Louise Brooks is one of the icons of the 1920s and beyond. Fabulous actress but slightly forgotten these days, it was important to me to pay her a little tribute.
She and I have the same first name and this delights me, but above all it is the journey of someone for whom I have a lot of tenderness that I would like to share with you today.
Curious to know a little more about the life of the beautiful Louise? Read on!
This name, Louise Brooks, or affectionately Loulou, has come down to us thanks to French film historians, and to Henri Langlois with his declaration: “There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There's only Louise Brooks! ". It was they who re-established her image as an actress around the beginning of the 1950s. Indeed, the most beautiful natural actress of her time experienced ups and downs and several twists and turns during her career, even of his life.
Let's retrace the steps of this egocentric American star with a difficult character who had a soul that was both kind and generous. The one her colleagues described as a rebel and a born rebel. The one who seduces us with her dazzling smile on screen despite having sworn never to smile in front of a camera unless she has to. Between her adventures as a free woman open to experiences and her deep solitude.
Through her childhood and her teenage passion, her career as a dancer and actress, her rebirth, which she calls her second life, her spirituality and the art that results from it, and her reconversion until the end of his life. And everything that made her this mythical character that artists continue to pay homage to through their works even if she did not receive an Oscar during her lifetime.
A troubled childhood
Mary Louise Brooks was born on November 14, 1906 in Cherry Valley — Kansas in the United States. His mother was a talented pianist who played him Debussy and Satie from his earliest childhood. His parents wanted to introduce him to a taste for books and music.
She received a strict classical dance education very early on. Although at first she did it to please her mother, it did not take long for her to dream of having her place among Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, great dancers of the time. During this period, little Louise's parents were often absent and were unable to protect her from the sexual abuse perpetrated by one of their neighbors when she was only 9 years old.
These repeated incidents greatly influenced his career and deeply affected his personality. She will recognize this later by claiming to be incapable of truly loving, not even herself, despite her straight hair and freckles .
The passion of his adolescence
Louise Brooks' career as an artist began in 1920 when she was just a teenager. Her dreams took shape when she joined Denishawn's modern dance company in Broadway, the same company where her idol Martha Graham as well as Ruth Saint Denis and Ted Shawn performed. At 16, after only one class session, she was recruited for long tours in America.
She experienced her first triumph in the contemporary dance choreographic show “The Seven Gates of Ishtar” at barely 17 years old.
Her success was short-lived, as she left this elitist dance troupe prematurely. The official version denounces its overly obstinate character which does not suit this organization marked by an ancient oriental and Greek mystical ideal. The fact is that even at this early age, she had already reached sexual maturity and she made no secret of it.
This behavior went against the puritanical rules set within the group.
She took the time to bounce back after a period of depression and asked her most influential friends to relaunch her career. She had a role as a dancer in the Scandal's light troupe on Broadway.
She then left for Paris, then London where she lived through the crazy 1920s . At 18, she was hired as a “girl” to perform exotic dances before the English lords Charleston and Black Bottom.
The adventures of her acting career
It did not take her too long to return to Broadway where, in 1925, she joined the Ziegfeld Follies troupe. Producer Walt Wanger of American Studios, at the time based in New York, noticed it immediately. And this was the great turning point in her career, at the same time as she continued to educate herself by reading the works of great German philosophers and French writers. She moves from light dance to erotic comedy.
She now devotes herself to her hat as a Hollywood actress by signing with Paramount Pictures studios. She played in particular in silent films before obtaining the main role in light comedies and was soon spotted by European producers.
She plays roles in films with poignant scenes and which have a raw, even provocative, approach to the practices of the time. His exhibition films shake up morals. Indeed, it deals with sexuality with a fairly severe tone towards society. Obviously, she was not unanimously accepted and many of her films found themselves censored, because they were considered shocking and overly sexual.
It was his unique hairstyle, which became his trademark, which launched his notoriety. From this very particular hairstyle was even born a movement of international scope: flappers or flappers. The “Louise Brooks hairstyle” became fashionable and won the hearts of teenage girls and then little children, girls and boys in pre-war Europe.
