Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks swept to world-wide fame as Lulu, the incarnation of sexual free spirits, in the German silent film of 1928. Her perfect beauty, enigmatic sexuality and distinctive helmet of sleek black hair made her an icon, once seen never forgotten. Yet, after Lulu and its sequel, "Diary of a Lost Girl", her career encompassed only a handful of indifferent Hollywood movies before ending with puzzling abruptness in 1938. Self-confessedly caught in her spell, Kenneth Tynan, then one of the most highly regarded feature journalists in the world, tracked her down in 1979 for one of his longest New Yorker Profiles. He found her, aged 73, holed up in a two-room apartment in the industrial city of Rochester, New York, confined indoors by osteo-arthritis and deliberate reclusiveness but witty, intelligent, candid - and still sexy. One of the 50 pieces collected in Tynan's "Profiles", this 20,000 word mini biography offers a sample of Tynan at his best.