Louise Brooks Society blog

Evening Clothes, featuring a different looking Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1927. The film is a romantic comedy about a gentleman farmer who — spurned by his bride, goes to the big city to loose his rustic ways and win back his new wife. A stanza printed in advertisements for the film put it this way, “He was a French hick / Who didn’t please her / So he went to Paris and / Became a Boulevardier.” Louise Brooks plays a character called Fox Trot, a hot-to-trot Parisian who some described as a lady of the evening. More about the film can be found on the newly […]

Happy St. Patrick's day from the Louise Brooks Society.... Just recently, a handful of Irish newspaper archives came online. I did a search and thought to share some of what I found to celebrate this most Irish of holidays. Shown below are a few representative vintage clippings and a couple of contemporary pieces.From 1928: a typical newspaper ad, this one for Rolled Stockings. Curiously, star Richard Arlen is not mentionedFrom 1929: a studio publicity photo for Beggars of LifeFrom 1929: shown as part of a double bill, along withthe Capitol Tiller Girls on stageFrom 1929: a little seen […]

An original drawing of Louise Brooks by famed artist / illustrator Willy Pogány is currently for sale through Royal Books. This vintage caricature, measuring approximately 14 x 19 inches, was executed in graphite, charcoal, and pastel sometime in the early 1930s (that my best guess, as the work is undated). More information HERE.Best known and much beloved for his illustrations for children's books, Willy Pogány is one of the great illustrators of the 20th century. Born in Hungary, his work sits besides that of Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, N.C. Wyeth and others. Check out his Wikipedia […]

Sixteen photos which once belonged to Louise Brooks are currently being auctioned online through the  liveauctioneers.com website. The seller of these images purchased them at auction, when the Estate of Bill Klein was being sold off  between 2004 and 2006. For those who may not know, "Bill Klein was a friend of Louise Brooks in the 1970s and 1980s, and acquired these photos from her, which were part of her own personal collection." Several of these photos are the same ones used by Louise Brooks in her book, Lulu in Hollywood (1982). And, as a matter of fact, a number of them contain […]

Back on December 8, 2006, I had the honor of introducing Pandora's Box before a screening of the film at the Detroit Film Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. Located within the Detroit Institute of Arts, this historic venue was the first museum theater in the United States to screen film as art, prior to similar screenings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It was an honor as well as a pleasure to introduce the film, as I had grown up in metro Detroit and to this day, the D.I.A. remains one of my very favorite art museums. The following piece is adapted from my 2006 introductory […]

Pandora's Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Detroit, Michigan on March 22. This presentation by Silents at the Senate will feature a live musical accompaniment by Andrew Rogers on the organ. More information about the event, which takes place at the historic Senate Theater (6424 Michigan Avenue in Detroit), can be found HERE. [ Doors open at 7 pm for this 8 pm screening, with a 7:30 organ recital. ]  According to the Senate website, "Silents at the Senate begins its 2025 season with Pandora’s Box, a silent masterpiece from Austrian director G.W. Pabst, starring the […]

Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in St. Louis(e), Missouri on March 12. This presentation by Silents, Please! STL will feature an introduction by SPSTL's Kate Stewart. More information about the event, which takes place at the Arkadin Cinema and Bar (5228 Gravois Ave in St. Louis), can be found HERE. According to the venue website, "Re-teaming actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora’s Box), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is a wonderfully salacious adaptation of Margarethe Bohme’s scintillating novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle class […]

It Pays to Advertise, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931. The film is a farce about rival soap companies, an advertising agency, and a ne’er do-well playboy who attempts to make good. Louise Brooks plays Thelma Temple, a dancer appearing in a musical titled Girlies Don’t Tell. More about the film can be found on the newly revised Louise Brooks Society filmography page. Production on the film took place in and around Los Angeles in late 1930. Brooks’ part in the film, done to fulfill her contract with Paramount, amounted to little more than a cameo. The Hollywood […]

When You’re in Love, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1937. When You’re in Love is a romantic musical scripted and directed by long-time Frank Capra writer Robert Riskin and starring Grace Moore and Cary Grant. The enjoyable and fast-moving plot turns on high-spirits and high-notes. Louise Brooks makes an uncredited appearance as one of a number of dancers in a musical sequence near the end of the film. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.Louise Brooks, third from the left, is obscured by Grace Moore's hand.This is likely the […]