Anita Loos
Encyclopedia
Anita Loos was an American
screenwriter
, playwright
and author
.
(today Mount Shasta
), where her father, R. Beers Loos
, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher. Loos had two siblings: Gladys, and Clifford (Harry Clifford), the latter being the eldest who would be a physician and co-founder of Ross-Loos Medical Group
. The family moved to San Francisco
in 1892, where Beers Loos bought still another newspaper, The Dramatic Event, a veiled version of a Police Gazette
, with money Minerva borrowed from her father. On pronouncing her name, "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."
While living in San Francisco, Loos followed her dissolute alcoholic father as they explored San Francisco's underbelly; together they would sit on the pier, fishing and making friends with the natives, feeding into her lifelong fascination with lowlifes and loose women. In 1897, at their father's urging, she and her sister performed in the San Francisco stock company production of Quo Vadis
. Gladys died while their father was on one of his drinking and philandering "fishing trips". Anita continued appearing on stage, sometimes being the family's sole breadwinner. Eventually Beers Loos' spendthrift ways caught up with them, and in 1903, Beers Loos took an offer to manage a theater company in San Diego. There, Anita performed simultaneously in her father's stock company, and under another name with the more legitimate stock company in town. It was around this time that she started shaving years off her true age.
Loos had known she wanted to be a writer since she was six, and she also wanted to free herself of the shackles of stock performance. After graduating from high school, Loos devised a method of cobbling together published reports of Manhattan social life, mailing them to a friend in New York who would submit them under their own name for publication in San Diego. Her father had turned out some one-act plays for the stock company, and encouraged Anita to work in the field herself. She wrote The Ink Well, a successful piece for which she would receive periodic royalties.
In 1911, the theater was running one-reel films after each night's performances; Anita would take a perfunctory bow and run to the back of the theater to watch them. She sent her first attempt at a one-reel screenplay, The New York Hat
, to the Biograph Company
, for which she received $25. The New York Hat
, starring Mary Pickford
and Lionel Barrymore
and directed by D. W. Griffith
, was her third screenplay and the first to be produced. Loos dredged real life and real situations for her scenarios, she dished up her father's cronies, her brothers friends, the rich vacationers from the San Diego resorts, eventually every experience became grist for her script mill.
By 1912, Loos had sold scripts to both the Biograph
and Lubin studios. Between 1912 and 1915, she turned out 105 scripts, only four of which went unproduced, and she would write 200 scenarios before she ever saw the inside of a studio.
put Loos on the payroll for Triangle Film Corporation
at $75 a week with a bonus for every produced script, perhaps making her the first "staff writer". Many of the scripts she turned out for Griffith went unproduced, some he considered unfilmable because the "laughs were all in the lines, there was no way to get them onto the screen", but he encouraged her to continue, because he liked reading them for amusement. Her first screen credit was for an adaptation of Macbeth
in which her billing came right after Shakespeare
's. When Griffith asked her to write the subtitling for his epic Intolerance
(1916), she traveled to New York City
for the first time to attend its premiere. Instead of returning to Hollywood, Loos spent the fall of 1916 in New York and met with Frank Crowninshield
of Vanity Fair
. They had an instant rapport and Loos would remain a Vanity Fair contributor for several decades.
Loos returned to California just as Griffith who wanted to make longer films, was leaving Triangle, and she joined director and future husband John Emerson
for a string of successful Douglas Fairbanks
films. Loos and company realized that Douglas Fairbanks' acrobatics were an extension of his effervescent personality and parlayed his natural athletic ability into swashbuckling adventure roles. His Picture in the Papers
(1916) was noted for its wry style of discursive and witty subtitle
s: "My most popular subtitle introduced the name of a new character. The name was something like this: 'Count Xxerkzsxxv.' Then there was a note, 'To those of you who read titles aloud, you can't pronounce the Count's name. You can only think it.' " The five films Loos' wrote for Fairbanks made him a star. When Fairbanks was offered a sweetheart deal with Famous Players-Lasky
, he took the team of Emerson-Loos with him at the high income of $500 a week. During this time Loos, Fairbanks and Emerson collaborated well together and Loos was getting as much publicity as either Lillian Gish
or Pickford. Photoplay
magazine labeled her "The Soubrette of Satire." In 1918, Famous Players-Lasky offered the couple a four-picture deal in New York for more money than they had been making with the Fairbanks unit.
, migrated to New York as a group, Loos and Emerson sharing a leased mansion in Great Neck, Long Island. Loos desperately wanted Marion as chaperone, as she found herself attracted to Emerson. He would readily admit that he "had never been, nor could be, faithful to any one female." Loos, convinced herself that he would see that she was different than all his other girls, and that behind the outwardly dull exterior was a great mind. She would be wrong on both counts. She would later write: "I had set my sights on a man of brains, to whom I could look up", she lamented, "but what a terrible let down it would be to find out that I was smarter than he was."
The pictures for Famous Players-Lasky were not as successful as their previous films, partly because they starred Broadway headliners not adept at screen acting. In addition to their film "collaborations" the couple wrote two books: Breaking Into the Movies, published in 1919 followed by How to Write Photoplays in 1921. Though the scripts carried both names, they were mostly products of Loos alone. Later Loos would claim that Emerson took all of the money and most of the credit for projects, even though his contribution usually consisted of observing from bed as Loos worked. Much to the chagrin of her friends, her adoration of Emerson had manifested as subservience. When their contract was not renewed he blamed her scripts though he had claimed credit for them. When William Randolph Hearst
offered Loos a contract to write a picture for his mistress Marion Davies
, Loos included Emerson in the deal, though his presence was unnecessary. Hearst liked the picture and Getting Mary Married (1919) was one of the few Marion Davies pictures that didn't lose money.
Loos and Emerson turned down another picture with Davies, preferring to write for their old friend Constance Talmadge
, whose brother-in-law Joseph Schenck
(husband of Norma Talmadge
)was an independent producer. Both A Temperamental Wife (1919) and A Virtuous Vamp (1919) were great hits for Talmadge. The Schenck studios filmed in a New York warehouse and Loos and Emerson occupied suites at the Algonquin
. Individually Anita liked many members of the Algonquin Round Table
, but as a group she found them overwhelming. In the spring of 1919, the couple joined the Talmadges and the Schencks at the Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue
, with Constance, filling the void left by the loss of her sister many years before. When Anita and Constance weren't working, they went shopping. The Talmadge-Schencks convinced Anita to summer with them in Paris without Emerson. Much of this adventure would end up as fodder for Loos's book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
.
When they returned they produced five more films in sixteen months. Emerson still received his full salary though reputedly made few appearances on set and the script credit continued to name both of them. Emerson's assistant, who had taken up the workload on set, objected to the lack of credit and unfair reimbursement and was subsequently replaced. The new assistant director had eyes for Loos, who had filed for divorce from her estranged first husband. Emerson proposed marriage. They were married at the Schenck estate on June 15, 1919. Loos was among the first to join Ruth Hale
's Lucy Stone League
, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names after marriage. Hale, wife of playwright Heywood Broun
had struggled to get a U.S. passport issued in her birth name.
The couple moved into a modest Murray Hill
apartment, and cut back to two films a year in order to travel. They spent the summer in Paris. Leaving Loos and her new assistant John Ashmore Creeland, to visit many of the Paris-based writers Loos had met in America, as well as Gertrude Stein
and Alice B. Toklas
, and Elisabeth Marbury
and Elsie De Wolfe
. Loos was soon spending time with Elsa Maxwell
and Dorothy Gordon "Dickie" Fellows.
After one more film for Constance, The Perfect Woman
(1920), Emerson refused another contract with Schenck, who had become disenchanted with the film industry. After working with Actors Equity during their 1919 strike, he decided that the Loos-Emerson team should make the move to the theater; Loos took a subordinate position. Their first play, The Whole Town's Talking, which opened at the Bijou Theatre
on August 29, 1923, received good reviews and was a moderate box-office success. Soon afterwards the couple moved to a small house in Gramercy Park
.
Emerson had convinced a devastated Loos that he needed to take a break from his marriage once a week. It was on these days he would date younger women, while Loos consoled herself by entertaining her friends: the Talmadge sisters, Mama Peg Talmadge, Marion Davies
, Marilyn Miller
, Adele Astaire
and an assortment of chorus girls kept by prominent men. These "Tuesday Widows" soireés would influence her later writings, and it was with the "Tuesday Widows" that she visited one of her favorite hangouts, Harlem, where she developed a deep and life-long appreciation for African-American culture. "Sometimes I get enquiries (sic) concerning my marriage to a man who treated me with complete lack of consideration, tried to take credit for my work and appropriated all my earnings", Loos wrote in Cast of Thousands, "The main reason is that my husband liberated me; granted me full freedom to choose my own companions."
