Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever

Book Description

Louise Brooks has become one of the most spectacular icons of early cinema. Her distinctive "bob" haircut looks as modern as they did when she first appeared in films in 1925. Louise Brooks was born on November 14, 1906 in Cherryvale, Kansas, and by eighteen had established herself as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies, and was receiving film offers from both MGM and Paramount. In 1928, she starred in William Wellman's Beggars of Life. Meanwhile she was mingling with the high and mighty of Hollywood, having a passionate affair with Charlie Chaplin, spending weekends at William Randolph Hearst's castle and captivating such men as William S. Paley, the founder of CBS. Her brief, yet spectacular role in Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port impressed G.W. Pabst, the German maestro who was seeking an actress for his upcoming production, Pandora's Box. He rejected Marlene Dietrich in favor of Brooks, who went to Berlin and made not only Pandora's Box but also Diary of a Lost Girl, forever ensuring her status as a screen icon.This exquisitely produced album celebrates Lulu with rare film footage stills, private photos, letters, interviews, and text by renowned film critic Peter Cowie, exploring this influential cult figure and abiding symbol of the Jazz Age.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-08-10

I too rate this book five stars. Louise Brooks fans are so hungry for new information about her they will rate practically anything new about her five stars - but this one deserves it. More photo than text, many of the photos are movie stills, but there are some candid shots of her, including some that I have not seen before, a few of which alone make the book worth the price.

There appear to be a few minor errors of fact, such as page 144, where the author makes reference to Buck Rogers, but he obviously means Buck Jones. None of the several such errors are significant and do not detract from the quality of this work.

One interesting line in this book, pages 209-210 quotes Miss Brooks as saying she had not seen Charlie Chaplin since 1928. If correct, that differs from the biography which implies they did not see each other after their affair in 1925. If this author is correct (and it is plausible, since Miss Brooks was in Hollywood in 1928 and presumably so was Chaplin), how many times did they see each other after 1925, and what, if anything did they do together?

I marvel at how much we don't know about Miss Brooks. I'm waiting for some one to publish her diaries, although I am a firm believer that diaries are private and should not be published without the permission of the writer (which is not possible in this case), but I think such a publication would give us a fascinating and insightful look at this extraordinary legend.

Finally, I am most grateful to this author for sharing his knowledge and experiences about Louise Brooks with the rest of us. It's great reading!

This book is worth the money.......2007-03-14

I love this book. The text is fascinating and the pictures are great. I love the big books with nice pictures they have out on some stars now, and this one is just great. If you like the "coffee table" sort of books about the stars another good one is Century Girl by Lauren Redniss, about the life of Doris Eaton Travis. The whole thing is like a beautiful collage!

Large Format Lulu!!.......2007-02-23

Louise Brooks finally gets the beautifully produced book she deserves.
Great selection of photos.....large format book.....
Five stars from me!

lulu lives on.......2007-02-19

This is an excellent book for those of us that enjoy silent movies. It is filled with wonderful photographs of this too little appreciated (in her day) actress. I highly recommend it.

I can't believe I am the first to review!?.......2007-02-11

far more qualified people can comment on the contents of this book. All I can say is this is the definitive collection of images of Brooks. This with Barry Paris' biography and you have it all.

Average customer rating:

sharp but rambling
A beauty unparalleled in film history
Musings Of A Rebel.
BROOKS AND TYNAN ARE EXTRAORDINARY
Brooks back in print

Lulu in Hollywood: Expanded Edition
Louise Brooks
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0816637318

Book Description

Film

Introduction by Kenneth Tynan

The collected writings of this icon of the silent era, in a new, more complete edition.

Louise Brooks (1906-1985) is one of the most famous actresses of the silent era, renowned as much for her rebellion against the Hollywood system as for her performances in such influential films as Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Eight autobiographical essays by Brooks, on topics ranging from her childhood in Kansas and her early days as a Denishawn and Ziegfeld Follies dancer to her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, William Paley, G. W. Pabst, and others are collected here. New to this edition is the revelatory "Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs" by Brooks and "The Girl in the Black Helmet" by Kenneth Tynan, which brought about the revival of interest in her work and was the best discussion of Brooks's film work to appear in her lifetime.

