For a few years in the mid- and late 1930s, and then again in 1940, Louise Brooks worked as an exhibition, or ballroom dancer (something like the dancers you may have seen on TV shows like Dancing with the Stars). This period in Brooks’ life, and the times and places she danced professionally, have been little documented. This page presents a chronology of Brooks’ work as both a dancer and dance instructor. It also highlights her professional engagements, as well as her two attempts to open a dance studio, and authorship of a booklet of dance instruction.
In the mid-1930s, Brooks toured intermittently as a ballroom dancer, performing in nightclubs, ballrooms, roadhouses, theaters and other venues in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, Miami and elsewhere. Brooks stopped dancing for a few years when she returned to film work, but returned to dance in 1939 and 1940-1941. In the late 1930s, Brooks and a partner opened a dance studio in Los Angeles, and she and her partner danced occasionally at venues in Southern California, most notably in Palm Springs. When Brooks left Hollywood and returned to Wichita, she opened another dance studio and continued to occasionally perform in public.
There are three related pages on the Louise Brooks Society website which may be of interest to those curious about Brooks’ dance career. One is devoted to Brooks’ brief tenure dancing at the Café de Paris in London in 1924. Another is a Ballroom Dance Scrapbook of mostly advertisements related to Brooks’ work as a ballroom dancer. And the third is focused on Brooks’ 1940 booklet, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing.
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October 10, 1933
Brooks (then 26 years old) marries wealthy Chicago playboy Deering Davis (then 36) at City Hall in Chicago, Illinois. The ceremony was read by Judge Francis J. Wilson, and witnessed by Davis’ brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Nathan S. Davis III. After a few days, the couple leave for a three month honeymoon in Tucson, Arizona, where they were expected to “live on a ranch.” The marriage makes news across the country.
February 23-24, 1934
Louise Brooks begins a month-long dance engagement with husband Deering Davis at the Chez Paree club in Chicago. Singer Shiela Barrett is also featured on the bill, as is the Henry Busee Band
March 8, 1934
Louise Brooks and Deering Davis dance after dinner at the Casino club in Chicago as a special favor to the chair of the club’s entertainment committee.
March 27, 1934
Variety reports Louise Brooks and Deering Davis have separated (as husband and wife, and as a dance team), and that Brooks is searching for a new dance partner through the Leo Salkin agency.
March 28, 1934
An Associated Press story, “Dance Romance Tottering,” runs in papers across the country.
April 7, 1934
Billboard reports “Deering Davis has an engagement at the Congress Hotel [in Chicago] and is looking for a new partner, while Louise Brooks has gone to New York ‘for good’.”
April 27, 1934
Billboard reports that Brooks and Dario, who are performing at the Central Park Casino in New York City, dance two numbers, a modern ballroom waltz and a lighter flirtation dance.
June 29, 1934
The renamed act, Dario and Louise, begin an engagement at the Westchester Center Gardens in White Plains, New York. Their opening is reported in Motion Picture Daily, and elsewhere. Meyer Davis leads the orchestra, which features singer Colleen Adams. Also on the bill are Three Brown Buddies, Wills and Dressler, and Meta Carlyle. According to the local Scarsdale Enquirer, which also noted Brooks appearance, some of these evenings were broadcast.
July 26, 1934
The “nationally known dance team” Brooks and Dario begin a three week dance engagement at the Blossom Heath Inn, a roadhouse on the outskirts of Detroit. They are reported to offer “Cuban and Spanish dances.” Also on the bill are dancer Rosemary Deering, and Emilio Caceres and his continental orchestra, who provided the music. Bromley House, a radio announcer, acted as master of ceremonies.
August 16, 1934
Syndicated columnist Paul Harrison writes, “Louise Brooks, the Kansas lass who was coming into prominence during the last days of silent pictures, is a ballroom dancer now.”
August 17, 1934
Famed crooner Harry Richman (who was once involved with Clara Bow) joins Brooks and Dario on the bill at the Blossom Heath Inn.
August 26, 1934
Brooks and Dario conclude their dance engagement at the Blossom Heath Inn.
September 18, 1934
Syndicated columnist Harrison Carroll reports ex-husband Eddie Sutherland will stop off in Chicago to see Brooks, who is dancing at the Chez Paree, where both Harry Richman and Helen Morgan are also performing.