Loos had become a devoted admirer of H. L. Mencken
and when he was in New York, she would take a break from her "Tuesday Widows", and join his circle which included Theodore Dreiser
, Sherwood Anderson
, Sinclair Lewis
, Joseph Hergesheimer
, essayist Ernest Boyd, and theater critic George Jean Nathan
. Loos adored Mencken with what may have been love, and preferred this group over the Round Table. She gradually realized Emerson paled in comparison to someone like Mencken, and disappointingly, high-IQ gentlemen didn't fall for women with brains, but those with more "downstairs". In 1925, on the train to Hollywood for another Talmadge picture, Loos began to write a sketch of Mencken and his vacant lady friends that would later become Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
began as a series of short sketches published in Harper's Bazaar
. Known as the "Lorelei" stories, they were satires on the state of sexual relations that only vaguely alluded to sexual intimacy; the magazine's circulation quadrupled overnight. The heroine of the stories, Lorelei Lee, was a bold, ambitious flapper
, who was much more concerned with collecting expensive baubles from her conquests than any marriage licenses, in addition to being a shrewd woman of loose morals and high self-esteem. She was a practical young woman who had internalized the materialism of the United States in the 1920s and therefore equated culture with cold cash and tangible assets.
The success of the short stories had the public clamoring for them in book form. Pushed on by Mencken, she signed with Boni & Liveright. Modestly published in November 1925, the first printing sold out overnight. The initial reviews were rather bland and unimpressive, but through word of mouth it became the surprise best-seller of 1925. Loos garnered fan letters from fellow authors William Faulkner
, Aldous Huxley
, and Edith Wharton
, among others. "Blondes" would see three more printings sell through by years end, and twenty in its first decade. The little book would see 85 editions in the years to come and eventually be translated into 14 languages including Chinese.
When asked who the models for her characters, Loos would almost always say they were composites of various people, but when pressed, admitted that toothless flirt Sir Francis Beekman was modeled after writer Joseph Hergesheimer
and producer Jesse L. Lasky. Dorothy Shaw modeled after herself and Constance Talmadge, and Lorelei herself most closely resembled acquisitive Ziegfeld
showgirl, Lillian Lorraine
, who was always looking for new places to display the diamonds bestowed by her suitors.
Emerson, perhaps foreseeing the success of Blondes as a threat to his control over Loos, first attempted to suppress its publication, and then merely settled on a personal dedication. Loos continued to be overworked throughout 1926, sometimes working many projects at once. In the spring of 1926 she completed the stage adaptation, which opened a few weeks later in Chicago, and ran for 201 performances on Broadway. Emerson by this time had developed a serious case of hypochondria, using imaginary laryngitis
attacks to garner attention away from her work, he was, in the words of his wife, "a man who enjoyed ill health." It was the opinion of New York's leading psychiatrist, Alfred Jelliffe, that she was to blame and that in order for Emerson to "get better" she would have to give up her career. She resolved to retire after her next book, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
, a sequel to Blondes she had promised Harper's Bazaar.
On the further advice of the psychiatrist, the couple had planned another European vacation. At the last minute Emerson feigned being unwell and insisted Loos continue alone. Arriving in London, she was promptly taken under the wing of socialite Sybil Colefax
, whose drawing room had become a salon, filled with "the bright young things" of the day such as John Gielgud
, Harold Nicolson
, Noël Coward
and notables such as Arnold Bennett
, Max Beerbohm
and Bernard Shaw
. Photos of Loos on the social scene in London appeared in the New York papers, and Emerson's subsequent whisper-throated "death bed" phone calls managed to inflict guilt on Loos for her absence overseas. Emerson finally joined Loos in London, and to keep his spirits up she took him to the theatre every night. It worked: at times he forgot to continue his act and spoke in normal tones. The couple continued on to Paris, where Loos renewed all friendships and made new ones; Emerson's recovery was remarkable. In September, their vacation was cut short; Loos was needed back in New York to do revisions on Blondes for its Broadway debut. Despite this, Blondes closed in April 1927.
specialist who was treating her came up with a method of "fixing" Emerson's hypochondria. The doctor arranged a bit of psychosurgery
for him and presented him with the "polyps
" that had been supposedly removed from his vocal chords. This placebo treatment did the trick and when they returned a cured Emerson took great pleasure in showing off his little sloshy trophy. Not wanting to undo all her efforts, Loos retired to a life of leisure.
The first film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
, now lost, was released in 1928, starring Ruth Taylor
(as Lorelei Lee), who took her role so seriously that as soon as the film was finished she married a millionaire named Paul Zuckerman and never worked again. Between 1927 and 1929, the couple traveled extensively, which was hard on Loos' health. All their winters were spent in Palm Beach, where Emerson would indulge in social climbing. There Loos met Wilson Mizner, a witty and charming real estate speculator and in some quarters – confidence man
. Though they saw each other every day, the relationship, what there was of one, didn't last beyond Florida. Loos, starved of intellectual male companionship, was rumored to have stopped just short of having a full blown affair. Emerson also suffered a return of his imaginary throat ailment, though he recovered quickly after his second round of Viennese 'pretend surgery'.
Emerson also threatened to have another relapse after they Christmased in Hollywood, in 1929. The Emersons had traveled to Hollywood with Loos' new friend photographer Cecil Beaton
. Wilson Mizner had also relocated to Hollywood as a screenwriter. Since Emerson had his own entertainment, Loos was often in the company of Beaton or Mizner. When they returned to New York in the spring of 1930, Emerson expressed his unhappiness at her inattention, and the guilt-ridden Loos would spend much more time alone. Emerson had also unwisely invested "their" money which was lost in the stock market crash
, and suggested she return to work. Loos was not unhappy with this, and within a few months had produced a stage adaptation of But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes and a comedy Cherries are Ripe.
With their income reduced, the couple moved to a residential hotel and did much less traveling in 1931. Not long after, Loos came upon a love letter from one of Emerson's conquests. Apparently Emerson had been describing their marriage as "unfulfilled". Devastated, Loos offered him a divorce; Emerson refused and suggested they live apart, with him giving her a suitable "allowance". Blaming herself for his unhappiness, she moved to an apartment on East Sixty-Ninth Street. However, her new life allowed her to finally spend "her allowance"; that is, her portion of what she earned for the couple, in any way she liked.
When the Emerson-Loos team got an offer to write pictures for Irving Thalberg
at MGM
, Emerson refused to go. Loos took the $1,000 a week salary alone.
The first project Thalberg handed Loos was Jean Harlow
's Red-Headed Woman
since F. Scott Fitzgerald
was having no luck adapting Katherine Brush's book. The picture, completed in May 1932 was a smash and established Harlow as a star and put Loos once again in the front rank of screenwriters.
Now happy and successful, Loos moved to an apartment in Hollywood, where she was unexpectedly and unpleasantly joined by Emerson. Though Emerson expressed contrition about his previous behavior, he did nothing to change it. While Emerson busied himself offering screen tests to young starlets, Loos was now free to see whomever she pleased, including her now quite ill friend Wilson Mizner. Mizner, who had abused his body through drink and drugs, wasted away until passing April 3, 1932, a date Loos would continue to mark.
At MGM Loos happily turned out scripts; however, she frequently had to use Emerson as a conduit to communicate with directors and other executives who balked at dealing with a woman on equal footing. This worked well to promote the idea they were a writing "team" and a happy couple. She bought a modest house in Beverly Hills in 1934, where she could write in the garden when weather permitted. There seemed to be no world or life outside of Hollywood; during the day it was work, and at night parties given by other MGM folk, like the Thalbergs, the Selznicks, and the Goldwyns. Loos was a frequent attendee at George Cukor
's Sunday Brunches, which was the closest Hollywood had to a literary salon.
In 1935, around the time of the Writer's Guild
formation, she was paired with Robert Hopkins
, who would later become a frequent collaborator. Their work on San Francisco
got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Thalberg had taken ill again and gave Emerson a two-year contract as a producer at $1,250 a week. By mid-1937 Loos had decided not to renew her contract with MGM; since Thalberg's death in Sept 1936 things had not been going well at the studio and every film felt like a struggle. She signed with Samuel Goldwyn
at United Artists
for $5,000 a week and almost immediately regretted it. Loos soldiered on, working on "unworkable" scripts.
. Loos, who had always left the finances to Emerson, soon discovered that most of her money was no longer in joint accounts but in his own private accounts. Overworked at the studio and under stress from Emerson, she became more and more depressed. After seventeen years of his nonsense, she finally asked Emerson for a divorce and he agreed. Loos promptly bought herself out of her United Artists contract and re-signed with MGM, and bought a beach-front house in Santa Monica. Emerson would continue to find ways to stave off any talk of divorce plans, making finalization impossible. When Emerson was deemed well enough to leave the sanatorium, she paid for a nurse to care for him in an apartment of his own.
MGM had bought the film rights to Clare Boothe Luce
's 1936 smash Broadway hit The Women in 1937. Many writers had, unsuccessfully, taken a stab at a screenplay version. The studio handed it to Loos and veteran scriptwriter Jane Murfin
, and three weeks later Loos handed Cukor a script he loved. Unfortunately the censorship board did not. They insisted on changing over 80 lines, and the film had to go into production. Loos was apprehensive, but Cukor insisted she do the changes on set, amongst his all-star bevy of leading ladies. Loos made immediate friends with Paulette Goddard
, who was surprisingly well-read. She also had Aldous and Maria Huxley
as houseguests, and encouraged Huxley to stay in California and continue to write there. When war was declared in September 1939, Loos convinced Huxley that it would be safer for his family if they stayed in the U.S., rather than returning to England, and she got him a job adapting screenplays at MGM.
