some measure of light.”
December 17, 1967
Writes a letter to Don Smith reporting she had received a letter from Jan Wahl who wrote that he had befriended Asta Nielsen. Brooks also wrote of the forthcoming publication of her piece “On Location with Billy Wellman” in London Magazine. About it she writes, “At last I have found a mold to hold my peculiar blend of autobiography, film history and truth. “Location” tell how I lost my high standing and self-respect in Hollywood by going to bed with my double who the next day asked me before the whol company whether I had syphilis.”
dates unknown 1968
Corresponds with screenwriter Fitzroy Davis, film historian William Everson, and film critic Pauline Kael.
January 16, 1968
Writes “An Investigation into the Motives of John Besford, ‘Fan’.”
January 20, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
February 2, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
February 10, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
February 21, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
March 1, 1968
Brooks “On Location with Billy Wellman” published in French in the March issue of Positif.
March 15, 1968
Writes a letter to George Pratt.
March 25, 1968
Toronto Film Society published Brooks’ program notes for “The White Hell of Pitz Palu.”
March 28, 1968
Receives mail from Kevin Brownlow that includes his essay “The Man with the Movie Camera.”
April 2, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
April 13, 1968
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl. Brooks mentions that she is reading a “great book,” The Making of Charles Dickens by Christopher Hibbert.
April 29, 1968
Henry Clune’s column in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle mentions Brooks.
May 1, 1968
Brooks “On Location with Billy Wellman” published in the May issue of London Magazine.
May 8, 1968
Writes a letter to James Price of Secker & Warburg, an English publisher.
May 23, 1968
Writes a note to John Hampton of the Silent Movie Theater mentioning that she has stills from her two G.W. Pabst films, about whom she writes “Also I have another objection to lending my stills for copies. They are used to make Mr Pabst a Nazi. Mr Pabst was a Socialist who detested Hitler and gave most of the Jews who now revile him their first jobs.”
May 30, 1968
Writes a note to John Hampton of the Silent Movie Theater thanking him for the return of her film stills. Brooks mentions that in 1965 she wrote to Michael Pabst (son of G.W. Pabst) asking the director for stills. Brooks also suggest that around 1927 she had a “sweet great dane–BUZZY.”
Spring 1968
Kevin Brownlow’s The Parade’s Gone By is published by Secker & Warburg; the book contains a dedication to Brooks.
July 4, 1968
Visits composer David Diamond at his Rochester home.
July 16, 1967
The Canary Murder Case shows on television on Channel 32 (WFLD – UHF) in Munster, Indiana.
September 7, 1968
Writes a letter to CBC broadcaster Clyde Gilmore of the Toronto Telegram.
September 14, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 16, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 4, 1968
The Cinematheque canadienne in Montreal begins its season with a screening of Pandora’s Box, inaugurating a 17-film G.W. Pabst Retrospective.
October 15, 1968
Syndicated columnist Norton Mockridge writes, “Silent screen star Louise Brooks got a letter the other day from a friend visiting London who wrote, in part: ‘Just walked down a street that reminded me of you — Old Broad St.”
October 16, 1968
The Cinematheque canadienne in Montreal shows Pandora’s Box for the second time, as part of its G.W. Pabst Retrospective.
October 19, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 24, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 25, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 30, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 1968
Charles Jameux’s article about Brooks, “Genie de Louise Brooks,” appears in the French publication Positif.
November 14, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 15, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 16, 1968
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
November 17, 1968
Brooks is quoted in the Democrat and Chronicle, “I can’t sit and watch TV all the time; I’d go insane. But I read and read and read; and I write; and I listen to the radio…”.
December 8, 1968
In his New York Times review of Kevin Brownlow’s The Parade’s Gone By, Arthur Mayer quotes Brooks, “The luscious Louise Brooks claims that she learned to act by ‘watching Martha Graham dance’ and ‘learned to move in film from watching Chaplin’.”
