An eponymous hairstyle is a particular hairstyle that has become fashionable during a certain period of time through its association with a prominent individual.
96-613: In the early 20th century, the " Louise Brooks bob " (Paramount studios' description c. 1927 of the defining " bob cut " of the " flapper " era) was iconic to the extent of being reproduced by Cyd Charisse in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952), by Melanie Griffith in Something Wild (1986), and by Rose McGowan in The Doom Generation (1995). Although photographs show that Brooks had in fact worn what became known as
192-515: A call girl " if she remained in Hollywood. Upon hearing Wanger's warning, Brooks purportedly also remembered Pabst's earlier predictions about the dire circumstances to which she would be driven if her career stalled in Hollywood: "I heard his [Pabst's] words again — hissing back to me. And listening this time, I packed my trunks and went home to Kansas." Brooks briefly returned to Wichita , where she
288-764: A chorus girl in George White's Scandals and as a semi-nude dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City . While dancing in the Follies , Brooks came to the attention of Walter Wanger , a producer at Paramount Pictures , and signed a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928). During this time, she became an intimate friend of actress Marion Davies and joined
384-416: A paid escort . For the next two decades, she struggled with alcoholism and suicidal tendencies . Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood , in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78. Brooks
480-579: A soul patch , was named after Emperor Napoleon III of France , and the chinstrap beard was informally known as the Abraham Lincoln . The Fu Manchu moustache , first worn by Mandarins in Imperial China , gained its name from the fictional supervillain Fu Manchu , a personification of the turn of the century yellow peril stereotype . Since 1945, the toothbrush moustache has been nicknamed
576-528: A "$ 900 bra ". Six years later some fashion journalists claimed that Catherine Middleton had been inspired by Sykes' wedding dress to choose Burton to design hers for her marriage to Prince William . Sykes and Rowland had their first child, Ursula, in October 2006 and their second child, Tess, in June 2010. Sykes' twin sister Lucy, who moved to New York in 1996, became fashion director of Marie Claire and later
672-417: A "clear preference for men", but she did not discourage the rumors that she was a lesbian, both because she relished their shock value, which enhanced her aura, and because she personally valued feminine beauty. Paris claims that Brooks "loved women as a homosexual man, rather than as a lesbian, would love them. ... The operative rule with Louise was neither heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. It
768-763: A 9-year-old and then being blamed by her mother for her own molestation, later recalling on that day she became one of the "lost". On the final day of shooting Diary of a Lost Girl , Pabst counseled Brooks not to return to Hollywood and instead to stay in Germany and to continue her career as a serious actress. Pabst expressed concern that Brooks's carefree approach towards her career would end in dire poverty "exactly like Lulu's". He further cautioned Brooks that Marshall and her "rich American friends" would likely shun her when her career stalled. When audiences and critics first viewed Brooks's German films, they were bewildered by her naturalistic acting style. Viewers purportedly exited
864-474: A New York-based investment banker, in 2002. In the April 2012 issue of Vogue , Sykes writes of her three-year struggle with anxiety disorder and agoraphobia after the birth of her children, a condition which rendered her unable to work or to maintain her social life or passion for horse riding. Sykes admitted "I had visited doctors and consultants and had tests, procedures and scans, but no one could tell me what
960-415: A bob from childhood, the actress Colleen Moore c. 1923 was probably the first to be widely associated with it. However, there was never such a thing as a "Colleen" and it was Brooks, with her unmistakable sense of " It ", that turned the "Louise" into an eponymous classic. Eighty years later, the term was still part of fashion's lexicon: "With her trademark Louise Brooks bob ... Jean Muir built
1056-481: A brief sexual liaison with her. At some point in their friendship, Hearst and Davies were made aware of Lederer's lesbianism. Hearst arranged for Lederer to be committed to a mental institution for drug addiction. Several days after her arrival at the institution, Lederer — Brooks's closest friend and companion — committed suicide by jumping to her death from a hospital window. This event traumatized Brooks and likely led to her further dissatisfaction with Hollywood and
SECTION 10
#17328697649951152-493: A career as one of Britain's greatest designers." The " Audrey Hepburn look”, associated since the 1950s with the Anglo-Belgian film actress, owed itself principally to the intrinsic chic of Hepburn herself (a factor identified by Edith Head ) and the designs of French couturier Hubert de Givenchy . However, although never strictly eponymous, Hepburn's hairstyles - especially those in the films Sabrina (1954) (short with
