Actor Of The Month

Hi

if anyone hasn't any objections I would to introduce a New Topic titled Stars or Unsung heroes revisited a sort of mix of On This Day and Pals of the Saddle. Using a subject who was born or died on a certain day in that current month giving highlights of his career.

As with on this day would appreaciate any imput or comments

So for Number one :-

[ATTACH]657]
Leroy Mason 1903-1947

Mason - Le Roy 1903 – 1947
b.2 Jul (Larimore Nth Dakota) d. October 13
Also known as
Robert Alden
LeRoy Mason
Le Roy Mason
Roy Mason
One of the best known Hollywood western villains, at the time of his sudden death from a heart attack while making California Firebrand with Monte Hale at Republic he had earned for himself a reputation as being one of Hollywood’s busiest actors. Coming to the scene early in life he made his screen debut in 1924 at the age of twenty-one at Universal playing a minor role of an uncredited spectator in the Edward Sedgewick comedy ‘Hit and Run’ (1924) which starred Hoot Gibson. In 1926 after a two year absence he returned to the screen at the Robertson Cole Pictures Corporation for ‘Born to Battle’ with Tom Tyler and Jean Arthur, his first western and the beginning of a career that for the next twenty-four years would see him make over 175 pictures the majority of which were western orientated. Occasionally he would switch from the genre and appeared in non costume pictures including ‘Maker of Men’ (1931), ‘King Kong’ (1933) and ‘California Straight Ahead’ (1937), he would also occasionally appear as a policeman. He also featured in serials playing a minor role at RKO ‘The Last Frontier’(1932) in ‘The Phantom of the Air’ (1933) for Universal and with Frank Buck and Reginald Denny in ‘Jungle Menace’ (1937) for Columbia. Occasionally he would get to play the hero as in the 1936 picture ‘Black Gold’, but in general he settled largely for the villains role particularly after joining Republic in films like ‘Coming Round The Mountain’ (1936) ‘The Painted Stallion’(1937) ‘Mexicalli Rose’(1939),’The Tiger Woman’ and ‘Stagecoach to Monteray (both 1944),’The Phantom Rider’(1945) and ‘King of the Forest Rangers’ (1946). At the height of his career he was alternating between 20th Century Fox and Republic but after signing a term player contract with Republic in 1943 he concentrated on that studio. The heavy work schedule seriously affected his health and was a major contributory factor in his eventual death from a heart attack at the age of forty-four. He was married to the 1920s supporting actress Rita Carewe
(Joe Dixon) Texas Terror (1935): (Rogers) Rainbow Valley (1935): (Gilbert) New Frontier (1935): (Padula) California Straight Ahead 1937): (Gil Brian) Santa Fe Stampede (1938): (Balsinger) Wyoming Outlaw (1939): (Train Passenger) War of the Wildcats (1943): (Un-credited) Fighting Seabees (1944):(Gambler) Dakota (1945)@ (Lefty Wilson) The Angel And The Badman (1947)

Hi

With the coming of August it's now time for the second of the star of the month series.

On this occasion I have selected the female lead in the great western THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER:-

'THE SON'S OF KATIE ELDER'[/b]

In Durango prior to the start of filming The Sons of Katie Elder Henry Hathaway sent for top make up man Wally Westmore to come down to deglamourize Martha Hyer. Westmore missed his plane connections at Mazatalan and was forced to spend most of the night crossing the Sierra Madras by car. He arrived a 2am and by 9 next morning was on the set at work.

Martha Hyers reputation as an art lover preceded her. Art students at the local University put on a special exhibition for her. She brought two paintings, half a dozen throw rugs and a crateful of pottery and glassware for her house. During this time she also discovered a 20 year old art designer named Camerena who she promised a career in the United States once she finished her education. Wearing three of her creations for a photo shoot for a German Glamour Magazine she was quoted as saying that her creations use colour and design in a new concept and sexy without being imodest.

Of course on the set of the film as a western women she was confined to wearing gingham but bought with her fourteen of her own outfits.

Regards

Arthur

Hi Bob

Thanks for the kind words (although Pals of the Saddle is Kieth's not mine)

Like On this day this topic is not mine exclusively if any one has anything to contribute please feel free to join in. The more the merrier.

Advance info:-

Next months unsung hero will be John Qualen and planned for around about September 12th.

Regards

Arthur

Hi

JOHN QUALEN 1899-1987

[ATTACH]702]

If you happened to find yourself in the western town of Shinbone on a Saturday night, it would be a good bet that sooner rather than later you would find yourself heading for Peter Ericsons’ place for a meal. Sure the place could be lively and occasionally one would see the occasional ruckus, but in general the welcome would be warm and genuine the steaks potatoes and black-eyed peas hot and plentiful. Similarly, if you were down in south-west Texas and came upon the ranch of Lars Jorgenson you would receive a warm reception from the family, and if by some unfortunate circumstance you happened to find yourself on an airplane in imminent danger of falling headlong into the sea, what better passenger to be sitting next to to get a calming influence and reassurance than the gentle fisherman Jose Lacota. How are all these people related one could ask? The answer is that they were all characters played by John Qualen during a long and illustrious film career.

