Anita Loos
Born April 26, 1888 in Sissons, CA
Died August 18, 1981 in New York, NY
Screenwriter, playwright and novelist, Anita Loos, (a.k.a. “Nita” to her friends) was a remarkable figure of early and golden days Hollywood, and of Broadway. Her productive career lasted over half a century and her influence, talent, and celebrity was great enough to have allowed her to work and hobnob with decades of movie stars, literary giants, and showbiz greats.
Born on April 26, 1888 (though some sources say 1893) in the sleepy town of Sissons, California, a precocious Loos began working early as a child actress treading the boards of theatres across the West Coast. But it was her quick wit and talent for snappy repartee that was to lead her toward a career as a writer. She began contributing sketches and articles to various periodicals. Her wry humor and fresh perspective gained her some early, though moderate, success. By a stroke of luck she was introduced to actress Mary Pickford after submitting a story that would become one of Mary’s last films for D.W. Griffith, The New York Hat (Biograph, 1912). The New York Hat was a hit, and Anita’s new career as a screen writer was launched. She continued working with Griffith, writing many notable early moving pictures for the then new and dynamic star, Douglas Fairbanks.
All through the silent movie era Loos was in great demand and her career took on a legendary luster when she was still quite young. The writer of over 60 films (many of them in collaboration with her director husband, John Emerson), Loos also wrote a good deal for the theatre. Though her first two plays, The Whole Town’s Talking (1923) and The Fall of Eve (1925) were only somewhat successful, her next in 1926, was a play called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and it was a sensation. Based on her own novel about Miss Lorelei Lee, the flapper’s flapper, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes defined the roaring twenties and the party girls that made it so memorable. Loos adapted the play for the screen in 1928. The film version, produced by Paramount, starred Ruth Taylor as Lorelei and Alice White as her practical pal, Dorothy. The success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made Loos an international celebrity and was to become her defining work.
Unlike many Hollywood luminaries, Loos easily made the transition from silent pictures to sound. She was right there penning such films as D.W. Griffith’s last production, The Struggle (United Artists, 1931), San Fransisco (M-G-M, 1936), starring Clark Gable; The Women (M-G-M, 1939), starring a catty all-gal cast; and Susan and God (M-G-M, 1940), starring Joan Crawford.
In the mid 1940’s, Loos, who was fed up with the California sunshine and frustrated by the censorship of the movies, came to New York. One day at lunch with her dear friend, Helen Hayes, Loos mentioned an idea she had for a play. Hayes, who was fed up with hoop skirts and wigs, loved it and encouraged her to write the script. Loos began writing with Hayes in mind and by 1945 a draft of what was to become Happy Birthday was ready. The play highlighted all sorts of talents Loos knew her friend Hayes had, but had never had the opportunity to employ on the stage (Hayes was an excellent ballroom dancer and could sing with the best of them.) Hayes loved the first draft, but realized it required a very special production. So she sent the script to Richard Rodgers, whom she had heard was looking for a project to produce. Rodgers showed it to Hammerstein and they quickly bought the option. They originally wanted Robert Mamoulian, the director of OKLAHOMA to direct the play, but his film commitments wouldn’t allow it. They then got Joshua Logan. Loos says the play went through many revisions and an equal number of titles: among them: Cocktail Bar; Cinderella Girl; and The Birth of Addie Bemis. It was Helen Hayes’ husband, playwright Charles MacArthur, who came up with Happy Birthday.
The play, about a reticent Newark librarian who falls for a handsome young bank clerk, opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in October 1946 after a rocky tryout in Boston. It became the popular hit of the season playing 563 performances before it closed a year and a half later in March 1948.
Loos went on to write more plays both for the stage and screen. At the age of 65, after her last screenwriting assignment, (appropriately enough the 1953 musical remake of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for 20th Century-Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell), Loos, began to write her autobiographies. With the wit of Dorothy Parker, resourcefulness of Robinson Crusoe, and the longevity of a Sphinx, Loos’ scandalously vivid stories about all her famous friends still make for enthralling reading.
