Louise flirts in Rolled Stockings
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In 1927, Louise Brooks was immortalized as the comic strip heroine Dixie Dugan, initially in a J.P. McEvoy magazine serial called Show Girl, based on Louise's on broadway past.
Illustrator John H. Striebel also used her by now familiar image for his Dixie Dugan in a syndicated strip that would adorn the cartoon pages of newspapers until as late as 1962.
One role that Brooks seemed suited for but didn't get was that of Dorothy, the brunette sidekick of that classic, gold-digging charmer Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, Paramount's film version of the Anita Loos 1925 best-seller. Requiered to make a screen test for the author's approval, Louise was apparently not nearly funny enough. Asked for a comment, Loos was brutally frank: "Louise, if I ever write a part for a cigar-store Indian, you will get it." Instead, Alice White was cast as Dorothy, opposite the Lorelei of Ruth Taylor. Malcom St. Clair directed for obvious farce, and the results were less than successful. All things considered, Louise could count herself fortunate to have been turned down. |
Copyright: McKenna W. Rowe, 1997-2006