1248-703: A closer, if incomparable, antecedent. In 2005 Sykes married British entrepreneur Toby Rowland, son of businessman "Tiny" Rowland and co-creator of King , at Sledmere House , her family's ancestral home (1751) in the East Riding of Yorkshire . Her dress was designed by Sykes' friend and protégé of Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen . Sykes was sometimes described as a muse of McQueen; she modelled for some of his earliest catwalk shows, as well as for photoshoots of his designs. Before her wedding, she wrote an article for Vogue about shopping for suitable lingerie for her wedding night, an article that included reference to
1344-713: A dancer, joining the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts modern dance company in Los Angeles at the age of 15 in 1922. The company included founders Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn , as well as a young Martha Graham . As a member of the globe-trotting troupe, Brooks spent a season abroad in London and in Paris. In her second season with the Denishawn company, she advanced to a starring role in one work opposite Shawn. But one day,
1440-456: A designer of children's clothes. In the late 1990s the Sykes sisters were sometimes described as the "twin set". Sykes later joked, with reference to the heiresses Paris and Nicky Hilton , that "Lucy and I were Paris and Nicky without the sextape" (an allusion to the sex tape featuring Paris Hilton and a former boyfriend that had been posted on the internet in 2003). Lucy Sykes married Euan Rellie,
1536-462: A female attraction." Variety , the nation's leading entertainment publication, also devoted very little ink to her in its review. "Louise Brooks is the femme appeal with nothing much to do", it reports, "except look glamorous in a shoulder-length straight-bang coiffure ." Brooks's career prospects as a film actress had significantly declined by 1940. According to the federal census in May that year, she
1632-687: A film comeback in 1936 and did a bit part in Empty Saddles , a Western that led Columbia to offer her a screen test, contingent on appearing in the 1937 musical When You're in Love , uncredited, as a specialty ballerina in the chorus. In 1937, Brooks obtained a bit part in the film King of Gamblers after a private interview on a Paramount set with director Robert Florey , who "specialised in giving jobs to destitute and sufficiently grateful actresses." Unfortunately, after filming, Brooks's scenes were deleted. Brooks made two more films after that, including
1728-749: A film icon, much to her purported amusement. This rediscovery led to a Louise Brooks film festival in 1957 and rehabilitated her reputation in her home country. During this time, James Card , the film curator for the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York , discovered Brooks "living as a recluse" in New York City. He persuaded her in 1956 to move to be near the George Eastman House film collection where she could study cinema and write about her past career. With Card's assistance, she became
1824-412: A film." Purportedly, Wellman — despite their previous acrimonious relationship on Beggars of Life — offered Brooks the female lead in his new picture The Public Enemy , starring James Cagney . Brooks turned down Wellman's offer in order to visit Marshall in New York City, and the coveted role instead went to Jean Harlow , who then began her own rise to stardom. Brooks later claimed she declined
1920-408: A fringe, or "bangs", across the forehead) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) (pulled back and gently piled up around the crown) have been widely copied. The social historian Dominic Sandbrook wrote of "black-jersied gamines with Audrey Hepburn hairdos" presiding over British coffee bars in the mid-1950s. Marilyn Monroe 's signature platinum blonde look, worn throughout the height of her career,
2016-541: A highly glamorous "exclusive club". After their arrival in Weimar Germany , she starred in the 1929 silent film Pandora's Box , directed by Pabst in his New Objectivity period. Pabst was one of the leading directors of the filmwelt , known for his refined, elegant films that represented the filmwelt "at the height of its creative powers". The film Pandora's Box is based on two plays by Frank Wedekind ( Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora ), and Brooks plays
SECTION 20
#17328697649952112-750: A lifelong curse: My own failure as a social creature." After an unsuccessful attempt at operating a dance studio , she returned to New York City. Following brief stints there as a radio actor in soap operas and a gossip columnist, she worked as a salesgirl in a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. Between 1948 and 1953, Brooks embarked upon a career as a courtesan with a few select wealthy men as clients. As her finances eroded, an impoverished Brooks began working regularly for an escort agency in New York. Recalling this difficult period in her memoirs, Brooks wrote that she frequently pondered suicide: I found that
2208-432: A long-simmering personal conflict between Brooks and St. Denis boiled over, and St. Denis abruptly fired Brooks from the troupe in the spring of 1924, telling her in front of the other members: "I am dismissing you from the company because you want life handed to you on a silver salver." These words made a strong impression on Brooks; when she drew up an outline for a planned autobiographical novel in 1949, "The Silver Salver"