Her career in Hollywood ended in 1929 when she refused to participate in the sound system for the film The Canary Murder Case. She then left for Europe where she still enjoyed relative success.
When she finally returns to America, there is a stock market crash and the flappers are no longer featured and gradually disappear from the screens. She will then have to be content with small roles in minor films whose fees are significantly reduced.
She retired from showbiz in 1938, tired of playing in B series. She lived for a time in Los Angeles before returning to her parents in Wichita in 1941. She opened a modest dance school there, but which did not meet with a large success.
The second life of Louise Brooks
She finds herself at her lowest point when she returns to New York where she lives on her salary as a saleswoman in a Saxophone store on Fifth Avenue. She even had to work as a call girl. To make matters worse, she frequents bars and descends into alcohol.
She managed to extricate herself from it thanks to faith. She developed a Christian faith with deep mysticism and then began her second life in painting and writing. She would later affirm that she found in writing a passion as lively as the one she had for dancing in her adolescence.
On the painting side, she had to her credit paintings representing Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Thérèse of Avila, but also Indian Sadhus in meditation.
She found work as a freelance associate reporter through a longtime friend. She delivered articles on interwar cinema and this allowed her to earn a few hundred dollars a month from 1942. At the same time, she attempted to write a first autobiography which she ended up burning without having published.
A reconversion behind the camera
After her rehabilitation in 1950, James Card persuaded her to return to the world of cinema, but this time thanks to her talent as a writer and as a screenwriter, and she was definitely good at that game too.
Marie Louise Brooks away from the spotlight
Outside of her career, Louise Brooks was a deeply lonely woman. She married twice, without much success, and had no children. Her first marriage to director A. Edward Sutherland ended in divorce after a year. According to the press, they only lived together for a few weeks. Her second marriage to millionaire Deering Davis lasted 5 months. The divorce proceedings will take 4 years and she will not ask for any compensation or alimony.
After her second divorce, she chose to stay alone. After suffering for a long time from arthritis and emphysema, she died of a heart attack. She died on August 8, 1985 in Rochester, New York, at the age of 78.
The filmography of Louise Brooks
Louise Brooks' name appears in a rich list of silent films.
In 1925, she played in The Street of Forgotten Men by Herbert Brenon (uncredited),
In 1926, she obtained roles in:
- Modern Venus (The American Venus) by Frank Tuttle as Miss Bayport,
- Love 'Em and Leave 'Em by Frank Tuttle as Janie Walsh
- Next to these gentlemen (À Social Celebrity) by Malcolm Saint Clair in the role of Kitty Laverne,
- Playing the character of Mildred Marshall in It's the Old Army Game by A. Edward Sutherland,
- Me (The Show Off) by Malcolm St. Clair with Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson playing Clara, Joe's Girl,
- Just Another Blonde by Alfred Santell bringing the character Diana O'Sullivan to life.
In 1927, she lent her charm in:
- A Man in Evening Clothes by Luther Reed as Fox Trot,
- Rolled Stockings by Richard Rosson as Carol Fleming,
- Now We're in the Air by Frank R. Strayer with WC Fields as Griselle,
- The City Gone Wild by James Cruze performing Snuggles Joy.
In 1928, she played in:
- A Girl in Every Port (À Girl in Every Port) by Howard Hawks as Marie, in France, and
- Loulou (Die Büchse der Pandora) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst as Lulu.
In 1929, she played Thymian in The Diary of a Lost Girl or Three Pages from a Diary (Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
It also finds its place in talking films.
In 1928, she got a few speaking scenes in the role of the woman (Nancy) in William A. Wellman's Beggars of Life,
In 1929 in The Canary Murder Case by Malcolm St. Clair and Frank Tuttle, which is a silent film with sound, she played Margaret O'Dell (the Canary),
In 1930, in the silent film Beauty Prize by Augusto Genina, she played Lucienne Garnier,
4 films in 1931:
- In It Pays to Advertise by Frank Tuttle: Thelma Temple,
- In God's Gift to Women by Michael Curtiz: Florine,
- In Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (short film) by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: Betty Grey, and
- In Who's Who in the Zoo.
