The Actress Hollywood Tried to Forget

In 1929, Louise Brooks made two films in Germany that critics would later call masterpieces. A few years later, she was working in a New York department store. What happened? This Midnight Vault documentary follows the true story of Louise Brooks, the silent film star with the iconic black bob, from her childhood in Cherryvale, Kansas, to the Ziegfeld Follies and her rise at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s. We look at A Girl in Every Port and Beggars of Life, her decision to leave the studio, and the German films Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. We also explore why her Hollywood career faded in the 1930s. Louise believed she had been blacklisted by Paramount, but historians still debate how much was deliberate and how much was simply bad timing as sound changed the industry. We cover her difficult years, her rediscovery by European film historians in the 1950s, the support of curator James Card at George Eastman House, and her later success as a writer with Lulu in Hollywood. She died in 1985, but her legacy continues to grow. This video is a respectful retelling based on publicly documented history. Disputed claims are clearly noted. Which Louise Brooks film have you seen, or want to see? Tell us in the comments. If you enjoy true stories from Hollywood’s forgotten past, subscribe to Midnight Vault.