Johan Mandt Kvalen was born in Vancouver British Columbia on December 8th 1899, of Norwegian parents his father was a Lutheran pastor. His family had been the subject of many changes of identity, the original name of Olson had been changed by Qualens’ grandfather to Kvalen and after his birth Qualens’ father changed the name to Qualen. The fourth and final change occurred when Qualen himself amended the pronunciation to Kwaylen.

While still in his youth the family moved to Elgin Illinois where Qualen entered and won an oratory contest and as a result was given a scholarship to North Western University. It was while studying at North Western that he developed his interest in the theatre and to the horror of his parents began appearing in on the Lyceum-Chautauqua tent circuit and later in repertory.

In 1929 he moved to New York to further his acting career. At some point in time he discovered that the producer William A Brady was looking for an actor to play the Swedish janitor in his forthcoming play Street Scene. Marching into Brady’s office he demonstrated his faultless Scandinavian accent and was given the part of Carl Olsen. Street Scene opened at the playhouse Theatre on January 10th 1929. Written and staged by Elmer Rice the play won the Best Drama Pulitzer Prize for that year and the play ran until June 1930 giving a total of 601 performances. A year later when The Samuel Goldwyn Company bought the screen rights of the play for United Artists, Qualen travelled to Hollywood to recreate his stage role on screen.

After completing the picture he remained in Hollywood and for his second film his was given the un-credited role of Henry Novak in the prestigious film ‘Arrowsmith’ (1931) a film based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis and directed by John Ford the first of nine pictures the actor would make in association with Ford over the next three decades.

In November 1931 he briefly left Hollywood and returned to Broadway and the Plymouth Theatre to play the role of Johann Breistein in the Elmer Rice production of Counsellor-at-Law the drama which also starred Paul Muni opened on November 6th and ran for 292 performances until closing in July 1932 for the summer. On September 12th 1932 the Plymouth Theatre once again opened its door for another 104 performances before finally closing in December of that year. This also brought the curtain down on Qualen’s own career on Broadway and in 1933 he returned to Hollywood to play yet another un-credited role of Svente Bjorkman in ‘Let’s Fall in Love’ (1933).

In the following two years he appeared in twenty pictures going from un-credited parts in ‘Hi Nellie’ and ‘Straight is the Way’ (both 1934) to minor supporting roles in films such as ‘The Farmer Takes A Wife’ and ‘Doubting Thomas’ (both 1935). By 1940 John Qualen had established himself as a character actor and had appeared in fifty-three pictures In almost every case playing a Nordic type role either as a Dane Swede or Norwegian. Occasionally during this period he was cast as a German and in the 1935 classic picture The Three Musketeer he was even cast as Planchet d’Artagnan’s French servant.

1940 was to prove somewhat of a pivotal year for the actor as first he renewed his working relationship with John Ford and quickly established himself as a permanent and almost indispensable member of Ford‘s ‘Stock Company’ of players. After appearing in the 1940 Howard Hawk’s comedy ‘His Girl Friday’ with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, he was pitched straight to the part of the demented Muley Graves in Ford’s dramatic production The Grapes of Wrath (1940) giving a powerful performance as a broken man and earning great plaudits for his work. Later that year he was again working for Ford, this time as crew member Axel Swanson in ‘The Long Voyage Home’(1940) It was in this picture that he got to meet another important member of the Stock Company – John Wayne.

In 1941 Wayne and Qualen were united again this time without Ford playing Matt Matthews and Coot Royal respectively in 'The Shepherd of the Hills' before going on to other things among which was yet another fine performance as Berber a member of the Norwegian resistance in Casablanca (1942) and more modest roles as a barber in ‘The Jungle Book’ and Aladdin in ‘The Arabian Nights’ (both 1942).

In 1947 when Ford called he hurried off to Mexico to play a Refugee Doctor in ‘The Fugitive’ Ford’s masterpiece that was designed to pave the way for The Quiet Man, the film was a disappointment and fared badly at the box office, Ford turned instead to Rio Grande, Qualen went back to supporting roles.

In 1952 he made his television debut in Anna Christie and would become a regular thereafter. By this time he was also get larger and more important supporting roles and in 1954 was one of the many supporting actors giving fine performances as well as composing some of the incidental music, in William Wellman’s airplane drama ‘The High and the Mighty’ (1954) and John Farrow’s The Sea Chase’ (1955) which saw him once again teamed up with John Wayne.

A year later both men were doing what they did very well working with John Ford in ‘The Searchers’ (1956), Qualen answering the call playing ranch owner Lars Jorgenson, once again giving a portrayal of a honest dependable ordinary man, the role that buy now he had perfected and would almost without exception come to be associated with. In 1960 again with Wayne he played a logger at a picnic in ‘North to Alaska’ and two years later with both Wayne, James Stewart and Ford, played the café owner Peter Ericson in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance having previously worked with Stewart in John Ford’s movie ‘Two Rode Together’ (1961) playing the part of a hopeful homesteader trying to trace his captive children. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance he played his by now customary determined role and this is best illustrated with the scene showing the election of representative to the state Legislature when he turns up proudly showing his certificate of citizenship a man intensely proud of the honour and determined to make his mark in the new country.

