Louise Brooks - anniversary

[thomas gladysz]

To mark the anniversary (August 8, 1985) of the death of silent film
star Louise Brooks, I have posted a bibliography of obituaries and
tribute articles. This webpage can be found at

http://www.pandorasbox.com/louisebrooks/biblio/obit-biblio.html

Gathered there are obituaries from newspapers and magazines across the
United States, as well as England, France, Germany, Spain and
Switzerland. Some of the citations are linked to full-text articles.

This page is a work in progress! If you know of other obituaries or
tribute articles not included on this page, please email whatever
information you might have to the email address found in the header of
this posting.
[Don't forget to remove the anti-spam REMOVE text.]

thomas gladysz
Director, Louise Brooks Society
http://www.pandorasbox.com/

[louise_brooksFAN]

Fame in the Flapper Era / Film Star Louise Brooks Dies

San Francisco Chronicle / Aug 9, 1985;
Dateline: Rochester, N.Y.

Louise Brooks, who was respected in Europe for her silent film career,
yet better known in her native United States through her memoirs, died
yesterday at 78.

Brooks began her career as a dancer in her teens and made her film
debut in 1925. She gained stardom and a cult following in flapper
movies.

She appeared in the 1928 films ``A Girl in Every Port,'' directed by
Howard Hawks, and ``Beggars of Life,'' directed by William Wellman.

Near the end of the decade she went to Europe, where she remains
popular through revivals of her films. German film maker G. W. Pabst
directed her as Lulu in ``Pandora's Box'' and its sequel, ``Diary of a
Lost Girl,'' in 1929.

After her return to Hollywood, she appeared in only minor roles,
including a bit part in Wellman's ``The Public Enemy'' in 1931. She
retired after making several minor westerns. Her last film was
``Overland Stage Riders'' with John Wayne in 1938.

Brooks moved to Rochester, N.Y., in 1958 to be near its film archives,
and she wrote occasional articles about her career for film
publications. In 1982 she published ``Lulu in Hollywood,'' a
collection of essays on her life.

In a Life magazine article in 1980 on forgotten film stars, she was
described as poor but defiant. She said she had turned down an offer
by director Mike Nichols to do a film on her life and once wrote but
later burned her autobiography.

``Nobody needs a book of mine to learn how to make a mess of life,''
she said.

In a 1978 interview with The New Yorker, Brooks, who was born and
reared in Kansas, spoke of her disdain for her roots. She called her
return to Wichita after her career ended ``another kind of hell.''

``The citizens of Wichita either resented me for having been a success
or despised me for being a failure,' she said. ``And I wasn't exactly
enchanted with them.''

Brooks was married for a few years in the mid-1920s to Eddie
Sutherland, who directed her in ``It's the Old Army Game'' with W. C.
Fields.

Associated Press

[RChamp7927]

I saw some interviews with Louise in her later years and found her as
articulate and intelligent a person as you would want to meet among the
thespian contingent of humanity. She made me wonder what would have happened
had she decided to concentrate on writing rather than acting.

I have only seen one of her films, "Pandora's Box," but it is a stunner.
Louise is utterly convincing as the ultimate femme fatale, Lulu. It is easy to
see why many have fallen in love with her, or at least with her film
incarnations.

Bob Champ