Anita Loos
Anita Loos (
April 26,
1889 –
August 18,
1981) was an acclaimed
American screenwriter,
playwright and
author.
She was born
Corinne Anita Loos in
Sisson, California, though the family lived in
Etna, the second child of Richard Beers Loos (
October 4,
1860-
March 6,
1944) and Minnie Ellen Smith (
September 16,
1859-
October 9,
1938). Her brother and sister were H. Clifford Loos (
October 23,
1882-
August 29,
1960) and Gladys A. Loos (
February 22,
1891-
April 13,
1901). Her brother, Clifford, became a physician and was cofounder of
Ross-Loos Medical Group in
Los Angeles.
Her father was a journalist, humorist, editor and later screenwriter. The family moved to
San Francisco in 1892, where R. Beers Loos, as he was known, ran a tabloid paper. Anita and her sister started acting on stage at an early age. In 1897, they performed in the San Francisco stock company production of
Quo Vadis. In 1900, the family was enumerated on the
Federal census in San Francisco. They later moved to
San Diego, where they were enumerated in the census of 1910.
In 1912, Loos began writing
scenarios and
screenplays for pioneer
movie director
D.W. Griffith. Her first screenplay,
The New York Hat, was produced for
Biograph starring
Mary Pickford and
Lionel Barrymore. The
Douglas Fairbanks movie
His Picture in the Paper (
1916) was noted for its wry style of discursive and witty
subtitles. Its success persuaded Griffith to have Loos write subtitles for his epic
Intolerance (
1916). She also went to
New York City for the first time to attend the premiere.
Loos had two husbands, Frank Pallma, Jr. (married in 1915-divorced in May 1919) and writer and director, John Emerson (married from June 15, 1919 until his death on March 7, 1956).
Pallma was the son of the band conductor of outdoor concerts at the
Hotel del Coronado. Loos and he were together for only a short time, but she filed for divorce in May 1918 in Los Angeles, but it took a full year to be finalized.
Besides being her husband, Emerson was a frequent collaborator. They moved to
New York and began writing and producing their own movies, notably
A Virtuous Vamp (
1919),
The Perfect Woman (
1920),
Dangerous Business (
1920),
Polly of the Follies (
1922) and
Learning to Love (
1925).
They also collaborated on two books,
Breaking Into the Movies (
1919) and
How to Write Photoplays (
1921), and on
Broadway plays, the first being
The Whole Town's Talking (
1923) at the Bijou Theatre.
With the advent of the
talkies, she went from writing screenplays and subtitles for
silent movies to screenplays with dialogue for such classics as
Red-Headed Woman (
1932) starring
Jean Harlow;
San Francisco (
1936) starring
Clark Gable,
Jeanette MacDonald and
Spencer Tracy;
The Women (
1939), adapted from the play by
Clare Booth Luce, starring
Norma Shearer,
Joan Crawford and
Rosalind Russell;
Susan and God (
1940) starring Crawford,
Fredric March and
Ruth Hussey; and
I Married an Angel (
1942) starring Jeanette MacDonald and
Nelson Eddy.
On her own, Loos wrote
Happy Birthday, which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in
1946 starring
Helen Hayes. She also dramatized two of the
French writer
Colette's novels,
Gigi (
1951), which opened at the Fulton Theatre starring
Audrey Hepburn, and
Chéri (
1959), which opened at the Morosco Theatre starring
Kim Stanley.
 |
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953 |
Loos is perhaps best known for her short
novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (
1925), a satirical view of a "
dumb blonde" showgirl from
Arkansas out to get a rich husband. It was an overnight bestseller and was
translated into fourteen languages, even serialized into
Chinese. Her stage adaptation opened on Broadway in
1926 and later toured successfully. In
1949, a hit
musical opened on Broadway, which she and
Joseph Fields wrote the book for. A silent movie was made in
1928 starring Ruth Taylor and
Alice White, which Loos also wrote the subtitles for, and a sound version was made in
1953 starring
Jane Russell and
Marilyn Monroe, which was adapted by
Charles Lederer and directed by
Howard Hawks.
She wrote a sequel entitled
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (
1928), which was also successful. Both of these
Jazz Age classics are amusing period pieces. They are written as the
diaries of a
flapper who travels to
Europe, meets everyone and returns to the
United States to marry a millionaire. The movie version,
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, was made in
1957 starring
Jane Russell and
Jeanne Crain.
Loos also wrote for
Harper's Bazaar and
Vanity Fair, among other periodicals, and was a regular contributor to
The New Yorker.
She wrote several books of reminiscences about
Hollywood and the movie colony, including her successful memoirs
A Girl Like I (
1966) and
Kiss Hollywood Goodbye (
1974), which contain anecdotes about
actress Louise Brooks and other personalities of the "roaring"
'20s. Her
1972 book
Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now was written in collaboration with friend and actress
Helen Hayes. And her book
The Talmadge Girls (
1978) is about the actress sisters
Constance Talmadge and
Norma Talmadge.
In
1921, Loos was among the first to join the
Lucy Stone League, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names after marriage.
Asked how to say her name, she told
The Literary Digest "The family has always used the correct French pronunciation which is
lohse. However, I myself pronounce my name as if it were spelled
luce, since most people pronounce it that way and it was too much trouble to correct them." (Charles Earle Funk,
What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
She once commented. "I've had my best times when trailing a
Mainbocher evening gown across a sawdust floor. I've always loved high style in low company." Anita Loos died in New York City at the age of 92 from natural causes. She is interred in Etna Cemetery, Etna, California, with her second husband, John Emerson, her parents, her brother and sister, and maternal relatives.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (
1925)
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (
1928)
A Mouse is Born (
1951)
This Brunette Prefers Work (
1956)
No Mother to Guide Her (
1961)
A Girl Like I (
1966)
Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now (
1972)
Kiss Hollywood Goodbye (
1974)
A Cast of Thousands (
1977)
The Talmadge Girls (
1978)
Fate Keeps on Happening (
1984)
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AFI Catalog entry for Anita Loos
