Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood

Pola Negri is, without doubt, one of the most interesting and (relatively speaking) little appreciated stars of the silent era. She was a major star in the United States in the 1920s, as well as in Europe, where earlier she had risen through the ranks of the Polish and German film industries. In fact, Negri was so big in America (she was both hugely popular, and, she had a BIG personality) that many up and coming stars were compared to her. Negri was sophisticated, worldly, and alluring. Early on, Louise Brooks was once described as a "junior vamp" a la Negri.

I've long been interested in the Polish-born Negri. And my interest was rekindled after having seen a restoration of the Malcom St. Clair directed A Woman of the World (Paramount, 1925), starring Negri, at last year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It was funny and enjoyable, and Negri was simply terrific. I can't wait till the restoration is released on DVD, hopefully sometime soon.

Recently, I finished reading a new book on the actress, Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood, by Sergio Delgado. The book was published by McFarland, a long standing publisher of books on the silent film era.

From the publisher: "Femme fatale Pola Negri (1897-1987) was one of the great stars of the silent film era, an actress whose personal story of hardships and successes, loves and tragedies is more compelling than most Hollywood dramas. Yet today she is largely overlooked, her name tarnished by myths and scandals. Taking a fresh look at her life and career, this book debunks the myths and gossip, presenting a candid portrait of one of the silent screen's most sensational leading ladies. Rare photographs are included, along with in-depth discussions of her films."

As it is, Delgado's book serves as an introduction to the actress and her films. And as just that, I enjoyed it. It is a good read. However, all along I was hoping for something more, something more in depth -- especially in regards to Negri's European years.

As the author admits, his sources for Negri's are somewhat problematic: they are the various, publicity-driven movie and fan magazines of the day, like Photoplay, as well as Negri's own book, Memoirs of a Star, which was published in 1970 and was described at the time of its release (as relayed by the author) as "fiction."

Delgado as much as admits these sources are not always to be trusted, but then writes a book based almost exclusively on them. That left me frustrated.

That's why I was left wondering, time and again, where were the Polish or German or French sources? Negri was born and raised in Poland, worked there and in Germany making some of her best and worst movies (including some with Ernst Lubitsch), and later lived on and off in France. Certainly there is a Continental paper trail of some sort? In Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood, the European incidents in Negri's life and the films she made in Europe are described almost always through the eyes of the American press, or the star's own "suspect" memoirs.

Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood is not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it. And, I suggest you get this book, and check it out on your own. Pola Negri was a fascinating if not temperamental personality, as well as a good actress. That, certainly, comes across in Delgado's new book. Heck, who else can claim or did claim to have had affairs and been engaged to BOTH Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino?

[In the meantime, if you want to learn a little more about Negri, start with her Wikipedia page, or the 1987 obituaries which appeared in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Along with her now out-of-print Memoirs, which were published in 1970, a more recent account of the actress's life can be found in Pola Negri: Hollywood's First Femme Fatale by Mariusz Kotowski. First published in Poland as Pola Negri: Legenda Hollywood in 2011, the book was issued here in the United States by the University Press of Kentucky in 2014.]

Election results at movie theaters in 1928

With the 2016 election upon us, its worth noting that back in 1928 one could go to the movies and be kept informed of election results! This, of course, was long before television, and while radio was still in its infancy.

The 1928 election, which took place on Tuesday, November 6th, pitted industrialist businessman and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (a Republican) against New York state governor Al Smith (a Democrat). Hoover won in a landslide; and within a year, the stock market crashed and the economy sank into a depression. But that's getting ahead of the story.

Wanting not to loose anxious patrons who might otherwise stay home to learn election results, movie theaters across the country promised to keep their patrons informed of the results "by wire."  Over the years, I have found a number of newspaper advertisements which promised moviegoers the latest election results if they come to their theater. Simply look for the words "election night" on the following advertisements.

In the first ad below, featuring the Al Jolson film, The Singing Fool, and the Louise Brooks film, Beggars of  Life, the election night announcements reads, "Get national, state, county returns while you enjoy a show in a comfortable seat. Come early -- stay late. Come to either theater for the news first."