"The writing is assured, graceful, and magnetic; the life the dancer-actress-author describes makes most fiction trivial by comparison. . . . This is no ordinary collection of gossipy memoirs. It is a tour de force, as history and as a searching study of human nature." Publishers Weekly

"Brooks is brilliantly perceptive and articulate on everything from the art of film directing to the comedy of W. C. Fields." New York Times

"A minor classic." Film Quarterly

Translation Inquiries: Alfred A. Knopf

Customer Reviews:

sharp but rambling.......2007-06-25

This book will be helpful for anyone interested in silent film. Brooks' insights about certain aspects of Hollywood are original. She has no fear of revealing some of the ugliest secrets of the past, and also has valuable things to say about why she believes certain directors and players created works of art. However, in my opinion she could have been a better writer if she'd had more education and/or editorial experience. Some of her essays are rambling and disorganized, and a number of her claims are unsupported. (e.g., that many actresses were pulled from the screen not because of the arrival of sound, but because they couldn't live up to Garbo, p.88.) She also tends to make bold generalizations (e.g., "Every actor has a natural animosity toward every other actor"), which, depending on whether you agree with them, are either smart and charming or arrogant and imprecise.

Some of Brooks' cleverest comments are reported in the introduction by Kenneth Tynan, not in her own writings. My favorite was her joking suggestion that she and Marlene Dietrich write each other's memoirs: "'Lulu' by Lola, and 'Lola' by Lulu".

Note: this is a collection of essays, which don't necessarily follow a sequence. The brief history of her family and childhood given in the first chapter fooled me into thinking this book would be an autobiography, but Brooks leaves much of her own story untold. (In fact, the epilogue is titled, "Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs.") Tynan's introduction fleshes out a little more of Louise Brooks' history, but fans will probably want to keep looking for other writings and biographies after they've read this one.

A beauty unparalleled in film history.......2005-07-10

This book is a collection of Brooks's autobiographical essays together with an interview by Kenneth Tynan.

It shows a Louise Brooks as a fiercely independent character, as well as her failure as a social creature, because of her open critic of people's false faces.
But at what price? She survives as a kept woman by three lovers and ends in poverty, rejected and lonely.

She characterizes her work in Hollywood's film factory as slavery and throws a shrill light on Hollywood's morals (the casting couch) and cynicism: the end of the silent period served as an excuse to terminate all contracts.

The all important feature of her life was sex, not love: 'I have never been in love.' But, 'A person's sexual loves and hates and conflicts ... It is the only way the reader can make sense out of innumerable apparently senseless actions.'
She considers that 'the most fateful encounter in my life' was a sexual one with George Preston Marshall.
Nevertheless, she had some regrets: 'How often do we change the whole course of our lives in pursuit of a love that we will have forgotten within a few months.'

She never wrote her biography because 'I am unwilling to write the sexual truth that would make up my life worth reading.'

Barry PARIS did it for her, admirably. His book contains also a few corrections on Louise Brooks's statements in her book.

A moving text with admirable pictures.