October 6, 1934
Brooks and Dario conclude their dance engagement at the Chez Paree in Chicago.
October 10, 1934
Brooks and Dario begin a dance engagement at Place Pigale in New York City. Harry Rosenthal’s orchestra is also on the bill, as were newcomer Mrs. Symington and veterans Phil Harris & Leah Ray. For the gala opening, the New York Sun reported “the socially prominent turned out en masse.”
October 11, 1934
Syndicated columnist Walter Winchell writes, “Louise Brooks makes a comeback Oct. 10 at Place Pigale with Dario as her partner… I hear on reputable authority that Trotsky is in town under an assumed name.”
January 5, 1935
Brooks and Dario conclude their dance engagement at Place Pigale in New York City.
January 16-29, 1935
Brooks and Dario dance at the Embassy Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Also on the bill is Enric Madriguera’s Orchestra, entertainer and “noted concert tenor” Peter Higgins, and blues singer Marion Chase. On January 24th, the guest of honor was boxer Max Baer, Heavyweight Champion of the World.
January 17, 1935
The Miami Herald reports a “capacity crowd” at the opening of the Embassy Club season, with many “groups from the sporting world, as well as contingents from Metropolitan Miami society” present.
January 23, 1935
The Miami News notes, “There are dance teams and there are dance teams–the town at the moment is fortunate in having a number of good ones. But of the so-called ‘society dancers’ in our midst, there is not another couple with more innate, brittle smartness than Louise Brooks and Dario, at the Embassy. Each of the turns and gestures of their dances has a sort of crisp singleness–far easier to look at than explain.”
January 30, 1935
Hugh Hough’s column, “Revelry By Night,” in the Miami Herald, focuses largely on the acts then performing at the Emasssy Club.
January 30, 1935
Brooks and Dario begin a dance engagement at the Patio in Palm Beach, Florida. Also performing was singer Bruz Fletcher, and Mort Dennis and his Patio Society Orchestra.
February 7, 1935
Brooks and Dario continue their dance engagement at the Patio in Palm Beach. The singing duo of Deslys and Clarke begin performing.
February 13, 1935
In a column on the gaiety found in Palm Beach night clubs, Women’s Wear Daily reports “Saturday night is gala night everywhere in Palm Beach, and the moonlight and delightfully warm evening made last Saturday especially gay. The Patio was filled to capacity during the dinner hour which is as it should be with the talented Louise Brooks dancing there and with Deslys and Clark singing their very intimate little songs.”
February 15, 1935
Brooks and Dario conclude their dance engagement at the Patio in Palm Beach. In the February 19, 1935 issue of Palm Beach Life, the magazine’s “Beneath the Stars” column notes that “Decorations and entertainment in accord with what was considered elegant in the gay Nineties were the decorations for the celebration of Bowery Night at the patio. On the bill of entertainment were Deslys and Clarke, Brooks and Dario, Arthur Brown and the Mort Dennis Orchestra.”
February 16, 1935
Brooks and Dario return to the Embassy Club in Palm Beach. The French singer Lucienne Boyer headlines. Also performing are Gali-Gali, an “Arabian conjurer,” and the Meyer Davis Orchestra.
February 18, 1935
Hugh Hough’s column, “Revelry By Night,” in the Miami Herald, again focuses largely on the acts then performing at the Embassy Club, including Brooks, “Dario and Miss Brooks are most recently from the Patio in Palm Beach, where they appeared after the Embassy went into temporary winter quarters recently. Their public, I know, will be pleased to learn that this dance team of effortless and facile dancers is again at work in our little community.”
February 18, 1935
Syndicated columnist Ed Sullivan writes: “Personal recommendation: Dario and Louise Brooks, the former cinema queen, one of the more exciting dance teams in Florida.”
February 21, 1935
Brooks and Dario return to the Patio Club in Palm Beach. Also performing was Arthur Brown, singing duo of Deslys and Clarke, and Mort Dennis and his Patio Society Orchestra.
February 27, 1935
Syndicated columnist Ed Sullivan writes: “Ballroom dance teams are the least successful of all professionals at saving money…. Dario who dances with Louise Brooks, was wealthiest of all, with several dance ballrooms, but the stock market cleaned him out.”
March 11, 1935
Brooks and Dario begin a three week dance engagement at the Central Park Casino in New York. Their opening is noted in Ed Sullivan’s column.