2304-615: A noted film writer. Although Brooks had been a heavy drinker since the age of 14, she remained relatively sober to begin writing perceptive essays on cinema in film magazines, which became her second career. A collection of her writings, titled Lulu in Hollywood , published in 1982 and still in print, was heralded by film critic Roger Ebert as "one of the few film books that can be called indispensable." In her later years, Brooks rarely granted interviews, yet had special relationships with film historians John Kobal and Kevin Brownlow . In
2400-421: A one-night stand with Greta Garbo . She later described Garbo as masculine but a "charming and tender lover". Despite all this, she considered herself neither lesbian nor bisexual: I had a lot of fun writing Marion Davies' Niece [an article about Pepi Lederer ], leaving the lesbian theme in question marks. All my life it has been fun for me. ... When I am dead, I believe that film writers will fasten on
2496-432: A previous weekend stay with a producer, ostensibly Jack Pickford . Concurrently, Brooks's interactions with her co-star Richard Arlen deteriorated, as Arlen was a close friend of Brooks's then-husband Eddie Sutherland and, according to Brooks, Arlen took a dim view of her casual liaisons with crew members. Amid these tensions, Brooks repeatedly clashed with Wellman, whose risk-taking directing style nearly killed her in
2592-623: A quarter of a million copies worldwide. It took its title from the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan , founded at the end of the 19th century. A second novel, The Debutante Divorcée , was published in 2006. Sykes publicised it with an array of personal appearances at stores in New York (Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Frederic Fekkai, Ferragamo, Neiman Marcus and Oscar de la Renta). The Debutante Divorcée appeared in paperback in 2007. Some have seen Sykes' books as lying in natural succession to Sex and
2688-489: A result of her work in the Follies , Brooks came to the attention of Walter Wanger , a producer at Paramount Pictures . An infatuated Wanger signed her to a five-year contract with the studio in 1925. Soon after, Brooks met movie star Charlie Chaplin at a cocktail party given by Wanger. Chaplin was in town for the premiere of his film The Gold Rush ( 1925 ) at the Strand Theatre on Broadway. Chaplin and Brooks had
2784-587: A scene where she recklessly climbs aboard a moving train. Soon after the production of Beggars of Life was completed, Brooks began filming the pre-Code crime-mystery film The Canary Murder Case (1929). By this time she was socializing with wealthy and famous persons. She was a frequent house guest of media magnate William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies at Hearst Castle in San Simeon , being intimate friends with Davies's lesbian niece, Pepi Lederer . While partying with Lederer, Brooks had
2880-399: A screen test for a Buck Jones Western film, the contract offer was withdrawn. She made one more film at that time, a two-reel comedy short, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931), directed by disgraced Hollywood outcast Fatty Arbuckle , who worked under the pseudonym "William Goodrich". Brooks declared bankruptcy in 1932, and began dancing in nightclubs to earn a living. She attempted
2976-481: A sensation of nausea." He continued, "The pettiness of it, the dullness, the monotony, the stupidity — no, no, that is no place for Louise Brooks." After the success of her German films, Brooks appeared in one more European film, Miss Europe (1930), a French film by Italian director Augusto Genina . Dissatisfied with Europe, Brooks returned to New York in December 1929. When she returned to Hollywood in 1931, she
Eponymous hairstyle - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-610: A tell-all memoir titled Naked on My Goat , a title drawn from Goethe 's epic play, Faust . After working on that autobiography for years, Brooks destroyed the entire manuscript by throwing it into an incinerator. As time passed, she increasingly drank more and continued to suffer from suicidal tendencies. There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks! — Henri Langlois , 1953 In 1955, French film historians such as Henri Langlois rediscovered Brooks's films, proclaiming her an unparalleled actress who surpassed even Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo as
3168-516: A toga. The style was adopted by both men and adventurous women like Lady Caroline Lamb , the Journal de Paris reporting in 1802 that "more than half of elegant women were wearing their hair or wig à la Titus ". An early example of an eponymous hairstyle was associated with the 5th Duke of Bedford . In 1795, when the British government levied a tax on hair powder , as a form of protest Bedford abandoned
3264-555: A two-month affair that summer while Chaplin was married to Lita Grey . When their affair ended, Chaplin sent her a check ; she declined to write him a thank-you note. Brooks made her screen debut in the silent The Street of Forgotten Men , in an uncredited role in 1925. Soon she was playing the female lead in a number of silent light comedies and flapper films over the next few years, starring with Adolphe Menjou and W. C. Fields , among others. After her small roles in 1925, both Paramount and MGM offered her contracts. At
3360-444: A way of getting back to some degree", but that "this type of trend is not a classic version of beauty. Men want women to be sexy. They'd be happy if we were all [the model] Gisele Bündchen , but that's just not fashion". The world of New York fashion was the setting for Sykes' first novel, Bergdorf Blondes (2004), which was one of the most successful examples of " chick lit " (or " chic lit" as some dubbed Sykes' writing) and sold