Musings Of A Rebel........2004-09-30

I remember when this book came out, but, unfortunately, it took me over twenty years to read it. Though Louise Brooks is far from a household name, in film scholar circles, she is an icon. Her rememberances here of certain individuals and events from her years in the "Dream Factory" are brilliant. Aside from the fact that these are names that most are familiar with, Bogart, Hearst, Pabst...it is her writing style and unique observations that make these recollections interesting. Where as someone as, say, Adela Rogers St. John, a famous reporter and contemporary of Brooks, wrote accurately of that long ago time, her dusty rememberances would only interest the most devoted of film student or fan. But Brooks writings are so fresh and witty and humourous, often at her own expense. She is not only unimpressed with most of silly society, but, she was equally unimpressed with her status as film icon. In those pre Hepburn-Davis times, she was a true rebel, who was more than willing to saboutage her career rather than do anything she didn't want to do. There is no remorse detectable in her memories of her fall from status. Though it would be unfair to imply that most film stars would not be expected to be good writers, it was surprising, then and now, to find that Miss Brooks was such a highly intelligent and captivating writer. In my review of her most famous film, "Pandora's Box", which isn't so much a review of that film as it is a homage to our Miss Brooks, I recounted my having met her more than once, when I delivered her prescriptions to her in my hometown and her final, adopted city of Rochester, New York. I was very young at the time, and though I had been told that she had once been a famous actress, which fascinated me, I am sorry to have to honestly admit that my memory of her is only of a shadowy figure who I remember with intimidation. How I would have loved to have been a little older, to possibly converse with this great lady, though she may have found what undoubtedly would have been my reverence to her "legend" as film icon to be obnoxious at the least, silly at best. Well, never mind. She was and is wonderful. And, as this book attests, a scathingly intelligent lady. Celebrities of her league are no more, now we have tarts, thugs, and arrogant, illiterate self-important jerks showing off their bling-bling. How sad. If you want to hear the entertainingly clever views of this great lady who, though she went from brilliant star to near- pauper obscurity, yet never lost her class, intellect, nor pride, then read "Lulu In Hollywood." One wishes she had written much more, and, left behind more films where her inate brilliance reaches out from the screen eighty years later. But, if all we have is this book and "Pandora's Box", that's legacy enough.

BROOKS AND TYNAN ARE EXTRAORDINARY.......2001-01-27

I am unimpressed by Emily from Seattle's harsh words, which are both snotty and inaccurate. Tynan was the finest theatre critic of his time--and not bad on film, either. His profiles of stage and screen actors, recently collected in one volume, are masterpieces of the genre. In particular, his profile of Brooks was an indelible portrait of a brilliant and beautiful woman. Brooks herself, though not a great actress, was indeed a great star--exquisitely beautiful, highly charismatic, and powerfully erotic. To the best of my memory, Tynan describes her only in these terms, never as the creator of naturalistic film acting. (Incidentally, none of the women named by Emily--Crawford, Davies, Bow, and the insufferable Shearer--could properly be described as an actress. They were merely stars--and distinctly inferior to Brooks in talent, intelligence, and beauty.) Finally, as everyone here (including Emily) acknowledges, Brooks was a first-rate writer herself, and the essays in this book are required reading for anyone interested in silent film.

Brooks back in print.......2000-09-06

Great to have this irreplaceable book back in print. Even better that it now includes the New Yorker article by Kenneth Tynan, "The Girl in the Black Helmet," that helped touch off the 80's Brooks revival, and an additional piece by Brooks entitled "Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs." Still, one can't help coming away from this book wishing there were more material, just as one wishes there were more Brooks films.

Average customer rating:

A jam packed book about Louise Brooks
An exemplary biography worthy of its subject
An excellent biography.
Singhandedly brought the Cult of Brooks afront
Understanding Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks: A Biography
Barry Paris
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0816637814

Book Description

Film

The long-awaited republication of this captivating account of the star's life.

Louise Brooks left Wichita, Kansas, for New York City at age fifteen and lived the kind of life of which legends are made. From her beginnings as a dancer to her years in Hollywood, Berlin, and beyond, she was hailed and reviled as a new type of woman: independent, intellectually daring, and sexually free. In this widely acclaimed, first and only comprehensive biography, Barry Paris traces Brooks's trajectory from her childhood through her fall into obscurity and subsequent "resurrection" as a brilliant writer and enduring film icon.