1963 and 64 saw him complete his final two pictures with Ford, playing an un-credited role in ‘Donovan’s Reef’ and his customary Nordic part in Ford’s swan song ‘Cheyenne Autumn’, a year later marked his final picture with John Wayne playing Charlie Biller in ‘The Sons of Katie Elder’.

Towards the end of his career failing eyesight and age ended his career in with his final film in 1973 at the age of 74 and his final television appearance a year later. Long in retirement he died of a heart attack thirteen years later.

Hi

Glad you like it. As with On this day feel free to contribute anything any time.

Regards

Arthur

Hi

GEORGE BANCROFT 1882-1956

[ATTACH]739]

Yesterday George Bancroft was born Tomorrow he died to tie the two together I have put him on nicely in the middle.

At the end of John Ford’s 1939 classic western ‘Satagecoach’ Marshal ‘Curly’ Wilcox (George Bancroft) and Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) are seen standing together. They have just allowed John Wayne and Claire Trevor to drive away in a buckboard as Doc Boone remarks - to ‘save them from the blessings of civilisation’. Turning to Boone Curly offers to buy the doctor a drink, to which, the doctor a former alcoholic replies “Just one” and as the end sequence comes up the two men walk away.

[ATTACH]740]

Critics noted George Bancroft’s performance as being one of the best of his late works. Standing 6’-2” weighing 13 stone 13 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, Bancroft’s burly frame and baritone voice had been seen and heard in forty-two pictures since making his debut almost two decades earlier. Within two years and after appearing in a further twelve pictures, he would stand in front of the cameras for the final time and at the age of sixty retire from the screen to concentrate on life as a rancher.

George Bancroft first saw the first light of day in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on Saturday September 30th 1882. He was raised in the city and educated at Tome’s University. Following graduation he completed his formal education at the Naval Academy Annapolis. His Naval career was brief, but notable for the fact that it was during this period while providing on-board entertainment for his crew mates, that he began to develop his interest in the theatre to such an extent that he quickly resigned from the service and in turn became the manager of a theatre, and later, switching from management to acting, worked for a time as a black faced comedian.

Moving to New York around the time of First World War, he is credited by some historians with appearing in on and off Broadway musical comedy and drama productions such as ‘Paid in Full’, ‘Fine Feathers’, ‘Sun Up’ and ‘The Trail of the Lonesome Pine’, however, a perusal of the Internet Broadway Database fails to list him as appearing in any of these shows on Broadway. What is known, is that on April 3rd 1923 he actually made his Broadway debut at the Dresden Theatre in the original Broadway musical comedy Cinders. The show, produced by Edward Royce, was of limited success running for thirty-one performances before closing on April 28 1923. In December of the same year he returned to Broadway for the final time playing the role of Johnson in the George M Cohan production ‘The Rise of Rosie O’Reilly’ which starred Margaret Dumont, Patsy Delaney and Ruby Keeler making her Broadway debut. The show another musical comedy, opened at the Liberty Theatre on Christmas Day 1923 proving moderately successful running for eighty-seven performances before closing on March 15th 1924.

By this time Bancroft had already made his screen debut when in 1921 he joined the Hugo Balin Production Company and appeared as The Ironworker, a down to earth itinerant in ‘The Journeys End’, which tells the story of an orphan girl’s (played by Mabel Balin) attempt to escape from the clutches of her uncle and was one of only seven pictures the company would make between 1921-23. His next appearance was in February 1922 at Vitagraph playing the minor role of Cavandish in ‘The Prodigal Judge’, before moving on again to Universal and Brabin Productions for the role of Lem Tolliver in ‘Driven’(1923). In 1924 he briefly settled at Fox Films playing supporting roles in three pictures starring Tom Mix - ‘Teeth’, ‘The Deadwood Coach’(both 1924) and ‘The Rainbow Trail’ (1925). Wedged in between was one film for Famous Players Lasky (soon to become Paramount) playing Enoch Thurman in ‘The Code of the West’ (1925).

In 1925 following the success of ‘The Covered Wagon’ (1923) director James Cruze returned to the west to make ‘The Pony Express’ and when casting the film remembered Bancroft’s performance as Tolliver in ‘The Driven’ and gave him the role of the outlaw Jack Slade.

The role of Jack Slade was based to a very large extent on the real life character who had been hired by the stage companies in an effort to beat the lawless elements robbing the stagecoaches, what his employers hadn’t bargained for was that their employee would take the law into his own hands and become worse than the outlaws he was hired to beat. Eventually in real life he was hunted down and hung by a group of vigilantes.

‘The Pony Express’ was not considered to be a great film being described as both ‘stiff and disjointed’ it’s slight saving grace was the photography of Karl Brown and the performances of Ernest Torrence and Wallace Beery as a pair of old timers and Bancroft’s portrayal of Slade portraying the villain as ‘…an ostensibly lovable rogue but with a hidden streak of sadism and a ruthlessness. Not only did he turn most situations to his own advantage, emerging prosperous, triumphant and totally unpunished at the end’. (The Hollywood Western – William K Everson)

Now firmly ensconced at Paramount during 1925-26 Bancroft appeared in major and supporting roles in six pictures including his first starring role - that of Gunner in ‘Old Ironsides’ (1926) the story of the USS Constitutions’ battle against Barbary pirates in the I8th century Mediterranean Sea.

