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.