Fun Facts
- Her cremated remains are interred at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, New York, USA. At her memorial service Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" was played and passages from "Lulu in Hollywood" were read.
- Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#44).
- As a child, one of her best friends was Vivian Vance who played Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy.
- Opened a dance studio in Beverly Hills. It failed because of a financial scandal involving her business partner. On July 30, 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
- Was the inspiration for the stage play "Show Girl," which, inspired the comic strip "Dixie Dugan."
- 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.
- By 1946, she had to take a $40-a-week job as a sales girl at Saks Fifth Avenue to make a living.
- Her father was a lawyer.
- She was raised in Wichita.
- She left her home at the age of 16 to join Ruth St. Denis' and Ted Shawn's Denishawn modern dance company.
- Was a dancer-showgirl before becoming an actress.
- Considered three of her favorite films to be An American in Paris (1951), Pygmalion (1938) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- She personified the rebellious young woman of the 1920s who came to be known as a "flapper".
- Celebrity spokesperson for Lux Toilet Soap (1931).
- She was liberal, Democrat, and socialist.
- Was a close friend of IT Girl Clara Bow.
- During the mid-1940s, when she wasn't appearing in films, she lived in New York City and worked a variety of jobs, some of which included working as a sales girl at Saks Fifth Avenue, gossip columnist, and radio commentator.
- Early in her career Brooks took up residence in the Algonquin hotel where she was befriended by director Edmund Goulding and initially turned down his offer of a screen test because she thought he was trying to seduce. Her personal behavior got her thrown out of the Algonquin and she moved to the respectable Martha Washington, where too she was asked to leave. She said, "Within a month my wearing apparel had got me kicked out of two hotels.".