When Hunt Stromberg
, the last producer she respected, left MGM to produce independently, Loos tried to get out of her contract as well, but by then she had grown into too valuable a property to the studio. Throughout the war
Loos wrote screenplays, grew vegetables in her victory garden
and knitted socks and sweaters for the boys overseas. MGM let her go before her contract ran out; this time she decided to become a free agent, and even returned to New York to work on a new play. When she returned to California, she had a new partner who had a drink problem; the relationship would be short-lived.
cocktail party comedy written for Helen Hayes
. The play already had several false starts the previous year, but now proceeded with Joshua Logan
as director, and produced by Rodgers
and Hammerstein
. It opened in Boston, but the audiences hated it at first. Loos kept on improving the script throughout the Boston run; when it opened in New York at the Broadhurst
, it was a hit and ran for 600 performances. Katharine Hepburn
was eager to play in the screen version, but the Hollywood censors weren't ready for a woman to be "sloshed" on screen for two acts and be rewarded with a happy ending. Loos sold her Santa Monica house to her niece, and despite his time-worn histrionics, she made certain Emerson understood he would not be joining her in New York under any circumstances.
Once again at home in New York, she and her old friend screenwriter Frances Marion
, worked on an unproduced play for Zasu Pitts
. A few romances came her way including Maurice Chevalier
. Two Broadway producers had their eye on a musical version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
, and brought in Joseph Fields
as co-author. After initial stops and starts, Loos threatened to quit the production unless they assured her she would never have to speak to Fields again. The show opened in Philadelphia with a then unknown Carol Channing
, by the time it arrived in New York it was another success. Carol Channing was soon elevated to an A-list star, the show played for 90 weeks and went on tour for another year. The producers closed the show when Channing became pregnant. Herman Levin commented: "I was convinced the show wouldn't work without Carol, and in my opinion it never has." A musical film version was produced in 1953, directed by Howard Hawks
and adapted by Charles Lederer
. It starred Jane Russell
and Marilyn Monroe
. Loos had nothing to do with the production, but thought Monroe was inspired casting.
The success of Blondes the second time around, meant Loos had a greater profile than ever before. She moved to a more spacious apartment at the Langdon Hotel, and bought a car; she and her companion Gladys Tipton would travel to visit friends whenever the mood struck. In 1950 Loos began writing A Mouse is Born, another novel, and when it was safely in the hands of the publisher she left for the continent, her first trip to Europe in twenty years. A Mouse is Born had a lukewarm reception, but by then Loos was already working on a dramatic adaptation of Colette
's Gigi
. The production was underway before Colette wired that she had found their "Gigi", she had seen Audrey Hepburn
in a hotel lobby in Monte Carlo. Gigi opened in the fall of 1951 and would run until the spring of 1952; by then Hepburn had been elevated to an A-list star, contracted to Paramount Pictures
.
For the next few years, Loos worked on more adaptations and traveled to see friends, while she and Gladys moved into a spacious apartment on West Fifty-Seventh Street. Her next musical, The Amazing Adele, starring Tammy Grimes
and with music by Albert Selden, never got off the ground when it opened in Boston and swiftly closed. Both Emerson and Helen Hayes' husband Charles MacArthur
died with a few weeks of each other, and the women threw themselves into their work together, with Anita working on an adaptation for Hayes filming Anastasia
in London. Loos worked and traveled even while being treated for a painful hand ailment that prevented her from writing. In 1959, Loos opened another Colette adaptation, Chéri, with Kim Stanley
and Horst Buchholz
in the title role, but it ran for only two months.
, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker
. Biographer Gary Carey notes: "She was a born storyteller and was always in peak form when reshaping a real-life encounter to make an amusing anecdote." Loos began a volume of memoirs, A Girl Like I, which would be published in September 1966. Her 1972 book Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now was written in collaboration with friend and actress Helen Hayes
. Kiss Hollywood Good-by (1974) was another Hollywood memoir, this time about the MGM years and would be very successful. Her book The Talmadge Girls (1978) is about the actress sisters Constance Talmadge
and Norma Talmadge
.
Loos would become a virtual New York institution, an assiduous partygoer and diner-out, conspicuous at fashion shows, theatrical and movie events, balls and galas. A celebrity anecdotalist, she was also never one to let facts spoil a good story:
evening gown across the sawdust-covered floor of a saloon.
After spending several weeks with a lung infection, Anita Loos died in New York City at the age of 93 from natural causes. At the memorial service, friends Helen Hayes
, Ruth Gordon
and Lillian Gish
, regaled the mourners with humorous anecdotes and Jule Styne
played songs from Loos' musicals, including "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Early life
Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, CaliforniaMount Shasta, California
Mount Shasta is a city in Siskiyou County, California, located at around 3,600 ft on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the summit of its namesake volcano...
(today Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta, California
Mount Shasta is a city in Siskiyou County, California, located at around 3,600 ft on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the summit of its namesake volcano...
), where her father, R. Beers Loos
R. Beers Loos
Richard Beers Loos , was an American journalist and newspaper publisher. Loos was the father of Anita Loos, a famous American playwright and author who wrote, among other titles, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Loos most often used the shortened form of his name for official work: R. Beers Loos...
, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher. Loos had two siblings: Gladys, and Clifford (Harry Clifford), the latter being the eldest who would be a physician and co-founder of Ross-Loos Medical Group
Ross-Loos Medical Group
Ross-Loos Medical Group was a comprehensive prepaid health services plan with 29 medical offices throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in California and a large multi-specialty hospital located on Temple Street ....
. The family moved to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
in 1892, where Beers Loos bought still another newspaper, The Dramatic Event, a veiled version of a Police Gazette
Police Gazette
The National Police Gazette, commonly referred to as simply the Police Gazette, was an American magazine founded in 1845 by two journalists, Enoch E. Camp, also an attorney, and George Wilkes, a transcontinental railroad booster...
, with money Minerva borrowed from her father. On pronouncing her name, "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."
While living in San Francisco, Loos followed her dissolute alcoholic father as they explored San Francisco's underbelly; together they would sit on the pier, fishing and making friends with the natives, feeding into her lifelong fascination with lowlifes and loose women. In 1897, at their father's urging, she and her sister performed in the San Francisco stock company production of Quo Vadis
Quo vadis
Quo vadis? is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" or "Whither goest thou?" The modern usage of the phrase refers to Christian tradition, related in the apocryphal Acts of Peter , in which Saint Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome...
. Gladys died while their father was on one of his drinking and philandering "fishing trips". Anita continued appearing on stage, sometimes being the family's sole breadwinner. Eventually Beers Loos' spendthrift ways caught up with them, and in 1903, Beers Loos took an offer to manage a theater company in San Diego. There, Anita performed simultaneously in her father's stock company, and under another name with the more legitimate stock company in town. It was around this time that she started shaving years off her true age.
Loos had known she wanted to be a writer since she was six, and she also wanted to free herself of the shackles of stock performance. After graduating from high school, Loos devised a method of cobbling together published reports of Manhattan social life, mailing them to a friend in New York who would submit them under their own name for publication in San Diego. Her father had turned out some one-act plays for the stock company, and encouraged Anita to work in the field herself. She wrote The Ink Well, a successful piece for which she would receive periodic royalties.
In 1911, the theater was running one-reel films after each night's performances; Anita would take a perfunctory bow and run to the back of the theater to watch them. She sent her first attempt at a one-reel screenplay, The New York Hat
The New York Hat
The New York Hat is a short silent film directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.-Production:...
, to the Biograph Company
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...
, for which she received $25. The New York Hat
The New York Hat
The New York Hat is a short silent film directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.-Production:...
, starring Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
and directed by D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
, was her third screenplay and the first to be produced. Loos dredged real life and real situations for her scenarios, she dished up her father's cronies, her brothers friends, the rich vacationers from the San Diego resorts, eventually every experience became grist for her script mill.
By 1912, Loos had sold scripts to both the Biograph
Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street, in the Bronx, New York....
and Lubin studios. Between 1912 and 1915, she turned out 105 scripts, only four of which went unproduced, and she would write 200 scenarios before she ever saw the inside of a studio.