"Star biographies don't get any better than Barry Paris's Louise Brooks." USA Today

"This account has the aphrodisiac gloss of Brooks herself: you meet the stare of a modern icon, a picture that taunts your inability to touch the real thing. A necessary and stimulating book, it is itself an important part of Brooks's life after death." The New Republic

"Absorbing, wonderfully well researched and, all in all, an exemplar of its kind." London Spectator

"Louise Brooks is not simply a summary of her movie plots and love affairs but a serious work of film and social history." New York Magazine

Barry Paris is an award-winning biographer, film and music critic, and contributor to the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other publications. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Translation Inquiries: Alfred A. Knopf

Customer Reviews:

A jam packed book about Louise Brooks.......2007-07-17

Several books have been written about Louise Brooks, but this book is probably the most concise and most thorough of them all. The book starts off with Louise's birth and it describes all the people that helped to make Louise so interesting and famous. There are many black-and-white photos of Louise, from the time she started in show-biz (at age 4) to Louise in her later years, just before her death.

Since Louise Brooks had such a fascinating life, it is not a surprise that this book is so long. Each Chapter basically covers a chunk of her life, and each Chapter describes (in detail) the characters that encountered & shaped Louise, and also all the Theatre and Movie productions that Louise was involved in.

An exemplary biography worthy of its subject.......2007-05-09

This is what a biography should be: insightful, understanding, offering a measured & complex view of its beloved subject. And what a subject Barry Paris has in Louise Brooks! Her beauty, her intelligence, her compelling charisma all shine in these pages, giving us a multi-faceted view of this ravishing star. For someone who had never heard of Louise Brooks, this biography will send him or her in eager pursuit of her all-too-few films & her own writing -- and both are of the very highest standard.

It's clear that Brooks never did anything without wanting to give her all, to make true art out of it, a work of beauty & meaning that would stand the test of time. And the same could be said of this superb biography. While Paris clearly adores Brooks (and with good reason), he never succumbs to blind hagiography. Nor does he stumble in the opposite direction of pathography. His purpose is to explore the life of a fascinating woman, and to present it to the reader as thoroughly & lucidly as possible. He succeeds on every level. Louise Brooks emerges from these pages as both a flesh & blood woman, and as the dazzling, mysterious icon she became to countless admirers.

In short, the best book on Louise Brooks you'll ever find, most highly recommended!

An excellent biography........2007-02-19

I have not yet read this entire book, but just glancing through it when it arrived I would find that I have just read twenty pages or so whenever I openned it up. I can't wait until I read it cover to cover.

Singhandedly brought the Cult of Brooks afront.......2007-02-11

Barry Paris's bio is a wonderful read and in my opinion did more for the recent increase of interest in Brooks than anything other book.

At the time of it's publishing in the mid 90's the internet was a mere flicker of info, photos bios and trivia about obscure stars like Louise Brooks were very hard to come by. After this book was published, I was one of several people who started fledgling web sites in Brooks' honour. While I gave up, one of those websites carried on to become the Louise Brooks Society, the definitive website on her life. Paris' book is essential reading for anyone who is facinated by this beautiful starlet.

Understanding Louise Brooks.......2007-01-18

Superb biography of a simply fascinating personality. Here was a women who literally and figuratively had everything: stunning beauty; talent; training; desire; intelligence; in the right place at the right time, and knew the right people, to achieve both stage and screen immortality and who, multiple times--not just once -- multiple times, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. What a story!

Average customer rating:

Highly readable biography of Louise Brooks
Highly overlooked actress starring in 'Excellent Bio'.
A Great Biography
A brilliant summation of an extraordinary life
One of the best biographies

Louise Brooks
Barry Paris
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394559231
Release Date: 1989-10-14

Customer Reviews:

