I’ve been watching Pabst’s Pandora’s Box this weekend. Before it arrived (via Netflix), I had never heard of Louise Brooks , but in that film she is one of the most beautiful and seductive screen actresses I’ve ever seen. She could easily supplant the likes of Myrna Loy (in the early Thin Man flicks) as my all-time favorite retrospective crush, if it weren’t for one thing…
She might be a relative.
There are Brookses all over, of course. Dad didn’t know much about his family. His folks apparently settled in North Texas in the late 1800’s, but Brookses from that generation could also have moved to Kansas, where Louise was born. Looks can be deceiving, but I think Dad and Louise show a little family resemblance.
I know there’s no point to having a crush on a long-dead actress (or a living, breathing actress, or even the nameless redhead I see at work sometimes). And at worst Louise Brooks couldn’t have been closer than second cousin to me, once removed. But still, the association puts a pall on what might have been a pleasant infatuation.
I don’t see the resemblance, but even if she were a relative, so what? As you said, she’d be a distant enough relative that you could have married her in any state in the Union and she’s been dead for decades.
When I was little, I developed a bit of a crush on a young man in a photograph on my mother’s dresser. Later learning he was my great-uncle didn’t make him any less cute in my eyes. (Well, cute in the photograph – in real life he was in his 80s.) No harm in crushing on Louise Brooks, I’d say.
There are several biographies out on her. I have Barry Paris’, which is quite good.
Don’t worry about your crush on her. You wouldn’t have stood a chance. We’re talking about a girl who was Charlie Chaplin’s mistress at 17. Crush? She would have crushed you like a grape.
Oh, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a crush on Louise Brooks. I have a collective crush on all the beautiful flapper girls of the roaring 20’s.
Having a crush on an actor who’s no longer alive isn’t much different from having one on a fictional character, or a contemporary actor - they’re none of them quite human, they’re symbols to admire and project your desires on. A healthy crush enrichens your life.
See, this is why it frustrates me no end that I cannot get customer to look anywhere but the New Releases section. You have a hundred years of masterpieces to choose from, but you’d rather be put on the waiting list for 27 Dresses? I hate people.
Ah, yes. But there have been times when even that might be a pleasant prospect.
I actually knew a girl like Lulu once. Very in-the-moment, careless about men’s feelings, instinctively manipulative, and yet vulnerable. She took me out with her a few times when she was between men, as a sort of bodyguard. Guys would flock around her and she would smile, and nod, and say “no.” My job was to convince them she meant “no” (when she did).
I guess I was a bit like Schigolch to her. Eeew. She even sat on my lap sometimes.
Yeah, we have the Criterion* Pandora’s Box*, book included with the rental package, and I think it’s rented once in a year. Meanwhile, people fight over copies of Hot Rod.
The National Film Theatre in London had a Louise Brooks season a couple of years ago, where I saw quite a few of her films (they only showed the silent ones). I was struck by how “modern” she looked.