Anita Loos Rediscovered

Book Synopsis

Anita Loos (1888-1981) was one of Hollywood's most respected and prolific screenwriters, as well as an acclaimed novelist and playwright. This unique collection of previously unpublished film treatments, short stories, and one-act plays spans fifty years of her creative writing and showcases the breadth and depth of her talent. Beginning in 1912 with the stories she submitted from her San Diego home (some made into films by D. W. Griffith), through her collaboration with Colette on the play Gigi, Anita Loos wrote almost every day for the screen, stage, books, or magazines. Film scripts include San Francisco, The Women, and Red-Headed Woman. The list of stars for whom she created unforgettable roles includes Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Audrey Hepburn, and Carol Channing.

This collection has been selected by Anita's niece and close friend, the best-selling author Mary Anita Loos, together with the acclaimed film historian Cari Beauchamp. Their essays are laced throughout the volume, introducing each section and giving previously untold insights and behind-the-scenes stories about Anita--her life, her friendships, and her times.

From the Back Cover

"I adored Anita, as did the entire fashion and literary world. She was four feet nine inches of lithe, slender, dramatic chic."--Carol Channing

"This book celebrates a character as memorable as any Anita Loos created in her writing. She was an indomitable, wise-cracking prodigy who not only helped create Hollywood, but managed to survive it."--John Sayles

"If we can't have the wonderful Anita Loos-smart, witty, literate and fun- writing today's Hollywood movies, at least we can get reacquainted with her and her work through this delightful book. Filled with previously unpublished material, it shows that while gentlemen may have preferred blondes, everyone else in town wisely preferred the irresistible Ms. Loos."--Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times

"This is a wonderful book about a talented, fascinating, and groundbreaking woman. Her life epitomizes a certain era in show business and describes a Hollywood in which few women were allowed to rise to the top. Anita Loos did and we were all the beneficiaries. I loved the book!"--Peter Duchin

"Not only is it valuable to have these delightful Anita Loos pieces, but the biographical chapters are fascinating too."--Kevin Brownlow, author of David Lean: A Biography

Review Quotes

"Long before Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones became the prototype for the hapless-career-girl heroine, Anita Loos regaled readers with her fabulous, far more entertaining, and unselfconscious cosmopolitan dames. This collection of Loos's film treatments and stories, as well as biographical pieces, is an insightful chronicle of her career."-- "Film Comment" (1/1/2004 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Anita Loos (1888-1981) was a prolific actress, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Author of the international bestseller Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, adapted into the classic film starring Marilyn Monroe, she was the first woman to work as a staff screenwriter in Hollywood.

Cari Beauchamp (1949-2023) was author and editor of many books on early Hollywood, including the classic Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood. Emmy-nominated for her documentary film work, she was twice named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar.

Mary Anita Loos (1910-2004) was an actress, screenwriter, and novelist, and the niece of Anita Loos. She wrote or cowrote screenplays for many Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, including for the film Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, based on her aunt's novel of the same name.