Showing posts with label bobbed hair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bobbed hair. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Searching Ling long magazine for Louise Brooks

I recently noticed that a number of issues of Ling long magazine were online on the Internet Archive. Ling long was a popular women's magazine published in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937, during a time of dramatic social and political change in China. Today, the magazine offers researchers (and the curious like myself) an unique glimpse into women's lives in Republican-era China. 

I know most all of Louise Brooks' American films were shown in Shanghai at one time or another. And so, I was curious to know if anything about the actress or her films might find their way into this attractive illustrated magazine which sometimes featured American film stars on its cover. I was disappointed not to find anything about the actress - but I did find a lot of nifty stuff which I thought to share on this blog. 

I found stuff about short hairstyles for women (shown last - but very interesting to devotees of the bob hairstyle), as well as stuff about American movie stars of the time like Adolphe Menjou (Brooks' two time co-star), Anna May Wong (the Chinese-American actress who starred in Picadilly), Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Pola Negri and even Peggy Fears (Brooks' Ziegfeld Follies friend). But alas, no Brooks. The search goes on.... (The paired pages are my composite, and are not as they originally appear in the magazine.)

Adolphe Menjou and other stars in caricature
 

Marion Davies - Brooks' friend and confidant
 

Fay Wray - who I once had the chance to meet

Pola Negri

Norma Shearer

Mary Brian, star of The Street of Forgotten Men
 
 
Is this Esther Ralston?

 
Garbo - can anyone tell me what these pages say? What is it with the tree and the snake?


A rather curious juxtaposition of images? A suggestion of lesbian longing?

A mannish Marlene Dietrich

The one and only Peggy Fears

Something about how much money the stars make?

Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy - a blonde comparison

"Sweetheart Bob"

"Girlie Mannish"

"Boyish Bob"

"Egyptian Bob"

"Pineapple"


Can anyone tell me what this page is about? Does the image depict slavish devotion?

Friday, May 24, 2019

Colleen Moore celebration at Niles Essanay Film Museum

If you are a fan of Louise Brooks, chances are you also have an appreciation for Colleen Moore. . . . On May 25, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California is celebrating the great bobbed-hair actress with a day of her films. It is an event you won't want to miss!


Saturday, May 25, 3:30 pm
A Special Day with Colleen Moore
Hosted by Joe Yranski
Book signing by Jeff Codori, author of Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star

Suggested member donation $5, not yet member $7 BUY TICKETS

Frederick Hodges (piano)
So Long Letty (1920, Christie Film Company, DVD) In this farce comedy based upon the hit stage play, Colleen Moore and T. Roy Barnes are a seemingly mismatched couple living next door to another couple, Walter Hiers and Grace Darmond, of similar temperament. The couples switch partners in the pursuit of happiness. First time on our screen.

Preceded by: A Tribute to Colleen Moore (1979) A special reel of rare clips.


MORE COLLEEN MOORE
Saturday, May 25, 7:30 pm
Suggested member donation $5, not yet member $7 BUY TICKETS

Jon Mirsalis (Kurzweil keyboard)
Her Wild Oat (1927, First National, 35mm) Colleen Moore plays the owner/operator of a lunch wagon who decides to splurge on a vacation among the rich at the Hotel Coronado. She is snubbed at first by the other guests, but when she impersonates a duchess, things heat up. First time on our screen.

Preceded by shorts:
Life in Hollywood #2 (1927, Goodwill Pictures) Colleen Moore
A Roman Scandal (1919, Christie) Colleen Moore


Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Charming Louise Brooks look-alikes from afar - Lotti Loder & Maria Louise Iribe

While researching Louise Brooks and scouring materials near and far, I come across various actresses and show business personalities that somewhat resemble Louise Brooks. Off course, they catch my eye, especially since they often sport bobbed hair, a style popular in the late 1920s. Here are two examples of actresses which I recently came across.

Lotti Loder was a brunette leading lady of German / Hungarian ancestry who briefly featured in a few early Warner Brothers talkies. She was born in 1910 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany as Lottie Kathe Lodermeyer, and died on March 28, 1999 in Miami, Florida. As an actress, she is best known for roles in Oh, Sailor Behave! (1930), A Soldier's Plaything (1930 - directed by Michael Curtiz, who went on to direct the 1931 Louise Brooks' film, God's Gift to Women), and Men of the Sky (1931). It seems her career never really took off, despite the fact she received significant billing in two of the three prior films. Playing herself, she can also be seen in the 1930 short, An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee. She was married to John "Jack" Raymond. A few further details can be found on her Imdb page.






