Louise Brooks » Trivia

After retiring from cinema in 1938, she was found working as a $40-a-week salesgirl at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Interred at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, New York, USA.

Trying to make a Hollywood comeback after working in Europe, she turned down an offer to star with James Cagney in the classic The Public Enemy (1931). The role could have revitalized her career.

As a child, one of her best friends was Vivian Vance who played Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy" (1951).

After retiring, went on to write many witty and intelligent essays on the film industry.

Opened a dance studio in Beverly Hills. It failed because of a financial scandal involving her business partner. On 30 July 1940, Brooks boarded a train back to Kansas, leaving Hollywood for good. She opened a dance studio in Wichita and wrote a booklet, "The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing."

Briefly the mistress of CBS founder William Paley, who secretly provided her with a yearly pension for the rest of her life.

Filed for bankruptcy. (6 February 1932)

A 20th Century-Fox talent scout spotted a girl named Linda Carter in a play and offered her a screen test. "Linda Carter" was actually Brooks, who was attempting a comeback. (July 1938)

Was the inspiration for the stage play "Show Girl," which, in turn, inspired the comic strip "Dixie Dugan." She was also the inspiration for Italian cartoonist Guido Crepax's comic strip/graphic novel "Valentina." Brooks and Crepax became pen pals as a result.

Marlene Dietrich was sitting in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's office, ready to accept the role of Lulu in Pandora's Box at the same time Brooks walked out on her Paramount contract.

Her first autobiography, entitled 'Naked On My Goat', was thrown into an incinerator by her own hand.

In Neil Gaiman's novel, American Gods, the character Czernobog called her the "greatest American actress of all time."

Her favorite actress was Margaret Sullavan.

Provided the inspiration for British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1991 Hit "Pandora's Box." The Promo Video Clip features lead Singer Andy McCluskey inter cut with images from the artists Film of the same name.