Louise Brooks
14/11/1906 to 08/08/1985
Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas. She began dancing at an early age with the Denishawn Dancers which led to her leaving Kansas and going to New York. She was also with George Whites Scandals before joining the Ziegfeld Follies, but became one of the most fascinating and alluring personalities ever to grace the silver screen. She was always compared to her Lulu role in Pandora's Box (1929), which was filmed in 1928. Her performances in A Girl in Every Port (1928) and Beggars of Life (1928), both filmed in 1928, proved to all concerned that Louise had real talent.
She became known, mostly, for her bobbed hair style. Thousands of women were attracted to that style and adopted it as their own. You only have to look at her photographs to see she was a real trend setter of the 1920s with her Buster Brown-Page Boy type hair cut, much like today's women imitate stars. She was one of the original women to be called a "Flapper," a term which evolved in the 1920s.
Because of her dark haired look and being the beautiful woman that she was, plus being a modern female, she was not especially popular among Hollywood's clientele. She just did not go along with the norms of the film society. Louise really came into her own when she left Hollywood for Europe. There she appeared in a few German productions which were very well made and continued to prove she was an actress with an enduring talent. Until she ended her career in film in 1938, she had made only 25 movies. By 1946, she had to take a $40-a-week job as a sales girl at Saks Fifth Avenue to make a living. She spent most of her time reading and painting. She also became an accomplished writer, authoring a number of books, including her autobiography. She married and divorced twice. On August 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in Rochester, New York. She was 78 years old. |