His next film ‘White Gold’(1927) brought him yet another starring part, a strange picture directed by William K Howard and heavily influenced by the German director F.W. Murnau, it told the story of a beautiful Mexican dancer who marries and goes to live on a sheep ranch (the White Gold of the title). The film showed many issues including envy and jealousy. It was claustrophobic, slow with no physical action and at the end the hero Bancroft is killed in the most casual manner, and the audience was left to guess who the murderer was. Classed as one of the forgotten classics of the silent era, it was a box office failure.

Other starring roles quickly followed including featuring as a member of Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’ (1927) and as an unscrupulous editor of a newspaper in ‘Scandal Sheet’ (1931), in between these pictures he was very effective in two gangster pictures directed by Josef von Sternberg playing Bull Weed, a gangster with a heart in ‘Underworld’ (1927) and another gangster Bill Roberts in ‘The Docks of New York’ (1929).

In 1929, in what was one of the earliest talking pictures, he played the part of ‘Thunderbolt’ Jim Lang in ‘Thunderbolt (1929) to such good effect that he was nominated for a best Actor Academy Award. Unfortunately for the actor while he was developing his screen persona, at the same time he was also developing an over inflated ego that would make him difficult to work with.

1932 found him appearing for the first time with John Wayne in ‘The Voice of Hollywood No 13’ being one of the stars that Wayne introduced during the programme and later in the same year, again with the young John Wayne, as Slag Bailey a washed up prize fighter in Lady and Gent a film that the Film Daily on July 16 1932 described as ‘..Swell entertainment in a suspenseful story that moves fast and has just enough laughs and love stuff. Paramount invested this production with a surrounding cast that makes the story genuinely live’. On the same day The New York Times restricted its comments to ‘The film is a good one along well sentimentally tough lines’ – (The John Wayne Filmography). In the film Wayne in the role of Buzz Kinney, has only a peripheral role being seen in three scenes, the first in the ring when he takes on the overweight Bancroft who is worse the wear after having one drink too many. In the second he attends Wynne Gibsons’ night club after the fight and helps Bancroft beat some mobsters who are trying to sell bootleg liquor. In the final scene, it is many years later, Wayne, now a dishevelled, unshaven has been. is rescued from a jail cell by Bancroft and Gibson. While having a drink with the couple he insults Gibson and is knocked out off screen by Bancroft.

In the same year he starred in ‘The Flesh and The Devil’(1932) a film directed by John Cromwell, director was renowned for his ability to get on well with his actors. in this case Cromwell not only found himself up against Miriam Hopkins demands that she achieve visual perfection in every scene she appeared in, but also what was described as Bancroft’s overwhelming ego and is possibly the occasion cited in Budd Schulberg’s autobiography ‘Moving Pictures’ when he refused to obey the directors orders that he fall down after being shot by the villain saying ,”One bullet can’t kill Bancroft”.

By the mid 1930’s his style was becoming dated and from 1934 he found himself increasingly having to give way to the up and coming young actors such as James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart and having to accept supporting roles in such films as ‘Mr Deeds Goes to Town’ (1936), ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ (1938), ‘When The Dalton’s Rode’, ‘North West Mounted Police’ (both 1940), The Bugle Sounds’ (1942) and his final picture as Sheriff Claude Stagg in ‘Whistling in Dixie’ (1942).

Fourteen years after going into retirement and two days after his seventy-fourth birthday he died in Santa Monica California and was buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.
Films with John Wayne:- (Himself) The Voice of Hollywood No 13 (1932): (Slag Bailey) Lady & Gent (1932): (Sheriff ‘Curly’ Wilcox) Stagecoach (1939)

Hi Jim

My maths was never my strong point but it is 16 ounces = 1lb 14Ibs = 1 stone.
I don't know how that equates with American weights.

Hope you both enjoy the column.

Regards

Arthur

Hi

Slightly earlier that the actual date of this stars birthday - but here goes star number 5 the STAR FOR NOVEMBER

LOUISE BROOKS 1906-1985

[ATTACH]991]

‘…..At sunrise one August morning I was driven in a company car to location on the ranch where Republic shot all its westerns. Where was I supposed to go I wondered, after I got out of the car and stood alone in a cloud of dust kicked up by a passing string of horses- that damned dust so cherished by Western cameramen. Up the road a bunch of cowboys were talking and laughing with two men who stood slightly apart from them. When the company car honked for them to get off the road, the two men looked around, saw me, and came to greet me. One was a cherub, five feet tall carrying a bound script: the other was a cowboy, six feet four inches tall, wearing a lovely smile. The cherub, who was the director, George Sherman, introduced me to the cowboy who was John Wayne. …… Looking up at him I thought, this is no actor but the hero of all mythology miraculously brought to life.
During my thirteen years in films I had made a study of the manner in which the reigning stars of Hollywood exercised their power. My first study had been of Queen Gloria Swanson, who knocked people about like bowling pins. My last study had been of King Clark Gable, who wore his crown at a curiously apologetic angle. Now, for the first time I beheld a Duke born to reign. John was, in fact, that which Henry James defined as the greatest of all works of art – a purely beautiful being.’1

The words and thoughts of the actress Louise Brooks in 1938 on meeting John Wayne on her first day on the set of the Republic western ‘Overland Stage Raiders’. For Louise Brooks it was to be a sobering experience, a free wheeling sexually charged lively spirit, who, after appearing in starring and leading roles in eighteen pictures from 1926, now found herself standing on a minor studios back lot, broke, castigated and shunned by the Hollywood nobility determined to take their revenge for her streak of individuality and her acts of defiance in taking on the might of Paramount. Her two weeks work on the picture would be her last, on its completion she left the industry never to return, and along with Garbo, and Dietrich, her stunning beauty carved for her a niche in the annals of Hollywood legends.

