I love older music, especially the jazz and vocal music of the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's. I also love contemporary music - rock n roll, pop, new wave, you name it. Over the years, and like others, I've collected recordings by my favorite artists. I even have a handful of 78 rpm discs, which I sometimes play on my wife's stand-up Victrola.

Back in 2002, I decided to launch an on-line radio station in order to share my collection with others. However, I thought my station would be more than personal favorites - it would have a twist. I decided my station would merge my musical interests in music with my interets in Louise Brooks and silent film. That's how I decided to launch RadioLulu. So far, I've assembled more than 9 hours of programming, including many seldom heard tracks. Click on the live365.com widget to listen. The voice you hear introducing the station is mine.

RadioLulu on live365.com

RadioLulu is a Louise Brooks-inspired, silent-film themed radio station streaming music of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and today.

This station features music from six of the Brooks' films - including the haunting themes from Beggars of Life (1928) and Prix de Beaute (1930). Other vintage tracks associated with the actress heard on RadioLulu include Maurice Chevalier's much-loved 1929 recording of "Louise," and rare recordings by co-stars including Adolphe Menjou, Noah Beery, Blanche Ring, Grace Moore, and Cary Grant. RadioLulu also plays contemporary musical tributes to the actress by the likes of Twiggy, Rufus Wainwright, Soul Coughing, Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark, Marillion, The Green Pajamas, Ron Hawkins, Sarah Azzara, and Clan of Xymox, among others. The Passions' 1981 hit, "I'm in love with a German film star," takes on a whole new meaning on RadioLulu.

Rare recording by Brooks' Hollywood contemporaries are also highlighted. Among the film world personalities heard on the station are Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Pola Negri, Ramon Novarro, Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, Bebe Daniels, Marlene Dietrich, Buddy Rogers, Jean Harlow, and Tallulah Bankhead. Janet Gaynor And Charles Farrell sing the charming "If I Had A Talking Picture Of You."

On RadioLulu, you'll also hear Jazz Age crooners, torch singers, dance bands, hotel orchestras, show tunes, standards, and some real "sweet jazz!" There are vintage recordings from England, France, Germany, and even Czechoslovakia. There are tracks featuring the celebrated 1930's Polish chanteuse Hanka Ordonówna, the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht (singing "Mack the Knife" in 1929!), and the contemporary cartoonist Robert Crumb (playing on "Chanson por Louise Brooks"). And what's more, you'd be hard-pressed to find a station that plays more tracks with "Lulu" in the title than this unique on-line station.

Who else can be heard on RadioLulu? How about the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Abe Lyman, Fred Waring, Gertrude Lawrence, Annette Hanshaw, Rudy Vallee, Helen Kane, Paul Whiteman, Ted Weems, George Gershwin, Russ Colombo, Libby Holman and Xavier Cugart - as well as Camilla Horn, Lillian Harvey, Josephine Baker, Lucienne Boyer, and Mistinguett.

Back in 2005, the film historian & television personality Leonard Maltin wrote about the Louise Brooks Society and mentioned RadioLulu. Maltin noted, "Not many sites of any kind can claim to be celebrating a tenth anniversary online, but that’s true of the Louise Brooks Society, devoted to the life and times of the magnetic silent-film star and latter-day memoirist. Thomas Gladysz has assembled a formidable amount of material on the actress and her era; there’s not only a lot to read and enjoy, but there’s a gift shop and even a 'Radio Lulu' function that allows you to listen to music of the 1920s. Wow!"

RadioLulu has received similar praise from other listeners from around the world. Hundreds tune-in every month, even occasionally the Pultizer Prize winning comix artist Art Spiegelman and the acclaimed crime fiction writer Cara Black. For more about RadioLulu, visit its station page at www.live365.com/stations/radiolulu. Or, visit the informational RadioLulu page on MySpace. Thank you for your interest, and thank you even more for listening!

Ambrose, Ben Selvin, Bruz Fletcher, Cliff Edwards, Django Rheinhart, Dorothy Dickson, Frances Langford, Fred Astaire, Jaroslav Jezek, John Safranko, John Zorn, Lady Godiva, Lee Wiley, Mildred Bailey, Ruth Etting, Scrappy Lambert, Sidnet Torch, John Philip Sousa, Berthe Sylva, Bob Crosby, Cleaners of Venus, Dick Powell, Frankie Trumbauer, Fred Elizalde, George Olsen, Golden Gate Orchestra, Jane Greene, Jen Anderson, Johnny Hamp, Kay Thompson, Nouvelle Culture

[ There is no classical or orchestral music on RadioLulu, though I have collected a number of related examples. Alban Berg's famous opera, Lulu, comes to mind, as do the orchestral compositions of Louis Horst and Charles Koechlin. One of these days, I will put together a podcast or two of Louise Brooks and silent film-related classical music. As they say, "stay tuned."]