Marie-Louise Iribe was born in 1894 in Paris, France as Pauline Marie Louise Lavoisot. She was an actress and director, best known for co-directing and acting in Hara-Kiri (1928), and directing The Erl King (1931) and Der Erlkönig (1931). Her acting credits mostly date from the Teens in a handful of shorts, including a few directed by Louis Feuillade and Jacques Feyder. She appeared in a few more films in the Twenties, including Marquitta (1927), directed by Jean Renoir and produced by Iribe. Her last acting credit was in Le Roi des aulnes (1930). Iribe's first marriage, in 1921, was to the French actor André Roanne, with whom she co-starred in  L'Atlantide (1921); Roanne went on to appear in the Louise Brooks' film, The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). Marie-Louise Iribe died in Paris on April 12, 1934. A few more details can be found on her Imdb page.


Sunday, February 21, 2016

Jennifer Jason Leigh interview sporting a Louise Brooks bob

Jennifer Jason Leigh on David Letterman in 1999 sporting a Louise Brooks bob while promoting her stage performance in Cabaret.

Monday, July 27, 2015

The era's attitudes toward bobbed hair

This UK editorial cartoon from 1926 reflects the era's attitudes toward bobbed hair.


Saturday, July 11, 2015

It is July 11th, did you know that 7 out of 11 Bobbed Heads want Bobbie Pins?

It's July 11th. Just think of it! Did you know that 7 out of 11 Bobbed Heads want Bobbie Pins?



Here is another vintage bobbed hair advertisement, promoting a modish coiffure.

 


Saturday, October 18, 2014

A Modish Coiffure

Here is a nifty advertisement I came across while looking through microfilm at the library. It dates from 1925.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

What do Louise Brooks, Nicki Minaj, Lindsay Lohan, and Rosamund Pike have in common?

Louise Brooks and her iconic bob continue to influence and be discussed. And today, she was in the news:



Refinery29
Did Nicki Minaj Just Change The Bob Game?
The 'do she's rocking would put Louise Brooks to shame — it's like a modern take on Vidal Sassoon's iconic cuts. And, while we're having a serious bob moment (and so is all of Hollywood) . . . .

The Lindsay Lohan Mystery
Lindsay Lohan’s development as a screen actor has been unnaturally thwarted, but one thing she has is the rare and purely cinematic quality, never quite visible in stills, which found its fullest expression in the Louise Brooks of Diary of a Lost Girl or Pandora’s Box: a thrill and possibility located not in the body but in the face, especially the eyes, as if someone has turned all the lights on inside.


Telegraph.co.uk
Rosamund Pike's Gone Girl bob: so sharp, it could be a murder weapon
The outstanding filmic hair moments over the past century - from Louise Brooks' almost shockingly modern bob in Pandora's Box (1928), to Cate Blanchett's Freudian red wig in Elizabeth (1998) and Kirsten Dunst's (2006) mauve tinged bouffant in Marie Antoinette - have been awarded to whackos, psychos and shopaholics.
 

Friday, August 29, 2014

Bobbed hair as a mask

I came across this striking 1924 photo of a stage actress sporting a rather exaggerated bob. I have never seen such stylized cut - especially in the way the points of the bob reach across Jean Bodine's face. And look at her eyebrows, extended to touch the hairline. The effect quite nearly looks like a kind of disquise, or mask. I thought "a haircut performing as a mask." Or is this image a kind of masque?

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Two more of Truus

Just because.... Two more of Truus van Aalten, just because.



Friday, August 1, 2014

Truus van Aalten


Truus van Aalten, a Dutch actress who appeared in many German films in the 1920s and 1930s, was born on this day in 1910. A popular actress, Truus sported bobbed hair which was reportedly modeled after the cut worn by the American actress Colleen Moore. (Which was slightly different from that worn by Louise Brooks. See the previous LBS blog for some postcard images.)


And like Colleen Moore, comedy was what Truus did best. She was the bright spark in what were considered uninspired films. The German film-making community adored her, and referred to her affectionately as "die kleine Hollandische Käse" ("The Little Dutch Cheese").

Truus' popularity went beyond Germany and The Netherlands, spreading throughout Europe. Some of her German films were even shown in the United States. On October 14, 1933, the New York Times reviewed Truus' film Der Bettelstudent, then showing at the 79th St. Theatre in New York City. The movie, the newspaper said, had "a certain amount of charm", but didn't measure up to other operetta films of its type. However, the reviewer noted Truus was "excellent in her leading comedy role."