3456-731: A young William S. Paley , the founder of CBS . Paley provided a small monthly stipend to Brooks for the remainder of her life, and this stipend kept her from committing suicide at one point. Sometime in September 1953, Brooks converted to Roman Catholicism , but she left the church in 1964. By her own admission, Brooks was a sexually liberated woman, unafraid to experiment, even posing nude for art photography. Brooks enjoyed fostering speculation about her sexuality, cultivating friendships with lesbian and bisexual women including Pepi Lederer and Peggy Fears , but eschewing relationships. She admitted to some lesbian dalliances, including
3552-586: Is said to have popularized a shorter male hairstyle in Cordoba , with bangs down to the eyebrows and straight across the forehead, and leaving the neck and ears uncovered. Before and during the English Civil War , the Van Dyke beard was worn by many cavaliers in imitation of Charles I of England . The Dutch artist Anthony van Dyck sported the same beard, as did the subjects of some of his paintings. The name for
3648-535: The Pob (Posh + Bob) named after Victoria "Posh" Beckham (called in 2007 the most wanted hair since the "Rachel"); and the " Dido flip ", a "choppy shag" associated with the singer Dido in the early years of the 21st century. In 2006, The Times noted the transformation over several years in the hairstyle of Yulia Tymoshenko , a former Prime Minister of Ukraine . Illustrated instructions for replicating Tymoshenko's distinctive blonde braided crown were headed "How to do
3744-514: The Yuliya ". In 2009, the most requested hairstyle for women was the "Textured and Tousled, or Curled and Swirled" long, blonde " Gossip Girl Look" done by actress Blake Lively . In Europe, the Roman legions popularized short hair for free citizens, especially the close-cropped Caesar cut associated to this day with statues of Tiberius Julius Caesar . The 9th-century Islamic trend-setter Ziryab
3840-419: The boom microphone was invented for this film by the director William Wellman , who needed it for one of the first experimental talking scenes in the movies. The filming of Beggars of Life proved to be an ordeal for Brooks. During the production, she had a one-night stand with a stuntman who — the next day — spread a malicious false rumor on the set that Brooks had contracted a venereal disease during
3936-489: The 1928 Howard Hawks silent buddy film A Girl in Every Port . Her distinctive bob haircut helped start a trend, and many women styled their hair in imitation of both her and fellow film star Colleen Moore . In the early sound film drama Beggars of Life (1928), Brooks plays an abused country girl who kills her foster father when he "attempts, one sunny morning, to rape her." A hobo ( Richard Arlen ) happens on
Eponymous hairstyle - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-460: The 1938 Western Overland Stage Raiders in which she played the romantic lead opposite John Wayne , with a long hairstyle that rendered her all but unrecognizable from her Lulu days. In contemporary reviews of the film in newspapers and trade publications , Brooks received little attention from critics. The review by The Film Daily in September 1938 provides one example, barely mentioning her, saying only, "Louise Brooks makes an appearance as
4128-516: The 1960s (after the rock group of that name ) was one famous and widely copied example of such a style for men. In the early 1970s the singer David Bowie popularized the so-called "Ziggy cut" , an orange-red form of " mullet " associated with the rather androgynous image that he promoted through his albums The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) and Aladdin Sane (1973). To
4224-461: The 1970s, she was interviewed extensively on film for the documentaries Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture (1976), produced and directed by Gary Conklin , and Hollywood (1980), by Brownlow and David Gill . Lulu in Berlin (1984) is another rare filmed interview, produced by Richard Leacock and Susan Woll, released a year before her death but filmed a decade earlier. In 1979, she
4320-530: The 1980s as the " wannabe " effect, a term used particularly with reference to young women who wished to emulate ( i.e. "wanna be" like) the American singer Madonna . A 2010 study of British women found that half took a copy of a celebrity's photograph to their salons to obtain a similar hairstyle. The quest for a particular eponymous style was caricatured in Plum Sykes ' novel Bergdorf Blondes (2004), in which it
4416-579: The ABC-TV series Lost (2004–2010), or the shaggy " Justin Bieber haircut " debuted by the pop singer in 2009. Some salons charged up to $ 150 for the forward-combed look. When Bieber changed his hairstyle in 2011, it received considerable press. He gave the cut hair to talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres , who auctioned Bieber's hair on eBay, earning more than $ 40,000 for an animal charity. Louise Brooks Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985)
4512-450: The Bedford crop was usually styled with wax to form a side parting. During the mid 19th century, facial hair became fashionable among soldiers and civilians. Examples included the large muttonchop sideburns popularised by Ambrose Burnside , and variants of the full beard named after Verdi and Garibaldi . The Beard imperial or Napoleon , which combined a handlebar moustache with