But we are jumping the gun some what, Our story starts on November 14th 1906 in Cherryvale Kansas when Mary Louise Brooks was born the second of four children to Leonard Porter Brooks, a 40 year old provincial lawyer and his 23 year old wife Myra. During the day Louise attended the McKinley School in Cherryvale but on the occasions when she was at home, a free and artistic spirit Myra Brooks entertained her children with piano recitals of Ravel and Debussy and encouraged them to love books and music; unfortunately Myra had also decided long ago that she wouldn’t be tied down with siblings and therefore her children were allowed a lot of freedom during their growing up. It was during this period that around the age of nine Louise was sexually assaulted by a housepainter named Flowers, she never forgot the incident, it made a marked and lasting impression and would, to a large extent help shape her future life.

At an early age Louise – encouraged by her mother and despite being ridiculed by her father, knew that she wanted to become a dancer. In 1910 at the age of four she made her dance debut playing the Bride in a Cherryville church production of ‘Tom Thumbs Wedding’ and four years later she performed The Hesitation Waltz in the Cherryvale Opera House. She also began taking dancing lessons with Mrs Mae Ague Buckpitt whose belief in Brooks’s ability obliged her to, regularly undertake the eight mile train journey from Independence to Cherryvale and who, although only having a basic ability, did manage to teach Louise the five classical ballet positions.

By the time she was ten Louise was almost a professional dancer travelling throughout Southwest Kansas giving performances in clubs, fairs, theatres, dance halls and culminating in March 1917 with a four night booking at the Cherryvale Opera house. It was also during this time that Louise’s mother decided that her daughter needed a new image. A visit to the hairdresser resulted in the removal of her long braids which were replaced with a Dutch type bob later labelled as a ‘Buster Brown Cut’ and which evermore she would be noted for.

During 1919 financial necessity forced the family to make the short move to Independence where Louise studied at the Montgomery High School and renewed her acquaintance with her former dance instructor Miss Buckpitt; later in January 1920 the family made the longer and final journey to Wichita where she attended The Horace Mann Intermediate School for her formal education and studied dance and elocution at the Wichita College of Music. During the next couple of years she was frequently called upon to perform at parties and functions raising money for the Red Cross and Woodrow Wilson War bonds.

On November 17th 1921, shortly after her fifteenth birthday, Louise and Myra attended a concert given by a dance company known as Denishawn an exciting and innovative company fresh from appearing in Los Angeles. Captivated and enthralled by the evenings performance Louise went backstage and was introduced to Ted Shawn the leader of the company. For his part Shawn was equally intrigued by the look of the young girl standing in front of him and immediately invited her to New York to study at the Denishawn Dance School.

In July 1922, Louise left Wichita and moved to New York where she spent the next two years with the Denishawn company first as a student and then later as a full member of the company earning $40 a week. Despite her obvious talent she also showed an independent streak and an aloofness which made her unpopular with many of her other performers. Things came to a head in 1924, when as the company were preparing for their next summer tour she was summarily and humiliatingly dismissed by Shawn because of this attitude. She would not stay unemployed very long however as during her time in New York Louise had become friendly with Barbara Bennett, a member of the theatrical Bennett family. This friendship would now stand her in good stead as within an hour of being dismissed from Denishawn she was on the way to becoming employed as a dancer in the George White Scandals of 1924.

George White, a producer, author, dancer and actor had appeared in early Ziegfeld Follies and in 1911 wishing to emulate Ziegfeld, formed his own company and produced highly popular musicals which he named The George White Scandals. In 1924 it was this company that Louise Brooks joined. The Scandals of 1924 opened at the Apollo Theatre on June 30th 1924 with an enormous cast that included Alice White, Dorothy Sebastian, Tom Patricola, Peggy Dolan, Dolores Costello and Mary Carlson, the show ran for 196 performances before closing on December 13th of the same year. By the time the Scandals of 1924 had reached the end of it run however, Louise Brooks was no longer in the cast. Shortly before the show was due to finish, disliked by both cast and backstage crew alike, and suffering from nervous exhaustion that had her on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she quit the show without notice and accompanying her friend Barbara Bennett sailed first to France and then on to London where she found work as a dancer at the famous Café de Paris. It was during this time that she became the first woman to dance the Charleston in England.