Hollywood
Her mother had objected to Loos' working in Hollywood. In 1915, trying to escape her influence, Loos married her first husband Frank Pallma, Jr., the son of the band conductor. But Frank proved to be penniless and dull – after six months, Anita sent him out for hair pins – while he was gone she packed her bags and went home to her mother. After that Minnie rethought her position on a Hollywood career. Afterwards, accompanied by her mother, Anita joined the film colony in Hollywood where GriffithD. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
put Loos on the payroll for Triangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett...
at $75 a week with a bonus for every produced script, perhaps making her the first "staff writer". Many of the scripts she turned out for Griffith went unproduced, some he considered unfilmable because the "laughs were all in the lines, there was no way to get them onto the screen", but he encouraged her to continue, because he liked reading them for amusement. Her first screen credit was for an adaptation of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
in which her billing came right after Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's. When Griffith asked her to write the subtitling for his epic Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
(1916), she traveled to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for the first time to attend its premiere. Instead of returning to Hollywood, Loos spent the fall of 1916 in New York and met with Frank Crowninshield
Frank Crowninshield
Francis Welch Crowninshield , better known as Frank or Crownie , was an American journalist and art and theatre critic best known for developing and editing the magazine Vanity Fair for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.-Personal life:Crowninshield was born June 24, 1872 in Paris,...
of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...
. They had an instant rapport and Loos would remain a Vanity Fair contributor for several decades.
Loos returned to California just as Griffith who wanted to make longer films, was leaving Triangle, and she joined director and future husband John Emerson
John Emerson (filmmaker)
John Emerson was a stage actor, playwright, producer, and director of silent films...
for a string of successful Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
films. Loos and company realized that Douglas Fairbanks' acrobatics were an extension of his effervescent personality and parlayed his natural athletic ability into swashbuckling adventure roles. His Picture in the Papers
His Picture in the Papers
His Picture in the Papers is a 1916 American silent film directed by John Emerson. It was made when many of the early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century....
(1916) was noted for its wry style of discursive and witty subtitle
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
s: "My most popular subtitle introduced the name of a new character. The name was something like this: 'Count Xxerkzsxxv.' Then there was a note, 'To those of you who read titles aloud, you can't pronounce the Count's name. You can only think it.' " The five films Loos' wrote for Fairbanks made him a star. When Fairbanks was offered a sweetheart deal with Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
, he took the team of Emerson-Loos with him at the high income of $500 a week. During this time Loos, Fairbanks and Emerson collaborated well together and Loos was getting as much publicity as either Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
or Pickford. Photoplay
Photoplay
Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
magazine labeled her "The Soubrette of Satire." In 1918, Famous Players-Lasky offered the couple a four-picture deal in New York for more money than they had been making with the Fairbanks unit.
New York
Loos, Emerson and fellow writer Frances MarionFrances Marion
Frances Marion was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos.-Career:...
, migrated to New York as a group, Loos and Emerson sharing a leased mansion in Great Neck, Long Island. Loos desperately wanted Marion as chaperone, as she found herself attracted to Emerson. He would readily admit that he "had never been, nor could be, faithful to any one female." Loos, convinced herself that he would see that she was different than all his other girls, and that behind the outwardly dull exterior was a great mind. She would be wrong on both counts. She would later write: "I had set my sights on a man of brains, to whom I could look up", she lamented, "but what a terrible let down it would be to find out that I was smarter than he was."
The pictures for Famous Players-Lasky were not as successful as their previous films, partly because they starred Broadway headliners not adept at screen acting. In addition to their film "collaborations" the couple wrote two books: Breaking Into the Movies, published in 1919 followed by How to Write Photoplays in 1921. Though the scripts carried both names, they were mostly products of Loos alone. Later Loos would claim that Emerson took all of the money and most of the credit for projects, even though his contribution usually consisted of observing from bed as Loos worked. Much to the chagrin of her friends, her adoration of Emerson had manifested as subservience. When their contract was not renewed he blamed her scripts though he had claimed credit for them. When William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
offered Loos a contract to write a picture for his mistress Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
, Loos included Emerson in the deal, though his presence was unnecessary. Hearst liked the picture and Getting Mary Married (1919) was one of the few Marion Davies pictures that didn't lose money.
Loos and Emerson turned down another picture with Davies, preferring to write for their old friend Constance Talmadge
Constance Talmadge
Constance Talmadge was a silent movie star born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and was the sister of fellow actresses Norma Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge.-Early life:...
, whose brother-in-law Joseph Schenck
Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry.Born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia to a Jewish household, he and his family-including younger brother Nicholas- emigrated to New York City in 1893, he and Nicholas...
(husband of Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...
)was an independent producer. Both A Temperamental Wife (1919) and A Virtuous Vamp (1919) were great hits for Talmadge. The Schenck studios filmed in a New York warehouse and Loos and Emerson occupied suites at the Algonquin
Algonquin Hotel
The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
. Individually Anita liked many members of the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929...
, but as a group she found them overwhelming. In the spring of 1919, the couple joined the Talmadges and the Schencks at the Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
, with Constance, filling the void left by the loss of her sister many years before. When Anita and Constance weren't working, they went shopping. The Talmadge-Schencks convinced Anita to summer with them in Paris without Emerson. Much of this adventure would end up as fodder for Loos's book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady is a comic novel written by Anita Loos first published in 1925. Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually...
.
When they returned they produced five more films in sixteen months. Emerson still received his full salary though reputedly made few appearances on set and the script credit continued to name both of them. Emerson's assistant, who had taken up the workload on set, objected to the lack of credit and unfair reimbursement and was subsequently replaced. The new assistant director had eyes for Loos, who had filed for divorce from her estranged first husband. Emerson proposed marriage. They were married at the Schenck estate on June 15, 1919. Loos was among the first to join Ruth Hale
Ruth Hale (feminist)
Ruth Hale was a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I...
's Lucy Stone League
Lucy Stone League
The Lucy Stone League is a women’s rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost"...
, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names after marriage. Hale, wife of playwright Heywood Broun
Heywood Broun
Heywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
had struggled to get a U.S. passport issued in her birth name.
The couple moved into a modest Murray Hill
Murray Hill
Murray Hill may refer to one of the following places:* Murray Hill, Kentucky, a small city in Kentucky* Murray Hill, Manhattan, a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
apartment, and cut back to two films a year in order to travel. They spent the summer in Paris. Leaving Loos and her new assistant John Ashmore Creeland, to visit many of the Paris-based writers Loos had met in America, as well as Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
and Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.-Early life, relationship with Gertrude Stein:...
, and Elisabeth Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater...
and Elsie De Wolfe
Elsie de Wolfe
]Elsie de Wolfe was an American actress, interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society...
. Loos was soon spending time with Elsa Maxwell
Elsa Maxwell
Elsa Maxwell was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day....
and Dorothy Gordon "Dickie" Fellows.
After one more film for Constance, The Perfect Woman
The Perfect Woman
The Perfect Woman is a comedy, 1949 British film directed by Bernard Knowles and written by George Black, Jr and J. B. Boothroyd, based upon a play by Wallace Geoffrey and Basil Mitchell. A scientist creates what he considers the perfect woman in his lab...
(1920), Emerson refused another contract with Schenck, who had become disenchanted with the film industry. After working with Actors Equity during their 1919 strike, he decided that the Loos-Emerson team should make the move to the theater; Loos took a subordinate position. Their first play, The Whole Town's Talking, which opened at the Bijou Theatre
Bijou Theatre
Two Broadway theatres have been named the Bijou Theatre.The first was converted into a theatre in 1878 and rebuilt in 1883. It was often called the Bijou Opera House and was located at 1239 Broadway. It was also sometimes called The Brighton Theatre. It became a popular venue for operettas in...
on August 29, 1923, received good reviews and was a moderate box-office success. Soon afterwards the couple moved to a small house in Gramercy Park
Gramercy Park
Gramercy Park is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park is at the core of both the neighborhood referred to as either Gramercy or Gramercy Park and the Gramercy Park Historic District...
.
Emerson had convinced a devastated Loos that he needed to take a break from his marriage once a week. It was on these days he would date younger women, while Loos consoled herself by entertaining her friends: the Talmadge sisters, Mama Peg Talmadge, Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
, Marilyn Miller
Marilyn Miller
Marilyn Miller was one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, but it was the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences. On stage she usually played rags-to-riches Cinderella characters who...
, Adele Astaire
Adele Astaire
Lady Charles Cavendish , better known as Adele Astaire, was an American dancer and entertainer. She was Fred Astaire's elder sister. Her birthdate was often given as 1897 or 1898, but the 1900 U.S...
and an assortment of chorus girls kept by prominent men. These "Tuesday Widows" soireés would influence her later writings, and it was with the "Tuesday Widows" that she visited one of her favorite hangouts, Harlem, where she developed a deep and life-long appreciation for African-American culture. "Sometimes I get enquiries (sic) concerning my marriage to a man who treated me with complete lack of consideration, tried to take credit for my work and appropriated all my earnings", Loos wrote in Cast of Thousands, "The main reason is that my husband liberated me; granted me full freedom to choose my own companions."
Loos had become a devoted admirer of H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
and when he was in New York, she would take a break from her "Tuesday Widows", and join his circle which included Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
, Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
, Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer was a prominent American writer of the early 20th century known for his naturalistic novels of decadent life amongst the very wealthy.-Biography:...