With the rise of the Nazi party, roles in German films for the Dutch-born actress began to dry up. In 1940, she returned to The Netherlands. According to her Wikipedia page, "Now she found herself being offered film work - to appear in Dutch films controlled and censored by the occupying power. She refused, realising that they only wanted to use her for propaganda - but as she turned the repeated requests down, she knew she was destroying any hope of rekindling her movie career."

After WWII, Truus hoped to find acting work in the Netherlands, in England, and even in Hollywood, but in the depressed atmosphere of the post-war world, few were interested in a forgotten actress with a foreign accent. Truus never acted again. As her reputation faded, she was seldom mentioned in the various film histories published in 1960s and 1970s. Truus died at age 88 in 1999. For more on the actress, see her Dutch Wikipedia page.



Truus' career, which ran from 1926 to 1939, paralleled that of Brooks, which ran from 1925 to 1938. Like Brooks, Truus portrait was taken at the Atelier Binder, a leading celebrity portrait photographer (who also shot Garbo, Lya di Putti, and others). Truus appeared on postcards issued by the Ross, as had Brooks, and the Dutch-born actress even appeared in a Lux soap advertisement, as had Brooks.


Few of Truus van Aalten's films have been released for home viewing. According to Wikipedia, "One possible reason is that the Russian Army seized the Ufa studios in April 1945 and appropriated the contents - including copies of a huge number of German films that have never been seen since." That's unfortunate, as Truss is pretty, charming, expressive, and appears to have real screen presence.

For more on Truus van Aalten, be sure and check out Roger Mitchell's excellent website (at http://truusvanaalten.com) devoted to the actress. It is the source for all of the images used in this blog.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Truus van Aalten - a Dutch actress with a Dutch bob

Tomorrow's blog will feature a write up about Truus van Aalten (1910-1999), a once popular Dutch actress with a Dutch bob. Here are some picture postcard portraits featuring this charming actress.


























Truus van Aalten was so popular that there was even a song about her, sung by Lou Bundy (follow the link to listen). Otherwise, here she is filming Jenny's Bummel durch die Männer on Scheveningen Pier in Holland in 1929.

Friday, June 13, 2014

First ever Louise Brooks Society blog on this day in 2002

The first ever Louise Brooks Society blog appeared on LiveJournal on this day in 2002. To mark the occasion, here is that first post:

In search of the perfect bob, in the Philippines

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, from Manila, recently ran a story titled "In search of the perfect bob." In it, the reporter discusses her own quest for the haircut, as well as a bit of it's history.

It has been a long debate on who actually started the classic bob. But American Hairdresser magazine, in an article on March 1, 2007, “The Way We Were,” credited dancer Irene Castle for the bob, which used to be called “Castle Bob” in 1915.

There was also the tale of an unpopular girl whose life changed after she got her new bob, as told in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” published in the Saturday Evening Post in May 1920.

Others credit the bob to Coco Chanel or the American dancer and actress Louise Brooks, with her ebony black, blunt bob with bangs.

Anna Wintour has been sporting the page-boy bob since she was 14.

Why is the ’do still popping up to this day?

The popularity of the bob knows no bounds. Neither does its identification with Louise Brooks. Both are a worldwide phenomena!

Friday, March 8, 2013

New book with Louise Brooks on the cover

There is a new book forthcoming which features Louise Brooks on the cover. It's called Art Deco Hair: Hairstyles from the 1920s & 1930s. It is by Daniela Turudich, and is due in May from Streamline Press. (If you love vintage fashion and style, be sure and explore this website.)

2004 edition
Turudich is an expert on re-creating period beauty styles and techniques. She is the author of the Vintage Living series, which has been relied upon as source books by film and television costume designers, professional stylists, academics, and historians. She lives in Long Beach, California. This book may or may not be related to the now rare, similarly titled book by Turudich from 2004, which also featured Brooks on the cover. (See image right).

According to the publisher: "Art deco has long been associated with uncompromising style and sophistication, and this guide to re-creating the sassy, controversial styles of the 1920s and 1930s offers a glimpse back at the hairstyles of this era. The instructions needed to replicate these fashions on the modern woman—from the controversial bob of the Roaring Twenties flapper to the luxurious finger waves of Hollywood’s early screen stars—are provided, and the techniques behind Marcel and water waves, the simple bob, Eton and shingle cuts, and many more are also included. Hundreds of vintage illustrations, photographs, step-by-step instructions, and diagrams illuminate the history of the hairstyles that laid the groundwork of style for the modern American woman." Here is the new cover for the 2013 edition.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks

Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks against an art deco background. Louise Brooks is an art deco icon.


