Just Another Blonde – location shooting

 Two films featuring Louise Brooks were released in December of 1926, Love Em and Leave Em and Just Another Blonde. Besides sharing a release date just a couple of weeks apart, what the two films also have in common is the fact that both were contemporary stories which featured location shooting in and around New York City. Notably, in regards to Just Another Blonde, it was in large part set and shot at a famous amusement park on Coney Island, namely Luna Park..

Just Another Blonde began production under the title The Charleston Kid. The film was based on Gerald Beaumont’s short story, “Even Stephen,” which had appeared in Red Book magazine a few months earlier in October, 1925. However, hoping to cash in on the Charleston dance craze then still in vogue, the working title of the film was changed to The Charleston Kid. Seemingly, this reference to the Charleston was a nod to a key character in the film, “Blondie” — played by blonde Dorothy Mackaill, who works as a hostess at a 5-cent dance hall at Coney Island.

First National, the studio behind the production, began filming on July 19th, with work running through August 30th. Despite the fact the First National Studio was located in Manhattan, newspaper reports from the time noted interiors were shot at the old Biograph studio in the Bronx. Those reports also noted the weather was so warm that the actor’s make-up was ran down their faces. Consequently, the studio brought in a number of large fans and thousands of pounds of ice in order to air-condition the Bronx studio. Other scenes shot on location in the Edgemont district near Scarsdale and at the Curtiss airfield in nearby Mineola, on Long Island. The scenes shot at the airfield, no doubt, depicted the film’s famous plane crash ending.

The Scarsdale shoot generated local interest, as well as a front page story in the Scarsdale Inquirer. The local paper reported that the scenes between Jack Mulhall (Jimmy) and Effie Shannon (his mother) were centered around the home of locals Mr. and Mrs. Carl Keffer, which was located on Edgemont road at the corner of Uxbridge and Barclay roads. “Mr. Mulhall, who in this picture takes the part of a popular young man of a small village … living in the big city” returns home “on a visit to his mother in the country and watching with her, from Keffer’s brick terrace, the antics of a crowd of village boys who are hailing him from the banks of Edgemont Pond.” Pretending to be a dealer in sporting goods, Mulhall’s character has “presented them all with baseball suits.” (We know from other local reportage that the youngsters in this scene were recruited in the Bronx.)

The Scarsdale Inquirer story, which was published on September 3rd, notes that local filming had taken place on the previous Monday, August 30th — suggesting these scenes were likely among the very last shot for the film. It also notes that “The Charleston Kid has been seven weeks in the making. The scenes taken in Scarsdale will be seen in the early part of the film.” (It’s true, as these scenes appear in the film’s first reel, which partially survives.)

Most of the location work was shot at Luna Park in Coney Island, a historic entertainment and amusement district in Brooklyn. During production, stories emerged in the press of the excitement generated by the making of the film. The New York Evening Post reported that movie stars mingling among the crowds generated too much attention, so much so excited park visitors threatened to over-run the dance hall were one scene was set. As a result, Director Alfred Santell was forced to wait until the park closed, during which the studio recruited 200 extras and “kept them busy dancing for the rest of the night.” Likewise, the Washington Post noted, “Even the blase attendants at Luna Park, Coney Island, who are accustomed to late hours, were forced to sit up and take notice one might last week when a company of film stars, Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, Louise Brooks and William Collier, Jr., invaded the dance hall at the park at midnight and started dancing, not stopping until long after daylight.”

Among the surviving scenes in Just Another Blonde are brief views of a Luna Park entrance, as well as individual attractions such as the Chutes, Love Nest, Modern Miracle, and Shooting Gallery. Unfortunately lost was a scene shot from the front of a roller coaster, which more than a few critics described as thrilling. The Coney Island location is not only integral to the story and its lively atmosphere, but it was also a BIG selling point for theater owners across the country. Reviewers made of point of noting the location as something viewers would want to see — especially those who lived in small towns without a big city attraction like Luna Park. At least one review from the time was titled, simply, “Coney Island Shown in Film.”

