1928 — The Canary and The Foghorn

Louise Brooks with Jean Arthur
Paramount Studios Film Still from THE CANARY MURDER CASE
September-October, 1928 · Hollywood, California

It is one of the greatest ironies wrought by the transition to talkies that an actress with a voice as remarkably lovely as Louise Brooks' was denied the chance to sufficiently demonstrate it in films. So, while Jean Arthur—with the voice once affectionately likened by a critic to a foghorn—dutifully returned with the rest of THE CANARY MURDER CASE'S cast to Paramount for sound conversion retakes, Louise snubbed the studio that had apathetically allowed her to quit, and hop a boat for Germany and silent film immortality instead. For her rebellion, Brooks received the punishment meted out to most movie stars with chips on their shoulders: bad publicity. According to Paramount, Louise's voice didn't record well, and thus, a stand-in was found to dub her lines. Brooks's career would never recover from her own contrariness and the ensuing reprimand.

1928 — Pygmalion in Berlin

Louise Brooks with G.W. Pabst
Personal Candid Photograph
October 14, 1928 · Berlin, Germany

Brooks described her relationship with PANDORA'S BOX director G.W. Pabst as something visceral and intuitive—a rapport that began the instant she stepped off the train in Berlin to meet him. "It was," she wrote, "just as if Pabst had sat in on my whole life and career and knew exactly where I needed assurance and protection. And, just as his understanding of me reached back to his knowledge of a past we did not have to speak about, so it was with the present . . . all that I thought and all his reactions seemed to pass between us in a kind of worldess communication."

1929 — A Way You'll Never Be

Louise Brooks with Fritz Rasp
HOM-Film Film Still from DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
1929 · Berlin, Germany

G.W. Pabst's instincts regarding Louise were not limited to a mere psychological understanding of the actress. Anticipating her attraction to actor Fritz Rasp, the director quite literally conceived of their seduction scene as a subtle, erotic dance. Brooks's dance background and Rasp's physical power and agility combined to make the scene one of DIARY OF A LOST GIRL'S most affecting.

1929 — Left and Leaving

Louise Brooks with Andre Roanne
HOM-Film Still Photograph from DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
1929 · Berlin, Germany

With their second collaboration, G.W. Pabst urged Louise Brooks to remain in Germany and commit herself to acting. Although she respected the director and submitted to him as she did no one else, she declined his entreaties. In frustration, Pabst delivered a prediction on the final day of shooting that would haunt Brooks for the remainder of her life-though she scarcely understood it at the time: "Your life is exactly like Lulu's [of PANDORA'S BOX], and you will end the same way."

1929 — Perihelion in Paris

Louise Brooks
Photographed by Studio Lorelle
SOFAR-Film Publicity Photograph for PRIX DE BEAUTE
August-September 1929 · Paris, France

Although Louise felt less than positive about the finished product of PRIX DE BEAUTE, she described her time in Paris as the happiest of her life. Explaining that because she did not speak French she wasn't required to speak to anyone, or to talk at all. Is it any wonder, then, that the actress considered by some to be the greatest in silent films was most content when she didn't have to say a word?

1930 — Windy Riley Goes Hollywood

Louise Brooks
Educational Pictures Publicity Photograph for WINDY RILEY GOES HOLLYWOOD
1930 · Hollywood, California

Appearing quite different from the sulky, sooty-eyed flapper of the twenties, Brooks puts on one of the biggest grins in any of her portraits, denying the misery of the Depression. In truth, the thirties were an uncertain time for Brooksie, as well. Sadly, uncertain times would give way to desperate ones in the following two decades.

1931 — God's Gift To Women

Louise Brooks with Yola d'Avril, Joan Blondell, and Frank Fay
Warner Bros. Film Still from GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN
1931 · Hollywood, California

Louise gets the better of the wonderful Joan Blondell in a pre-Code catfight as star Frank Fay looks on in exasperation. It was on the set of GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN that Louise would meet longtime friend and Warner Brothers costume designer Howard Shoup.

1931 — Turning Away

Louise Brooks
Warner Bros. Publicity Photograph for GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN
January 1931 · Hollywood, California

Judging by Louise's expression, one would be surprised to learn GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN was a comedy. Despite a rather small role, Warner Brothers promoted Brooks generously with many stunning publicity photos such as this one. However, the change in coiffure and her melancholy countenance underscore a downturn in Louise's professional career. Declining William Wellman's offer for the role of Gwen in THE PUBLIC ENEMY shortly after making GOD'S GIFT, Louise would perform her most dramatic act of "snatching obscurity from the jaws of fame," as biographer Barry Paris fittingly described it.