Kansas City, Missouri

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - with "Special Returns by Post-Gazette wire"

St. Louis, Missouri

NOW THAT YOU'VE READ THIS BLOG POST, GO OUT AND VOTE,
IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO!

In Honor of Film Preservationist David Shepard

Later Today, the American Film Preservationist David Shepard will be honored at a special event at Dartmouth College. Shepard has done as much as anyone to both preserve and promote our film heritage, especially the silent era.

At the event, the famed DVD producer and historian of silent classics speaks to his tireless work to preserve world cinema. Recent restorations by Shepard include Raoul Walsh’s early gangster saga, Regeneration (1915) with Philip Carli’s piano music, all of Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay and Mutual comedies, and Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 with Ciné Salon’s Bruce Posner. More information about the event can be found HERE.

A special tribute video featuring fellow film archivists and historians Serge Bromberg, Leonard Maltin and Kevin Brownlow was made to mark the occasion.

As is evident from the video above, David Shepard is greatly admired by his fellow archivists, preservationists, film historians, and film buffs. That admiration come across in this snapshot, which I took in 2010. For a film buff (such as myself), this was a magical moment. Pictured here is a photograph of colleagues - from left to right that's Kevin Brownlow, Diana Serra Cary (aka Baby Peggy), David Shepard, and Leonard Maltin.

Born in 1940, and raised in New Orleans and the suburbs of New York, David Shepard has had a lifelong love of film, having devoted most of his life to film preservation. Through teaching and shcolarship, through his company, Film Preservation Associates, through his ownership of the Blackhawk Films library, and through his film and video restoration efforts, Shepard has long worked behind the scenes helping save early films. Just as importantly, Shepard makes these films available to the home video market, first through laserdisc and VHS formats, and now through high-quality DVD releases, "where the clarity and beauty of these early motion pictures can really be fully appreciated."

In the words of Mike Mashon, Head, Moving Image Section, Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, “David is a giant in the field of film preservation, one of those rare talents who exemplifies the scholar’s rigorous research, the archivist’s attention to detail and the fan’s unabashed love and enthusiasm for movies.”

I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with David Shepard for more than a decade. He is a fine fellow. I appreciate having seen the films which he has preserved and brought to DVD as well as the silver screen. I also enjoyed reading and treasure my autographed copies of his books on movie legends King Vidor and Henry King. I was also honored to have my picture taken with David Shepard earlier this year.

David Shepard's involvement with silent film also extends to Louise Brooks, and whose now lost 1927 film, The City Gone Wild, he almost saved.

In his 1990 book, Behind the Mask of Innocence, Kevin Brownlow wrote about an incident in the 1970s. “David Shepard, then with the American Film Institute’s archive program, had a list of 35mm nitrate prints held in a vault Paramount had forgotten it had. He asked me which title I would select, out of all of them, to look at right away. I said The City Gone Wild. He called Paramount to bring it out of the vaults for our collection that afternoon. The projectionist went to pick it up. ‘O, there was some powder on that,’ said the vault keeper ‘We threw it away.’ … He tried to rescue it, even from its watery grave, but a salvage company had carted it off by the time he got there.”

For more about David Shepard and all that he has done, check out these interviews.

Northwest Chicago Film Society: A Conversation with David Shepard

Digitally Obsessed: A Conversation with David Shepard

Silents are Golden: Interview with David Shepard

Louise Brooks, at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and 16th Street

In the 1920s, movies were advertised in all manner of ways -- in newspapers and magazines, on posters and handbills, in window displays, and even by individuals walking down the street wearing a sandwich boards. And like today, they were also advertised on billboards.

In the past, I have seen only one image of the billboard promoting a Louise Brooks' film, namely The Canary Murder Case, as it appeared in a distant and grainy photograph in a Winnipeg, Manitoba newspaper.