Louise’s time in London was brief, hard up and homesick for the United States on February 14 she sailed for New York. Again she immediately found employment when Florenz Ziegfeld, who had been desperately trying to find her after her flight from the Scandals, cast her in a two act musical comedy ‘Louie the 14th’. The farce produced by Florenz Ziegfeld jnr opened at the Cosmopolitan Theatre on March 3rd 1925. Very popular with the theatre-going public it ran for three-hundred and nineteen performances until its closure on December 5th 1925. Once again as with the Scandals Louise was not among the cast at that time for in the middle of the year she had been switched to Ziegfeld seniors Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

Described as …‘a china doll with alabaster skin, a helmet of black hair and a magnificent pair of legs, who danced up a storm in a number called “Syncopating Baby”2. a girl as beautiful as Brooks would inevitably attract the attention of the film world and her romances first with Charlie Chaplin and then the producer Walter Wanger led to offers of a screen test which she at first rejected. Eventually in May 1925 she agreed to a test and made her film debut as a moll in the Paramount picture ‘The Street Of Forgotten Men’ (1925). Faced with the offer of a film contract from both Paramount and MGM, against Walter Wagner’s’ advice, in October of that year she signed a five year contract with Paramount.

For her first contract picture for her new studio she was cast in the role of Miss Bayport a beauty contestant in the 1925 picture ‘American Venus’ a film based on the Miss America beauty contest starring Esther Ralston and Ford Sterling. The picture was released on January 25th 1926 and within two months ‘A Social Celebrity’ playing the female lead of a manicurist opposite the dapper and very highly paid Adolphe Menjou came to the screen, the second of six pictures that she would make and see released during 1926 and which also included, a shop assistant to W.C.Fields in the comedy ‘It’s The Old Army Game’, which was directed by her future husband to be Eddie Sutherland, ‘The Show Off’ based on the hit 1924 Broadway play by George Kelly playing Clara a sales girl and linked her up again with Ford Serling, ‘Just Another Blonde’ playing one of the two girlfriends of a pair of hustlers. For the picture Brooks was loaned out to First National with Paramount collecting three times the fee that they were actually paying the actress. The film was also notable in the fact that half way through shooting she married Sutherland. The year was completed with the release by Paramount of ‘Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em. Based on the long running V.A.Weaver & George Abbott Broadway play, the picture starred Evelyn Brent in her first picture for Paramount playing the good sister to Brooks tarty vamp type of role and the male leads Osgood Perkins and Lawrence Grey. Variety considered Louise Brooks part in the film to have been a triumph claiming that she stole the picture from her more illustrious seniors.

1927 opened with Brooks playing a character named Fox Trot briefly courted by Adolphe Menjou in the comedy ‘Evening Clothes’. Besides being re-united with Menjou the film also starred Noah Beery and Virginia Vialli. The film disappointed but again her performance pleased the critics and she followed this up with ‘Rolled Stockings’ (1927) a picture similar to her previous ‘Evening Clothes’ and ‘Now We’re In The Air (1927), a comedy in which she played the dual role of a French and German girl called Griselle and Grisette and which starred Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton.

After completing her next picture, a drama titled ‘The City Gone Wild’ (1927), at the request of director Howard Hawks she was loaned to Fox to play Marie, a circus high diver in Hawks own work ‘A Girl In Every Port’(1928). Her role has been described as purely a ‘femme fatale. In fact she is a gold digger nursing a broken heart with a luminous transparency’.3. ‘…’A travelling showgirl .. she was once Tessie from Coney Island and has become ‘Mam’zelle Godiva’, diving fearlessly from a high wire into a tank of water. She wears a costume which is quite plain apart from an outrageously bejewelled crotch’4. Hawks later gave his reasons for selecting Louise when 40 years later in an interview he stated-
‘ ..she’s very sure of herself, she’s very analytical, she’s very femine, but she’s damn good and sure she’s going to do what she wants to do. I could use her today. She was way ahead of her time, with that hair dress. And she’s a rebel. I like her.’5

The film, tells the story of the amorous adventures of two sailors travelling around the world in search of romance, although not classed a great or even a good picture, it was pivotal in a number of ways. Released on February 23rd 1928 the film made a star of Victor McLaglen and it also demonstrated to Hawks that after six pictures he had a clearer vision of where he was going in the industry. In the December 1928 edition of La Revue du Cinema the editor Jean-George Auriol wrote ‘..I hope that by now everyone will have seen ‘A Girl In Every Port’. But I will take my turn in mentioning the beauty of the little Dutch girl and the little Argentinean (Maria Alba): and the athletic perfection of Louise Brooks, alluring and slappable as usual’6. For Brooks, although she would not know it for another year, her brief but fine performance proved to be one of the defining moments in her career.

For her next film ‘Beggars of Life’ (1928) director William Wellman cast her in the role of a young girl disguised as a boy escaping from the law accompanied by hobo Wallace Beery and also featuring Richard Arlen and in September of the same year appeared in the title role of the detective mystery ‘The Canary Murder Case’ starring William Powell as Philo Vance.

The coming of sound to Hollywood took the capital by surprise, initially dismissing talking pictures as a gimmick and a nine day wonder, when the studio finally became aware of the importance they rapidly upgraded their studios. Paramount was no exception to this rule but also determined to use the phenomenon to their own advantage. In 1929 Louise Brooks’s contract was up for renewal and she was expecting it to be renewed along with a substantial rise in her salary. At her meeting with studio head Ben Schulberg she was amazed to learn that not only was she not getting an salary increase but being offered a new contract at her current salary explaining that the studio were unsure if her voice would be suitable for sound. Schulberg also offered her the ultimatum of accepting the studios term or quit. Brooks, indignant at her high handed treatment from Paramount and feeling a sense of betrayal, amazed the studio head by taking the later option and walked out on the studio. At the same time she also refused to return to record her voice when ‘The Canary Murder Mystery was subsequently converted to sound.