4608-477: The Chaplin and The Hitler . During the 1950s, pompadour hairstyles were popularized by rock and roll singer Elvis Presley , mostly among the youth and the greaser subculture. The cover band The Crewcuts were the first to connect hair with pop music, but they were named after the hairstyle, rather than the reverse. Although eponymous styles are mostly associated with women, the "mop-top" Beatle cut of
4704-506: The City , Candace Bushnell 's column in the New York Observer , which was the inspiration for a highly successful television series (HBO 1998–2004). However, despite their satire, others have regarded them as too rooted in Sykes' own Park Avenue "set" to be reflective more generally of women's lives in post- 9/11 Manhattan. Anita Loos ' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925) is perhaps
4800-471: The New York glamour photographer John de Mirjian to prevent publication of his risqué studio portraits of her; the lawsuit made him notorious. In 1933, she married Chicago millionaire Deering Davis , a son of Nathan Smith Davis Jr. , but abruptly left him in March 1934 after only five months of marriage, "without a good-bye ... and leaving only a note of her intentions" behind her. According to Card, Davis
4896-532: The West Coast. Brooks, who now loathed the Hollywood "scene", refused to stay on at Paramount after being denied a promised raise. Learning of her refusal, her friend and lover George Preston Marshall counseled her to sail with him to Europe in order to make films with director G. W. Pabst , the prominent Austrian director. On the last day of filming The Canary Murder Case Brooks departed Paramount Pictures to leave Hollywood for Berlin to work for Pabst. It
SECTION 50
#17328697649954992-409: The absurd fate that ever put her there at all. She belongs to Europe and to Europeans. She has been a sensational hit in her German pictures. I do not have her play silly little cuties. She plays real women, and plays them marvelously." Belfarge elaborated on Brooks's opinion of Hollywood, and referred to Pabst's firsthand knowledge of that opinion. "The very mention of the place," he stated, "gives her
5088-526: The beard style came much later. In the transition from wigs to natural hair, the cut " à la Titus " was important. This was a layered cut usually with some tresses hanging down, named after the Roman Titus Junius Brutus , a character in Voltaire 's play Brutus , when the actor François-Joseph Talma shocked audiences by performing (in fact initially another character) with short hair and wearing
5184-504: The central figure, Lulu. This film is notable for its frank treatment of modern sexual mores, including one of the first overt on-screen portrayals of a lesbian. Brooks's performance in Pandora's Box made her a star. In looking for the right actress to play Lulu, Pabst had rejected Marlene Dietrich as "too old and too obvious". In choosing Brooks, a relative unknown who had only appeared — not to very great effect — in secondary roles, Pabst
5280-488: The director of the film she made with W. C. Fields , but by 1927 had become infatuated with George Preston Marshall , owner of a chain of laundries and future owner of the Washington Redskins football team, following a chance meeting with him that she later referred to as "the most fateful encounter of my life". She divorced Sutherland, mainly due to her budding relationship with Marshall, in June 1928. Sutherland
5376-547: The elite social circle of press baron William Randolph Hearst at Hearst Castle in San Simeon . Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst . By 1938, she had starred in 17 silent films and eight sound films. After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became
5472-739: The extent that Bowie during this period appeared to assume the persona of "Ziggy Stardust", the Ziggy cut can be regarded, at least partially, as an eponymous style. The shaved head , which had become a rarity by the mid 70s, was widely known as the Kojak or Yul Brynner style . In the late 1990s, with the success of " ER ", George Clooney popularized the Caesar -style haircut worn by his character, Dr. Doug Ross . The style worked equally well for both young and older men alike, and Clooney's distinguished salt and pepper color became very popular. In more recent times
5568-592: The films "expos[ed] her animal sensuality and turn[ed] her into one of the most erotic figures on the screen — the bold, black-helmeted young girl who, with only a shy grin to acknowledge her 'fall,' became a prostitute in Diary of a Lost Girl and who, with no more sense of sin than a baby, drives men out of their minds in Pandora's Box ." Near the end of 1929, English film critic and journalist Cedric Belfrage interviewed Pabst for an article about Brooks's film work in Europe that
5664-487: The hair of footballers Kevin Keegan , who acquired a curly "bubble perm " while playing for Southampton in the early 1980s, and David Beckham gave rise to much copying, but a "Beckham" was whatever style ("buzz-cut", cornrows, Fauxhawk , even an Alice band ) he happened to wear at a given time. A more specific eponymous example was the so-called " Sawyer " of James "Sawyer" Ford , the character played by Josh Holloway in
5760-427: The hometown of her childhood as a typical Midwestern community where the inhabitants "prayed in the parlor and practiced incest in the barn." When Louise was nine years old, a neighborhood man sexually abused her. Beyond the physical trauma at the time, the event continued to have damaging psychological effects on her personal life as an adult and on her career. That early abuse caused her later to acknowledge that she