1931 — Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

Louise Brooks with bust of Dante Alighieri
Warner Bros. Publicity Photograph for GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN
1931 · Hollywood, California

“Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.” -Dante
A chastened Louise awaits her imminent banishment to the particular circle of hell reserved for stubborn, haughty actresses. She seems already to be in mourning for her lost vogue in this stunning photograph, and despite the prop's stinging relevance now, there does not appear to be any deliberate underlying comment relating to Brooks's then unsteady career. Dante certainly had nothing to do with GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN, either.

1936 — Don't Tread On Me

Louise Brooks
Universal Pictures Publicity Photograph
1936 · Hollywood, California

After a successful two-year stint on the ballroom dance circuit, and an unsuccessful marriage, Brooks returned to Hollywood for a final time. Despite her still incredible, now mature beauty, her attempt at a movie comeback would be a disappointment.

1936 — End of the Trail

Louise Brooks with Buck Jones
Universal Pictures Film Still from EMPTY SADDLES
August-September 1936 · Hollywood, California

A cowboy movie with Buck Jones hardly seemed the ideal genre for a Louise Brooks comeback vehicle, but she was desperate for movie work of any kind by 1936. More to the point, she needed the $300 paycheck for the film's week-long shooting. Having turned up her nose at a Buck Jones Western some six years before, Brooks now gritted her teeth through the forgettable EMPTY SADDLES.

1936 — Just a Prairie Flower

Louise Brooks with Buck Jones and Gertrude Astor
Universal Pictures Film Still from EMPTY SADDLES
1936 · Hollywood, California

The sophisticated lawyer's daughter from Wichita, Kansas was an odd fit for EMPTY SADDLES with Buck Jones, and one can almost read the discomfort in her face here. Louise had little regard for Hollywood's version of the West, whose "unreality," she would later recall, "disgusted [her]."

1938 — Dixie Dugan Among The Cowboys

Louise Brooks with John Wayne and Ray Corrigan
Republic Pictures Publicity Photograph for OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS
August 1938 · Hollywood, California

For her final screen appearance, Brooks would brush shoulders with John Wayne, who was perched on the brink of stardom. The next year, Wayne would finally obtain fame as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach. OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS was a textbook B-movie example of two stars touching briefly as they followed their opposite trajectories in filmdom.

1938 — Duke, By Divine Right

Louise Brooks with John Wayne
Personal Candid Photograph
Wrap Party for OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS
1938 · Hollywood, California

Brooks called John Wayne "a purely beautiful being" and "the hero of all mythology miraculously brought to life." Louise rarely expressed such unmitigated enthusiasm for anyone—especially fellow actors—and the adoration for him is unmistakably written on her face in this surreal photo. One would be hard pressed to find another image of prickly, no-nonsense Brooksie looking so vulnerable.

1939 — Last Tango on Sunset Boulevard

Louise Brooks with Barrett O'Shea
Publicity Photograph for Brooks-O'Shea Dance Studio
1939 · Hollywood, California

The distinctive costume Louise wears in this promotional photo for the Brooks-O'Shea dance studio may have been designed by Warner Brothers costumer Howard Shoup. Brooks and "Shoupie," as she nicknamed him, had become fast friends on the set of GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN eight years prior. With the small amount of money she earned from the studio, Louise commissioned a new wardrobe from the designer. Unfortunately, the Brooks-O'Shea studio proved to be only slightly more financially successful than its subsequent Kansas counterpart. In a short period of time, Louise would sell the studio to O'Shea for $2,500, then promptly board a train for Wichita, Kansas. There, Louise would find that if she'd hated Hollywood, Wichita was an even less endearing town to its once celebrated prodigal daughter.

1940 — Purgatory Waltz

Louise Brooks
Photographed by Charles Bartlett
Promotional Photograph for Brooks Dance Studio
1940 · Wichita, Kansas

Photographed for the second of Brooks' short-lived dance studios, Louise once again donned her trademark bangs, this time looking more like an aristocratic Bettie Page than the androgynous imp of the 20s. The photo also appeared on the cover of her first serious literary effort: a pamphlet of thirty-six pages entitled "The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing." The booklet was published exclusively in Wichita as a means of advertisement for the Brooks studio. Unfortunately, like the studio, "The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing" was not what one would deem a wild success. About 500 of the 750 pamphlets found a permanent home in the landfill, and the dance studio would last less than a year.