Hi

Part Two of the Louise Brooks Story

In Berlin Georg Wilelm Pabst the great German director was putting the finishing touches on casting for his proposed project bringing ‘Die Buchse von Pandora’(Pandora’s Box)’ by Frank Wedekind. He had seen ‘A Girl In Every Port’ and realised that Louise Brooks would be perfect in the leading role of Lulu. He had even contacted Paramount to enquire if he could have her on loan, and had been refused. Now giving up all hope of getting Brooks he had approached Marlene Dietrich as his second choice and it was stated that Dietrich was actually in Pabst’s office ready to sign the contract when a telegram arrived telling him that Louise Brooks would be available to make his picture. Working in Germany for Pabst she completed two pictures – both were dramatic and silent; in the first ‘Pandora’s Box’ (1929) she played Lulu a prostitute who is eventually murdered by Jack The Ripper and in the second ‘Das Tagebuch Einer Verloren’ (The Diary Of A Lost Girl) (1929) starred as Thymiane a beautiful and innocent victim of society who is seduced abandoned, sent to a brutal reform school, escapes and ends up in a brothel.

In the early 2000’s the British writer Derek Malcolm wrote a series for the Guardian entitled ‘A Century of Films’ picking and commenting on his personal choice of the best one-hundred best films of the 20th century. At number 27 was Pandora’s Box of Louise Brooks performance he said ….’(Pabst) made sure that Brooks should play the lead as a beautiful innocent who passively accepts her sexuality and causes the weak men who adore her to self destruct. She is the prostitute as scapegoat – tragic but with no sense of sin who is eventually killed by Jack the Ripper. Pabst realised that Brooks, an ex-dancer, could move across the screen in an extraordinary expressive manner. He gave her dresses which symbolised her character - spotless white satin when she kills her husband and worn and dirty garments when she picks up the Ripper on a foggy London street’.

Pandora’s Box premiered in Berlin on January 30th 1929 and did not prove popular with the general film going German public, it also ran foul of the censors in every country it played in being savagely cut in both Germany and France and having the ending changed in the United States to show that rather than be murdered Lulu sees the error of her ways and joins the Salvation Army. With the world cinemas clamouring for sound Pandora’s Box heavily criticised and silent quickly became just another silent picture and one that was quickly forgotten.

When ‘The Diary Of A Lost Girl’ premiered later on October 15th 1929 it fared even worse than Pandora’s Box; the censors tore into it cutting the film viciously and it was never shown in the United States. Chastened Louise returned to the United States but within a few days was back on the boat returning to Europe and France where she appeared in ‘Prix De Beaute’ (Beauty Prize) (1931) for SOFAR-Films.

On her arrival back in the United States she found that she was virtually un-employable as Paramount and the larger studios were determined to make her pay for walking out on them. An offer of a contract with Columbia worth $500 a week was never signed because of her refusal to appear in Buck Jones westernsWhat work she found was minor insignificant appearances in minor pictures and included ‘Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood’ ‘It Pays To Advertise’ and ‘Gods Gift to Woman’ (all 1931). As well as turning down $10,000 to use her voice on screen in ‘The Canary Murder Case’ in 1931 at William Wellman’s request Warners offered her the lead femmine role playing opposite James Cagney in ‘The Public Enemy’ only for her to turn the offer down. Between completing her final picture in 1931 and her next picture in 1936 that she was absent from the screen and barely made a living working as dancer and relying on handouts from friends.

In 1936 she was persuaded to attempt a comeback and returned to the screen working at Universal in the Buck Jones B western ‘Empty Saddles’ (1936). For her next picture she returned to Paramount for the role of Joyce Beaton in the 1937 picture ‘King of Gamblers’ when the picture was released in May 1937 her part had been left on the editing floor. Columbia for its part had also helped twist the knife by casting her in the minor part of a ballet dancer in ‘When You’re In Love’ (1937) and humiliating her with a press release telling audience that after being absent from the screen for five years she was bravely attempting a comeback working in the chorus.
[ATTACH]993]

In August 1938 the director George Sherman offered Brooks two weeks work at $300 a week to star in the Republic picture ‘Overland Stage Raiders’ The stars of the picture were the Three Mesquiteers a trio comprising Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan as Tucson Smith, Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin, complete with ventriloquist dummy Elmer and making his debut replacing Bob Livingstone as Stoney Broke the leader of the group -John Wayne.