In 1936, in:
- Hollywood Boulevard by Robert Florey, as Joyce Beaton, and
- Empty Saddles by Lesley Selander: “Boots” Boone.
In 1937 she played in:
- When You're in Love by Robert Riskin and Harry Lachman (deleted scenes), and
- King of Gamblers or the Man Who Terrorized New York by Robert Florey.
In 1938, she got the role of Beth Hoyt in George Sherman's Overland Stage Raiders.
Louise Brooks in the spotlight: nods from other artists
His contemporaries recognized his talent and already began to pay tribute to him during his lifetime. Thus, in 1955, the French cinema library in Paris prepared an event entitled: “ tribute to Louise Brooks ” on the occasion of “ 60 years of cinema ”.
In 1962, Jean-Luc Godard paid tribute to her in Vivre sa vie, through Anna Karina.
In 1983, a new version of her autobiography, this time shortened, entitled “ Lulu in Hollywood ” was published by Pygmalion, in a collection edited by Maurice Bessy.
In 1984, a documentary by Richard Leacock was dedicated to her with the title “ Lulu in Berlin ”. The film features a conversation with the famous actress Louise Brooks whom he had met personally in Rochester. She was then 67 years old.
Shortly after the death of actress Louise Brooks, American saxophonist John Zorn paid tribute to her by publishing his album of hard bop covers to which he gave the title “ News for Lulu ” in 1988. The cover contains a photo taken from a scene from the film Loulou. The title of the album is itself one of the jazz standards, performed by John Zorn: “ New for Lulu ”, a song by Sonny Clark. In 1992, his new album followed the previous one with the title “ More news for Lulu ”.
In 1991, it was the turn of the British group Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark to pay tribute to him in their album Sugar Tax, with the song Pandora's Box, in reference to the film Loulou (1929). The music video repeatedly shows shots of Louise Brooks, taken from the same film.
In 1998, another documentary about Louise Brooks entitled “Looking for Lulu” was released. It is Directed by Hugh Munro Leely, with narration by Shirley MacLaine. The film paints a portrait of the actress through interviews with friends such as Dana Delany, Francis Lederer, Roddy McDowall…
In 2007, the writer Roland Jaccard devoted a biography to her, entitled “Portrait of a flapper”. He is indeed well placed to talk about it since he was lucky enough to know her during his lifetime.
In Literature, Louise Brooks is at the center of the live “Kiss me” by Katherine Pancol which she published in 2003. The author reveals the life of an artist and a woman, meetings and loves, but above all wounds which punctuated the entire existence of Louise Brooks through dialogues between the heroine and the actress.
Even long after her death, different artists from various disciplines pay tribute to this exceptional woman through their works:
In the world of Music, we can count:
- The French rock group Lady Godiva released their first album in 2000. They called it Louise Brooks Avenue, on which the title song Louise Brooks is found. The group is also part of the Louise Brooks Society.
- Placebo singer Brian Molko named his Fender Jaguar "Louise" in honor of Louise Brooks. His guitar is decorated with a sticker bearing his image.
- Vanessa Paradis several times plays Louise Brooks having fun with a necklace, in her music video L'Incendie1 (2008), inspired by the 1920s and 1930s.
In the comics circle:
- In 1968, the Italian comic book author Guido Crepax found in Loulou his inspiration for the character of Valentina.
- In 1977, Hugo Pratt was inspired by her to create the character of Louise Brookszowyc, a Polish woman living in Venice, in the album Fable of Venice, from the Corto Maltese series.
- Louise and the wolves, Cheap Sheep Ship editions, 2012 (ISBN 978-2-9542884-0-6) by Marion Mousse,
- Louise, the venom of the scorpion, Casterman editions, 2016 (ISBN 978-2203118362), by Joël Alessandra and Chantal Van den Heuvel,
In advertising,
In 1987, Cacharel was inspired by the character of Louise Brooks to create the Loulou perfume and to direct its entire advertising campaign.
The legacy of Louise Brooks
Even today, she is considered one of the greatest figures in American cinema. A source of inspiration for the greatest, even after the end of his career we will especially remember his timeless style. Angelic face, unique hairstyle and Charleston dress on her back, she embodies the femininity of the first part of the 20th century.
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