Louise Brooks — knickname Lulu — was a silent film star and very independent actress who had an amazing and turbulent life — with many highs and many lows.
Born a Country Bumpkin in Kansas — Became a Famous Denishawn Dancer
She was born in a small town in Kansas, and became a famed Denishawn Dancer at age 15 traveling the US — it was like making the NY Yankees for dancing. She then got fired and became a Ziefield Dancer in NYC. There, she learned etiquette from the waiters at The Colony Restaurant.
Was in the Inner Circle of the Richest People in the World
Louise was extremely pretty and hung out with the rich of the rich, and knew the elite of the fledging Hollywood elite, spending a lot of time at the Hearst Castle in San Simeon (as she was close friends with William Randolph Hearst’s niece, Marion Davies).
Silent Movie Star
Louise was signed a movie deal with Paramount Pictures in 1926 at age 20. She made several movies with Paramount between 1926 and 1928, got married in 1926 to director Eddie Sutherland, left him after a year and a half to have an affair with millionaire George Preston Marshall (future owner of the Washington Redskins), then married Chicago millionaire Deering Davis, and left him after 6 months.
In 1929 she left Hollywood and went to Germany because she was unhappy with the roles she was getting. She hit a homerun in Europe — becoming an even bigger star with several silent movies made in Germany, “Pandora’s Box”, “Diary of a Lost Girl”, and “Miss Europe (Prix de Beauté).”
Had to Take Odd Jobs & Became a High-Class Prostitute
Her movie career ended abruptly when she hit her 30’s, and she was forced to take odd jobs to survive. By the 1940’s she became a ‘kept’ prostitute for rich guys.
Re-Discovered in the 1950’s — and Became a Famous Author
She had a renaissance in the 1950’s as film buffs rediscovered her, and she was enticed to move to Rochester NY to be near the film archive — where she became a regular writer articles on her life in Hollywood.
Lulu in Hollywood
Those articles were rolled into this amazing book — Lulu In Hollywood — published in 1982 when she was 76 years old. She passed away 3 years later at age 79.
The book is a collection of 8 essays on her life and other subjects (like an entire essay on Humphry Bogart) that she wrote for various film journals in the 1950’s thru 1970’s.
Lulu is to the point and spares no prisoners in detailing her life in Hollywood and her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, William Paley, G. W. Pabst, and others. She also writes about her childhood in Kansas and her early days as a Denishawn and Ziegfeld Follies dancer.
You have to buy the book — it is not available for free pdf download at the usual sources despite its age — although you can rent the book for free on the Internet Archives — below. You must sign up for a free account to ‘rent’ the book, aka view it in their viewer:
It is a fascinating read. She details exactly what she was thinking at the time during her many life events — she seems never to have been young and hopeful and naive, even in her seemingly naive 20’s in the 1920’s, when all sorts of guys were coming on to her.
Of course some of the details may have been influenced by what she thought 30 years after an event, looking back.
The book presents many rabbit holes to travel down. For example her essay on Marion Davies, which starts:
“Nobody can know for certain why anyone commits suicide, but it seems likely that being Marion Davies’ niece was one of the reasons for my friend Pepi Lederer’s killing herself in 1935. And Marion’s being the mistress of William Randolph Hearst was probably another. In 1929, and again in 1930, Pepi attempted to escape the effect of their overpowering celebrity and boundless wealth upon the subhumanity of Hollywood, which regarded her as nothing more than a sign pointing the way to Marion’s beach house in Santa Monica; to Wyntoon, Mr. Hearst’s estate in Northern California; to San Simeon, his castle overlooking the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco; and to St. Donat’s, his castle in Wales.”
The Marion Davis beach house in Santa Monica rings a bright bell for a travel article already in the works on Ignoranttraveler.com. Life is like one big puzzle; the puzzle pieces are all right there you just have to see them and put them together. And at the end you will still be confused.
Reading Lulu’s essays gets you less confused on the ruthlessness of Hollywood’s cowboy days of the 1920’s, and gives you some fun-to-read puzzle pieces.
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