Anita Loos(1889-1981)
- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
While she is now best known for her book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,"
Anita Loos was one of Hollywood's foremost early screenwriters. She
began writing screen scenarios for the 'Biograph Company' at an early
age (though not 12, as she later claimed), and the first to be
produced, The New York Hat (1912), was not only directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith but
starred another of Hollywood's future heavyweights: Mary Pickford. After
working for some years with Griffith (including writing the surtitles
for his epic Intolerance (1916), she began to work for Douglas Fairbanks, whom she had
championed in his early days in Hollywood.
Her husband and collaborator John Emerson convinced her to quit
screenwriting for the sake of his own pride -- nevertheless, fate
intervened in the form of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," an unassuming
book she had compiled from a series of magazine stories she had based
on the predilection of then-famous intellectual H.L. Mencken to be dazzled
by gold-digging ditzes. The book was a surprise smash all over the
world, later spawning a sequel ("But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes"), which
became a not particularly successful silent movie but later a hugely
successful film starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, and a hit Broadway
musical.
This success, and the on-again, off-again nature of her marriage to
Emerson allowed her to re-enter the film industry, where she worked on
such classics as San Francisco (1936), The Women (1939), and Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman (1932). In her later
years, she also wrote several pieces for the theater, eventually
regaining fame via a number of movie memoirs, including "A Girl Like I"
and "Kiss Hollywood Goodbye." These are today as well known for their
colorful treatment of the truth as for their witty observations on the
early days of Hollywood.
Anita Loos was one of Hollywood's foremost early screenwriters. She
began writing screen scenarios for the 'Biograph Company' at an early
age (though not 12, as she later claimed), and the first to be
produced, The New York Hat (1912), was not only directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith but
starred another of Hollywood's future heavyweights: Mary Pickford. After
working for some years with Griffith (including writing the surtitles
for his epic Intolerance (1916), she began to work for Douglas Fairbanks, whom she had
championed in his early days in Hollywood.
Her husband and collaborator John Emerson convinced her to quit
screenwriting for the sake of his own pride -- nevertheless, fate
intervened in the form of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," an unassuming
book she had compiled from a series of magazine stories she had based
on the predilection of then-famous intellectual H.L. Mencken to be dazzled
by gold-digging ditzes. The book was a surprise smash all over the
world, later spawning a sequel ("But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes"), which
became a not particularly successful silent movie but later a hugely
successful film starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, and a hit Broadway
musical.
This success, and the on-again, off-again nature of her marriage to
Emerson allowed her to re-enter the film industry, where she worked on
such classics as San Francisco (1936), The Women (1939), and Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman (1932). In her later
years, she also wrote several pieces for the theater, eventually
regaining fame via a number of movie memoirs, including "A Girl Like I"
and "Kiss Hollywood Goodbye." These are today as well known for their
colorful treatment of the truth as for their witty observations on the
early days of Hollywood.