April 11-14, 1935
Brooks and Dario, under the management of Edward Meyers, begin a week-long dance engagement at the Capitol Theater in New York; also on their bill is magician Gali-Gali, soprano Llora Hoffman, control dancer Barbara Blane, Capitol Singing Ensemble, and the Danny Dare Girls. Don Albert conducted the orchestra.
April 13, 1935
The New York Herald Tribune reports, “On the stage proper Louise Brooks, motion picture star of the silent days, and her dancing partner, Dario, are the main attraction with their ingratiating ballroom dancing.”
April 20, 1935
Brooks and Dario headline a dance engagement at the New Log Cabin in Jeffersonville, Indiana (near Louisville, Kentucky). Bill Kurth, former manager of the Ziegfeld Roof in New York and the Blossom Heath Inn near Detroit, acts as maitre and general greeter. Also on the bill are radio stars Reise and Dunn (a feature attraction, starting April 22), blues singer Vivian Fields, 8 Texas Rockets (dancers described as “Fast Stepping Girlies”), Earl Carroll Vanities star Chaz Chase, and Frank Furneau leading the NBC Broadcasting Band. Magician Russell Swan, of the Chez Paree, Chicago acted as Master of Ceremonies.
April 24, 1935
Variety reports that upon the completion of their Louisville engagement, Brooks and Dario will make a Warner Bros. short in Brooklyn.
May 4, 1935
Brooks and Dario conclude their dance engagement at the New Log Cabin in Louisville, Kentucky. The Frank Furncan Orchestra is also on the bill.
June 10, 1935
Brooks and Dario begin a dance engagement at the Persian Room in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. They are advertised as offering “Spectacular Interpretive Dances.” Also on the bill is orchestra leader Emil Coleman.
August 16, 1935
Brooks and Dario conclude their engagement at the Persian Room in the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
August 17, 1935
Dance team of Brooks and Dario split-up; on August 19th Dario and Diane open at the Persian Room.
August 21, 1935
In writing about Dario and Diane reunion, Variety states, “In the interim Dario had built up Louise brooks into a ballroom exhibitionist of no small proportions.”
September 30, 1935
Syndicated columnist Walter Winchell writes: “… have the sillies. Ditto Louise Brooks, the dancer with the Japanese doll haircut, and Marianne Davis’ estranged husband Al.”
October 28, 1935
Syndicated columnist Sidney Skolsky writes: “Louise Brooks will make another try at the flickers in a Republic picture called Dancing Feet.”
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date unknown 1939
In a 1977 letter, Brooks recounted seeing Buster Keaton at the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in San Bernadino, California: “One night at Arrowhead Springs (1939) I watched him dance the rumba (and damned good) for 2 hours with Sonia Henje who would not have wasted a wiggle of her ass on a man who didn’t spell money.”
October 13, 1939
Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons writes: “… just heard that Louise Brooks is teaching dancing.”
November 4, 1939
Brooks and dance partner Barrie O’Shea performed at a Saturday night party at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs, in support of headliner Rudy Vallee. (Actor Ralph Bellamy, actor Charles Butterworth, director Edmund Goulding, and singer Judy Starr were also present, and took their turn on the Racquet Club stage.) O’Shea, and “his charming partner Louise Brooks, did a very clever mask dance, imitating Mrs. Roosevelt and Chamberlain, doing an old time square dance,” according to the The Desert Sun report.
November 11, 1939
Barrie O’Shea (and Brooks?) performs at a Saturday night party at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs. Also present were Addison Randall, Harry Cohn, Howard Hawks, Franchot Tone, Peter Lorre, Ralph Bellamy, Wesley Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, and others.
November 10, 1939
The Desert Sun reports that Barrie O’Shea and Louise Brooks have been hired as staff dance instructors at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs. “They will teach Saturday and Sunday afternoons until the middle of the season and then every afternoon for the rest of the season. Rhumba and La Conga classes, as well as ordinary ballroom dances and private lessons, will be their feature.”
December 9, 1939
Hollywood columnist Dorothy Manners writes: “Louise Brooks is going over very well with her rhumba classes at the Victor Hugo in the afternoons.”
January 17, 1940
The Hollywood Citizen-News reports that Brooks dined with Barry O’Shea at the Lighted Tree restaurant.
February 23, 1940
Brooks-O’Shea Studio of Ballroom Dancing opens in Hollywood at 9016 Sunset Blvd.