Monday, August 20, 2012

Louise Brooks Hair - two videos

Today, those who do not know Louise Brooks' name or reputation likely know her image, especially the look of her signature hairstyle, a sleek black bob. Brooks' hair is iconic. Here are two videos: one is instructional, the other a homage.


This second video is by a performer known as "The GrrrL," who sings "Black Is The Color (Louise Brooks' Hair)," her DIY adaption of a traditional Southern Appalachian song "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair." Is The GrrrL a Louise Brooks fan? Oh yes - see this earlier article, "Run You Luscious Lesbian."

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Amelia Lowe has our vote

Amelia Lowe has our vote. The "So You Think You Can Dance" contestant sports a sleek Louise Brooks bob and admits to a love of the 1920's and silent film.  The Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey ran a story about Lowe in today's paper. The piece is titled "Silence is golden: Amelia Lowe embraces the 1920s on 'So You Think You Can Dance'." And here is a video clip of her recent appearance on the television show. She charms.


More about the 18 year old Amelia Lowe can be found here.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Zooey Deschanel: "I love a Louise Brooks bob!"

US Weekly reported that popular New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel, known for sporting bangs, declared in a recent interview, "If I could cut my hair today I totally would. I love a Louise Brooks bob!" Deschanel's shout-out to the silent film star has been all over the web.

According to BellaSugar, where the story first ran, Deschanel is known for her love of "all things vintage." And now, according to US Weekly, "For her hair inspiration, Zooey Deschanel is looking to the past -- rather than the latest trends.

We here at the Louise Brooks Society would love to see Deschanel in a Louise Brooks bob. Who wouldn't? She would look smashing. The idea of Deschanel as a Louise Brooks type as come up before, even in the pages of the Los Angeles Times. But really, Deschanel seems more the Clara Bow type. Don't you think? And a bob on Deschanel might just turn this New Girl into today's "It Girl."

Saturday, October 31, 2009

A Screen Test for Bobbed Hair

I do a lot of research - usually of the reading through old newspapers on microfilm variety. And I come across - often by chance - a lot of interesting material unrelated to Louise Brooks. Sometimes I will make a copy of what I find for my files, or to share.

Here is something nifty I recently found. "A Screen Test for Bobbed Hair" ran in a local newspaper in November, 1925.


Just below this contest application was an anonymous article of interest, "Bobbed Hair Brides Are the Fashion Now." Both pieces certainly reflect their times.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Louise Brooks tops TCM list of movies that created style trends


As New York Fashion Week kicks off , Turner Classic Movies has released a list of the network's favorite fashion trendsetting films.

Pandora's Box
- starring the one and only Louise Brooks - has topped the list of 15 "Fashion Trendsetting Classic Films." According to the TCM website, "Film has provided fashion inspiration for audiences and fashion designers alike; costumes not only help create a character, but can spur real-life trends and runway looks. In honor of Fashion Week and the far-reaching influence that film has had on our closets, we present 15 of our favorite fashion trendsetting movies." Pandora's Box (1929) was the earliest film, as well as the only silent film, on the list.

Brooks' look has had a substantial influence on fashion. The actress took the number one slot, however, not for the clothes she wore (though both Travis Banton and Poiret both dressed her) back in the day), but for her much copied hairstyle.

The TCM website noted "Louise Brooks once said, 'A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world.' That could have been the motto of Lulu, the role that made her a fashion icon for the ages. Brooks had been wearing her famous Buster Brown haircut and dressing in the height of flapper fashion for years, as had many other actresses, but her sleek hairdo and half-naked beaded gowns were such a perfect match for the amoral charmer in Pandora's Box they remain one of the screen's most enduring images. The look would prove just as lucky for Cyd Charisse and Melanie Griffith, who copied it for their star-making roles in Singin' in the Rain and Something Wild, respectively. And in many countries the severe black bob that led critic Kenneth Tynan to call Brooks 'The Girl in the Black Helmet' is still referred to as 'the Lulu'."

Be sure and check out the entire list of trendsetting films at www.tcm.com/dailies.jsp?cid=254416
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