Highly readable biography of Louise Brooks.......2000-08-02

I am one of those who became entranced by Louise Brooks after seeing her in "Pandora's Box". She appeared to be highly sexual, intelligent, and to be marching to the sound of a drummer that she alone heard within herself. It turns out that she was all of this. This is an excellent biography and a lesson about what happens to those who despise the opportunities that life presents to us and to those whose lives are driven by sex rather than common sense. Louise Brooks was a very modern woman despite having been a star of the silent screen. She made only a few films but her performances in those films stand up with the great performances of today and their naturalism makes the acting of most silent screen starlets seem idiotic. While other actresses were concerned with nothing but their looks, Brooks was reading Shaw and Proust. While others did all they could to ingratiate themselves with the movie studios, Brooks had nothing but indifference for them. She turned her back on fame, fortune, and power. She could have had a brilliant career but always sabotaged her chances. She had beauty and incredible sex appeal. She had Chaplin as a lover. She wrote. She lives on today as an image of a woman ahead of her time and also as a tragic waste. Her own difficult personality drove everyone away. Her lack of discipline was childish. She fascinates. This is the best biography we will ever get of her. Recommended.

Highly overlooked actress starring in 'Excellent Bio'........2000-02-26

This Bio does not look upon Louise Brooks as sympathetically as other's Bio's do. Here we feel that we are being told the truth - as not everything in her life was perfect, or admirable, or even sympathetic. Louise Brooks was still a person who did things her way. And this books tells us what her was. A wonderful look at a wonderful Actress, Dancer and Writer.

A Great Biography.......1998-12-24

An all-emcompassing book for fans of Louise Brooks. It has interesting stories and beautiful photos.

A brilliant summation of an extraordinary life.......1998-12-23

This is a great biography of an obscure, but fascinating silent film star. Barry Paris has done a great job researching the life and times of Louise Brooks. A must-read for any Brooks fan.

One of the best biographies.......1997-09-15

This book was wonderful, before I read it I had no idea in the world who Louise Brooks was or what an impression she had on the motion picture industry. While this book is full of information and well written there are some slow points. A wonderful book for anyone interested in films.

Average customer rating:

Sublime
Very Interesting

Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star

Manufacturer: New York Zoetrope
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0918432774

Customer Reviews:

Sublime.......1999-06-20

Kenneth Anger once described Louise Brooks as "one of the loveliest visions ever to grace a screen", and his description should be taken as gospel. Louise was a shimmering beauty, but she was more than that: she was an opinionated, intelligent, thoughtful human being who knew that Hollywood breeds crap and who believed in film as art. . .positions she ultimately couldn't reconcile. Who couldn't love Lulu?

Very Interesting.......1998-12-24

A good companion to the movie Pandora's Box

The Southern Critics: An Introduction to the Criticism of John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and Andrew Lytle

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The Southern Critics: An Introduction to the Criticism of John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and Andrew Lytle
Louise Cowan
Manufacturer: Dallas Inst Humanities & Culture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0911005358

Book Description

An introduction to the Southern Critics for those who do not know them. Dr. Cowan has concentrated on the three founders of the school--Ransom, Tate, and Davidson--because it was in their minds and imagination that the movement took form.

Biography - Brooks, Louise (1906-1985): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online

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Biography - Brooks, Louise (1906-1985): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0007SAHHQ
Release Date: 2007-06-13

Book Description

Word count: 3344.

Dames and daughters of the French court,

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Dames and daughters of the French court,
Geraldine Brooks
Manufacturer: T.F. Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0008BV6ZY

Book Description

This irresistible collection of stories is perfect for anyone interested in a fresh perspective on what it means to be a human being who creates art. Grace Notes for a Year sheds light on the fragile and perilous process of inspiration, composition, and performance required to create classical music, whether the final product is a masterpiece or a mess. Each page of the book corresponds to a different day of the year and features a true story about a famous figure in musical history. These delightful anecdotes—inspirational, informative, and often hilarious—disprove the myth of the artist as untouchable. Instead, Norman Gilliland exposes in them human vulnerability we can all relate to. From Beethoven to Wagner, these artists suffered from poverty, spent lazy days in bed, had scandalous love affairs, and often failed in their creative endeavors as often as they succeeded.

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