The New York Morning Telegraph began its review, stating “Coney Island holds many a motion picture story, and I have wondered why scenario writers so neglected it. The same idea has occurred to someone, and the result is The Girl from Coney island, the attraction this week at the Strand. It is a lively comedy, well produced, admirably cast and most amusingly acted. Lovers of Luna Park amusements will live through many of the thrills that make visits to ‘the Island’ so enthralling.”

Despite local interest, a local setting and local build-up, the film did not fair especially well among New York City critics. Many lamented the film’s week plot, with one asking “Where IS the story?”. Eileen Creelman, writing in the New York American, stated “This is just another picture audiences forget. Already I find it hard to remember anything but the photography and Coney island atmosphere.” Creelman summed up the feelings of many critics, noting, “Santell has taken a fifth rate plot, surrounded it with first rate atmosphere and a couple of amusing characterizations, and turned out a picture.”

Martin Dickstein, writing in December in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, put it this way, “If The Girl From Coney island, the new film at the Brooklyn Strand theater, can boast of nothing else to its credit at least it is not without a modicum of ‘local color.’ Photoplays with a locale centered in and around our own Luna Park, to say nothing of other familiar places in this borough’s famous playground, are none too common these days and perhaps, out of purely local patriotism. there is cause for leniency.” After describing the film as a “doddering drama,” Dickstein went on to add, “But (and am I not forgetting my promise of leniency) there is more to the Strand attraction than that. There are, for example, a number of excellent exposures of a trip through Luna, which very likely will recall to you some pleasant Sunday afternoon at Coney on a warmer day than yesterday.”

The film’s NYC premiere took place on December 11, 1926.	William “Buster” Collier Jr., and Louise Brooks take a break during the filming of Just Another Blonde.	The film was shown in NYC under the title The Girl from Coney Island.

 

The title of the picture was changed to Just Another Blonde in late September — after filming was completed though a few months prior to its release — reportedly because First National caught wind that the Charleston craze was fading and movie goers were tiring of films with the word “Kid” in the title. (Around the same time, there was another First National film in production with the working title The Knickerbocker Kid. It too would be renamed.) As well, following the publication of the Anita Loos’ bestselling novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (which Louise Brooks is seen reading in the film), there was a craze for stories about blondes. Thus, the film’s title was changed yet again . . . . except in and around New York City – where it was filmed. When Just Another Blonde opened at the Mark Strand theater or in a theater in one of the city’s five boroughs, it was shown under an alternate title, The Girl from Coney Island. [According to overseas exhibition records, the film was also shown under the title The Charleston Kid in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia — a move likely meant to appeal to a youth market in those nations more familiar with the Charleston than Coney island.]

Decades later, when Louise Brooks was asked about making Just Another Blonde, the actress stated that she didn’t remember much except that it was filmed at Coney Island. That’s understandable, as the film was unremarkable though it must have been fun to make  Below are screen captures showing Luna Park taken from the approximately 30-plus minutes of surviving material from Just Another Blonde. These remarkable images are the work of the acclaimed cinematographer Arthur Edson, whose work on the film — especially the night scenes of Luna Park, were praised by reviewers time and again.

Despite various criticism, Just Another Blonde is not that bad of a film. And since more than half of it is lost, we will likely never get a chance to judge for ourselves. For additional context, be sure and check out the Just Another Blonde (filmography page) and the Just Another Blonde scrapbook page here on the Louise Brooks Society website.

Luna Park at night, summer 1926. This image depicts the top half of one of the park entrances.	Luna Park at night in the hot summer of 1926. Might this aerial view have been taken from the roller coaster?
On the grounds of Luna Park; the Love Nest is to the far left, with the Chutes to the middle left.	The Modern Miracle building on the left – with the Shooting Gallery in the middle. Dorothy MacKaill and Jack Mulhall are center frame.
The Shooting Gallery at Luna Park; though hard to make out, Louise Brooks is in the middle of the frame behind the counter.	Buster Collier Jr. and Louise Brooks at the Shooting Gallery. Brooks plays “Blackie,” who works the attraction. The targets are in motion.
Entrance to the dance hall, with the ticket taker to the left; Dorothy MacKaill is center, while Jack Mulhall is to the right at the hat check.	The dance hall at Luna Park is teaming with couples in this scene; musicians, on the raised level in the middle, entertain the crowd.