Louise Brooks

She considered herself sexually liberated and had many lovers, both men and women. By associating with lesbian and bisexual women including Greta Garbo, she tried to create a lesbian image for her.

She inspired two comics – ‘the Dixie Dugan’ newspaper strip published from 1929 to 1966 by John H. Striebel, and the erotic comic books of ‘Valentina’, by the Italian cartoonist Guido Crepax.

Louise Brooks was born on November 14, 1906 to Leonard Porter Brooks, a lawyer, and Myra Rude, a gifted pianist, who nurtured in Louise and her siblings, a love of art.

Sexually abused at 9, she developed a deep distrust of men who were the gentle and kind types. When she confided to her mother, she was told that it, probably, was her own fault.

Brooks’ show career began in 1922, as dancer with the leading dance troupe the Denishawn Dance Company, Los Angeles. In 1924, she was dismissed from the company by St. Denis, who envied her growing popularity. She became a chorus girl in ‘Scandals’, a successful series of Broadway revues, produced by George White.

Her dance in Broadway’s ‘Ziegfeld Follies’ in 1925 was noticed by Walter Wanger of Paramount Pictures. She earned a five year contract with Paramount and debuted in the film, ‘The Street of Forgotten Men’.

In 1926, she featured as a flapper in ‘A Social Celebrity’ with Adolf Menjou and Chester Conklin, and co-starred with W.C. Fields in ‘It's the Old Army Game’.

Her role as a vamp named Marie in ‘A Girl in Every Port’, a silent comedy film directed by Howard Hawks in 1928, made her popular in Europe.

In 1928, she acted opposite Wallace Beery in ‘Beggars of Life’ as Nancy, a girl trying to escape abuse. The film has the distinction of being Paramount’s first sound film.

In 1929, Brooks played the character of Lulu, a sexually liberated woman, in German director, Pabst’s film, ‘Pandora's Box’. The film, now considered a classic and her finest, included the earliest portrayal of lesbianism.

She essayed the role of Thymian, a naive girl, in the Georg Pabst-directed, 1929 silent film, ‘Diary of a Lost Girl’. The film, an adaptation of a controversial bestseller, is considered a classic.