5856-596: The movements of thought and soul transmitted in a kind of intense isolation." This innovative style continues to be used by contemporary film actors but, at the time, it was surprising to viewers who assumed she wasn't acting at all. Film critic Roger Ebert later wrote that, by employing this method, "Brooks became one of the most modern and effective of actors, projecting a presence that could be startling." Her appearances in Pabst's two films made Brooks an international star. According to film critic and historian Molly Haskell ,
SECTION 60
#17328697649955952-520: The murder scene and convinces Brooks to disguise herself as a young boy and escape the law by "riding the rails" with him. In a hobo encampment, or "jungle," they meet another hobo ( Wallace Beery ). Brooks's disguise is soon uncovered and she finds herself the only female in a world of brutal, sex-hungry men. Much of this film was shot on location in the Jacumba Mountains near the Mexican border, and
6048-463: The only well-paying career open to me, as an unsuccessful actress of thirty-six, was that of a call girl ... and (I) began to flirt with the fancies related to little bottles filled with yellow sleeping pills. Brooks spent subsequent years "drinking and escorting" while subsisting in obscurity and poverty in a small New York apartment. By this time, "all of her rich and famous friends had forgotten her." Angered by this ostracism, she attempted to write
6144-528: The powdered and tied hairstyle commonly worn by men of that era in favor of a cropped, unpowdered style, making a bet with friends to do likewise. The new style became known as the Bedford Level , a pun on a geographical feature of The Fens also known as the "Bedford Level" and also making reference to Bedford's radical (" leveller ") political views. It was also known as the Bedford Crop . Although natural,
6240-515: The role because she "hated Hollywood," but film historian James Card , who came to know Brooks intimately later in her life, said that Brooks "just wasn't interested ... She was more interested in Marshall". In the opinion of biographer Barry Paris , "turning down Public Enemy marked the real end of Louise Brooks's film career". She returned to Hollywood after being offered of a $ 500 weekly salary from Columbia Pictures but, after refusing to do
6336-543: The so-called Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, by which Britain and France provided for the partition of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the First World War. An 18th century forebear, the second baronet, Sir Christopher Sykes (1749–1801), was a major figure in the enclosure movement that transformed the agricultural landscape in the 18th century. In 1993, Sykes became a fashion assistant at British Vogue . She
6432-482: The story that I am a lesbian ... I have done lots to make it believable ... All my women friends have been lesbians. But that is one point upon which I agree positively with Christopher Isherwood : There is no such thing as bisexuality. Ordinary people, although they may accommodate themselves, for reasons of whoring or marriage, are one-sexed. Out of curiosity, I had two affairs with girls — they did nothing for me. According to biographer Barry Paris, Brooks had
6528-483: The studio allegedly claimed that Brooks's voice was unsuitable for sound pictures and another actress, Margaret Livingston , was hired to dub Brooks's voice for the film. Brooks traveled to Europe accompanied by Marshall and his English valet. The German film industry was Hollywood's only major rival at the time, and the film industry based in Berlin was known as the Filmwelt ("film world"), reflecting its self-image as
6624-509: The television series The New Avengers , and the short Dorothy Hamill Wedge hairstyle. Other period examples such as " Bo Derek " (braided hair with beads, as she wore in the film 10 ( 1979 )); and the " Rachel " (after the straightened shag popularized in the mid-1990s by Rachel Green , the character played by Jennifer Aniston in the TV sitcom Friends );. Imitation of such styles can sometimes be attributed to what became known in
6720-459: The theatre vocally complaining, "She doesn't act! She does nothing!" In the late 1920s, cinemagoers were habituated to stage-style acting with exaggerated body language and facial expressions. Brooks's acting style was subtle because she understood that the close-up images of the actors' bodies and faces made such exaggerations unnecessary. Explaining her method, Brooks said that acting "does not consist of descriptive movement of face and body but in
6816-543: The time, Brooks had an on-and-off affair with Walter Wanger , head of Paramount Pictures and husband of actress Justine Johnstone . Wanger tried to persuade her to take the MGM contract to avoid rumors that she only obtained the Paramount contract because of her intimate relationship with him. Despite his advice, she accepted Paramount's offer. During this time, Brooks gained a cult following in Europe for her pivotal vamp role in
6912-436: Was a pleasant one: In Hollywood, I was a pretty flibbertigibbet whose charm for the executive department decreased with every increase in my fan mail. In Berlin I stepped to the station platform to meet Mr. Pabst and became an actress. And his attitude was the pattern for all. Nobody offered me humorous or instructive comments on my acting. Everywhere I was treated with a kind of decency and respect unknown to me in Hollywood. It
