Louise Brooks

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Film historian Paris covers actress and author Brooks's life (1907-1985) from her days as a precocious child in Kansas through her sexually promiscuous, hedonistic adult years, here detailed exhaustively. Only 15 when she arrived in New York to dance with an established company, Brooks fouled up this opportunity, like many others, through sheer carelessness. A promising star in early Hollywood films, she scorned later roles and decamped for Europe. Eminent German director G. W. Pabst then spotted the American ``vamp'' and chose her to play Lulu in the film that made her a screen icon, Pandora's Box. It was downhill all the way after that as Brooks failed at everything, finally growing old, poor and alcoholic in New York. But she was discovered and befriended by one John Benz, whose influence brought her again to public attention and secured the home where she lived out her days, cared for and reasonably contented. The biography is a gossip lover's feast, naming names and telling tales, yet also makes an addition to film history. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Despite a brief career (24 films, only a handful of any merit), Louise Brooks led a life that is the stuff of Hollywood legend: star dancer in her teens with the Denishawn troupe, a studio contract and fame as a flapper with her ``black'' hairstyle, exile to Europe to make her best films (including Pandora's Box ), return to an indifferent Hollywood, ``retirement'' from movies at 32, years of struggling in New York at meager jobs, and finally, nearly 30 years of seclusion in Rochester, N.Y. There she was ``discovered'' by a growing legion of fans and found her calling as a writer, publishing Lulu in Hollywood (her character in Pandora's Box ) in 1982 (Knopf). This is the first book-length portrait of Brooks, and Paris takes full advantage of cooperation from numerous sources as well as access to Brooks's papers. Fascinating, titillating stuff. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/89.-- Thomas Wiener, formerly with ``American Film,'' Washington, D.C.