Recently, I came across something very special -- a photograph of a billboard promoting A Social Celebrity in Kansas City, Missouri. To me, it is a remarkable image, as it is not in a downtown setting (as in the Canary Murder Case image I had seen), but rather, in a city neighborhood. What's more, I found the image on an African-American history website -- the Black Archives of mid-America, which leads me to guess but not know for sure that the neighborhoods depicted below were African American neighborhoods. [It's not surprising that Brooks films were advertised in Black neighborhoods. In fact, I have come across a handful of instances when Brooks films were shown in theaters that catered to African Americans, one in Harlem, and one in Baltimore.]

Here is the first image I found, followed by a close-up of the billboard itself.

The billboard depicted above promotes a showing of A Social Celebrity at the downtown Newman Theater in Kansas City, commencing the week of May 1. One might ask, "Why was this picture taken?" Most likely, I would guess, to prove to Paramount or the film's local distributor or exhibitor that the film was in fact advertised as per an agreement.

I also happened to come upon another photograph from the time (all of which were credited to the Merritt Outdoor Advertising Co.) which depicts another billboard promoting A Social Celebrity in Kansas City! It's the on the far right. This photo is set at Broadway and 35th Street.

Just as I began to wonder it there had been a city wide campaign to promote the film, I came across another image of a billboard promoting A Social Celebrity. This one located at 15th and Holmes Streets in Kansas City.

And here is another, where the billboard is on the left of the three billboard construct. This picture was shot 4025 Troost Avenue.

I found four more images of billboards promoting A Social Celebrity, including the picture below. Unfortunately, this photograph, which is typical of the others, shows the billboard either distant or obscured (here behind a tree at the corner of Independence Avenue and Maple Boulevard). Nevertheless, that makes eight photographs of eight billboards promoting the same showing of A Social Celebrity.

Incidentally, the Newman showed many of Brooks' films when they were first released. The Newman was a major first run theater in a major metropolitan area. In fact, it was the "largest motion picture theater to be built in the downtown district and the most costly theater of any sort" erected at the time in Kansas City. Seating capacity was 2,000. There was also a big organ installed.

Named after Frank L. Newman and opened in 1919, the Newman theater was later sold to and operated by Paramount Pictures starting in 1925, when Newman left to manage theaters in Los Angeles for the Famous Players-Lasky Film Corporation. After another change of name and a renovation in 1969, the theater was closed for good and demolished in 1972. Here is a vintage postcard view of the theater.

These historic billboard images got me wondering. If they exist for one film in one city, where are others like them from other major cities? The search continues....

I wasn't able to find much about Frank Cambria's Garden Festival, which was the opening act for A Social Celebrity at the Newman in Kansas City. Seemingly, he/it was a traveling act, turning up in 1926 in Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis and elsewhere. When Cambria's Garden Festival was staged that same year in Brooklyn ahead of the Richard Dix's film, Let's Get Married, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described it as "a lovely presentation, staged in good taste and has as its theme song Schubert's Serenade."

Incidentally, I did find a few other images depicting billboards for other films starring the likes of Norma Shearer, Zasu Pitts, Helen Chadwick and others. Here is one of them, for the Priscilla Dean, Lon Chaney film Outside the Law at the Liberty theater. (Another image I came across, of a four billboard construct, depicts both Outside the Law and A Social Celebrity. That image is the fourth image from the top, though the billboard for Outside the Law is a hard to make out.)

New 2K Restoration of Beggars of Life Heading to Theaters

BIG news: Kino Lorber Repertory has just announced that a new restoration of the 1928 William Wellman-directed film, Beggars of Life, will be heading to theaters and festivals sometime next year. Based on the 1924 autobiographical novel by Jim Tully, the film stars Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, and Richard Arlen. This is a new 2K restoration from materials held in the archives of the Library of Congress. Not known is whether or not this new restoration will include an of the film's original audio elements, which are thought to have been lost (but in fact may not be, completely).

Additionally, a Blu-ray release is expected to be announced for next year. According to knowledgeable sources, Beggars of Life is one of a handful of Paramount-produced silent films considered for release. Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

This is BIG news. And not only because Beggars of Life is Louise Brooks' best American silent film, a designation otherwise held by default by the Howard Hawks directed A Girl in Every Port (1928). It's fun, but not really so significant of a work, despite the high regard it is held in France.

