Have You Seen Louise Brooks Like This?

Was it her famously sassy personality? She certainly was a rebel; a liberated woman well before the Women's Lib Movement of the 1960s and '70s. For the era she came out of she had a very modern face; a timeless face along with her famous hairdo. A hairdo you can see women wearing today as you pass them on the street. The classic "bob'.

First a dancer she went on to become a wonderful actress of the silent film era. Like many actresses starting out Louise Brooks starred in some forgettable movies. She eventually received critical acclaim when she went to Germany to star in the classic movie "Pandora's Box".

She evolved into a very natural actor. "There is one scene in Pandora's Box," says one Louise Brooks collector, "where she has a triumphant smirk when her lover's fiance discovers them in a compromising situation. That face was incredible acting and no lessons could have taught that."

After Pandora's Box..... back in America... a film studio invited Louise Brooks to return to the States to help convert a silent movie into a "talkie". They wanted Louise to record spoken lines. She turned down the offer choosing instead to stay on in Germany to work on another film. The result of her decision was that she was boycotted by the budding Hollywood machine. When she returned to the States she was reduced to taking roles in B movies.

She stayed afloat by forming liaisons with wealthy lovers. On the whole she all but disappeared until sometime in the 1960s when she was rediscovered by a famous scholar of Film and others who started promoting her and her film work from the past.

To this day her German movies are cult classics. Some compare her to the likes of Greta Garbo who is known for her timelessness, modernity, seemingly carefree acting and especially her intelligence.

"Yes, it seems the 1960's Louise Brooks was also quite intelligent and she started to use her new fame to write about the movies and her 1920's cinema adventures. She was witty and well-received. She even wrote a book about "Looking for Lulu (Pandora's Box). Louise Brooks was always a recluse and rarely showed herself in public but she became the darling of film clubs and college campuses." (contributed by avid Louise Brooks' collector)