Louise Brooks Overview

Louise Brooks left her Kansas home at fifteen to study dance in New York, where she instantly became the center of "glamourous" New York Society. Her look - the eyes, the sleek bangs, the candidly unreal innocence - established the look... [more]

Louise Brooks left her Kansas home at fifteen to study dance in New York, where she instantly became the center of "glamourous" New York Society. Her look - the eyes, the sleek bangs, the candidly unreal innocence - established the look of the twenties. Her talent, beauty, and sharp intelligence made her a rising star in the Hollywood of that era. But her fierce independence and individuality, and her never veiled contempt for the Hollywood "film-factories," put her career in jeopardy by the time she was twenty-two. It was then that she went to Berlin to give her most electrifying performances - as Lulu in G.W. Pabst's 1929 film 'Pandora's Box,' followed by Pabst's 'Diary of a Lost Girl,' also released in 1929. [show less]