Louise Brooks from A to Z: E for Eskimo, Eastman Museum, Ellery Queen, Empty Saddles and Evening Clothes
From left to right, Louise Brooks, "The Eskimo," and Lothar Wolff, image derived from an original negative given to us by author Tom Graves
The Eskimo, otherwise known as "Eskie", properly named the Baron Karl von Bieck, was a man that Louise met at Joe Zelli's night club in Paris. She called him "the eskimo" because "his hair was perfectly blond so it looked like a white fur cap." Barry Paris goes into detail in his biography on Brooks: "He was half-Swedish and half-English, a darling boy," (319) said Louise, and clearly she meant it because she kept him "in tow" throughout the entire production of Diary of a Lost Girl in 1929. The misconception was that they two were having an affair; however, Paris speculates that Brooks kept Eskie around to ward of the chances of repeat intimate evening with director GW Pabst, a man that she deeply cared for and respected. "The irony, which Mr. Pabst never knew, was that although Eskie and I shared a Hotel suite in Berlin, we didn't sleep together until much later, when Lost Girl was finished and we were spending a few days in Paris. 'Eskimo,' I said to him the evening before we parted, 'this is the night.' And it was- another first and last for Brooks." (Paris, 332) Click on this to see Brooks' interview with Richard Leacock called Lulu in Berlin, in which she discusses the Eskie and the making of Diary.
Indexed cover of Brooks' journal, found here
The Eastman Museum, or as Louise would have known it to be, the Eastman House, is a spectacular museum and archive located in Rochester, NY, and the place where Louise went to research and see all of her films. It consists of the old home of George Eastman, creator of Eastman Kodak, and their archives specialize in the restoration of films and film photography. It is in their Stills, Posters, and Paper Collection that one can find the research journals of Louise Brooks. Having spent many an afternoon there bugging their lovely archivist, I can tell you that, for a researcher or historian, it's like being a kid in a candy shop. I highly recommend venturing there and making an appointment, because their collection is truly staggering. Click here to see their main page for the Paper Collections.
Image of Louise Brooks' notebooks, which can be found on the Eastman Museum Website
Ellery Queen is the name of a CBS radio show that Louise played a lead in during her radio days in the 1940s. Here are a bunch of Ellery Queen episodes, although I cannot claim to know of any where I can identify Louise.
Empty Saddles was a B-Western that Louise starred in alongside Buck Jones in 1936. Her character was a sassy prairie woman by the name of Boots Boone.
Louise Brooks and Buck Jones, courtesy of LouiseBrooks.com
Evening Clothes was a film made in 1927, based off of the play L'homme en Habit by Andre Picard, starring Louise and Adolphe Menjou. It's also when this curly hair happened, which I wish I could have Brooks' opinion on:
Louise in Evening Clothes (1927)
