"Louise Brooks," by Anita Loos

I first knew Louise Brooks in California when she was an early-day sex kitten of the old silent films. At the same time Louise supplied an extremely chic version of the flapper of the Twenties. Her brunette type of good looks had a sort of distinction; bobbed hair was just coming into vogue, but in Hollywood it was generally bleached or tousled in the vulgar manner of Clara Bow, while Louise had the sleek aristocracy of a young François Premier. Her sophisticated appearance in the razzamatazz hangouts of the film capital brought everything to a standstill. By the same token, Louise' films became conversation pieces in the great outside world; she is still discussed by the movie cultists of Europe.

But during Louise' middle years,when her career as a siren lay behind her, she went through dramatic metamorphosis and turned into a highbrow. Her very image itself underwent a transformation; Louise became a spare, gray-haired and academic type of intellectual without a trace of her early seduction. Ultimately she established herself in Rochester, New York, where she has developed into a serious writer on the films, their history, their impact on the culture of our times and their validity as works of art.

Louise's two widely different lives have provided her with a unique opportunity to learn the full value of female beauty as opposed to its counterpart, brains. And how does she assess the two? I have an answer in Louise's own words as of July 1965, when she wrote me:

“I remember meeting you on the lot after I'd made a test for Dorothy in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and you said, ‘Louise, if I ever write a part for a cigar store Indian, you'll get it.' This was absolutely right and true. But the older I get, the more I theorize and argue and wave my arms about and I wish I had remained a cigar store Indian."

In effect, Louise, as someone who really knows what she's talking about, might have paraphrased a corny old adage and given it brand-new truth - to wit: Look good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.