++anita loos++

Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an acclaimed American screenwriter, playwright and author.

In 1912, she began writing scenarios and screenplays for pioneer movie director D.W. Griffith. Her first screenplay, The New York Hat, was produced for Biograph starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore.

With the advent of the talkies, she went from writing screenplays and subtitles for silent movies to screenplays with dialogue for such classics as Red-Headed Woman (1932) starring Jean Harlow; San Francisco (1936) starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy; The Women (1939), adapted from the play by Clare Booth Luce, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell; Susan and God (1940) starring Crawford, Fredric March and Ruth Hussey; and I Married an Angel (1942) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

On her own, Loos wrote Happy Birthday, which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1946 starring Helen Hayes. She also dramatized two of the French writer Colette's novels, Gigi (1951), which opened at the Fulton Theatre starring Audrey Hepburn, and Chéri (1959), which opened at the Morosco Theatre starring Kim Stanley.

Loos is perhaps best known for her short novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925), originally serialized in Harper's Bazaar before publication in novel format. It was a satire of a "dumb blonde" showgirl from Arkansas out to get a rich husband. It was an overnight bestseller and was translated into fourteen languages, even serialized into Chinese. Her stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 1926 and later toured successfully. In 1949, a hit musical of Gentleman Prefer Blondes opened on Broadway, for which she and Joseph Fields wrote the book. A silent movie of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was made in 1928 starring Ruth Taylor and Alice White, which Loos also wrote the subtitles for, and a sound version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was made in 1953 starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, which was adapted by Charles Lederer and directed by Howard Hawks.

She wrote a sequel entitled But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1928), which was also successful. Both of these Jazz Age classics are amusing period pieces, written as the diaries of a flapper who travels to Europe, meets everyone and returns to the United States to marry a millionaire. The movie version, Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, was made in 1957 starring Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain.

(wikipedia)

~~*d.w. griffith's the new york hat starring mary pickford



~~*scene from the red headed woman starring jean harlow



~~*diamonds are a girl's best friend, carol channing, from original broadway production



~~*musical number from gentleman prefer brunettes