, essayist Ernest Boyd, and theater critic George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor.-Early life:Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
. Loos adored Mencken with what may have been love, and preferred this group over the Round Table. She gradually realized Emerson paled in comparison to someone like Mencken, and disappointingly, high-IQ gentlemen didn't fall for women with brains, but those with more "downstairs". In 1925, on the train to Hollywood for another Talmadge picture, Loos began to write a sketch of Mencken and his vacant lady friends that would later become Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer BlondesGentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady is a comic novel written by Anita Loos first published in 1925. Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually...
began as a series of short sketches published in Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
. Known as the "Lorelei" stories, they were satires on the state of sexual relations that only vaguely alluded to sexual intimacy; the magazine's circulation quadrupled overnight. The heroine of the stories, Lorelei Lee, was a bold, ambitious flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
, who was much more concerned with collecting expensive baubles from her conquests than any marriage licenses, in addition to being a shrewd woman of loose morals and high self-esteem. She was a practical young woman who had internalized the materialism of the United States in the 1920s and therefore equated culture with cold cash and tangible assets.
The success of the short stories had the public clamoring for them in book form. Pushed on by Mencken, she signed with Boni & Liveright. Modestly published in November 1925, the first printing sold out overnight. The initial reviews were rather bland and unimpressive, but through word of mouth it became the surprise best-seller of 1925. Loos garnered fan letters from fellow authors William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, and Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
, among others. "Blondes" would see three more printings sell through by years end, and twenty in its first decade. The little book would see 85 editions in the years to come and eventually be translated into 14 languages including Chinese.
When asked who the models for her characters, Loos would almost always say they were composites of various people, but when pressed, admitted that toothless flirt Sir Francis Beekman was modeled after writer Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer was a prominent American writer of the early 20th century known for his naturalistic novels of decadent life amongst the very wealthy.-Biography:...
and producer Jesse L. Lasky. Dorothy Shaw modeled after herself and Constance Talmadge, and Lorelei herself most closely resembled acquisitive Ziegfeld
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
showgirl, Lillian Lorraine
Lillian Lorraine
Lillian Lorraine was a stage and screen actress of the 1910s and 1920s, best known for her beauty and for being perhaps the most famous Ziegfeld Girl in the Broadway revues Ziegfeld Follies during the 1910s....
, who was always looking for new places to display the diamonds bestowed by her suitors.
Emerson, perhaps foreseeing the success of Blondes as a threat to his control over Loos, first attempted to suppress its publication, and then merely settled on a personal dedication. Loos continued to be overworked throughout 1926, sometimes working many projects at once. In the spring of 1926 she completed the stage adaptation, which opened a few weeks later in Chicago, and ran for 201 performances on Broadway. Emerson by this time had developed a serious case of hypochondria, using imaginary laryngitis
Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....
attacks to garner attention away from her work, he was, in the words of his wife, "a man who enjoyed ill health." It was the opinion of New York's leading psychiatrist, Alfred Jelliffe, that she was to blame and that in order for Emerson to "get better" she would have to give up her career. She resolved to retire after her next book, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes is a 1927 novel written by Anita Loos. It is the sequel to her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes follows the further adventures of Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw and is illustrated by Ralph Barton.As a sequel to the 1953 film Gentlemen...
, a sequel to Blondes she had promised Harper's Bazaar.
On the further advice of the psychiatrist, the couple had planned another European vacation. At the last minute Emerson feigned being unwell and insisted Loos continue alone. Arriving in London, she was promptly taken under the wing of socialite Sybil Colefax
Sybil Colefax
Sibyl Colefax, Lady Colefax was a notable English interior decorator and socialite in the first half of the twentieth century....
, whose drawing room had become a salon, filled with "the bright young things" of the day such as John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
, Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and notables such as Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
, Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
and Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
. Photos of Loos on the social scene in London appeared in the New York papers, and Emerson's subsequent whisper-throated "death bed" phone calls managed to inflict guilt on Loos for her absence overseas. Emerson finally joined Loos in London, and to keep his spirits up she took him to the theatre every night. It worked: at times he forgot to continue his act and spoke in normal tones. The couple continued on to Paris, where Loos renewed all friendships and made new ones; Emerson's recovery was remarkable. In September, their vacation was cut short; Loos was needed back in New York to do revisions on Blondes for its Broadway debut. Despite this, Blondes closed in April 1927.
Leisure time
When But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was published in 1927, Emerson proposed another European vacation, and went ahead of Loos to visit medical specialists. A seriously ill but still devoted Loos followed him, always being left one hotel behind. When Loos came down with a sinus attack in Vienna, she and the ear, nose and throatOtolaryngology
Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....
specialist who was treating her came up with a method of "fixing" Emerson's hypochondria. The doctor arranged a bit of psychosurgery
Psychosurgery
Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder , is the neurosurgical treatment of mental disorder. Psychosurgery has always been a controversial medical field. The modern history of psychosurgery begins in the 1880s under the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt...
for him and presented him with the "polyps
Polyp (medicine)
A polyp is an abnormal growth of tissue projecting from a mucous membrane. If it is attached to the surface by a narrow elongated stalk, it is said to be pedunculated. If no stalk is present, it is said to be sessile. Polyps are commonly found in the colon, stomach, nose, sinus, urinary bladder...
" that had been supposedly removed from his vocal chords. This placebo treatment did the trick and when they returned a cured Emerson took great pleasure in showing off his little sloshy trophy. Not wanting to undo all her efforts, Loos retired to a life of leisure.
The first film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (lost film)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a silent film directed by Mal St. Clair, co-written by Anita Loos based on her novel, and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film...
, now lost, was released in 1928, starring Ruth Taylor
Ruth Taylor (actress)
Ruth Taylor was an American actress in silent films and early talkies. Her son is the writer Buck Henry.-Early years:Born Ruth Alice Taylor to Norman and Ivah Taylor in Grand Rapids, Michigan...
(as Lorelei Lee), who took her role so seriously that as soon as the film was finished she married a millionaire named Paul Zuckerman and never worked again. Between 1927 and 1929, the couple traveled extensively, which was hard on Loos' health. All their winters were spent in Palm Beach, where Emerson would indulge in social climbing. There Loos met Wilson Mizner, a witty and charming real estate speculator and in some quarters – confidence man
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
. Though they saw each other every day, the relationship, what there was of one, didn't last beyond Florida. Loos, starved of intellectual male companionship, was rumored to have stopped just short of having a full blown affair. Emerson also suffered a return of his imaginary throat ailment, though he recovered quickly after his second round of Viennese 'pretend surgery'.
Emerson also threatened to have another relapse after they Christmased in Hollywood, in 1929. The Emersons had traveled to Hollywood with Loos' new friend photographer Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
. Wilson Mizner had also relocated to Hollywood as a screenwriter. Since Emerson had his own entertainment, Loos was often in the company of Beaton or Mizner. When they returned to New York in the spring of 1930, Emerson expressed his unhappiness at her inattention, and the guilt-ridden Loos would spend much more time alone. Emerson had also unwisely invested "their" money which was lost in the stock market crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
, and suggested she return to work. Loos was not unhappy with this, and within a few months had produced a stage adaptation of But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes and a comedy Cherries are Ripe.
With their income reduced, the couple moved to a residential hotel and did much less traveling in 1931. Not long after, Loos came upon a love letter from one of Emerson's conquests. Apparently Emerson had been describing their marriage as "unfulfilled". Devastated, Loos offered him a divorce; Emerson refused and suggested they live apart, with him giving her a suitable "allowance". Blaming herself for his unhappiness, she moved to an apartment on East Sixty-Ninth Street. However, her new life allowed her to finally spend "her allowance"; that is, her portion of what she earned for the couple, in any way she liked.
When the Emerson-Loos team got an offer to write pictures for Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
at MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, Emerson refused to go. Loos took the $1,000 a week salary alone.
Broadway
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
's Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
since F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
was having no luck adapting Katherine Brush's book. The picture, completed in May 1932 was a smash and established Harlow as a star and put Loos once again in the front rank of screenwriters.
"She was a very valuable asset for MGM, because the studio had so many femmes fatales – GarboGreta GarboGreta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, ShearerMoira ShearerMoira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
, and Harlow – that we were always on the lookout for 'shady lady' stories. But they were problematic because of the censorship code. Anita, however, could be counted on to supply the delicate double entendre, the telling innuendo. Whenever we had a Jean Harlow picture on the agenda, we always thought of Anita first." – MGM producer Samuel MarxSamuel MarxSamuel Marx was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.-Life:...
Now happy and successful, Loos moved to an apartment in Hollywood, where she was unexpectedly and unpleasantly joined by Emerson. Though Emerson expressed contrition about his previous behavior, he did nothing to change it. While Emerson busied himself offering screen tests to young starlets, Loos was now free to see whomever she pleased, including her now quite ill friend Wilson Mizner. Mizner, who had abused his body through drink and drugs, wasted away until passing April 3, 1932, a date Loos would continue to mark.
At MGM Loos happily turned out scripts; however, she frequently had to use Emerson as a conduit to communicate with directors and other executives who balked at dealing with a woman on equal footing. This worked well to promote the idea they were a writing "team" and a happy couple. She bought a modest house in Beverly Hills in 1934, where she could write in the garden when weather permitted. There seemed to be no world or life outside of Hollywood; during the day it was work, and at night parties given by other MGM folk, like the Thalbergs, the Selznicks, and the Goldwyns. Loos was a frequent attendee at George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's Sunday Brunches, which was the closest Hollywood had to a literary salon.