Why is Beggars of Life big news? Because with this restoration and revival comes renewed attention to Brooks entire body of surviving work. For years, Louise Brooks was a largely forgotten actress remembered, if at all, only for her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929). Once that film was established as a masterpiece, Brooks other G.W. Pabst directed film, Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), soon followed. Brooks moved from a one-hit actress to an actress with two great films to her credit. In the last few years, Prix de Beaute has also found favor, and now Brooks is known for what she accomplished with her "European trilogy." And now comes recognition for Beggars of Life, a fourth film, further putting Brooks front and center in film history. Now, if only The Show Off (1926) or Love Em and Leave Em (1926) would come back into circulation to round things out..... or one of her best lost films, like The City Gone Wild, were to be found.... or....

ADDENDUM: I for one would like to see Beggars of Life released on Blu-ray with the equally gritty The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), Brooks first film.

Today: "Lost Creatures," new play about Louise Brooks, in Denver, CO

Lost Creatures, a new play about Louise Brooks by Melissa McCarl, will be staged for the first time later today in Denver, Colorado. (A public reading of the play was given last year.) Here are the details about this new project.

WORLD PREMIERE -- Thursday, November 3 at 7:30 PM MDT -- The play runs November 3rd through November 19th, 2016

Directed by Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski
Starring Mark Collins as Kenneth Tynan,  Billie McBride as Louise Brooks, and Annabel Reader as Lulu 

About the play: Lost Creatures follows the evening in May of 1978 when British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan met his long time cinematic idol Louise Brooks. He travels to her dingy little apartment in Rochester, NY where she has sequestered herself for many years. He is there ostensibly to write a profile on Brooks for the New Yorker, but he discovers that they are kindred spirits, and in spite of an age gap of twenty years, theirs becomes an unlikely love story discovered through a marathon dialogue about sex, philosophy, art, and criticism. There is also a silent third character, Lulu, (based on Louise’s role in her most famous silent film Pandora’s Box) who drives the action of the play.

Set/Sound Design-Darren Smith
Light Design-Emily Maddox
Costume Design-Susan Lyles
Stage Manager-Lauren Meyer

Venue: The Commons on Champa, 3rd Floor Studio, 1245 Champa Street. Support provided by The Next Stage NOW

About Melissa McCarl: Author of Painted Bread, a full-length play named Best New Work by the Denver Post, about the tumultuous life of Frida Kahlo (recently produced by the Aurora Fox.) Commissioned by the Mizel Arts Center to write Poignant Irritations, celebrating the unorthodox life and love of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Commissioned by the Curious Theatre Company to write for the War Anthology directed by Bonnie Metzgar of the Public Theatre. Winner of the Steven Dietz award for the one act Carlene Yakkin’. Melissa has been named best local playwright by Westword newspaper and the Denver Post.


Those interested can check out an interview profile of Lost Creatures actor Mark Collins. The former Boulder, Colorado theatre critic is playing renowned theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in Melissa Lucero McCarl's play.

TONIGHT: Prix de beauté in 35 mm at the Kennington Biograph / Cinema Museum in London

The UK premiere of the restored silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown tonight in 35 mm at the Kennington Biograph / Cinema Museum in London. This special screening, part of "Silent to Sound in Europe," is an event not to be missed! More information can be  found HERE. And what's more, the great Stephen Horne will accompany the film.

According to the Kennington Biograph webpage, "This event is presented in conjunction with the AHRC-funded project ‘British Silent Cinema and the Transition to Sound’. Using clips from British, French and German films, historian Geoff Brown investigates the turbulent European scene in the period of transition, 1929/1930. Studios struggled to shift from silent feature production to films that talked, sang, and made noises. Britain briefly won the technological advantage, but which country used the technology most imaginatively? The feature in the second half will be the UK premier of the original restored silent version of Prix de Beauté (1930), featuring Louise Brooks, courtesy of Cineteca Bologna. Doors open at 18.30, for a 19.30 start. Refreshments will be available in our licensed cafe/bar."

Prix de beauté was, in fact, one of the very first French sound films, and not without reason, music and sound are recurring thematic, visual and auditory motifs in both the silent and the sound versions film.