Examiner: Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed

[silentfilm]

http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-i ... e-revealed

Thomas Gladysz
Louise Brooks Examiner
Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed
October 2nd, 2010 8:00 pm ET
Louise Brooks was more than just a pretty face.

As fans of the actress are well aware, she was considered “smart” by her Hollywood peers. She was also a gifted writer, and later in life authored a number of well thought of articles for various film magazines as well as a highly-regarded and still in print 1982 memoir, Lulu In Hollywood.

The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist considered Brooks the best writer to have come out of Hollywood. Her essays have been collected into anthologies of the best writing about the movies by the likes of Roger Ebert, another Pulitzer Prize winner.

Brooks passed away in August of 1985. Before her death, she bequeathed her private journals to the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years. Brooks lived in Rochester in the last years of her life.

A quarter century has now passed. And today, David S. Cohen reports in Variety that the actress’ journals have been unsealed and that "Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public."

Not surprisingly, the journals include commentary by Brooks regarding the cinematic performances of her contemporaries. According to the article in Variety, Brooks wrote about Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and others.

Brooks kept private journals from 1956 until her death. Her witty and sometimes harsh critiques also included her own work in film.

Brooks appeared in 24 films between 1925 and 1938. She is best known for her role as Lulu in the 1929 German silent film, Pandora’s Box. Though never a major star in her day, Brooks is today one of the most popular and revered of all silent film stars.

For more info: Examples of Louise Brooks’ writing can be found inLulu in Hollywood (University of Minnesota Press) and Jan Wahl’srecently published Dear Stinkpot: Letters From Louise Brooks (BearManor). Other short pieces and letters can be found in an out-of-print 1977 book edited by Rolland Jaccard, Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star. Each are recommended.

Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so that in 1995 he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and fan club devoted to the silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television, and introduced her films around the country. Recently, he edited and wrote the introduction to the “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Bohme’s The Diary of a Lost Girl.

[silentfilm]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111802 ... id=13&cs=1

Brooks' books reveal film criticism
Silent star and scholar's private journals to be unveiled by George Eastman House
By DAVID S. COHEN
Silent screen siren and cinema scholar Louise Brooks has been dead for a quarter century, but some of her thoughts on movies are only now being revealed.
Brooks kept private journals from 1956 until her death in 1985, and bequeathed them to the George Eastman House with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years.

That date passed in August, and Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public.

The journals include cutting analysis of performances by her contemporaries.

Seeing Greta Garbo in "Anna Christie" in a 1957 screening, she wrote: "She strains terribly... Is made to read line on top of line without pauses for mental transitions."

Of Marlene Dietrich in "The Lady Is Willing," which she saw on TV, she wrote "Dietrich's lids, drooped by the heavy false eye-lashes give her eyes the expression of a puzzled bloodhound... still fascinating as a personality, extravagantly healthy, happy, amoral and consciousless (sic)."

"Dark Passage," she wrote, was a "perfect picture for Hump (sic) and Lauren Bacall ... His appeal lay in the fact that beyond any man I know, he loved women."

She was even critical of her own perf in 1936's "Empty Saddles": "wide range, dynamic, rich, 'cultured,' " she said of her voice, but added "purity of movement excellent -- Bad sway back from dancing with Dario."

Dario was her ballroom dancing partner.

[Jim Roots]

http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-i ... e-revealed

Thomas Gladysz
Louise Brooks Examiner
Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed
October 2nd, 2010 8:00 pm ET
Louise Brooks was more than just a pretty face.

As fans of the actress are well aware, she was considered “smart” by her Hollywood peers. She was also a gifted writer, and later in life authored a number of well thought of articles for various film magazines as well as a highly-regarded and still in print 1982 memoir, Lulu In Hollywood.

The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist considered Brooks the best writer to have come out of Hollywood.

Which Pulitzer Prize winning novelist? Name?


Jim

[Jack Theakston]

That date passed in August, and Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public

I hope this doesn't mean that these journals are going to be tampered with in any way.

[boblipton]

I would be more concerned that they would never be seen in any form outside of Rochester.

Bob

[35MM]

http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-i ... e-revealed

Thomas Gladysz
Louise Brooks Examiner
Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed
October 2nd, 2010 8:00 pm ET
Louise Brooks was more than just a pretty face.

As fans of the actress are well aware, she was considered “smart” by her Hollywood peers. She was also a gifted writer, and later in life authored a number of well thought of articles for various film magazines as well as a highly-regarded and still in print 1982 memoir, Lulu In Hollywood.

The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist considered Brooks the best writer to have come out of Hollywood.

Which Pulitzer Prize winning novelist? Name?


Jim

John Updike

The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, John Updike, considered Brooks the best writer to have come out of Hollywood. Her essays have been collected into anthologies of the best writing about the movies by the likes of Roger Ebert, another Pulitzer Prize winner.

[thomas_gladysz]

I spoke with the folks at the George Eastman House.

According to an Eastman House archivist, there are 29 research journals -- which contain her notes and thoughts while she conducted research for her book and other writing projects -- ranging in size from 20 to 120 pages. All together, these working journals approach 2000 pages of hand-written text. Notably, Brooks went back and reworked material in various notebooks over the years. She also added a table of contents to the cover of each volume.

A little more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-gl ... 56141.html

[Harlett O'Dowd]

I spoke with the folks at the George Eastman House.

According to an Eastman House archivist, there are 29 research journals -- which contain her notes and thoughts while she conducted research for her book and other writing projects -- ranging in size from 20 to 120 pages. All together, these working journals approach 2000 pages of hand-written text. Notably, Brooks went back and reworked material in various notebooks over the years. She also added a table of contents to the cover of each volume.

A little more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-gl ... 56141.html

Do we have an ETA on when this material will be processed and made avaialble - either online or in print?

[thomas_gladysz]

Do we have an ETA on when this material will be processed and made avaialble - either online or in print?

I asked about that ad they didn't know. If anything, I think it would be published in print form before it were to go online - but that is just a guess.

thomas

[Brooksie]

Do we have an ETA on when this material will be processed and made avaialble - either online or in print?

I asked about that ad they didn't know. If anything, I think it would be published in print form before it were to go online - but that is just a guess.

thomas

Surely it'll be zhushed up into a big expensive `Lulu in Hollywood Part II' type book? `The Lost Journals of Louise Brooks' would have to be a pretty attractive commercial proposition.