7008-475: Was also captured in photographs following her arrest for allegedly assaulting a police officer at Cleveland airport in 1970, was sometimes - even 30 years later - referred to as the "Klute shag". A famous example of this phenomenon was Farrah Fawcett 's hairstyle, as seen in the American television series Charlie's Angels in the 1970s. Another around that time was the short " Purdey " cut adopted by British actress Joanna Lumley for her role of that name in
7104-423: Was an American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career. At the age of 15, Brooks began her career as a dancer and toured with the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts where she performed opposite Ted Shawn . After being fired, she found employment as
7200-405: Was at Oxford. The effects of this left her impecunious for a while and she received assistance from Worcester to remain at the college. Sykes' grandfather, Christopher Sykes (1907–1986), whom she knew as "Fat Grandpa" or "F.G.", was a friend and official biographer (1975) of the novelist Evelyn Waugh and son of the diplomat Sir Mark Sykes , sixth baronet (1879–1919), associated with
7296-463: Was born in Cherryvale, Kansas , the daughter of Leonard Porter Brooks, a lawyer, who was usually preoccupied with his legal practice, and Myra Rude, an artistic mother who said that any "squalling brats she produced could take care of themselves". Rude was a talented pianist who played the latest Debussy and Ravel for her children, inspiring them with a love of books and music. Brooks described
7392-519: Was born in London, one of six children including a twin sister, Lucy , and grew up in Sevenoaks , Kent. She was nicknamed 'Plum' (the Victoria plum being a variety of that fruit) as a child. Sykes has described herself as a "painfully shy" child with mousey brown hair and goofy teeth. She went to Ide Hill Church of England Primary School and later to a private secondary school, Walthamstow Hall, where she
7488-413: Was called The Marilyn. In the 1960s, the pixie cut worn by the British model Lesley Lawson was called The Twiggy after her nickname. Other short "gamine" cuts to have attracted imitators included Jane Fonda 's as the call-girl Bree Daniels in the film Klute (1971), and that adopted in 2005 by the actress Keira Knightley , a longer, slightly shaggier version of Hepburn's cut. Fonda's style, which
7584-418: Was cast in two mainstream films, God's Gift to Women (1931) and It Pays to Advertise (1931), but her performances were largely ignored by critics, and few other job offers were forthcoming due to her informal "blacklisting". As the sole member of the cast who had refused to return to make the talkie version of The Canary Murder Case, Brooks became convinced that "no major studio would hire [her] to make
7680-603: Was featured that year, with, among others, designer Bella Freud and model Stella Tennant in Babes in London , in a photographic shoot by the American Steven Meisel (responsible in 1992 for the singer Madonna 's controversial collection, Sex ), which was produced by the rising fashion guru Isabella Blow (1958–2007). In 1997, Sykes became a contributing editor on fashion for American Vogue , of which Anna Wintour , also British, had been editor-in-chief since 1988. (It
7776-411: Was going against the advice of those around him. Brooks recalled that "when we made Pandora's Box , Mr. Pabst was a man of 43 who astonished me with his knowledge on practically any subject. I, who astonished him because I knew practically nothing on every subject, celebrated my twenty-second birthday with a beer party on a London street." Brooks claimed her experience shooting Pandora's Box in Germany
7872-539: Was incapable of real love, explaining that this man: "must have had a great deal to do with forming my attitude toward sexual pleasure ... For me, nice, soft, easy men were never enough — there had to be an element of domination." When Brooks at last told her mother of the incident, many years later, her mother suggested that it must have been Louise's fault for "leading him on". In 1919, Brooks and her family moved to Independence, Kansas , before relocating to Wichita in 1920. Brooks began her entertainment career as
7968-553: Was just "another elegant, well-heeled admirer", nothing more. The couple officially divorced in 1938. In her later years, Brooks insisted that both her previous marriages were loveless and that she had never loved anyone in her lifetime: "As a matter of fact, I've never been in love. And if I had loved a man, could I have been faithful to him? Could he have trusted me beyond a closed door? I doubt it." Despite her two marriages, she never had children, referring to herself as "Barren Brooks." Her many paramours from years before had included
8064-448: Was just as if Mr. Pabst had sat in on my whole life and career and knew exactly where I needed assurance and protection. After the filming of Pandora's Box concluded, Brooks had a one-night stand with Pabst, and the director cast Brooks again in his controversial social drama Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), based on the book by Margarete Böhme . In performing Diary of a Lost Girl , Brooks drew upon her memories of being molested as
