The silent film star Louise Brooks, who lived in Rochester for over thirty years.
Louise Brooks was born in Kansas on November 14, 1906. Ms. Brooks began dancing in Kansas at an early age, eventually moved to New York, joined the Ziegfeld Follies and became an early silent-film star. In 1925 at the age of 18, she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and began filming the "The Street of Forgotten Men." Others movies that she appeared in are "A Girl in Every Port," "Beggars of Life," and "Pandora's Box." It is well documented that her irreverence and intelligence did not sit well with the men who were running the Hollywood machine. There was so much friction she quit Paramount and moved to Europe to film "Diary of a Lost Girl" and "Prix de Beaute."
On her return to Hollywood, she appeared in minor roles, including a bit part in "The Public Enemy" in 1931, and retired after making minor westerns. Her last film was "Overland Stage Raiders" with John Wayne in 1938. After years of obscurity, in 1955 Miss Brooks struck up a relationship with Mr. James Card in New York. At the time, Mr. Card was the curator of the George Eastman House in Rochester. At Card's urging, she moved to Rochester in 1956 to research films at the Eastman House archives for articles she wrote for several film journals. In 1982 she published "Lulu in Hollywood," a collection of essays on her life.
Louise Brooks lived in Rochester from 1956 until her death of a heart attack in 1985. Her only published address was 7 North Goodman Street.