In 1935, around the time of the Writer's Guild
Writers Guild of America, west
Writers Guild of America, West is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. The Guild was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, which include the Screen Writers Guild...
formation, she was paired with Robert Hopkins
Robert Hopkins (screenwriter)
Robert E. Hopkins was a screenwriter. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story for the 1936 film San Francisco.-External links:...
, who would later become a frequent collaborator. Their work on San Francisco
San Francisco (film)
San Francisco is a 1936 musical-drama directed by Woody Van Dyke, based on the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film, which was the top grossing movie of that year, stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy. The then very popular singing of MacDonald helped make this film...
got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Thalberg had taken ill again and gave Emerson a two-year contract as a producer at $1,250 a week. By mid-1937 Loos had decided not to renew her contract with MGM; since Thalberg's death in Sept 1936 things had not been going well at the studio and every film felt like a struggle. She signed with Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
at United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
for $5,000 a week and almost immediately regretted it. Loos soldiered on, working on "unworkable" scripts.
Life alone
In October, Loos and her brother Clifford checked Emerson into a very expensive sanatorium where he was diagnosed with schizophreniaSchizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. Loos, who had always left the finances to Emerson, soon discovered that most of her money was no longer in joint accounts but in his own private accounts. Overworked at the studio and under stress from Emerson, she became more and more depressed. After seventeen years of his nonsense, she finally asked Emerson for a divorce and he agreed. Loos promptly bought herself out of her United Artists contract and re-signed with MGM, and bought a beach-front house in Santa Monica. Emerson would continue to find ways to stave off any talk of divorce plans, making finalization impossible. When Emerson was deemed well enough to leave the sanatorium, she paid for a nurse to care for him in an apartment of his own.
MGM had bought the film rights to Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce was an American playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and U.S. Congresswoman, representing the state of Connecticut.-Early life:...
's 1936 smash Broadway hit The Women in 1937. Many writers had, unsuccessfully, taken a stab at a screenplay version. The studio handed it to Loos and veteran scriptwriter Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Quincy, Michigan, Murfin began her career with the play Lilac Time, which she co-wrote with Jane Cowl. The Broadway production opened on February 6, 1917 and ran for 176 performances...
, and three weeks later Loos handed Cukor a script he loved. Unfortunately the censorship board did not. They insisted on changing over 80 lines, and the film had to go into production. Loos was apprehensive, but Cukor insisted she do the changes on set, amongst his all-star bevy of leading ladies. Loos made immediate friends with Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
, who was surprisingly well-read. She also had Aldous and Maria Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
as houseguests, and encouraged Huxley to stay in California and continue to write there. When war was declared in September 1939, Loos convinced Huxley that it would be safer for his family if they stayed in the U.S., rather than returning to England, and she got him a job adapting screenplays at MGM.
When Hunt Stromberg
Hunt Stromberg
Hunt Stromberg was a film producer during Hollywood's Golden Age. In a prolific 30-year career beginning in 1921, Stromberg produced, wrote, and directed some of Hollywood's most profitable and enduring films, including The Thin Man series, the Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald operettas, The Women,...
, the last producer she respected, left MGM to produce independently, Loos tried to get out of her contract as well, but by then she had grown into too valuable a property to the studio. Throughout the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Loos wrote screenplays, grew vegetables in her victory garden
Victory garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply...
and knitted socks and sweaters for the boys overseas. MGM let her go before her contract ran out; this time she decided to become a free agent, and even returned to New York to work on a new play. When she returned to California, she had a new partner who had a drink problem; the relationship would be short-lived.
Return to New York
In the fall of 1946, Loos returned to New York to work on Happy Birthday, a SaroyanesqueWilliam Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
cocktail party comedy written for Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
. The play already had several false starts the previous year, but now proceeded with Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
as director, and produced by Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
. It opened in Boston, but the audiences hated it at first. Loos kept on improving the script throughout the Boston run; when it opened in New York at the Broadhurst
Broadhurst Theatre
The Broadhurst Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened 27 September 1917...
, it was a hit and ran for 600 performances. Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
was eager to play in the screen version, but the Hollywood censors weren't ready for a woman to be "sloshed" on screen for two acts and be rewarded with a happy ending. Loos sold her Santa Monica house to her niece, and despite his time-worn histrionics, she made certain Emerson understood he would not be joining her in New York under any circumstances.
Once again at home in New York, she and her old friend screenwriter Frances Marion
Frances Marion
Frances Marion was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos.-Career:...
, worked on an unproduced play for Zasu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...
. A few romances came her way including Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
. Two Broadway producers had their eye on a musical version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...
, and brought in Joseph Fields
Joseph Fields
Joseph Albert Fields was an American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Life and career:Fields was born in New York City, the son of vaudevillean Lew Fields...
as co-author. After initial stops and starts, Loos threatened to quit the production unless they assured her she would never have to speak to Fields again. The show opened in Philadelphia with a then unknown Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
, by the time it arrived in New York it was another success. Carol Channing was soon elevated to an A-list star, the show played for 90 weeks and went on tour for another year. The producers closed the show when Channing became pregnant. Herman Levin commented: "I was convinced the show wouldn't work without Carol, and in my opinion it never has." A musical film version was produced in 1953, directed by Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
and adapted by Charles Lederer
Charles Lederer
Charles Lederer was a prolific and well-connected American film writer and director of the 30s to the 60s, from a prominent theatrical family with close ties to the Hearst dynasty.-Early life:...
. It starred Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. Loos had nothing to do with the production, but thought Monroe was inspired casting.
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
's Gigi
Gigi
Gigi is a 1944 novella by French writer Colette. The plot focuses on a young Parisian girl being groomed for a career as a courtesan and her relationship with the wealthy cultured man named Gaston who falls in love with her and eventually marries her....
. The production was underway before Colette wired that she had found their "Gigi", she had seen Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
in a hotel lobby in Monte Carlo. Gigi opened in the fall of 1951 and would run until the spring of 1952; by then Hepburn had been elevated to an A-list star, contracted to Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
.
For the next few years, Loos worked on more adaptations and traveled to see friends, while she and Gladys moved into a spacious apartment on West Fifty-Seventh Street. Her next musical, The Amazing Adele, starring Tammy Grimes
Tammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
and with music by Albert Selden, never got off the ground when it opened in Boston and swiftly closed. Both Emerson and Helen Hayes' husband Charles MacArthur
Charles MacArthur
Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright and screenwriter.-Biography:Charles MacArthur was the second youngest of seven children born to stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. He early developed a passion for reading...
died with a few weeks of each other, and the women threw themselves into their work together, with Anita working on an adaptation for Hayes filming Anastasia
Anastasia (1956 film)
Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer...
in London. Loos worked and traveled even while being treated for a painful hand ailment that prevented her from writing. In 1959, Loos opened another Colette adaptation, Chéri, with Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
and Horst Buchholz
Horst Buchholz
Horst Werner Buchholz was a German actor, remembered for his part in The Magnificent Seven and Nine Hours to Rama. He appeared in over sixty films during his acting career from 1952–2002.-Life and work:...
in the title role, but it ran for only two months.
Memoirist
Loos would continue writing, always a constant magazine contributor and appearing regularly in Harper's BazaarHarper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. Biographer Gary Carey notes: "She was a born storyteller and was always in peak form when reshaping a real-life encounter to make an amusing anecdote." Loos began a volume of memoirs, A Girl Like I, which would be published in September 1966. Her 1972 book Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now was written in collaboration with friend and actress Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
. Kiss Hollywood Good-by (1974) was another Hollywood memoir, this time about the MGM years and would be very successful. Her book The Talmadge Girls (1978) is about the actress sisters Constance Talmadge
Constance Talmadge
Constance Talmadge was a silent movie star born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and was the sister of fellow actresses Norma Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge.-Early life:...
and Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...
.
Loos would become a virtual New York institution, an assiduous partygoer and diner-out, conspicuous at fashion shows, theatrical and movie events, balls and galas. A celebrity anecdotalist, she was also never one to let facts spoil a good story:
"With each book came a new spate of interviews and as one of the last survivors of the silent era, Anita's stories became more exaggerated and she was soon reported to have sold her first scenario at the age of twelve. She continued to thrive on interesting people and interesting activities – and held an opinion on everything – but worked hard on keeping the vivacious and flippant image and hiding her loneliness."She once commented, "I've enjoyed my happiest moments when trailing a Mainbocher
Mainbocher
Mainbocher is a fashion label founded by the American couturier Main Rousseau Bocher , also known as Mainbocher. Established in 1929, the house of Mainbocher successfully operated in Paris and then in New York...
evening gown across the sawdust-covered floor of a saloon.
After spending several weeks with a lung infection, Anita Loos died in New York City at the age of 93 from natural causes. At the memorial service, friends Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
, Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
and Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
, regaled the mourners with humorous anecdotes and Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
played songs from Loos' musicals, including "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a song introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , which was written by Jule Styne and Leo Robin...