‘Overland Stage Raiders’ tells the story of how the 3 Mesquiteers thwart the plans of a crooked bus company owner to systematically rob a gold mine company by hiring a group of outlaws to hold up his own buses. The Mesquiteers foil one attempt and with the reward money persuade the ranchers to invest in a plane that will transfer the gold safely. When the gold shipment is high-jacked on its first run the Mesquiteers are blamed and given twenty-four hours to recover the gold. In the nick of time they recover the bullion capture the outlaws and unmask the leader of the gang. The film was a mixture of the old and the new from the opening scene when the outlaw gang are looking at the poster advertising a $1000 reward for their capture they announce their plans to rob the 3 o’clock stage which turns out to be a Greyhound bus. As Tuscon and Lullaby ride to town to pick up Stoney, they hear a plane overhead and see their friend jump out of the plane and parachute down. On the ground he tells them that he has seen the outlaws attempting to rob the stage (bus) and riding to the rescue they foil the robbery. When the film plays the head ‘em off at the pass type of action with both goodies and baddies riding hell for leather here and there it is easy to sit back and enjoy what is a typical western. What is more difficult to take in is when the modern scenes are put into the action with the high jacking of the plane and the passengers being forced to put parachutes on and jump out, and with the attack on the train as the ranchers retake it back from the outlaw gang it is then that the picture begins to defy creditability.

For her part Louise Brooks wandered through the part looking attractive with only the merest hint of an accent in her speech. By the time that the film was released on September 20th 1938 Louise Brooks had left Hollywood. Disillusioned with the entire film making process she had decided that she would never appear in another picture and true to her word she never did. In the next few years she worked as a dancer, formed her own dance school and even took a job working as a counter assistant at Sachs. At one point she returned to Wichita but unable to settle she returned to New York and vanished into obscurity, a bloated, gin-sodden wreck - a shadow of her former self, living the life of a virtual recluse rarely leaving her apartment and seeing nobody – the all too familiar tale of a faded long forgotten former silent movie star unable or unwilling to adapt to the march of progress.

It is at this point that our story should end and would have were it not for an incident in Paris 14 years later. James Card, the curator of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography had a vague recollection of seeing one of Louise Brooks pictures as a boy and on a visit to Paris in 1953 he met Henri Langlois the director of the Cinematheque Francaise and requested to see a screening of ‘Pandora’s Box’ and ‘The Diary of a Lost Girl’. Langlois, initially hesitant and having no interest in the picture, reluctantly agreed to Cards request and also decided to sit in on the screening. His opinion quickly changed after watching both films and both men determined to find out everything they could about the star. Copies of Pandora’s Box which up to that point was a badly cut travesty of the Pabst original were collected from around Europe and an almost complete copy of the original produced. In June 1955 at the Paris Musee National d’Art Moderne Langlois staged an exhibition of cinema photographs and memorabilia titled ’60 Ans de Cinema’, inside the foyer he placed two enormous photographs on one side the actress Maria Falconetti who was known and famous for her role of Jeanne d’Arc in the 1928 picture, on the other Louise Brooks. When asked to justify his choice of actresses Langlois exclaimed ‘There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks’7.
In his catalogue notes Langlois went even further ‘..Those who have seen her can never forget her. She is the modern actress par excellence because like the statues of antiquity she is out side of time. ..she has the naturalness that only primitives retain before the lens, she is the intelligence of the cinematographic process, she is the most perfect incarnation of photogenie: she embodies in herself all that cinema rediscovered in the last years of silence: complete naturalness and complete simplicity’8.

In 1957 the critic and film maker Adou Kyrou in an article in the Amour-erotisme et cinema wrote that Brooks was ‘..The only women who had the ability to transfigure – no matter what the film- into a masterpiece .. her vivid beauty, her absolute unique acting (I do not know of a greater tragedienne on the screen) predisposed her to the top rank’9.

Wasting no time Card contacted Brooks and at his prompting and encouragement she began a second career writing about the cinema and its people. Her first efforts at writing her autobiography ‘Naked On My Goat’ ended in the incinerator, as did her second she never made a third attempt. The nearest she ever got to a study of her life was in her book Lulu in Hollywood.

In 1962 ‘Pandora’s Box’ was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to great acclaim and later In August 1979 the British writer Kenneth Tynan wrote an essay about Louise Brooks for the New Yorker. Titled ‘The Girl In The Black Helmet’ the results were phenomenal with the media clamouring to gobble every piece of information that they could gather about her.

Around 1997 writing in the Movie Review Damien Cannon wrote about Pandora’s Box and Louise Brooks role of Lulu-
‘Widely acclaimed as a masterpiece of the silent era Pandora’s Box retains its power even today. The roots of this longevity are two fold, the smouldering presence of Louise Brooks and the committed direction of George Wilhelm Pabst. Meshing beautifully, the pair never once become sentimental as they take this tale of Lulu the hedonist to its ultimate conclusion, namely annihilation and tragedy…’

On August 8th 1985 Louise Brooks, bed ridden and suffering from emphysema died of a heart attack. Her body was cremated and her ashes were interred in Section 335 Lot 133F in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery Rochester.

In 1995, ten years after her death she was finally awarded the fame that she had always craved and been constantly denied by the American Film Academy when Empire magazine selected her as one of the sexiest stars in Film history.

1.From Louise Brooks by Barry Paris
2.Charlie Chaplin & His Times by Kenneth S.Lynn
3.Howard Hawks American Artist Edited by Jim Hillier & Peter Wollen
4..Howard Hawks American Artist Edited by Jim Hillier & Peter Wollen
5.Howard Hawks The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy.
6.Howard Hawks American Artist Edited by Jim Hillier & Peter Wollen
7. Louise Brooks by Barry Paris
8.Louise Brooks by Barry Paris
9. The Great Movie Stars Donald Shipman