8160-442: Was just sexuality ..." On August 8, 1985, after suffering from degenerative osteoarthritis of the hip and emphysema for many years, Brooks died of a heart attack in her apartment in Rochester, New York . Plum Sykes Victoria Rowland (née Sykes ; born 4 December 1969), known both professionally and socially as Plum Sykes , is an English-born fashion journalist , novelist, and socialite. Victoria Sykes
8256-550: Was living in a $ 55-a-month apartment at 1317 North Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood and was working as a copywriter for a magazine. Soon, however, Brooks found herself unemployed and increasingly desperate for a steady income. She also realized during this time that "the only people who wanted to see me were men who wanted to sleep with me." That realization was underscored by Brooks's longtime friend, Paramount executive Walter Wanger, who warned her that she would likely "become
8352-511: Was not until thirty years later that this rebellious decision would come to be seen as arguably the most beneficial to her career, securing her immortality as a silent film legend and independent spirit. While her snubbing of Paramount alone would not have finished her altogether in Hollywood, her subsequent refusal, after returning from Germany, to come back to Paramount for sound retakes of The Canary Murder Case (1929) irrevocably placed her on an unofficial blacklist . Angered by her refusal,
8448-476: Was profiled by the film writer Kenneth Tynan in his essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet", the title an allusion to her bobbed hair, worn since childhood. In 1982, writer Tom Graves was allowed into Brooks's small apartment for an interview, and later wrote about the often awkward and tense conversation in his article "My Afternoon with Louise Brooks". In the summer of 1926, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland ,
8544-585: Was published in the February 1930 issue of the American monthly Motion Picture . According to Belfrage, Pabst attributed Brooks's acting success outside the U.S. to her seemingly inherent or instinctive "European" sensibilities: the eminent Herr Pabst described it to me over a cocktail in the Bristol Bar, Berlin. "Louise,'" said Herr Pabst, "has a European soul. You can't get away from it. When she described Hollywood to me — I have never been there — I cry out against
8640-682: Was purportedly extremely distraught when Brooks divorced him and, on the first night after their separation, he attempted to take his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, Brooks continued her on-again, off-again relationship with George Preston Marshall, which she later described as abusive. Marshall was purportedly "her frequent bedfellow and constant adviser between 1927 and 1933." Marshall repeatedly asked her to marry him but, after learning that she had had many affairs while they were together and believing her to be incapable of fidelity, he married film actress Corinne Griffith instead. In 1925, Brooks sued
8736-468: Was raised, but this undesired return "turned out to be another kind of hell." "I retired first to my father's home in Wichita," she later recalled, "but there I found that the citizens could not decide whether they despised me for having once been a success away from home or for now being a failure in their midst." For her part, Brooks admitted that "I wasn't exactly enchanted with them," and "I must confess to
8832-420: Was rumored that glamorous New York heiress Julie Bergdorf had her blonde hair touched up every 13 days ("$ 450 a highlight") by a stylist at her family's store, Bergdorf Goodman . Thus, other "Thirteen Day Blondes" who attained Julie's precise colour—likened to that of the "very white" hair of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy —became known as "Bergdorf Blondes". Recent examples of eponymous hairstyles include
8928-495: Was the title she gave the tenth and final chapter. Brooks was 17 years old at the time of her dismissal. Thanks to her friend Barbara Bennett , the sister of Constance and Joan Bennett, Brooks almost immediately found employment as a chorus girl in George White's Scandals , followed by an appearance as a semi-nude dancer in the 1925 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies at the Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street . As
9024-510: Was this period at Vogue that inspired Lauren Weisberger 's 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada .) Sykes soon became a familiar figure on the New York social scene, being frequently described as an " It girl ". A decade later, at 38, Sykes reflected that "when you hit 30 you lose your edge": invited by the Times to comment on the late-1990s trend for ultra- high heeled shoes, she observed that "these weird space-age shoes look cool and trendy and are
9120-416: Was unhappy, and subsequently to Sevenoaks School , an independent boys' school that had begun admitting girls to the sixth form . In 1988 she went up to Worcester College, Oxford , where she graduated in modern history. She has published a short memoir of her unsettling first term at university ( Oxford Girl , 2011). Sykes' mother Valerie Goad, a dress designer, separated from Sykes' father Mark while Plum
9216-459: Was wrong... I felt terrified, mentally and physically I was jelly. I was afraid to do anything. "Take some Xanax", said one doctor, 'it's anxiety". Sykes attended an anxiety recovery programme developed by anxiety expert, Charles Linden, which she cites as the solution that returned her to working for American Vogue and a full and active social life. In the article, Sykes says 'I started The Linden Method... and felt better almost immediately... I took
#994005