".
Fiction
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of A Professional LadyGentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel)Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady is a comic novel written by Anita Loos first published in 1925. Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually...
. NY:Boni & Liveright, 1926 - But Gentlemen Marry BrunettesBut Gentlemen Marry BrunettesBut Gentlemen Marry Brunettes is a 1927 novel written by Anita Loos. It is the sequel to her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes follows the further adventures of Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw and is illustrated by Ralph Barton.As a sequel to the 1953 film Gentlemen...
.NY:Boni & Liveright, 1928 - A Mouse is Born. NY:Doubleday & Company, 1951
- No Mother to Guide Her. NY:McGraw Hill, 1961
- Fate Keeps On Happening: Adventures Of Lorelei Lee And Other Writings. NY:Dodd, Mead & Company, 1984
Nonfiction
- w/ John Emerson How to Write Photoplays NY:James A McCann, 1920
- w/ John Emerson. Breaking Into the Movies. NY:James A McCann, 1921
- "This Brunette Prefers Work", Woman's Home CompanionWoman's Home CompanionWoman's Home Companion was an American monthly publication, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s....
, 83 (March 1956) - A Girl Like I. NY:Viking Press, 1966
- w/ Helen Hayes. Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now. NY:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972
- Kiss Hollywood Good-by. NY:Viking Press, 1974
- Cast of Thousands: a pictorial memoir of the most glittering stars of Hollywood. NY:Grosset and Dunlap, 1977
- The Talmadge Girls.NY:Viking Press, 1978
Broadway credits
- Lorelei (1974)
- The King's Mare (1967)
- Chéri (1959)
- GigiGigi (1951 play)Gigi was a popular Broadway play based on Colette's 1945 novel of the same name, starring Audrey Hepburn in the title role.-Plot:The play's plot generally follows that of the original story, focusing on a young 19th century Parisian girl being groomed for a career as a courtesan. Gigi lives with...
(1951) - Gentlemen Prefer BlondesGentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...
(1949) - Happy BirthdayHappy Birthday (play)Happy Birthday is a play written by Anita Loos. It opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 31, 1946 and closed on March 13, 1948, after 564 performances. It starred Helen Hayes, for whom it was written. The story involves Addie, a mousy librarian who becomes enamoured of a handsome...
(1946) - The Social Register (1931)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926)
- The Fall of Eve (1925)
- The Whole Town's Talking (1923)
Film credits
- My BabyMy Baby (film)My Baby is a 1912 short comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith and Frank Powell. Prints of the film exist in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress.-Cast:* Mary Pickford - The Wife* Henry B. Walthall - The Husband...
(1912; writer) - The Musketeers of Pig AlleyThe Musketeers of Pig AlleyThe Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama film credited as the first gangster film in history. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography.The film was released...
(1912; writer) - The New York HatThe New York HatThe New York Hat is a short silent film directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.-Production:...
(1912; writer) - A Narrow Escape (1913; scenario)
- The Wedding Gown (1913; scenario)
- His Hoodoo (1913; scenario; story "The Making of a Masher")
- Pa Says (1913; story "The Queen of the Carnival")
- A Cure for Suffragettes (1913; story)
- A Fallen Hero (1913; story)
- A Horse on Bill (1913; story)
- Binks' Vacation (1913; story)
- Highbrow Love (1913; story)
- How the Day Was Saved (1913; story)
- Oh, Sammy! (1913; story)
- The Hicksville Epicure (1913; story)
- The Power of the Camera (1913; story)
- The Suicide Pact (1913; story)
- His Awful Vengeance (1913; writer)
- The Lady in Black (1913; writer)
- The MistakeThe Mistake (film)-Cast:* Blanche Sweet - The Young Woman* Henry B. Walthall - Jack, the Friend, a Prospector* Charles Hill Mailes - The Husband, A Prospector* Harry Carey* Charles Gorman - Indian* Harry Hyde - Indian* J. Jiquel Lanoe - Indian* Hector Sarno - Indian...
(1913; writer) - The Telephone Girl and the LadyThe Telephone Girl and the LadyThe Telephone Girl and the Lady is a 1913 silent drama film by D. W. Griffith.-Production:The film was prepared by Griffith and shot by his assistant, Tony O'Sullivan.Film historian William K...
(1913; writer) - The Widow's Kids (1913; writer)
- The SistersThe Sisters (1914 film)The Sisters is a 1914 short drama film directed by Christy Cabanne.-Cast:* Lillian Gish - May* Dorothy Gish - Carol * Elmer Clifton - Frank * W. E. Lawrence - George * Donald Crisp...
(1914/I; scenario) - A Lesson in Mechanics (1914; scenario)
- Nearly a Burglar's Bride (1914; scenario)
- Some Bull's Daughter (1914; scenario)
- The Deceiver (1914; scenario)
- The Road to Plaindale (1914; scenario)
- The Saving Grace (1914; scenario)
- The Saving Presence (1914; scenario)
- A Corner in Hats (1914; story)
- A Flurry in Art (1914; story)
- Gentleman or Thief (1914; story)
- Nell's Eugenic Wedding (1914; story)
- The Fatal Dress Suit (1914; story)
- The Man on the Couch (1914; story)
- The Million Dollar Bride (1914; story)
- The Gangsters of New York (1914; uncredited)
- A Bunch of Flowers (1914; writer)
- Billy's RivalBilly's RivalBilly's Rival is a 1914 American silent short film directed by Sydney Ayres, starring William Garwood and Louise Lester.-Cast:* William Garwood as Billy Manning* Louise Lester as His wife* Vivian Rich as Mary, his wife...
(1914; writer) - For Her Father's Sins (1914; writer)
- Izzy and His Rival (1914; writer)
- The Girl in the ShackThe Girl in the ShackThe Girl in the Shack is a 1914 American silent short film directed by Edward Morrissey and written by Anita Loos. The film starred Earle Foxe, Spottiswoode Aitken, and Mae Marsh....
(1914; writer) - The Hunchback (1914; writer)
- The Last Drink of Whiskey (1914; writer)
- The White Slave Catchers (1914; writer)
- When the Road Parts (1914; writer)
- A Ten-Cent Adventure (1915; scenario)
- Mixed Values (1915; scenario)
- The Deacon's Whiskers (1915; scenario)
- The Lost HouseThe Lost HouseThe Lost House is a 1915 short drama film directed by Christy Cabanne.-Cast:* Lillian Gish - Dosia Dale* Wallace Reid - Ford* F. A. Turner - Dosia's uncle* Elmer Clifton - Cuthbert* Allan Sears - Dr. Protheroe...
(1915; scenario) - The Fatal Finger Prints (1915; writer)
- StrandedStranded (film)Stranded is a 1916 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy.-Cast:* Oliver Hardy - Plump * Billy Ruge - Runt* Frank Hanson - Millionaire Slocum* Ray Godfrey - Slocum's daughter...
(1916/I; writer) - MacbethMacbeth (1916 film)Macbeth is a silent, black and white 1916 film adaptation of the classic William Shakespeare play, Macbeth.It was directed by John Emerson, and released on June 4, 1916 in the United States, and on February 26, 1917 in Japan. This version of Macbeth was produced by D. W. Griffith, with...
(1916; intertitles) - A Calico Vampire (1916; scenario)
- Laundry Liz (1916; scenario)
- The French Milliner (1916; scenario)
- The AmericanoThe AmericanoThe Americano is a 1916 film directed by John Emerson and starring Douglas Fairbanks. This was Fairbanks' last film for Triangle Film Corporation.-Cast:*Douglas Fairbanks as Blaze Derringer*Alma Rubens as Juana deCastalar...
(1916; scenario; titles) - The Wharf Rat (1916; screenplay; story)
- A Corner in Cotton (1916; story)
- American AristocracyAmerican AristocracyAmerican Aristocracy is a 1916 American silent film directed by Lloyd Ingraham and starring Douglas Fairbanks. - Cast :*Douglas Fairbanks as Cassius Lee*Jewel Carmen as Geraldine Hicks*C.A. de Lima as Leander Hicks*Albert Parker as Percy Horton...
(1916; story) - Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the AgesIntolerance (film)Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
(1916; titles) - The Mystery of the Leaping FishThe Mystery of the Leaping FishThe Mystery of the Leaping Fish is a short film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Bessie Love. In this unusually broad comedy for Fairbanks, the acrobatic leading man plays "Coke Ennyday," a cocaine-shooting detective parody of Sherlock Holmes given to injecting himself with cocaine from a bandolier...
(1916; titles) - A Wild Girl of the Sierras (1916; writer)
- His Picture in the PapersHis Picture in the PapersHis Picture in the Papers is a 1916 American silent film directed by John Emerson. It was made when many of the early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century....
(1916; writer) - The Children PayThe Children PayThe Children Pay is a 1916 drama film directed by Lloyd Ingraham and starring Lillian Gish.-Cast:* Lillian Gish - Millicent* Violet Wilkey - Jean, her sister* Keith Armour - Horace Craig* Ralph Lewis - Theodore Ainsley, the girls' father...
