Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of "gentlemen Prefer Blondes" - Hardcover

by Anita Loos (Author), Cari Beauchamp (Editor), Mary Anita Loos (Editor)

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 This unique collection of previously unpublished film treatments, short stories, and one-act plays spans fifty years of her creative writing and showcases the breadth and depth of her talent.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.

Front Jacket

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 Filled with previously unpublished material, it shows that while gentlemen may have preferred blondes, everyone else in town wisely preferred the irresistible Ms.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

Back Jacket

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

Author Biography

Cari Beauchamp is the author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood (UC Press, 1998), editor and annotator of Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (UC Press, 2003) and Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s (UC Press ) She also wrote Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years; My First Time in Hollywood: Stories from the Pioneers, Dreamers and Misfits who made the Movies, and is coauthor of Hollywood on the Riviera (1992). Her documentary films have been nominated for an Emmy and a Writers Guild Award and she is the only person to twice be named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar. She is also a contributor to Vanity Fair, serves as the resident scholar for the Mary Pickford Foundation and lives in Los Angeles.