Like the celebrities of today, Louise Brooks’ name and image was used in a number of advertisements and advertising campaigns. Beginning in 1926 with the “Louise Brooks Evening Gown” and running through the LUX soap campaigns of the late 1920s and early 1930s, Brooks’ name, image and likeness was used to sell all manner of products and consumer goods — not only in the United States, but also elsewhere around the world. Here is one example.
The Arch Preserver Shoe was manufactured by the Selby Shoe Company. It was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1877 as Irving Drew & Company and became Drew, Selby & Company two years later in 1879. The name was changed to The Selby Shoe Company in 1906 (the same year Brooks was born). The company sold men’s shoes, but specialized in women’s shoes and marketed and sold the Arch Preserver brand across the United States.
Louise Brooks was one of a number of movie stars who appeared in advertisements for the Arch Preserver Shoe. Such ads ran from 1926 through 1930 and beyond, and featured the likes of Phyllis Haver, Claire Windsor, Kathryn McGuire, Joan Crawford, Renee Adoree, Anita Page, Norma Shearer, Jobyna Ralston, Sue Carol, Dorothy Mackaill, Laura La Plante, Anna Q. Nilsson, Anita Stewart, Elinor Boardman, and May McAvoy. The add shown below featuring Brooks appeared in Photoplay magazine in December, 1927. The caption beneath the actress’ portrait reads, “Miss Louise Brooks, now appearing in A City Gone Wild for famous Players-Lasky Corporation, is shown here wearing the ‘Louise” model of the Arch Preserver Shoe, named in her honor.” Notably, the ad contains a small error in the title of the just released film. The City Gone Wild, not A City Gone Wild, was released in November of 1927.
“Her Feet must ‘act,’ too!” The advertisement proclaims. “Can you imagine a great actress hobbling through her part on achy feet? Without active, youthful feet she can not possibly have real poise and that delightful freedom of motion that creates charm and ‘personality.’ And yet her shoes must be Dame Fashion’s last word. Such famous stars as Louise Brooks are turning to the Arch Preserver Shoe…. You need the Arch Preserver Shoe in your ‘career’ just as much as the great star.”