February 28, 1940
“Hints for Dancers,” a series of advertisements co-authored by Brooks, debuts in the Hollywood Citizen News.
March 29, 1940
Syndicated columnist Harrison Carroll notes, “Remember Louise Brooks? She and Barrett O’Shea have opened a dancing studio in Hollywood.”
April 20, 1940
Dances at the Arrowhead Spring Hotel in San Bernadino, California.
August 6, 1940
A syndicated article notes that Mickey Rooney’s screen mother, actress Fay Holden, has taken rhumba lessons at the Barrett O’Shea – Louise Brooks dance studio.
September 22, 1940
The Wichita Eagle carries a piece about Brooks’ new career as a local dancer.
September 23, 1940
Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Crestview Country Club in Wichita, Kansas during a program sponsored by the College Hill Business association.
September 25, 1940
In a piece dated the previous day, “Louise Brooks in Wichita,” Variety notes that Brooks has returned to her home town, and will open a dance studio with “a local boy, Hal McCoy.”
early October 1940
Newspapers report that Brooks has opened a dance studio in Wichita, Kansas. One such mention read, “And if you’ve wondered whatever became of Louise brooks, onetime screen star, she’s now directing a dance studio in her home town, Wichita, Kan.” Another read, “Film fans and theate goers will surely remember the beautiful Louise Brooks, who was so popular in pictures a few years ago. Before starting in pictures, Miss Brooks was as well known on Broadway where she was one of the more decorative members of George White’s Scandals. Well, Louise has said ‘goodbye’ to all that and is opening a dance studio in her home town, Wichita, Kans.”
October 21, 1940
Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Young Republican meeting at the state’s Central Republican headquarters. Hundreds turned out according to local press reports. The event celebrated National Young Voters for Wilkie Day, which was being observed throughout the nation. A broadcast speech by Wendell Wilkie was heard.
October 27, 1940
The Wichita Eagle reports that Brooks was enlisted by the Wichita Country Club to instruct locals on new dances including the Conga and Rumba, with the first such instruction taking place October 29.
November 14, 1940
Brooks speaks about and demonstrates new dances (the tango, rhumba, conga and others) at the Wichita Little Theater as part of its workshop program.
November 16, 1940
Brooks holds a party to celebrate her birthday at her dance studio in Wichita. The event is mentioned in a local newspaper column.
November 21, 1940
Los Angeles Times columnist Jimmie Fidler reports “Louise Brooks, ex-star, is teaching the rumba and La Conga in Wichita, Kan.” Many newspapers pick up on the mention.
November 24, 1940
A classified advertisement for Brooks’ self-published booklet The Fundamental of Good Ballroom Dancing, available at local news dealer or by mail for 50 cents, begins running in the Wichita Eagle. The ad runs nearly every day for a month.
November 27, 1940
The Wichita Eagle runs a piece announcing Brooks has published The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing with the help of her brother Ted.
December 17, 1940
A syndicated Hollywood gossip column reports, “Louise Brooks, once a star, is teaching rhumba in a place called Wichita, Kan.” The Wichita Eagle runs an article on Brooks self-published booklet, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing.
January 4, 1941
Despite the fact that Brooks left Hollywood, a “Hints for Dancers” advertisement for the Brooks-O’Shea Studio runs in the Hollywood Citizen-News. The ad is authored by Barret O’Shea.
January 12, 1941
An advertisement runs in the Wichita Eagle promoting private Tuesday morning classes in which Brooks offers “a rare opportunity to reap the benefits of her career among the most fascinating women of the theatre, screen, and society. Learn the way to grace and dominant sureness….”
January 16, 1941
The Wichita Eagle reports that Brooks will make a “quick flying trip” to New York City to see if Dario, her former dance partner, will come to Wichita to help her fill engagements.
March 28, 1941
Brooks participates in a benefit for Greek war relief at the Miller theater in Wichita. Brooks originated a comedy jitterbug number performed by locals Jim Kefner and Jack Walker. Advertisements for the city-wide event credit the Louise Brooks Dancing School.
April 29, 1941
Brooks demonstrates ballroom and South American dances at Jubilesta, a fundraiser for both the P.T.A. and student council of the Wichita high school East. Brooks directed a student conga chain. Funds go toward the purchase of a movie screen for the school.
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January 20, 1943
Applies for instructor’s job at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and teaches a few classes.