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.

“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.”

• Plates follow pageForewordMary Anita LoosIntroductionCari BeauchampANITA LOOS AND HER STORIES FROM SAN DIEGO, 1888–1915The School of ActingThe HighbrowPlagiarismThe Man Who Looked UpBy Way of FranceJane Wins OutA Ride with BillyHOLLYWOOD SUCCESSS AND INTERNATIONAL FAME, 1915–1930The Heart That Has Truly LovedPlay for Mr. FairbanksAll Men Are EqualWhere Does Annie Belong?The Moving Pictures of BlinkvilleMy First Memories of Aunt AnitaMary Anita LoosRETURN TO HOLLYWOOD, 1931–1944Winkie BoySuggestion for Keaton StoryEvelinaWomen in UniformAunt Anita’s Romances and FriendshipsMary Anita LoosNEW YORK AT LAST, 1944–1981It Pays to AdvertiseOne More HeroineMr. SherardTravels with Aunt AnitaMary Anita Loos Anita Loos’s Memorial Service, August 27, 1981NotesWorks by Anita LoosAcknowledgmentsIndex

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.

“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.”

• Plates follow pageForewordMary Anita LoosIntroductionCari BeauchampANITA LOOS AND HER STORIES FROM SAN DIEGO, 1888–1915The School of ActingThe HighbrowPlagiarismThe Man Who Looked UpBy Way of FranceJane Wins OutA Ride with BillyHOLLYWOOD SUCCESSS AND INTERNATIONAL FAME, 1915–1930The Heart That Has Truly LovedPlay for Mr. FairbanksAll Men Are EqualWhere Does Annie Belong?The Moving Pictures of BlinkvilleMy First Memories of Aunt AnitaMary Anita LoosRETURN TO HOLLYWOOD, 1931–1944Winkie BoySuggestion for Keaton StoryEvelinaWomen in UniformAunt Anita’s Romances and FriendshipsMary Anita LoosNEW YORK AT LAST, 1944–1981It Pays to AdvertiseOne More HeroineMr. SherardTravels with Aunt AnitaMary Anita Loos Anita Loos’s Memorial Service, August 27, 1981NotesWorks by Anita LoosAcknowledgmentsIndex