(1916; writer)
- The Half-Breed (1916; writer)
- The Little Liar (1916; writer)
- The Matrimaniac (1916; writer)
- The Social Secretary (1916; writer)
- In Again, Out Again (1917/II; writer)
- A Daughter of the Poor (1917; writer)
- Down to Earth (1917; writer)
- Reaching for the MoonReaching for the Moon (film)Reaching for the Moon is an American 1930 black and white musical film. Originally released at 91 minutes; surviving versions are usually cut to 62 minutes. A 74-minute version aired in 1998 on USA cable channel AMC. The DVD version runs just under 72 minutes. The film's workingtitle was Lucky...
(1917; writer) - Wild and WoollyWild and WoollyWild and Woolly is a 1917 silent film which tells the story of one man's personal odyssey from sophisticated Easterner to Western tough guy. It stars Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Walter Bytell and Sam De Grasse....
(1917; writer) - Good-Bye, Bill (1918; screenplay; producer; story Gosh Darn the Kaiser)
- Hit-the-Trail Holliday (1918; writer)
- Let's Get a Divorce (1918; writer)
- Come on InCome On InIn music, "Come On In" can refer to:*a 1998 album by R. L. Burnside*a song by the Association on their 1968 album Birthday*a song by Rick Nelson from his live album In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969...
(1918; writer; producer) - A Virtuous Vamp (1919; scenario)
- A Temperamental Wife (1919; scenario; producer)
- Oh, You Women! (1919; scenario; story)
- Under the Top (1919; story)
- Getting Mary Married (1919; writer)
- The Isle of ConquestThe Isle of ConquestThe Isle of Conquest is a silent film drama starring Norma Talmadge and produced by Talmadge and her husband Joseph Schenck. This film is now considered a lost film.-Cast:*Norma Talmadge - Ethel Harmon*Wyndham Standing - John Arnold...
(1919; writer) - The Branded WomanThe Branded WomanThe Branded Woman is a 1920 silent film drama released by First National Pictures. It starred Norma Talmadge who also produced along with her husband Joseph Schenck through their production company Norma Talmadge Productions. The film is based on a 1917 Broadway play called Branded by Oliver D....
(1920; adaptation) - Dangerous Business (1920; producer; writer)
- Two Weeks (1920; scenario)
- The Perfect Woman (1920; screenplay; story)
- The Love Expert (1920; writer; producer)
- In Search of a Sinner (1920; writer; producer; uncredited)
- Woman's PlaceWoman's Place- Cast :*Constance Talmadge ... Josephine Gerson*Kenneth Harlan ... Jim Bradley*Hassard Short ... Freddy Bleeker*Florence Short ... Amy Bleeker*Ina Rorke ... Mrs. Margaret Belknap...
(1921; story) - Mama's AffairMama's AffairMama's Affair is a 1921 silent film by Victor Fleming, based on the play of the same title by Rachel Barton Butler.A print of this film survives in the Library of Congress.-Cast:* Constance Talmadge - Eve Orrin* Effie Shannon - Mrs. Orrin...
(1921; writer) - Polly of the Follies (1922; screenplay; story)
- Red Hot Romance (1922; screenplay; story; executive producer)
- Dulcy (1923; writer)
- Three Miles Out (1924; writer)
- Learning to Love (1925; screenplay; story)
- The Whole Town's Talking (1926; play)
- Stranded (1927; story)
- Gentlemen Prefer BlondesGentlemen Prefer Blondes (lost film)Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a silent film directed by Mal St. Clair, co-written by Anita Loos based on her novel, and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film...
(1928; novel; screenplay; titles) - The Fall of Eve (1929; story)
- Ex-Bad Boy (1931; story "The Whole Town's Talking")
- The StruggleThe Struggle (film)The Struggle is a sound feature film directed by D. W. Griffith, and was his only other full-sound film besides Abraham Lincoln . After several films directed by Griffith failed at the box office, this was Griffith's last film...
(1931; writer) - Blondie of the FolliesBlondie of the FolliesBlondie of the Follies is a 1932 comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding and written by Anita Loos and Frances Marion.-Cast :*Marion Davies as Blondie McClune*Robert Montgomery as Larry Belmont...
(1932; dialogue) - Red-Headed WomanRed-Headed WomanRed-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
(1932; writer) - Hold Your ManHold Your ManHold Your Man is a 1933 American romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Sam Wood and starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, the third of their six films together...
(1933; screenplay; story) - Midnight MaryMidnight MaryMidnight Mary is a 1933 film that reveals in flashbacks the hard life of a woman on trial for murder. It stars Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, and Franchot Tone.-Cast:*Loretta Young as Mary Martin AKA "Midnight Mary"*Ricardo Cortez as Leo Darcy...
(1933; story) - The BarbarianThe Barbarian (1933 film)The Barbarian is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film about an American woman tourist in Egypt who has several suitors, among them an Arab guide who is more than he seems. The Barbarian stars Ramon Novarro and Myrna Loy...
(1933; writer) - The Girl from MissouriThe Girl from MissouriThe Girl from Missouri is a 1934 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone. The movie was written by Anita Loos and directed by Jack Conway.-Plot:...
(1934; original screenplay) - The Cat and the Fiddle (1934; screenplay contributor; uncredited)
- The Social Register (1934; story)
- Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935; writer)
- RiffraffRiffraff (1936 film)Riffraff is a 1936 film starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. The movie was written by Frances Marion, Anita Loos, and H. W. Hannaford, and directed by J. Walter Ruben.-Plot:...
(1936; screenplay) - San FranciscoSan Francisco (film)San Francisco is a 1936 musical-drama directed by Woody Van Dyke, based on the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film, which was the top grossing movie of that year, stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy. The then very popular singing of MacDonald helped make this film...
(1936; writer) - SaratogaSaratoga (film)Saratoga is a 1937 film written by Anita Loos and directed by Jack Conway. The movie stars Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in their sixth and final film collaboration....
(1937; screenplay; story) - Mama Steps Out (1937; writer)
- The Cowboy and the LadyThe Cowboy and the Lady (1938 film)The Cowboy and the Lady is a 1938 American western romantic comedy film directed by H.C. Potter, and starring Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon. The film was written by S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, based on a story by Frank R. Adams and veteran film director Leo McCarey...
(1938; contributing writer; uncredited) - Another Thin ManAnother Thin ManAnother Thin Man is a 1939 American film that is the third film in the six-volume series, The Thin Man. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and is based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Their son, Nicky Jr., is also introduced in the film. The cast includes...
(1939; contributing writer; uncredited) - The WomenThe Women (1939 film)The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...
(1939; screenplay) - Babes in ArmsBabes in Arms (film)Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.-Production:...
(1939; uncredited) - Strange CargoStrange Cargo (1940 film)Strange Cargo is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in a story about a group of fugitive prisoners from a French penal colony. The screenplay by Lawrence Hazard was based upon the 1936 novel, Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep, by Richard Sale. The film was...
(1940; adaptation; uncredited) - Susan and GodSusan and GodSusan and God is a 1940 comedy-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March in a story about a matron who finds religion. The screenplay by Anita Loos was based upon a 1937 play by Rachel Crothers. The film was directed by George Cukor and produced by Hunt...
(1940; screenplay) - Blossoms in the DustBlossoms in the DustBlossoms in the Dust is a 1941 American film which tells the story of the non-fictional Edna Gladney who takes it upon herself to help orphaned children to find homes, despite the opposition of the "good" citizens who think that illegitimate children are beneath their interest...
(1941; screenplay) - When Ladies MeetWhen Ladies Meet (1941 film)When Ladies Meet is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Herbert Marshall, and Spring Byington in a story about a novelist in love with her publisher. The screenplay by S.K. Lauren and Anita Loos was based upon a 1932 play by Rachel Crothers. The...
(1941; screenplay) - They Met in BombayThey Met in BombayThey Met in Bombay is a 1941 American drama film adventure directed by Clarence Brown. The film stars Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell and Peter Lorre.-Plot:...
(1941; writer) - I Married an AngelI Married an AngelI Married An Angel is a musical comedy by Rodgers and Hart. It was adapted from a play by Hungarian playwright János Vaszary, entitled Angyalt Vettem Felesegul. The book was by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with music by Rodgers and lyrics by Hart. The story concerns a wealthy banker who,...
(1942; screenplay) - A Tree Grows in BrooklynA Tree Grows In Brooklyn (film)A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1945 film, the first film directed by Greek-American director Elia Kazan, starring James Dunn , Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, and Peggy Ann Garner .The film is based on an American novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith first published in 1943...
(1945 uncredited) - The Buick Circus Hour (1952; teleplays)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953; play)
- Gentlemen Marry BrunettesGentlemen Marry BrunettesGentlemen Marry Brunettes is a 1955 musical film produced by Russ-Field productions, starring Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain, and released by United Artists...
(1955; novel "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes") - Producers' ShowcaseProducers' ShowcaseProducers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...
"Happy Birthday" (1956; writer)