December 15, 1968
In his review of Kevin Brownlow’s The Parade’s Gone By, Richard L. Coe of the Washington Post writes, “Reading between the lines, one gleans Brownlow got vital encouragement from Louise Brooks, now living in happy retirement in Rochester.”
January 11, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 18, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
January 19, 1969
In his review of Kevin Brownlow’s The Parade’s Gone By, Bernard Drew of the Gannett News Service writes, “From seclusion and retirement in Rochester, N.Y. came the candid and astringent thoughts of Louise Brooks, and actress who was not really a star in the Twenties, known at the time primarily for her looks, but who has been acclaimed one by the new generation of cultists who have made a study of her films. According to the dedication, Miss Brooks was instrumental in the publication of Brownlow’s book.”
January 24, 1969
Writes a letter to James Rolick, a student journalist, which is published in the Blue Banner (the student newspaper of Onondaga Community College), on February 14, 1969.
January 31, 1969
Following a Marilyn Monroe film, Pandora’s Box is shown at the National Library in Ottawa, Canada. The Brooks’ film is part of a series devoted to Pabst sponsored by the National Film Theater.
February 7, 1969
Following a Marilyn Monroe film, Diary of a Lost Girl is shown at the National Library in Ottawa, Canada. The Brooks’ film is part of a series devoted to Pabst sponsored by the National Film Theater.
February 14, 1969
The Blue Banner (the student newspaper of Onondaga Community College) publishes Brooks’ letter to student journalist James Rolick, along with a long profile of the actress which included pictures sent to Rolick by Brooks.
February 22, 1969
S.J. Perelman’s story, “She Walk in Beauty — Single Files, Eyes Front, and No Hanky Panky,” which alludes to Brooks, appears in the New Yorker.
March 4, 1969
Visits her lawyer and makes her will. That same day, a librarian friend sends her a copy of the February 22 issue of the New Yorker. Afterwords, Brooks writes a letter to Perelman.
March 11, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
March 21, 1969
Watches Hollywood: The Selznick Years on television.
April 10, 1969
S.J. Perelman writes to Brooks.
April 11, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
April 18, 1969
Writes a letter to Jan Wahl, thanking him for sending her his new book, May Horses. Brooks also mentions that Kevin Brownlow had sent her a copy of a Sewell Stokes’ Isadora: An Intimate Portrait. “It is the best book I have ever read about an actress. Like she is.” Brooks says that she has stopped writing film articles, and now watches films, naming Ingmar Bergman’s Shame (1968). “Surely Bergman is the greatest director in the world today.”
April 28, 1969
Writes a letter to Patrice Hovald, which is published in L’Alsace on July 17, 1969.
April 29, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
May 9, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
May 15, 1969
In a review of the film version of Laughter in the Dark in the Village Voice, critic Andrew Sarris writes “At one time my impossible dream cast for Laughter in the Dark consisted on Emil Jannings as the collector, Conrad Veidt as the poltergeist, and Louise Brooks as the temptress.”
June 11, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
June 16, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
July 8, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
July 10, 1969
Correspondence with the French writer Denis Marion ends.
July 17, 1969
Brooks’ answers to a biographical questionnaire are published in L’Alsace.
August 9, 1969
George Marshall dies.
sometime between Aug. 10 – Sept. 5, 1969
Sees The Loves of Isadora at the Little Theater sometime during its near month long run. Brooks thinks highly of the film.
August 18, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
September 10, 1969
Writes a letter to the former Denishawn dancer Jane Sherman.
September 18, 1969
Writes a letter to George Pratt.
October 18, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
October 25, 1969
Writes a letter to Kevin Brownlow.
Date unknown / November-December, 1969
Garald Pratley interviews Brooks in her Rochester apartment.
November 26, 1969
Jess L. Hoaglin’s article, “Where are they today?,” appears in the Hollywood Reporter.
Louise Brooks was born on Wednesday, November 14, 1906 and died on Thursday, August 8, 1985, at the age of 78. All together, her life ran over the course of some 28,758 days. Like any life, it was marked by highs and lows, by success and disappointment.